The Illinois State Historical Society
Officers

A Publication of The Illinois State Historical Society

Jan-February 2007                                                                                   Volume 10 Number 1

3     Letters

3     News

31  Membership report

5     Lincoln's Bloomington Outside of Springfield, no community had a greater influence on the life of the prairie lawye.

11  Sculpting Lincoln: Paths of conviction, footsteps of fate

12  Sculpting Lincoln: Lincoln the lawyer

13  2007 Illinois Symposium schedule

21  The Klan comes to Lexington In the 1920's, the KKK looked to solid citizens and the clergy to promote "moral" values

25  The county atlas: The high point in American cartography

29  Portuguese on the prairie

30  Bloody valentine

Greetings from the McLean County Museum of History! Last year William Furry, executive director of the Illinois State Historical Society, invited me to serve as an Illinois Heritage guest editor. I accepted the offer, knowing I could use the opportunity to introduce ISHS members to our museum's many award-winning exhibits and programs.

Founded in 1892, the museum (formerly known as the McLean County Historical Society) is the second oldest historical society in the state. Since 1984, we have been accredited by the American Association of Museums, and in 1992, we moved to the Old Courthouse in the heart of historic downtown Bloomington.

In the past fiscal year, nearly 20,000 people toured our museum, including 4,800 schoolchildren. We served an additional 11,000 people off-site, including 5,500 who attended our annual Evergreen Cemetery Discovery Walk, an event widely considered the "granddaddy" of cemetery walk programs. Our curator oversees a collection of 18,000 abjects, and the archival collection spans more than 1,400 linear feet. The holdings of the museum's local history and genealogy research library include more than 10,000 books, 10 percent of which are unique to our collection.

The three main features in this issue—Guy Fraker's survey of Abraham Lincoln's numerous connections to Bloomington; Terri Clemens' examination of the Ku Klux Klan's popularity in central Illinois during the 1920s; and William D. Walters Jr.'s overview of the utility and beauty of county atlases—reflect the ongoing research that involves McLean County topics and our collections.

Not only do we offer a wealth of primary and secondary source material illuminating the rich history of McLean County, we also pride ourselves in linking our county's story to that of the state, nation, and even the world. If you find yourself in Bloomington-Normal, or are merely passing through, please come and pay us a visit.

-Guest Editor
Bill Steinbacher-Kemp
Librarian / Archivist
McLean County Museum of History