Donner family subject of program Tuesday

“Springfield’s Donner Family: Trials of the Pioneer Trail, 1846” will be the topic of the Sangamon County Historical Society’s program scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday at University of Illinois Springfield Brookens Library.

Don Springer will be the speaker. His great-great-great-great-grandfather, George Donner, led the wagon train in which nearly half the party perished after becoming trapped in a blizzard in the Sierra Nevadas.

Audience members will get an opportunity to see some of the Donner materials housed in the library’s archives and special collections department.

The event was featured in a April 15, 2010, article in the State Journal-Register.

Download a PDF of the article:
20100415-SJR-Donner-family-subject-of-program.pdf

UIS Lincoln scholar Michael Burlingame to speak at ceremony

New citizens of the United States, including several from Central Illinois, will take the oath of allegiance during naturalization ceremonies at 2 p.m. April 9 at the Old State Capitol Historic Site.

Featured speaker will be Michael Burlingame, a history professor at University of Illinois, Springfield. U.S. District Judge Jeanne Scott will preside.

Burlingame's appearance was featured on April 6, 2010, in the Bloomington Pantagraph.

Download a PDF of the article:
20100406-Pantagraph-naturalization-oath.pdf

UIS welcoming Monica Chiu to campus

A long standing goal of immigrant children has been to become “Americanized” as a key to their future economic and social success. In the particular case of Lao American youth, "becoming white" is closely associated with performing blackness.

Mae Marie-Noll from the University of Illinois – Springfield explains that author and Associate Professor of English and University Honors Program Director at the University of New Hampshire, Monica Chiu, will share her works with the public April 14th.

This talk discusses how Lao American boys' refashion themselves with the blackness inspired by media in order to achieve the so-called social acceptance among their American peers. It also highlights how their efforts to "fit in" are related to their academic struggles.

Noll adds that Chiu is one of many speakers that the university will be welcoming to the school this semester.

The event was featured by WTIM Radio in Taylorville on April 5, 2010.

Download a PDF of the article:
20100405-WTIM-Monica-Chiu.pdf

Listen to Mae Marie-Noll's interview online

Music Notes: UIS Chorus

The University of Illinois Springfield Chorus will perform at 2 p.m. Saturday in the Vachel Lindsay Home State Historic Site, 603 S. Fifth St.

Part of the “Let Us Be Bold With Our Songs” series, the array of pieces includes “Ahe Lau Makani (There is a Breath)” by Queen Liliuokalani, the last reigning monarch of Hawaii; “Fire, Fire,” a polyphonic English madrigal by Thomas Morley; “The Erie Canal,” an American folk song accompanied by piano and fiddle; “Oleana,” an American folk song accompanied by violin; and “Blackbird,” by the Beatles.

Director Sharon Graf will lead a brief discussion of the songs.

The performance was featured in a March 25, 2010, article in the State Journal-Register.

Download a PDF of the article:
20100325-SJR-Music-Notes-UIS-Chorus.pdf

Illinois-Springfield professor will address changing view of Lincoln

What turned out to be a mistaken assumption by a college professor back in 1984 led to revealing new information about Abraham Lincoln.

"I assumed everything that was important that Lincoln ever said or was said about him or his administration had long since been discovered by an army of Lincoln scholars and I could do my research by just consulting these published sources," said Michael Burlingame, who holds the Chancellor Naomi B. Lynn Distinguished Chair in Lincoln Studies at the University of Illinois at Springfield.

Conclusions drawn from resources, particularly about former slave and abolitionist Frederick Douglass and Lincoln, will be highlighted Monday in Pittsfield. Burlingame will be the featured speaker at a Lincoln symposium sponsored by the Abe Lincoln Project of Pike County and the Pittsfield Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission.

Burlingame's appearance was featured in a February 16, 2010, article in the Quincy Herald Whig.

Download a PDF of the article:
20100216-QHW-Lincoln-symposium.pdf

Burlingame picks Presidents Day reading list

Books about Abraham Lincoln by Knox College scholars occupy two of the top five spots in a “Presidents Day Reading List” in The Wall Street Journal.

The books were selected by historian and Lincoln biographer Michael Burlingame for a “Presidents Day Reading List — Best Five Books on Abraham Lincoln,” published Saturday in “The Wall Street Journal.” Lincoln’s birthday was Feb. 12, and Presidents Day was Monday.

Burlingame is professor of history at the University of Illinois-Springfield and author of a new biography, “Abraham Lincoln: A Life,” which recently won the 2010 Abraham Lincoln Prize. The prize, which includes the largest award in the field of history, is given annually for the best book on Lincoln and Lincoln’s era.

Burlingame's selections were featured in a February 16, 2010, article in the Galesburg Register-Mail.

Download a PDF of the article:
20100215-GRM-Knox-College-scholars.pdf

Burlingame wins 2010 Lincoln Prize

Michael Burlingame of the University of Illinois Springfield has won the 2010 Lincoln prize for his book, "Abraham Lincoln: A Life," published last year by John Hopkins University Press.

Burlingame, installed Thursday as holder of the Naomi Lynn Distinguished Chair of Lincoln Studies at UIS, will receive $50,000 and a replica of "Lincoln the Man," a bust by Augustus Saint-Gaudens. The prize, sponsored by Gettysburg College and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, will be awarded April 27 at the Union League in New York.

The feature on Burilngame was in the February 13, 2010, article in the Chicago Tribune and the State Journal-Register.

Download a pdf of the article.

Burlingame%20wins%202010%20Lincoln%20Prize.pdf

Burlingame to be invested as new Lincoln Chair

While continuing his own original research on Abraham Lincoln, Michael Burlingame, the new holder of the Naomi B. Lynn Distinguished Chair in Lincoln Studies at the University of Illinois Springfield, said he expects his students to do the same.

Burlingame will be invested as the new Lincoln Chair in a ceremony at the Old State Capitol on Thursday evening, February 11.

Burlingame and his work were featured in a February 11, 2010, article in the State Journal-Register.

Download a PDF of the article:
20100211-SJR-Burlingame.pdf

Local couple donates Lincoln artifact to UIS

An area family donates a piece of history to the University of Illinois Springfield.

Rick and Dona McGraw acquired a bronze cast of Abraham Lincoln's face when they bought the McDonald's restaurant in downtown Springfield. It's one of only 15 in the world and was taken just two months before the president's assassination.

"We are fast becoming one of the countries best public liberal arts universities," said UIS Chancellor Richard Ringeisen.

The story was featured in a WICS-TV 20 report on January, 28, 2010.

Watch the report online:
http://www.wics.com/newsroom/top_stories/videos/wics_vid_1421.shtml

Dedication Day: 146th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address

On Thursday, the 146th Anniversary of the Gettysburg Address will be honored with numerous events in Gettysburg.

Dr. Michael Burlingame will deliver the 48th Annual Fortenbaugh Memorial Lecture at 8 p.m. Burlingame is currently the Chancellor Naomi B. Lynn Distinguished Chair in Lincoln Studies at the University of Illinois at Springfield.

Burlingame's lecture was featured in an November 18, 2009 article in The Gettysburg, PA Times.

Download a PDF of the article:
20091118-Getty-Dedication-Day.pdf

Burlingame announced as new Distinguished Chair in Lincoln Studies

Renowned Abraham Lincoln scholar Michael Burlingame has been named the Naomi B. Lynn Distinguished Chair in Lincoln Studies at UIS.

The announcement was the subject of a news story in the May 27, 2009, State Journal-Register.
Download a PDF of the article
20090527-SJR-Burlingame.pdf