When Valentine’s Day gangsters cooled off in Springfield. Or not.

Eighty-two years ago, Chicago mobsters were lying low in Springfield, escaping fallout from the brutal St. Valentine’s Day massacre gang slaying in their hometown.Or maybe they weren’t. It

The Lincoln Museum at Lincoln

A small, no-frills place to see quality artifacts up close

Not all Lincoln museums are alike. Compare, for example, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum (ALPLM) in Springfield and the Lincoln Heritage Museum in Lincoln.While the ALPLM uses stat

Chocolate cockroaches, a 19th-century treat

‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the houseNot a creature was stirring, not even a mouse…The children were nestled, all snug in their bedsWhile visions of cockroaches dan

Thanksgiving in Springfield, 100 years ago

If we could go back 100 years to Thanksgiving in 1910, we might be surprised at the similarities and differences. As usual, the president gave a Thanksgiving proclamation. President William H. Taft ex

When slaves were sold at auction in Springfield

You can’t help but wonder what Abraham Lincoln would have thought if he’d witnessed the public auction here of two slave girls in July, 1827. Even though the event occurred 10 years before

Lincoln didn’t sleep here

Setting the record straight on Abraham Lincoln’s ties to Edwards Place

No, Lincoln didn’t sleep here. And, in the case of Edwards Place, the Springfield Art Association’s antebellum Italianate mansion, Lincoln didn’t court here. Abraham Lincoln actually

The ‘Angry Atheist of Champaign’

TV documentary examines local case that successfully challenged the First Amendment

More than 60 years ago, a landmark ruling established a precedent that would permanently alter the relationship between religion and public education in America. And it happened right here in central

Goodbye, Kerasotes

Springfield’s century-long cinematic dynasty ends... with a whimper

“Frankly, it’s not the end of the world for me,” asserts Tony Kerasotes when queried about the January 2010 sale of all but three of his family’s 96-theater empire — incl

When central Illinois was king of ceramics and pottery

We may be the land of Lincoln and prairies, but at one time we were the land of pottery, too. Greene County is celebrating that fact during its Greene County Days next weekend.Illinois was a major pla

Grandstand timeline

1958 Louis Armstrong Jane Russell/James Gardener/Jonathon Winters WLS National Bam Dance 1959 Grand Ole Opry Edd “Kookie” Byrnes/Alan King/ Les Brown & His