Erika Holst, Springfield historian and curator of collections at the Springfield Art Association, is guest columnist this week while Jim Krohe takes a week off. Your favorite dyspeptic is away this we...

 Ask someone how many children Abraham Lincoln had and they are likely to answer correctly (four) and will probably be able to name some if not all of them: Robert (born 1843, the only one to sur...

 The horsehair-covered sofa long known in central Illinois as Lincoln’s Courting Couch has been loaned for the 2014 season to the Iles House, 628 S. Seventh St. (corner of Seventh and Cook stre...

 I worked part-time at the Lincoln Heritage Museum in Lincoln 10 years ago, back when it was called the Lincoln College Museum. In those days, the museum was quaint, almost anachronistic. Tucked ...

Vachel Lindsay undoubtedly wins the distinction of Springfield’s Most Famous Resident, Arts and Letters Category, but he wasn’t the only Springfield native to make it big on the art scene. Lindsay...

 “The City is now lighted up with Gas with great success,” John T. Stuart wrote to his daughter in February of 1855. “It looks very brilliant whenever in use and especially the State House ...

 The 150-year-old Taylor House at 12th and Cass streets in Springfield now faces possible demolition after numerous attempts to save it. New efforts to preserve the structure are focusing on the ...

Nathanial Van Noy holds the dubious double distinction of being both the first murderer in Sangamon County as well as the first person to be hanged in Springfield. But it wasn’t the murder itsel...