Present-day Illinois was inhabited by various indigenous cultures for thousands of years, including the advanced civilization centered in the
Cahokia region. The French were the first Europeans to arrive, settling near the Mississippi and
Illinois River in the 17th century in the region they called
Illinois Country, as part of the sprawling colony of
New France. Following
U.S. independence in 1783, American settlers began arriving from
Kentucky via the Ohio River, and the population grew from south to north. Illinois was part of the United States' oldest territory, the
Northwest Territory, and in 1818 it achieved
statehood. The
Erie Canal brought increased commercial activity in the Great Lakes, and the small settlement of Chicago became one of the fastest growing cities in the world, benefiting from its location as
one of the few natural harbors in southwestern
Lake Michigan. The invention of the self-scouring
steel plow by Illinoisan
John Deere turned the state's rich
prairie into some of the world's most productive and valuable farmland, attracting
immigrant farmers from
Germany and
Sweden. In the mid-19th century, the
Illinois and Michigan Canal and a sprawling railroad network greatly facilitated trade, commerce, and settlement, making the state a transportation hub for the nation.
Abraham Lincoln's patent was an
invention to buoy and lift boats over
shoals and obstructions in a river.
Abraham Lincoln conceived the invention when on two occasions the boat on which he traveled got hung up on obstructions. Lincoln's device was composed of large
bellows attached to the sides of a boat that were expandable due to air chambers. Filed on March 10, 1849, Lincoln's patent was issued as Patent No. 6,469 later that year, on May 22. His successful patent application led to his drafting and delivering two lectures on the subject of patents while he was president.
Lincoln was at times a
patent attorney and was familiar with the patent application process as well as patent lawsuit proceedings. Among his notable patent law experiences as a result of his patent was litigation over the mechanical
reaper; both he and his future Secretary of War,
Edwin Stanton, provided
counsel for
John Henry Manny, an inventor. The original documentation of Lincoln's patent was rediscovered in 1997.
Cisneros grew up in
Chicago as the only daughter in a family of six brothers, which often made her feel isolated, and the constant migration of her family between Mexico and the USA instilled in her the sense of "always straddling two countries ... but not belonging to either culture." Cisneros's work deals with the formation of Chicana identity, exploring the challenges of being caught between Mexican and Anglo-American cultures, facing the misogynist attitudes present in both these cultures, and experiencing poverty. For her insightful social critique and powerful prose style, Cisneros has achieved recognition far beyond Chicano and Latino communities, to the extent that The House on Mango Street has been translated worldwide and is taught in American classrooms as a
coming-of-age novel. (Read more...)
... that although Olga Hartman believed that her
basic research on marine worms had no practical value, it was applied to experimental studies of oysters?
... that Jack Washburn was called "Cinderella Boy" for winning a starring role in his first Broadway show?
... that four course records were broken during the 2023 Chicago Marathon(women's winner pictured)?
... that the restaurant CosMc's is named after a character from
McDonaldland?
... that Salty Parker, who spent 60 years in organized
baseball, described his lifelong love of the game as "a beautiful disease"?
Image 1A poster for the
Century of Progress World's Fair showing exhibition buildings with boats in the foreground.. Image credit: Weimer Pursell (artist); Neely Printing Co., Chicago (silkscreen print);
Jujutacular (digital retouching) (from Portal:Illinois/Selected picture)
Image 7A
great blue heron(Ardea herodias) flying with nesting material in Illinois. There is a colony of about twenty heron nests in trees nearby. Image credit: PhotoBobil (photographer),
Snowmanradio (upload),
PetarM (digital retouching) (from Portal:Illinois/Selected picture)
Image 21The dome of the
Illinois State Capitol. Designed by architects
Cochrane and Garnsey, the dome's interior features a plaster frieze painted to resemble bronze and illustrating scenes from Illinois history. Stained glass windows, including a stained glass replica of the
State Seal, appear in the oculus. Ground was first broken for the new capitol on March 11, 1869, and it was completed twenty years later. Photo credit:
Daniel Schwen (from Portal:Illinois/Selected picture)
Image 32"Hon. Abraham Lincoln, Republican
candidate for the presidency, 1860," a lithograph by Leopold Grozelier, et al. According to the Library of Congress, "Thomas Hicks painted a portrait of Lincoln at
his office in Springfield specifically for this lithograph." Image credit: Thomas Hicks (painter), Leopold Grozelier (lithographer), W. William Schaus (publisher), J.H. Bufford's Lith. (printer),
Adam Cuerden (restoration) (from Portal:Illinois/Selected picture)
Image 40"The Great Presidential Puzzle": This
chromolithograph cartoon about the
1880 Republican National Convention in Chicago shows
Roscoe Conkling, leader of the
Stalwarts of the Republican Party, playing a puzzle game. All blocks in the puzzle are the heads of the potential Republican presidential candidates. The cartoon parodies the famous
15 puzzle. Image credit: Mayer, Merkel, & Ottmann (lithographers); James Albert Wales (artist);
Jujutacular (digital retouching) (from Portal:Illinois/Selected picture)
Image 44A street view of the
Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio in
Oak Park. Wright built the house in 1889 and added the Studio and Connecting Corridor in 1898. The Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust has restored the property to its appearance in 1909, the last year the architect lived there with his family. Photo credit:
User:Banewson (from Portal:Illinois/Selected picture)
October 26, 2021: Workers for Chicago-based
McDonald's in ten cities go on strike to protest the company's handling of sexual harassment in the workplace.
October 18, 2021: The
Chicago Police Department reports that more than a third of its officers have failed to meet a deadline for reporting whether they have received a
COVID-19 vaccine.
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