The Illinois Historic Preservation Agency operates over 60 historic
sites and memorials. The Agency also administers the Abraham Lincoln Presidential
Library and Museum. The library is the state’s
chief historical and genealogical research facility
that is home to the state’s world-renowned Abraham
Lincoln collection. The library houses the Agency's
collection of more than 12 million items of Illinois
history. The museum combines scholarship and showmanship
to communicate the amazing life and times of Abraham
Lincoln in unforgettable ways and features many of
our Lincoln artifacts as well as two main theaters.
We administer all state and federal historic preservation
and incentive programs in Illinois, including the
National Register of Historic Places. Thank you for
visiting.
Use the Google search box to search the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency's site:
The Illinois Historic Preservation Agency and Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum press contact: 217/558-0516
Group Tours
If you have a group tour pre-scheduled on a closed date, please be patient. The Springfield Convention and Visitors Bureau, who operates the Central Reservation System for the sites, is aware of the situation and will be contacting all of the groups scheduled, in date order, to make adjustments to the schedules. For obvious reasons, schedules need to be changed immediately for those groups with tours scheduled in the near future. These schedule changes are a top priority, so you will hear from someone at the Bureau very soon.
Latest
News & Events
1832 Independence Day at Apple
River Fort
Saturday,
July 4, 1 - 4 p.m.
The nation was still young when
Apple River Fort was built in 1832, and many of
its settlers were part of the first generation
of Americans to live in the newly-independent
nation. Find out how they celebrated their freedom
during a special 1832 Independence Day scheduled
for Saturday, July 4 from 1 to 4 p.m. at Apple
River Fort State Historic Site in Elizabeth, Illinois.
The event is free and open to the public.
Volunteers will open the festivities
with a flag-raising ceremony, and will then recruit
volunteers to sign up for the militia and participate
in marching and drills. A Grand Patriotic Rally
starts at 2 p.m. featuring a temperance speech
and song, and activities that were celebrated
in 1832.
Call 815/858-2028 for information.
Cahokia Mounds
to Host 14th Annual Contemporary Indian
Art Show, July 11–12
Twenty-eight American Indian
artists from across the nation and from more than
a dozen tribal affiliations will display and sell
a wide variety of fine art during the 14th Annual
Contemporary Indian Art Show scheduled for Saturday
and Sunday, July 11 and 12 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
each day at Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site
in Collinsville, Illinois.
The Art Show will feature numerous
paintings in oil, acrylic, watercolor, gouache,
and other media; pen and ink drawings; metalwork;
sculptures in antler, wood, and clay; pottery
in traditional and contemporary forms; exquisite
jewelry in silver, gold, precious stones, and
beadwork; carved, decorated and painted gourds;
traditional dolls and Indian flutes; and more
handmade items. The show is free and open to the
public and there will be something for everyone
and in every price range.
Springfield Historic
Sites Bicentennial Celebration
July 3-4, Beginning
at 5 p.m.
A party like this only comes around once every
200 years! The Lincoln Bicentennial will bring
together three successful Springfield summer events,
Taste of Downtown, Springfield Jaycees Capital
City Celebration, and the Secretary of State’s
Ice Cream Social as the anchors for this two-day
festival encompassing several blocks of downtown
beginning on Friday, July 3 (5:00 p.m. –
Midnight) through Saturday, July 4, 2009 (11:00
a.m. – Midnight). This free, family oriented
event continues the year long celebration of Abraham
Lincoln’s 200th birthday. The event will
kick-off in style with Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln traveling
by horse-drawn carriage from the Lincoln Home
to the Old State Capitol, where they will be greeted
and joined on stage by Springfield Mayor Timothy
J. Davlin, officially opening the festival.
Festivities include a wide variety
of fun- filled and educational Lincoln-era and
contemporary family entertainment, children’s
games and activities, laser show, Radio Disney,
period artisan demonstrations, a children’s
Abe-Look-A-Like Contest, Ice-Cream Social, Strawberry
Party, and spectacular fireworks. The Old State
Capitol, Lincoln Herndon Law Office, Abraham Lincoln
Presidential Library & Museum, Lincoln Home
National Historic Site, The Illinois State Museum,
and Elijah Iles House will be open to visitors
and offer special attractions and programs.
Eleventh Annual Conference on Illinois History
October 1 - 2, 2009 Springfield, Illinois
Registration deadline:
September 25, 2009
The annual Conference on Illinois
History is scheduled for October 1 and 2 at
the Prairie Capital Convention Center in downtown
Springfield and is the state's largest meeting
devoted to the history of the Prairie State.
This is the tenth year of the conference, which
is sponsored by the Illinois Historic Preservation
Agency.
The conference will feature
topics that include politics, architecture,
community studies, Abraham Lincoln, African
American history, and the Civil War. Teachers
will benefit from workshops on a variety of
topics. All teacher workshop sessions are approved
for Continuing Professional Development
Units (CPDUs).
For information on our 2009
conference contact Donna Lawrence at IHPA,
1 Old State Capitol Plaza, Springfield, IL
62701, or Donna
Lawrence, or phone 217/785-7933. Details
will be posted on the Conference
page as they become available.
