Merton L. Dillon is professor of history emeritus at Ohio State University. He received his Ph.D. in history from Michigan State University in 1951. His interest in the abolitionist movement mirrored the increasing civil rights activities of the 1950s. His first book, Elijah P. Lovejoy, Abolitionist Editor (1961), remains the definitive scholarly account of Lovejoy. His four other books examine various aspects of the abolitionist movement and slavery. Dr. Dillon remains an active scholar, continuing to study the meaning of the antislavery movement.
Richard S. Taylor works as chief of historical research and interpretation, Historic Sites Division, Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. He received his Ph.D. in history from Northern Illinois University in 1977. His dissertation dealt with the life of Jonathan Blanchard--educator, religious leader and abolitionist. Blanchard served as president of both Knox College and Wheaton College. Dr. Taylor is expanding his earlier work on Blanchard into a full biography of the subject. His work will illustrate the larger connections between higher education, Illinois churches, and the antislavery movement.
Shirley Portwood is a professor of history at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. She received her Ph.D. in history from Washington University, St. Louis, in 1982. Her research on African Americans and women in Illinois is well-known throughout the state because of a number of published articles. Recently, she worked as one of the main organizers of a scholarly symposium examining the history of African Americans in Illinois. Using the African American community in Alton as a case study, Dr. Portwood studied the impact of Elijah Lovejoy's legacy.
Betty Fladeland works as professor of history emeritus at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. She received her Ph.D. in history from the University of Michigan in 1952. Her biography James Gillespie Birney: Slaveholder to Abolitionist (1955) helped to revive interest and appreciation of the abolitionist movement. Her two other books, Men and Brothers: Anglo-American Antislavery Cooperation (1972) and Abolitionists and Working Class Problems in the Age of Industrialization (1984), explore the complex relationships between race, class, culture and ideology. Fladeland, past president of the Society for Historians of the Early Republic, is a recognized authority on abolitionism and the antebellum period.
Thomas F. Schwartz is the Illinois State Historian. He received his M.A. in history from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and is ABD status at the same institution. He mounted six major exhibitions regarding Lincoln as well as a traveling exhibition, "Generations of Pride: African Americans in Illinois." Since 1987, he has organized and presided at the prestigious annual Abraham Lincoln Symposium in Springfield.
Kathryn Harris is employed as the director of the Illinois State Historical Library. She holds an MLS from the library school at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. As chair of the African American History Committee at the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, Ms. Harris created several significant reference works for schools and the public researchers. Her works include Generations of Pride: African Americans in Illinois, A Select Chronology (1996, revised 1997); and with Kim Bauer, "Generations of Pride: A Timeline" (1997). Her tenure at the Illinois State Historical Library has led to expanded public outreach programs and an emphasis on public accessibility to the collections.
Kim Bauer is a historical research specialist at the Illinois State Historical Library. He holds an M.A. in history from Eastern Illinois University. Mr. Bauer is co-editor of the scholarly Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association and an authority on Lincoln and Illinois. He created a number of exhibits on Lincoln and Lincoln associates as well as serving on the African American History Committee.
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