A Springfield Reader
Historical views of the Illinois Capital, 1818–1976
Sangamon County Historical Society
1976
The culmination of the Sangamon County Historical Society’s Bicentennial Studies in Sangamon History was A Springfield Reader: Historical Views of the Illinois Capital, 1818–1976.
I vaguely recall that the idea of publishing an anthology of historical views was mine. As I had done on the preceding publications in the series, I would edit the volume, including securing the necessary permissions, and design and lay out the book and oversee its printing and distribution. The design was crudely done using press-on type for the cover and chapter title pages and graphics done up using the Xerox machine at Lincoln Library. Seeing it today, I feel like I did in my 50s when I opened an old box and found a clay ash tray that I’d made in kindergarten.
Producing it was a stretch for an organization of the Society’s modest means. The fattest of the previous publications in the Bicentennial series ran to 56 pages; the book I proposed would be 320 pages. Cullom Davis and Dick Hart, the grownups involved, had the sense to seek subsidies from local businesspeople. The head of the Marine Bank agreed to give $500 toward the costs and we sold books at cost to the Springfield Board of Realtors, which gave one to each new resident of Springfield until the books ran out. The portrait my authors painted was anything but flattering; I wonder what they made of it.
Local reviewers were very generous. John Garvey “ a fine anthology . . . a richer look at Springfield's heritage than anything else I have seen . . . simply no better introduction to this place.” In a well-observed essay-review in the State Journal-Register, Mike Kienzler wrote that, compared to kindred works, the Reader gave “a better idea of what Springfield is about—a little schizoid, never sure whether to keep its gaze upwards, to Lincoln, or downwards, to make sure the state legislature hasn't stolen its socks.”
The back cover promised "original essays on the Illinois capital by the editor.” Those eight pieces were original, all right, but I'm not sure they offered enough beyond originality to stand alone so I don’t reproduce them here.
Used copies of the book can still be purchased. The anthology has good stuff in it to anyone interested in the town, and in a better world it would be reprinted. Springfield realtors still see houses to buyers new to the city, and they would be wise to follow the example of their predecessors from the 1970s.
Here is the table of contents, if you're curious.
MILESTONES
The City of Springfield
Joseph Wallace
Removal of the State Capital
History of Sangamon County
A New Epoch
Illinois State Register
Building Lake Springfield
Jim Lukas
An All America City
Cue Magazine
“THE MOST DURABLE GHOST”
Lincoln the Log Roller
Paul Simon
Abe Lincoln in Springfield
A. J. Liebling
The Business of Selling Mr. Lincoln
Anthony Monahan
Abraham Lincoln and Springfield
Nelson Howarth
Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight
Vachel Lindsay
STRANGE BEDFELLOWS
Republicans Elect a President
Paul M. Angle
Legislators
Springfield Illustrated
A Prairie City Grows Up
Helen Van Cleave Blankmeyer
Triumph and Defeat
Kenneth S. Davis
The Illinois House Elects a Speaker
Michael Kilian
HARDY TOILERS
Pioneer Agriculture
DeWitt W. Smith
Modest Beginnings
Francis J. O’Brien
The Old Mill
Louis Obed Renne
The Story of Coal
Frank R. Fisher
Fifty Years of Growth
Illinois State Journal
Forty Years of Sangamo
Robert C. Lanphier
Streetcar War
Helen Van Cleave Blankmeyer
A HOUSE DIVIDED
Race War in the North
William English Walling
Hell at Midnight
William Lloyd Clark
The Illinois Miners’ War Goes On
Louis Adamic
The Bumpy Freedom Road
Mike Clark
Treating Symptoms?
Jerry Wallace
EVERLASTINGLY AT IT
The Washingtonians
History of Sangamon County
A Bit of Ancient History
Milton F. Simmons
Wet Oasis in a Dry Desert
Virgil Tipton
On the Building of Springfield
Vache l Lindsay
In Lincoln’s Home Town
Shelby M. Harrison
Many Things Are Getting Done
Robert Irwin
DREAMERS AND DOERS
Elijah Iles
Illinois State Journal-Register
Navigation of the Sangamon
History of Sangamon County
The Woman Who Lived in a Fabulous Home
Joan Muraro
Vachel Lindsay
Mark Harris
For the Honor of the Family
Literary Digest
Willis Spaulding
V. Y. Dallman
Susan E. Wilcox, Educator
Illinois State Register
Colonel Copley
Walter S. J. Swanson
The Village of Springfield
John Todd Stuart
Out West
John Lewis Peyton
Glimpses of Springfield
Waldo Story Reed
Springfield, Illinois
Elise Morrow
What Really Upsets the Midwest
Jane Howard
Springfield Magical
Vachel Lindsay
The design was crudely done using press-on type for the cover and chapter title pages and graphics done up using the Xerox machine at Lincoln Library. Seeing it today, I feel like I did in my 50s when I opened an old box and found a clay ash tray that I’d made in kindergarten.
