How I Changed the Course of History

Look! Today I got to go back in time to 1861, and have my picture taken with the Lincoln family at the White House. As you can see, Mary Todd and I became great buddies. We're like two peas in a pod, she and I. There on the far left in the back you'll see Robert Todd Lincoln (he's got kind of a negative attitude about everything), then in front of me is cute little Tad. Then you'll see Mary, Abe himself, and over on the far right is little Willie. In the next picture, you see that I jumped ahead to 1865 and ran into John Wilkes Booth plotting to assassinate President Lincoln! I pretended to be in on the plan with him, but then I secretly went and warned the Lincolns, so President Lincoln didn't actually get shot at Ford's Theatre, and I changed the course of history! It was quite an eventful day.

Actually, I didn't really go back in time or change history. I just posed with the various wax figures at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum up in Springfield today. Since it was such a beautiful day--the last day of summer--Catherine, Dan, and I decided to take a little road trip up to Springfield to pay homage to Illinois's hometown hero: Abe Lincoln. The weather was perfect today--sunny and warm, but not too warm, and some of the leaves are starting to change colors. You can find Lincoln sites (like the world's tallest Abe Lincoln statue here in Charleston) everywhere you go in Illinois, but you haven't seen Lincoln Land until you visit Springfield. Everything, including things that really have nothing to do with the 16th President, is geared to somehow honor the man who made Springfield famous. Catherine and Dan had never been to Springfield before, and I had never been to the Lincoln Museum, so we decided that for our enlightenment we needed to experience the museum that we have been hearing so much about. Our Museum Exhibits class teacher, Mr. Riccio, doesn't like the Lincoln Museum because he thinks it's too "Disney-fied." However, I absolutely loved it! My philosophy is that if you can make history fun for people of all ages--if you can pull them in and help them grasp historic concepts and learn about historic events and people, then you have done your job as a public historian successfully. If that means making the exhibits a little "Disney-esque" using special effects, then by all means, do it! I learned a lot and enjoyed everything about the museum. We were in there for about four hours, and I didn't even notice that it had been that long. My favorite part was this video presentation called "Ghosts of the Library." It was this awesome presentation about the importance of learning about history and preserving historical objects. They had an actor inside this glass room playing the part of the library's historian and talking about different artifacts. Then these ghostly figures of Lincoln, Civil War soldiers, etc. would fade in and out. Then, it turns out that the historian character was actually a soldier from the 33rd Illinois regiment who died at Vicksburg! He puts on his soldier's jacket, salutes the audience, and disappears into thin air while the flag of the 33rd Illinois is waving in the background! It was awesome! I can't figure out how they did that. I thought it was a pretty powerful presentation.

One of my other favorite things was something called "The Civil War in Four Minutes." They have a big movie screen with an animated map of the United States during the Civil War. The map shows the chronological order of all of the battles, and down in the corner of the screen, you see a running tally of all the casualties. The numbers keep going up so rapidly--it really hits home how many men actually died in the Civil War.

I also absolutely loved the Mary Todd Lincoln exhibit called "First Lady of Controversy." I still maintain that she wasn't actually crazy, as many people believe. I think that she was just so totally overcome with grief after all of the traumatic experiences in her life that in her later years she just kind of gave out--who wouldn't? She had a wicked step-mom when she was little, saw three of her four children die, was with her husband when he was shot--literally getting covered in his blood, and had her only surviving child put her in an insane asylum. If you ask me, that's enough to make anyone act a little crazy, but it doesn't mean she was crazy. I think she was quite the stoic woman to endure all she did throughout her life.

After the Lincoln museum, we went and walked around the Old Courthouse Square in town. We found this amazing book store--it was like I had died and gone to heaven. I tried to control myself though, and only bought a couple of books. I could have stayed in there all day looking at things, but I knew we had other places to be. After the bookstore, we went and had lunch at this funny Mexican place called El Presidente Burritos. This is one of the examples of places in Springfield that really have nothing to do with Lincoln, but they make their business establishment all about him. El Presidente had Lincoln decorations galor--right along with the pinatas (how come they didn't have a Lincoln pinata?). They had really good burritos there.

After lunch we walked over to the Abraham Lincoln Home National Historic Site. I had a chance to work as a park ranger at this site earlier this year. I got a job offer in February. Had I taken the job, I would have started in March, and my term would have lasted into November. It would have been a great place to work, but the schedule wasn't conducive to going to grad. school. Visiting Lincoln's home made me really, really, really miss being a park ranger, but maybe someday I can work at a National Park again. This is the third time I've been to the Lincoln home, but you can't visit that place too many times--it's a really neat place.

A Lincoln pilgrimage wouldn't be complete without a stop at his final resting place, so after visiting his house we went out to the Oak Ridge Cemetery to visit the Lincoln family tomb. Everybody--Abe, Mary, Eddie, Willie, and Tad--is buried there except for Robert--he's buried at the Arlington National Cemetery. We learned that President Lincoln's body isn't actually in the chamber where you think it is--he's really buried under 30 feet of concrete deep in the ground. I guess that sometime back in the late 1800's, someone tried to break in and steal Lincoln's body, so they now keep him far from the crazy people. We had really hoped to make it to the Museum of Funeral Customs that is located there at the Oak Ridge Cemetery, but by the time we were finished with all of our other stuff, the museum was closed. I guess we'll have to take another trip up sometime! We really did have a good time, and the pretty sunset while we were driving home was the icing on the cake.

After we got back I went over to Catherine's house to help her give her kitties some flea medicine, and she made some yummy pasta for us for dinner. Since she made dinner, I helped her wash her dishes, and we had fun just chatting. She and I like all of the same things! She and the other kids in the program are really cool, as are our professors, and I'm lucky to be here.

Interior Design

Today I put the finishing touches on our apartment decorations here. There were a couple of pictures to hang up, and I must say, it looks pretty awesome! It's been a nice, quiet day for me here by myself. This morning Kristen and I went and recorded all of the house addresses in the area we're supposed to survey, then I did some grocery shopping, apartment decorating, and homework. Then I fell asleep for a little while, and that's been about it today. Tomorrow Catherine and I are planning to head up to Springfield to visit the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum and Library. We think that we might also hit the Museum of Funeral Customs, and of course Abe Lincoln's house and tomb. We're both quite excited to see the special exhibit at the Presidential Library called "Mary Todd Lincoln: First Lady of Controversy." So that should be a fun adventure tomorrow. Well, I'm off to get some more things done!

The Heartland of the Heartland

Is this not the quintessential country scene? I took this picture today somewhere out in the middle of the corn and soybean fields (not exactly sure where I was--somewhere between St. Joseph and Paris). And yes, today I visited Paris and Kansas--I certainly made the rounds, didn't I? (Illinois has random town names.) I just realized that it's already Friday morning here in Charleston, so when I say "today," I mean yesterday, Thursday, which still feels like today because I haven't gone to bed yet. The other kids and I were out kind of late celebrating Angie's birthday. Every time I say Angie's name, it makes me miss my good friend Angie in Mississippi! Angie here in Illinois is very nice too, but she was sad not to be with her family on her birthday, so we took her out to dinner and to a movie. We tried out the Alamo Steakhouse over in Mattoon, which was surprisingly tasty. I had some awesome BBQ ribs. I just barely got home though, so it was a full evening.

Today I had some fun adventures in the heartland of America's heartland. I took Alyson up to Champaign today to catch the shuttle to Chicago. She's flying home for the weekend to attend her boyfriend's brother's wedding. After taking her to the bus station, I headed east to the town of St. Joseph to check out some antique stores. I didn't really know where I was going, and I didn't put in a very clear address into my GPS, so the car, the GPS, and I kind of got a little lost out in the cornfields. Finally I realized I wasn't heading east any more, so I stopped, oriented myself, and we got back on the right track. I think I made kind of a big circle around a bunch of farms. Everyone is harvesting their corn these days, so there was a lot of stopping and waiting for those gigantic machines that eat up all of the corn! When I reached St. Joseph, they had a whole slew of antique stores, including the BIGGEST antique store I have ever seen. I have seen a lot of big antique stores in my days, but nothing compares to this place. They had room after room, building after building, piled to the ceilings with stuff. I rummaged in there for a while, then headed south towards Paris. My friend Tim told me about a really cool bookstore in Paris, so I thought I'd try to hit that before swinging back over to Charleston. I jumped on Highway 49 which took me south through more and more cornfields. Then, I came upon a big semi-truck that had blown over--yikes! The Highway Patrol was out there to control traffic, and then there was this huge truck on its side. It looked like everyone involved was okay, but the traffic got pretty backed up because out on the roads through the cornfields, there aren't exactly many alternate routes to take. I drove down to Paris, but unfortunately what used to be the cool bookstore has been turned into a computer store--no books there. I did find a fun little cafe for lunch though on the town square. All of the little towns out here have town squares built around the courthouse. From Paris, I headed southwest to Charleston, driving through Kansas (not the state) on the way. It was a fun little mini road trip today. Yay--Mom arrives here in town a week from today!!!! Well, I'm off to bed!

The Museum of the Dog

Hi everyone! Today for my Managing Historical Organizations class, we had to report on our assignments to look at the mission statements of certain strange museums. The museum I had been assigned was The Museum of the Dog in St. Louis, sponsored by the American Kennel Club. I had been looking up information on this museum last night, and so all night I dreamed about The Museum of the Dog :-) It was kind of scary! Because of our St. Louis field trip last week, we didn't have our second class, Material Culture, today. Instead we talked with Dr. Reid about topics for research papers. All of the professors in our program are really great, and you can tell that they have our best interest in mind with everything they do.

Today I saw Rodney's roommate on campus, and he said I should come over for a party sometime. I don't think so. :-) I think I'm going to go eat some more beef and broccoli for dinner.

Beef and Broccoli

Remember how we got Chinese food on Saturday night? Well, that was one hearty portion of beef and broccoli they gave me at the QQ Buffet! I have been eating beef and broccoli every night since, and I still have more left. :-) Today has been a good day. For the Research and Interpretation class this morning, we got to scan Tilford Dudley pictures, letters, and other documents for the exhibit. I've changed my mind--Tilford wasn't the bad guy, his dad was (there always has to be a bad guy)! Catherine, Laurie, and I were scanning some letters from Tilford's mom that she sent to him while he was away at Harvard. She talked about how she had sacrificed a lot of things in order to save money for Tilford to be able to go to school, but she hadn't minded giving up new clothes, shoes, etc. as long as her son was happy. Tilford's father, however, according to his mom, thought that she didn't look as nice as other women when they went out in public. According to Dudley Mom, Dudley Dad was ashamed of how Mom looked. So, Dudley Dad found a younger woman to whom he then directed his affections. Dudley Mom's letters were soooooo sad! We wanted to cry. It must have been hard for Tilford to get those letters while he was at school. Anyway, the plot continues to thicken with the Dudley story.

This afternoon Catherine and I went to a presentation that Dr. Reid gave about racism in American films during the World War II era. It was a really great presentation! She gave it as part of the Embarrass Valley Film Festival which is going on this week--yes, they pronounce it "Ambra Valley Film Festival," but I refuse to say it like that :-)

This evening we had our weekly meeting where we go over all of the stuff we have to do. So, if we weren't stressed out and overwhelmed before the meeting, we certainly were after! To give you an idea of what's going on, here's a list of things I need to do in the near future: interview random people about what they would expect to see in a museum exhibit about transportation in Illinois, make two websites about said transportation exhibit, come up with a presentation about T-Dud's professional career, write two research papers, go through all of the Illinois Sanborn maps from the late 1800s and early 1900s to determine how the neighborhoods we have to survey have changed over the years, write a museum grant, research the members of Congress from 1858 and 1860, research Civil War soldiers who came from Charleston, make a list of all house addresses within our survey area, learn how to make brooms out of corn, and read, read, read. Oh, and I need to fit eating and sleeping in there somewhere! Whew, it feels better just to get all of that out. At least it's all fun and interesting stuff I get to do. And the nice thing is that all of these projects lead to something important--various public programs and exhibitions, so none of what we're doing feels like busy work. It all has an important purpose.

Today I put a fall wreathe on the door, so our apartment looks pretty festive now. It would be cool if I could snatch some corn stalks from the cornfield outside to set by the front door with some pumpkins, but I've heard that snatching anything from one of the many cornfields around here is highly illegal, and the farmers will hunt you down if you take something. So I think we'll stick with the fall wreathe for now. Well, I'm off to read and head to bed.

Perfect Weather

Ahhhh, the weather is absolutely perfect outside! It's about 73 degrees, sunny, a little breeze is blowing, and it feels great. It's supposed to warm up a bit tomorrow, but I'm hoping that this nice weather will last for a while. Today was a pretty typical Monday--Mondays are always busy because I have two classes. My afternoon class seemed really, really long though because I didn't feel very well. Two-and-a-half hours is a long time to be in class anyway, but it's amazing how long it can seem when your stomach hurts! Thankfully Alyson saved the day by slipping me some Ibuprofen so I was at least able to survive. We learn all kinds of interesting things in my classes about a wide variety of topics. The other day in Historic Preservation, Dr. Small was telling us how if you're working in old barns or attics you have to wear gas masks because pigeon droppings are toxic--who knew! Today in Digital Applications we learned that if you touch an old photograph, even if you think your hands aren't oily, years later your fingerprint will show up on the photo because the invisible oils on your skin have embedded themselves in the photo's surface. Even though the Dudley documents aren't very old (relatively speaking), we get to wear those cool white cotton gloves when handling them--so we don't leave fingerprints. Well, I'm off to dinner at the Bauman's.

Boccie Ball and Football

Yesterday was tons of fun! We had the History Department picnic at one of the history professor's houses out in the middle of a cornfield beyond the Embarrass River. Around here they pronounce the name of the river like "Ambra." I don't think so--it's Embarrass! We had a crazy game of boccie ball (you can see my most serious game face there on the top). It's an Italian game and is kind of a mix between croquet, bowling, and horseshoes. In the picture you can also see Laurie there to the left, Alyson in the background, and Dr. Reid to the right. It was fun to meet some new history people. One of the new EIU history teachers is a lady named Ruth Fairbanks. She's from Utah! We had a good time chatting.

After the picnic, Laurie, Dan, Kristen, and I went to the EIU football game (see photo on the bottom). It was a lot of fun--I love football games--but unfortunately the Panthers lost :-( We had a chance to win at the end, but when the QB went to spike the ball to stop the clock, he accidentally fumbled it, and that was that. I love that the football games are free with your student ID card!!! After the game, we went back to my place and had Chinese food with Catherine and Alyson--yum. We also watched "The Devil Wears Prada"--classic chick flick, but Dan didn't mind because he's realized he needs to get used to doing girl stuff since he's surrounded by mostly girls.

Today I had a nice day at church. I have another dinner invite--tomorrow the Baumans are having me over. There's this really nice lady in the ward who totally reminds me of my sister Lindy. They're about the same age, they kind of look the same, and when they talk they kind of sound the same. Her name is Amanda and she has two really cute kids. Unfortunately her husband died of a brain tumor not too long ago, so she's still trying to recover from that. She's really, really nice, and it made her happy when I said she reminded me of my sister. Well, I've got to go pick Alyson up at the library. She's been over there reading today, and then I think we're going to eat leftover Chinese food for dinner!