Moving toward the future while maintaining its historic past, Palatine, Illinois, was incorporated in 1866 and has seen great change and growth through the years. That change is captured here in a collection of vintage and contemporary images that trace the evolution of this Midwestern farm village into a big city suburb. Authored by the Palatine Historical Society and Alice Rosenberg, Palatine, Illinois: Then and Now illustrates how the area looked when it was first settled, how it developed through the years, and what it has become. From the generations of Palatine residents who lived, worked, and played in the area to the thriving municipality they created, the images contained in this book bring to life a fascinating evolution.
Through prose and pictures, There and Here: Small Illinois Towns with Big Names celebrates the bountiful heritage and unheralded charm of Illinois. The book explores the history of more than 100 Illinois towns with foreign names, along with the state's successive capitals, to weave a tapestry of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Illinois, from Indigenous removal and slavery to mass immigration and Lincoln. Advance praise for There and Here: Jan Kostner, former director, Illinois Bureau of Tourism: “Laurent Pernot’s beautiful book unlocks the history and mysteries behind the names of many Illinois towns. There and Here is a wonderful exploration of the Land of Lincoln, giving readers many reasons to get off the highway and explore our state.” Leo Schelbert, professor emeritus, University of Illinois at Chicago, author of Switzerland Abroad (2019): “This chronicle of more than one hundred places features mostly smaller and little-known settlements in Illinois. It sketches neo-European foundations after indigenous people had been eliminated and as areas were evolving as eighteenth- and nineteenth-century neo-European domains of the present United States. Names such as Alhambra, Denmark, Liverpool, Palestine, Teheran, and Versailles, may partly point to global awareness of individual name givers. The names may claim inherently that the newly named places were joining those of the old world on an at least symbolically equal footing. Laurent Pernot’s concise textual entries are greatly enriched by numerous carefully chosen and pleasing pictures in color that offer vistas of landscapes, houses, churches, sculptures, and monuments. The chosen images speak as powerfully as the carefully crafted texts. Then and Here features however not only the creative efforts of women and men in evolving a neo-European world in a region of the Northern Western Hemisphere coming to be called Illinois. The book’s texts and pictures also point to racial conquest by encirclement, by destruction of indigenous patterns, by expulsion, and by extensive physical annihilation of native peoples. The story documents white settlers’ persistent efforts to achieve an erasure of the millennia-old indigenous occupancy and its replacement by exclusively white jurisdiction. The concise texts and numerous pictures highlight therefore a double-faced historical eighteenth- and nineteenth-century process as it evolved in today’s region called Illinois: They point to a gradual conquest characterized by totalitarian violence of invaders against millennia-old indigenous groups and by the creative replacement of an ancient native world by an exclusive establishment of neo-European cultural ways.” More about There and Here: There and Here yields a richly textured portrait of early Illinois, a place where women and men gave their new towns big names, out of hope, hubris, and maybe even denial. The book chronicles locales from Alhambra to Zion, including towns like Argyle and Norway, which served as the main gateway for immigrants from those locales into Illinois and the rest of the country. Segments about the state’s seats of power provide useful historical context for the other towns’ more localized stories. Springfield is one of no fewer than six capital cities in Illinois, alongside Kaskaskia and Vandalia, Springfield’s predecessors; Cahokia, center of the largest pre-Columbian civilization in what is today the U.S.; Fort de Chartres, the heart of France’s Upper Louisiana; and Nauvoo, the first great Mormon metropolis. There’s also Metropolis itself, home of Superman. And Popeye reigns sovereign in Chester. There and Here captures times and people full of abnegation, conflict and hope; the bravery and altruism of the Illinois frontier cannot hide the darker side of the state’s history. From the town's various histories emerges a picture of ethnic and racial brutality, from the violent treatment of tribes to slavery in the southern part of the state, and to lynchings in places like Cairo and Paris. Author Laurent Pernot, an immigrant from France, takes a fresh look at his adoptive state, unearthing tales and turf unsuspected by most Illinoisans.
"In A Natural History of the Chicago Region, Greenberg takes you on a journey that begins with European explorers and settlers and hasn't ended yet. Along the way he introduces you to the physical forces that have shaped the area from southeastern Wisconsin to northern Indiana and Berrien County in Michigan; the various habitat types present in the region and how European settlement has affected them; and the insects, reptiles, amphibians, birds, fish, and mammals found in presettlement times, then amid the settlers and now amid the skyscrappers. In all, Greenberg chronicles the development of nineteen counties in Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin across centuries of ecological, technological, and social transformations."--BOOK JACKET.
This extensive guide shows how the history and culture of Illinois are embedded in the names of its towns, cities, and other geographical features. Edward Callary unearths the origins of names of nearly three thousand Illinois communities and the circumstances surrounding their naming and renaming. Organized alphabetically, the entries are concise, engaging, and full of fascinating detail revealing the rich ethnic history of the state, the impact of industrialization and the coming of the railroads, and insight into local politics and personalities. Many entries also provide information on local pronunciation, the name’s etymology, and the community’s location, all set in historical and cultural context. A general introduction locates Illinois place names in the context of general patterns of place naming in the United States. An extremely useful reference for scholars of American history, geography, language, and culture, Place Names of Illinois also offers intriguing browsing material for the inquisitive reader and the curious traveler.
""Which neighborhood?" It's one of the first questions you're asked when you move to Chicago. And the answer you give - be it Bucktown, Bronzeville, or Bridgeport - can give your inquisitor a good idea of who you are, especially in a metropolis with so many different neighborhoods and suburbs to choose from." "Many of us know little of the neighborhoods beyond those where we work, play, and live. This is particularly true in Chicagoland, a region that spans over 4,400 square miles and is home to more than 9.5 million residents. Now, historian Ann Durkin Keating's compact guide, drawn largely from the bestselling Encyclopedia of Chicago, brings the history of Chicago neighborhoods to life."--BOOK JACKET.
