Singing Bird and the Importance of Native American Women in Illinois History

Dressed in her native regalia, Kim will be giving a history of the natives in Illinois with a focus on native women, or what was considered “The Hidden Half.” Her primary focus will be women such as Singing Bird (Blackhawk’s wife), and Hononegah. Kim will bring the audience into these women’s day-to-day lives, including courting, marriage, and child-rearing. She will also talk about their role in their husbands’ lives, and how those lives affected the history of Illinois. Kim will bring native items that women would have used in their daily lives, as she discusses the role women played within the family unit. The audience will be able to pick up and view the items, learn native language and music, and get the chance to play the drum in this interactive experience.

Fleeing the Nazis: A Journey of Two Sisters and the Hero Who Outwitted the Gestapo

Recently, Bruce Mainzer decided to better organize the affairs of his 103 year old mother who had Alzheimer's. He first looked into a bank safety deposit box which revealed new details about his mother's escape from Nazi occupied Prague in 1939. Despite his mother's inability to recall any details of her harrowing trip, Bruce was able to connect the clues from the documents from the safety deposit box with stories from his own family members and information of newly discovered relatives in Israel and the US of the hero who impersonated an embassy employee to fool the Nazis. Bruce's mother and aunt were the first Jews to try out the forged document scheme and they successfully made it to Paris and then the US. Upon hearing of the two sisters' successful escape, the hero then used the same methods to eventually obtain passage for thousands of other Jews to escape Prague and flee to British occupied Palestine.

Flora, Fauna and Foodways with Archivist Nancy Webster

Researching the early 20th century images of local flora and fauna by Jesse Lowe Smith and E. E. Parratt led to further investigation. Twenty-first century publications including Andreas Viestad's Dinner in Rome a History of the world in one Meal and Arbres et arbustes sauvages des trottoirs toulousains (Wild trees and plants and shrubs of the sidewalks of Toulouse) by Boris Presseq inspired further research of these plants as food sources for humans. We will share selected early 20th century, local images and documentation of these plants' in early recipes.