Illinois History Minutes

It’s May 25th, the day that the Illinois State Museum was founded in 1877. Illinois law tells the museum to educate the public about geology, wildlife, and “the life and work of man”. The state museum’s first home was inside the state Capitol building in Springfield. Today, it’s in its own building, constructed in the 1960s.

It’s May 24th, the day in 1879 when the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts was granted its charter, reviving an earlier art school and gallery that had perished in the Chicago Fire.

It’s May 23rd, and the University of Illinois’ Morrow Plots were added to the National Register of Historic Places on this day in 1968. The experimental agricultural field was established in 1876, making it the second-oldest experimental field in the world.

It’s May 20th, the day that U-S Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan the 2nd was born in Chicago in 1899. President Dwight Eisenhauer nominated Harlan to the high court in 1955. He was considered part of the Earl Warren Court’s conservative wing.

It’s May 19th, the day that African-American playwright Lorraine Hansberry was born in Chicago in 1930. Her most famous play is A Raisin in the Sun, depicting a Black family in Chicago and its struggles with racial discrimination --- struggles that Hansberry saw in her own family growing up.
 

It’s May 18th, and on this day in 1860, delegates at the Republican National Convention in Chicago nominated Abraham Lincoln for president on the third ballot.

It’s May 17th, and on this day in 1900, “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” by L. Frank Baum, was published by the Chicago publishing firm of George M. Hill. Baum, a Chicago resident during his middle years, went on to write 13 sequels about the land of Oz.

It’s May 16th, and on this day in 1907, the Illinois General Assembly passed a bill allowing local governments to ban the sale of alcoholic beverages within their borders.

It’s May 13th, and on this day in 1905, the Illinois State Board of Health was given authorization to distribute an antitoxin for diphtheria, made from antibodies grown in horses. It’s still used today to treat this potentially fatal disease. The antitoxin is not a diphtheria vaccine however --- that would not be developed until the 1920s.