Archive for May, 2009
Fundamentals
Friday, May 29th, 2009When Lyman Stewart was a young man he wanted to become a missionary. However the discovery of oil in his native Pennsylvania would forever change the course of his life, but not the influence of his faith. When oil was found in the rolling Allegheny mountains near Titusville, Stewart attempted to risk his $125 in [...]
The Chrysostom Society
Tuesday, May 26th, 2009Artists often create in solitude, so it is not uncommon for these lonely souls to seek the company of other creative minds for encouragement, comfort and inspiration. For instance, author and lexicographer Samuel Johnson, portraitist Joshua Reynolds, historian Edward Gibbon, novelist Oliver Goldsmith and other 18th Century literary elite comprised “The Club,” assembling regularly for [...]
Fifty Acres
Thursday, May 21st, 2009The transition of name from the Illinois Institute to Wheaton College came about through the skillful negotiations of Jonathan Blanchard with Warren L. Wheaton. Wheaton, along with his brother Jesse had come to the prairie beyond Chicago from Pomfret, Connecticut in the 1830s. After Blanchard moved to the Institute in 1859 in what had been [...]
Life in Bear Lake
Monday, May 18th, 2009One of the richest components of the Special Collections are the 95 hours of oral history interviews with Kenneth and Margaret Landon, conducted over 13 years by their son, Kip (Kenneth). Abstracted, The Landon Chronicles, provide rich detail and insight into the lives of these two amazing individuals. It tells of the fun times and [...]
Model 1873 Springfield “Trapdoor” Rifle
Thursday, May 14th, 2009The Springfield Trapdoor served as the United States Army’s “warhorse” for at least 20 years. It was held by both sides through the Indian campaigns in the American West and widely used by American troops during the Spanish-American War. The powerful single shot Trapdoor was also quite popular with many famous Indian warriors. Sitting Bull [...]
Let Them Eat Cake!
Monday, May 11th, 2009Commencement is over and rented gowns returned. Cakes have been cut and eaten and celebrations have ceased. Fading into memory are the stuff of college days: Class Films, tussles over the Senior Bench and other inter-class rivalries. One of the class rivalries of old, like the Senior Bench and sophomores hazing freshman, was the Senior [...]
Three Flats
Thursday, May 7th, 2009Malcolm Muggeridge’s first play was Expense of Spirit, which according to Muggeridge biographer, Ian Hunter, was “a rather tepid play.” The play was a veiled retelling of his father’s successful 1929 election as a Labour M.P. (member of Parliament). Hunter called it “a rather cruel caricature” of H. T. Muggeridge. Muggeridge’s second play, Three Flats, [...]
Jane Addams
Monday, May 4th, 2009Born in Cedarville, Illinois, on September 6, 1860, Addams graduated from Rockford Female Seminary (now Rockford College) in 1881 where her father, John, served as a trustee. With Ellen Gates Starr Addams founded Hull-House on Chicago’s Near West Side in 1889 to address the social problems associated with urbanization, industrialization, and immigration. Settlement houses, like [...]