By DEBORAH GERTZ HUSAR
Herald-Whig Staff Writer
BARRY, Ill. -- The cultural and historical heritage of Pike County and West-Central Illinois will be the focus of the 2012 Marvin J. and Thomas Leo Likes Memorial Lecture Series.
Lectures begin at 7 p.m. every Tuesday in June at Kinderhook Lodge, 22168 State Highway 106 between Kinderhook and Barry.
"Two of the presentations will focus on the racially integrated community of New Philadelphia through studies of its history, archaeology and its cemeteries," said Terry Martin, curator and chair of anthropology at the Illinois State Museum and a co-director of the New Philadelphia Archaeological Project. "The other two presentations will provide case studies of African-Americans living in Illinois during the early 19th century, nominally in a ‘free state,' but bordering ‘slave states' to the west and south. These stories will illustrate social conditions for African Americans in Illinois and in the vicinity of New Philadelphia."
Scheduled programs are:
º Tuesday, June 5 -- New Philadelphia Archaeological Project: The First Ten Years presented by Martin and Claire Martin, a research associate at the Illinois State Museum and a historical consultant for the New Philadelphia Archaeological Project. The project began when the New Philadelphia Association sought help to preserve and interpret the long-abandoned town site. Two grants from the National Science Foundation funded field work at the site.
º Tuesday, June 12 -- "Known by me to be a freeman of colour": Telling the Jameson Jenkins Story at Lincoln Home National Historic Site presented by Timothy Townsend, historian for the Lincoln Home National Historic Site. Jenkins, an Underground Railroad conductor, was a neighbor of Abraham Lincoln in Springfield. In 2007, the Jenkins property, one block south of Lincoln's home, was included in the National Park Service Underground Railroad Network to Freedom because of his involvement in helping freedom seekers during what was referred to as a "slave stampede" in 1850. Townsend also will discuss plans for creation of a permanent exhibit to be placed on the lot where the Jenkins house once stood.
º Tuesday, June 19 -- Understanding Pike County Burial Grounds and Cemeteries presented by Dawn Cobb, Human Skeletal Remains Protection Act coordinator for the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, and Hal Hassen, an archaeologist for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. Understanding visual characteristics and changes through time provides a deeper meaning of what is represented in burial grounds and cemeteries, and this knowledge, and respecting the laws that protect them, will ensure their future preservation.
º Tuesday, June 26 -- Slavery in Illinois as seen through the eyes of Lydia Titus presented by Darrel Dexter, the author of "Bondage in Egypt: Slavery In Southern Illinois." Titus was one of the first slaves in Illinois to file and win a freedom suit, but the effort to obtain and keep her freedom, and that of her children, became a lifelong struggle for Titus.
The speaker series is sponsored by the New Philadelphia Association, Illinois State Museum and Sprague's Kinderhook Lodge.
More information about the 2012 Marvin J. and Thomas Leo Likes Memorial Lecture Series is available by contacting Terry Martin at 782-6695 or tmartin@museum.state.il.us.
-- dhusar@whig.com/221-3379
