Celebrate the Illinois Bicentennial at Oglesby Library by learning about Illinois prairies! On Thursday, September 13, 2018, 6:00 PM, Professor Charles Schweighauser, retired from U of I Springfield, will present a DVD chronicling the birth of the prairies from the age of the massive ice flows 9,000 years ago to the present sea of Illinois corn. The voices of several prairie poets including Masters, Bryant, Lindsay, Sandburg, and Knoepfle will reflect on the landscape’s impression upon their lives – a feast of sights and sounds which captures the prairie spirit, evoking in viewers an appreciation of the Illinois prairie heritage. The showing of the DVD will be followed by a discussion about the Prairie and its role in the history of the state.

Professor Charles Schweighauser has an upcoming speaking itinerary as follows:

Tues 9/18/2018 at Pleasant Plains Public Library at 6:30 p.m. Sangamon River, A Sense of Place
Thur 9/20/2018 at Flossmoor Public Library at 7 p.m. Illinois Prairies: a Sense of Place
Mon 9/24/2018 at Brookfield Public Library at 7 p.m. Illinois Prairies: a Sense of Place
Tue 9/25/2018 at Riverside Public Library at 7 p.m. Three Poets from Central Illinois: Carl Sandburg, Vachel Lindsay, and Edgar Lee Masters
Mon 10/1/2018 at Hudson Public Library at 6:30 p.m. The Universe from Aristotle to Einstein
Wed 10/17/2018 at Streamwood Public Library at 7 p.m. Illinois Landscape Painting
Thurs 10/18/2018 at Ashland Public Library at 6:30 p.m. Illinois Prairies: a Sense of Place
Tue 10/23/2018 at Colchester Public Library at 7 p.m. Illinois Landscape Painting 1848-1975
Sat 11/10/2018 at Decatur Agriculture Watershed Institute (membership dinner) Sangamon River, A Sense of Place – may not be free or open to the public