From: Chicago Tribune (Chicago, IL)
[Knox College and the city of Galesburg], which is named for the college’s founder, George Washington Gale, are celebrating their 175th anniversaries this year. It’s an ideal time to visit this western Illinois community of 32,000 and witness its unique fusion of past and present…
Students still attend classes in Old Main, a building revered as the place where, in 1858, Abraham Lincoln delivered one of his rousing anti-slavery speeches during a debate with Stephen Douglas… A bell still rings each morning to signal the start of the school day. It’s perched in a tower atop Old Main, outside of which signs share the story of the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates. The building, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, is made of that old bartered brick… Read more…
From: The Register Mail (Galesburg, IL)
Building on the tradition of the famous 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debate at Knox College, Knox Democrats and the Knox Conservatives are organizing debates this month to discuss the economy and other present-day issues. The debates begin at 4 p.m. Oct. 5 and will continue Oct. 12 and 19 [postponed to Oct. 12, 19 and 26] on the Knox campus on the steps of Old Main, the site of the Lincoln-Douglas debate… Read more…
From: State Journal Register (Springfield, IL)
About a year ago, I drove from Bloomington to Champaign for a long-anticipated viewing of filmmaker Paul Bonesteel’s documentary, “The Day Carl Sandburg Died.”… [which premiered on PBS on] Monday, Sept. 24. [Several Knox College faculty and alumni were involved in the production, and scenes included Sandburg’s] early morning walks across Galesburg’s Knox College campus, home of an 1858 debate between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas. He’d stop “in winter sunrise, in broad summer daylight, in falling snow or rain, in all the weathers of a year” to look at the plaque commemorating the debate, [which] aroused an interest in the 16th President so strong that it led Sandburg to write a six-volume Lincoln biography… Read more…
From: The Register Mail (Galesburg, IL)
Students in Evan Massey’s poli sci 368 class at Galesburg High School… are writing about politics, elections and the upcoming presidential race in particular as they blog about the elections of 2012 at http://ghspolisci368.blogspot.com/… The class also has taken field trips, such as a recent one to Knox College where they met with Owen Muelder, Knox College Underground Railroad Freedom Center Director, to discuss the Lincoln-Douglas debate… Read more…
From: The Register Mail (Galesburg, IL)
Knox College swept MacMurray College in women’s and men’s soccer on Wednesday [Sept. 19] and claimed the new traveling Ferris Trophy in the process. The Prairie Fire women’s team defeated the Highlanders 2-0. The victory also gave the Prairie Fire possession of the Ferris Trophy. The Knox men’s team completed the sweep with a 7-1 win… Both Galesburg and Jacksonville have connections to the Ferris Wheel and its inventor, George Ferris… Read more…
From: The Register Mail (Galesburg, IL)
Knox College graduate BJ Hollars has first-hand experience of what it’s like to be in Barack Obama’s shoes. Like the current president, BJ had to follow a speech by former President Bill Clinton. Hollars was the student speaker when Clinton delivered the 2007 Knox College commencement address. Following Clinton’s keynote address at Wednesday night’s Democratic National Convention, [Register-Mail blogger Jay Redfern] asked BJ what he remembered about June 2, 2007.
[Hollars told the Register-Mail]:] “On graduation day, I remember staying so close to my 10-minute, carefully written speech, while President Clinton seemed to go up there and extemporize for half an hour without missing a beat,” said BJ. “Love him or hate him, it was a lesson in public speaking.” Now an assistant professor of creative writing at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, BJ received degrees in English literature and educational studies and the Outstanding Senior Award for 2007… Read more…
