Insight

              A committee developing
a program to
commemorate the
bicentennial of the
Lewis & Clark
Expedition in libraries
and museums across the
state has selected a
book to be the
centerpiece of the
campaign. Lewis and
Clark in the Illinois
Country: The Little Told
Story, by Robert E.
Hartley, focuses on the
prelude to the historic
expedition — from the
American Revolution to
1803 — and the crucial
six months in the winter
of 1803-04 the
explorers spent in the
Illinois country
recruiting and gathering supplies and information.
The expedition began 200 years ago with the
creation of a camp near what is now known as
Wood River in Madison County.
Hartley’s book will be read and
discussed in libraries, museums
and other venues throughout
Illinois throughout the bicentennial
celebration. Hartley also is a
featured author at the Illinois
Authors Book Fair, March 26-27.
"Setting Forth: The Lewis and Clark
Expedition in Illinois Libraries and
Museums" is being funded by a
grant from the National
Endowment for the Humanities,
with additional funding from the
Illinois State Library. “This
collaborative statewide effort will
observe the cultural and historical
significance of the
expedition of these great
explorers, which opened
America to westward
expansion,” said
Secretary of State and
State Librarian Jesse
White.”
Hartley has written about
Illinois history and
politics for more than 40
years. He began his
career in 1962 as a
reporter and editor for
the Metro-East Journal.
He later became
managing editor of the
Decatur Herald and the
Sunday Herald and
Review, editor of the
Decatur Herald and
Review, editor of
Lindsay-Schaub newspapers, executive editor of the
Toledo (Ohio) Blade and publisher of the Journal-
American in Bellevue, WA. He also worked in
public relations in Seattle from
1986 to 1999. Hartley lives in
Westminster, CO.
The State Library, the State
Museum, the Lewis & Clark
Library System and the Illinois
Center for the Book are partners in
planning the program. Also on the
project team are representatives
from Illinois Read (I-READ), the
statewide children and young
adult reading initiative; the State
Library Talking Book & Braille
Service; the Newberry Library; the
University of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign; and the Illinois Lewis
& Clark Bicentennial Commission. January/February
in
this
issue
Lewis & Clark
bicentennial
Stein new poet
laureate
Family Reading
Night celebrated
New Literacy
Program rules
Black History
Month
Hartley book selected for Lewis & Clark bicentennial
2004
Jesse White • Secretary of State & State Librarian
A Newsletter from the Illinois State Library
INSIGHT
Author Robert Hartley (left) talks with Tom Teague, executive
director of the Illinois State Historical Society, at the State
Library in December. Hartley’s book, Lewis and Clark in the
Illinois Country: The Little Told Story, was selected to represent
the bicentennial of the Lewis & Clark Expedition in Illinois.