History Comes Alive with Brian Fox Ellis bringing great free history programs to central Illinois

Jeff Williams:
Welcome to Community Voices, a production of NPR Illinois. I'm your co-host, Jeff Williams, and in the studio today, Brian Fox Ellis. Brian, how's it going?
Brian Fox Ellis:
Great. I'm really happy to be here. I'm a big fan of the show.
Jeff Williams:
Nice, right on. So, you're from the Peoria Heights area? Yes. Is that correct? Yeah, that's a... I like that area. Sometimes I go over there, get a little ice cream. I can't remember the name of the street right there. It's Prospect, yeah.
Brian Fox Ellis:
I'm one block off Prospect. All the best restaurants in town are in walking distance.
Jeff Williams:
Oh yeah, there's a lot of good places to eat right along there. Also that there's the tower. I'm not sure if that's functioning anymore. The overlook.
Brian Fox Ellis:
It's open every summer.
Jeff Williams:
Right!
Brian Fox Ellis:
But I love coming to Springfield. I know it's a little bit of a drive, but I'm here a couple days a week all summer long as part of the History Comes Alive program.
Jeff Williams:
Yeah, so tell us a little bit about that.
Brian Fox Ellis:
So, history comes alive, in my humble opinion, is really one of the best programs in the country. I have friends who run Colonial Williamsburg or Independence Hall in Philadelphia. And the caliber of presentations you'll get here in Springfield. I mean, Fritz Klein is Lincoln. He's the C-SPAN Lincoln. He's the Mount Rushmore Lincoln. And I get to play Billy Herndon, his law partner. And I play Stephen Douglas. I get to debate with him every Friday. And you know, William Brown is an amazing Mary, and we have Ulysses S. Grant, we have Frederick Douglass, I play Walt Whitman. I mean, the diversity of programs is really amazing, and they happen all day, every day, for 10 weeks, and they're all free. It's really a great program, and I'm thrilled to be a part of it for 15 years running now.
Jeff Williams:
So where do people see that?
Brian Fox Ellis:
All over town. That's the other thing. Some of them are in the Presidential Museum, so you need to pay your entrance fee there. But more of them are in the Presidential Library, which is free.
Jeff Williams:
Okay, yeah.
Brian Fox Ellis:
And or at the Old State Capitol, that's where many of them are, or at the Lincoln Home, some out at New Salem. Some just, like there's a walking tour of downtown based on the race riots of 1909.
Jeff Williams:
1908, I think something, yeah.
Brian Fox Ellis:
They're really all over town. You'll find historical characters eager to tell you a story and answer your questions in an engaging, entertaining way.
Jeff Williams:
Yeah, I love that. This might be a little bit off direct topic, but like that, you've been doing it for a long time, right? Yes. Is there a lot of, is there a turnover with that? Particular people doing characters and things like that.
Brian Fox Ellis:
Yes and yes. So some of us have been around for a while, but I love that every year they bring in some new voices. And just for me, I'd get bored if I were Abraham Lincoln all day every day. I love Lincoln. But you know, one of the themes that we've been talking a lot about this year and ongoing, everyone belongs in history. I remember 10, 15 years ago, I worked with Troy and Justin, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.
Jeff Williams:
Oh yeah, Justin, okay, yeah.
Brian Fox Ellis:
And we recruited 10 young African Americans, and I helped research and write scripts, and they were portraying some of the lesser-known characters who played pivotal roles. Like one of my favorite, Robert Smalls, was enslaved in Charleston, South Carolina, stole the steamboat, got himself and a boatload of people free at Fort Sumpter, met Mr. Lincoln in the White House, convinced Lincoln to employ the black soldiers, and then he ran a steamboat here on the Mississippi River delivering, it was like a hospital boat, delivering supplies through the war. And there are a lot of these really incredible stories that have connections to Springfield and Lincoln. And so every year we're looking for new stories along those lines, recruiting new actors. And then just for myself, I write a new program every year. This year, one of my new programs is Lincoln on Trial. So I've been Billy Herndon for a long time. And actually, if you attend my typical Herndon lecture as a lawyer, you get continuing education credits. It's about what you need to know to be a good lawyer based on Lincoln and Herndon's practice. But this year we've put a new spin on it, and it's challenging me in a fun way to be more engaging with the audience. So I've already done this with a couple of cases. I pick people from the audience to act out the case. And so it's Lincoln on trial and the audience gets to decide, you know, did he win? And they become, the prosecutor or the defendant. And it's a lot of fun. So back to your question, there are new characters every year and we are hiring new actors on a regular basis because history is for everyone. And we tell a lot of the stories left out of your history book.
Jeff Williams:
Well, speaking of that, I remember one time being in Pittsfield, Illinois, and it's a little placard outside of like a house there. It talks about, which I hadn't heard of this before, Lincoln was there, and darn it, I cannot remember the name of the house, the particular house that it was at. But the placard talks about how there was a kid, a little boy, there that was like really hungry, but he was waiting because, you know, Lincoln was there, he was a younger Lincoln, but he was an adult. This little kid was waiting and Mr. Lincoln wants to eat, and they offered him a plate of pigeons. And according to this, yes. I guess he ate pigeon after pigeon. He ended up eating the whole thing. And I guess it says right on there, quoted and in bronze on this plaque… that the little kid exclaimed, “Lincoln, you old hog!” And I just thought it was kind of funny. I'll always remember that. You know, it's one of those little things that I had never heard before in all of my decades on this planet. And then I saw that and I was like, wow, I'll never forget!
Brian Fox Ellis:
That's a perfect story. It really exemplifies, why we do this. People remember stories. And give me history… warts and all. None of these people were perfect. All of them made mistakes. And when you hear the whole story, history warts and all, then you get to decide for yourself, you know, friend or foe. mostly good, and everybody had some weaknesses. I just recently took on Stephen Douglas and the debates, and I will admit I agree more with Lincoln than Douglas, but getting to know Douglas and his very important role in Illinois and federal national politics. Again, I disagree with him occasionally, but telling the whole story gives people a deeper appreciation of both Lincoln's allies and his rivals.
Jeff Williams:
Well, and also the dynamic of the time. You know, when you're looking at something just in the history books and you're seeing something, it's nice to bring it alive where it actually becomes, it is, it's part of this human story. You know, it's this thing that's going on. It's not just on a page. It's brought to life and it lets you feel that these people they really existed. They really were going through struggles and things that they had to deal with just like we deal with now.
Brian Fox Ellis:
Yeah, and it makes them more human.
Jeff Williams:
More human.
Brian Fox Ellis:
But also, the stories then we connect with as listeners in a way that shares relevance to what's going on today. When we're just spitting facts, they might stick. But when you wrap it in a story, then people are impacted. It's changing hearts and minds. And, back to Stephen Douglas. So, every Friday at 1:00, Lincoln and I debate on the steps of the old courthouse. And it's a fun outdoor program. And we do a little piece of the debate, and we engage the audience in a debate. And every week the questions are different, the response is different. And, you know, Fritz Klein and I have been working together for at least 15 years and we've done, I can't count how many programs. we don't always agree politically. And it's been really fun for us, and I think for the audience, to see that we can still be best friends and have political disagreements. I mean, Douglas courted Mary, and then she dropped Douglas and said, the man I marry will be president, and began courting Lincoln. And they ran against each other in severances, not just the Senate. And Lincoln, as a lawyer, tried cases in front of Judge Douglas. So it was a lifelong rivalry. And yet there was deep respect. When Lincoln was inaugurated, Douglas held Lincoln's stovepipe hat and then went on a tour of southern states to try to convince them not to separate from the Union, which was not in his political interest. He was literally going into enemy territory, risking his life to try to save the Union. But you could be a political rival and still have respect, still have civil conversations. And that's part of what we're trying to create an environment because many of the programs are conversational, not lecture. They're all storytelling and music. Well, going off on another tangent, Ben Bedford, one of my, another one of my best friends, he and I do a show every Friday morning at 11 where we just hang out with whoever shows up. It's called Tales and Tunes. And based on the conversation, Beno play a song, I'll tell a story, and we just kind of bounce it back and forth.
Jeff Williams:
Love it, love it.
Brian Fox Ellis:
My other favorite program is I go out to Illinois Audubon's Sanctuary, Marc Tree Adams, and I portray John James Audubon, and I lead a bird hike every Friday morning at 8 A.m., and that I don't know what birds we're going to see until you get there. But based on the audience, whoever is there, I bring extra binoculars. We always see some cool birds. And Audubon wrote about every bird in America. And it's amazing. Big loop here. Are you with me? Marjorie Adams, who donated the land to the Illinois Audubon, her grandfather or great-grandfather was actually one of Lincoln's rivals.
Jeff Williams:
Really.
Brian Fox Ellis:
Yes. And when Audubon lived in Kentucky, he painted a portrait of Mary Todd. And Robert Todd, Mary's father, wrote a letter to help Audubon get a job as an artist at the Cincinnati Museum. So, all of these characters are tied together.
Jeff Williams:
Yeah, that's crazy. And that, of course, Audubon, that's right on Clear Lake, is that correct on Clear Lake in Springfield, Illinois, yet right here. So, love it, love it. So yeah, it looks like you had, oh, so do you, like, if you are like at the Abraham Lincoln, the Presidential Museum, As far as the cross-section of people that come in from, I'm assuming most are, Illinois and stuff, but kind of coming from all over the place, right? Yeah.
Brian Fox Ellis:
Actually... Most of our guests are tourists from out of town and many, many of them out of state and more than a handful out of the country. It is amazing how well Lincoln is respected and well-known all over the world. And every week we have guests from far-flung places, Asia, Eastern Europe, South America, who love Lincoln and want to talk about him. And I'm really pleased how many people will drive a day or more to come to this wonderful museum. I'm actually a little surprised how few people are from Springfield.
Jeff Williams:
Springfield, yeah.
Brian Fox Ellis:
If I lived here, I know you get Lincoln 24-7. But if I lived here, the History Comes Alive program, it's free. I may not be there every day, but at least once a summer I would go on a Tuesday and hear those programs. Or once a summer go on a Thursday and, oh, I'm doing Pints with a Poet as Walt Whitman. where we will do a pub crawl on Friday, on Thursday afternoon, and it ends at the concert, the Levitt Amp concert at the park. So you visit 3 pubs, recite some poetry, have a pint with Walt Whitman.
Jeff Williams:
And where does that start then?
Brian Fox Ellis:
Everything, most of my programs are at the Old State Capitol. Yeah, sure, start at the Old State Capitol. And then we'll, we used to go to Obed and Isaac's. I'm sad about that. But Anvil and Forge is doing some great stuff, Celtic. and Obed and Isaac's, and within a block and a half, you can visit three great pubs and two breweries.
Jeff Williams:
And then end up right back around to Levitt, which is right?
Brian Fox Ellis:
Across the street from there. Yeah.
Jeff Williams:
Love that. Very cool.
Brian Fox Ellis:
Yeah. So there are a lot of great programs. And if I lived in Springfield, I would certainly, you know, not go to everyone every day, but I would catch all of them at one point during the summer. Because most of the programs run Ten weeks in a row, so chart your calendar now.
Jeff Williams:
Yeah, Well, once again, we're in the studio with Brian Fox Ellis, who's here with the History Comes Alive program, just talking about part of, or Visit Springfield. Is that the correct name of the actual program?
Brian Fox Ellis:
Well, History Comes Live is the program series, but Visit Springfield is the sponsor.
Jeff Williams:
Sponsor of it.
Brian Fox Ellis:
And Darren and Angela do a great job organizing this. And I really would encourage you on air to have have them as guests because they're genius in the variety of programs they put together. He just handed me the list for the whole summer. And there's always several new ones you were asking earlier. William Butler's capital story sounds like a really great program. He was a janitor in the old state capitol who, because he heard all of this behind-the-scenes debate, he kind of used that information as a conductor on the Underground Railroad and get a behind-the-scenes tour of life in the old state capital from an African-American freedom ally. So super, super great stuff.
Jeff Williams:
Man, love that kind of stuff. I remember I, when I first, well, here it's kind of unrelated, but I remember finding out about the, this town, New Philadelphia, this small, this town that I remember I was just doing some research for like this series of paintings I was going to do. And I was kind of stumbling. I was looking around for like, I thought maybe Cairo, Illinois. I was kind of searching around there to see some of the early like black settlements or something like that. And then found out about New Philadelphia and the whole history of that with this Frank McWhorter, some people called Free Frank and stuff. But I just found out just a couple of years ago, blew my mind.
Brian Fox Ellis:
I love the New Philadelphia story. Actually, a friend of a friend did a lot of the primary research on that. And so I was not on the inside loop, but I was adjacent to and heard a lot of those stories as they were uncovering that. And Frank McWhorter, what a character. Crazy.
Jeff Williams:
It's crazy the steps to think about. But the thing is, my point is there's just always these connections to history that We sometimes might feel like, I think I know everything. No, you don't. There are always just more ways to connect and find out more and dig a little deeper.
Brian Fox Ellis:
And this is part of what I love about History Comes Alive is we are. always researching more programs, and everyone belongs in history. And yeah, Lincoln is the star, and deservedly so, but all these connections to and away from Lincoln and all these great characters who have exciting stories to tell. I also played Julius Rosenvald, who as a little boy saw Lincoln's funeral, saw Ulysses S. Grant wearing white goat skin and kit gloves, and then became a clothier who created Sears and Roebuck, and then funded lots of free black schools in the South. It’s just amazing all these connections. He lived catty-corner from Lincoln's home in Springfield. Stories everywhere you look.
Jeff Williams:
Everywhere. So once again, we're with Brian Fox Ellis with History Comes Alive, the program, and through Visit Springfield.
Brian Fox Ellis:
Yeah. the website is up always, but they'll be adding details for the summer soon, but some of it's already there.
Jeff Williams:
In the website.
Brian Fox Ellis:
visitspringfield.com
Jeff Williams:
Okay, visitspringfield.com … well, Brian, once again, thanks a lot for stopping by. It was a great talk.
Brian Fox Ellis:
My pleasure. Look forward to hearing from you again.
Jeff Williams:
Yeah, nice. Thank you for sure. Community Voices is events you might have missed and conversations with neighbors, artists, and area businesspeople. Suggest a guest or comment at communityvoices@nprillinois.org. Get to know your neighbors with Community Voices at noon and 10 p.m. and on demand at nprillinois.org.