Day 20 (Thursday, 9/29) - Summary

An early rise gave me time to do the laundry and catch up on some backlog before I headed off to the University of Illinois library. I had an early lunch with some history enthusiasts who get together every month or so, and then I started reviewing some unique Lincoln material in the library's special collections. I also met some volunteers who are helping the library organize its extensive collection of Carl Sandburg's papers. My hosts for the next two days are Leigh and Carl Estabrook (I first met Leigh when we were both volunteers at the first White House Conference on libraries in 1979), so I headed to Leigh's office in the library school for a lift back to their house. Carl had plans to attend an informal presentation by a history professor from another institution who is visiting Champaign, so I asked if I could tag along. The topic involved British history, unfamiliar to me, and the discussion took place in a rarefied intellectual atmosphere, equally unfamiliar, but I enjoyed watching the unbridled enthusiasm of the various history graduate students in attendance.