We host many different events and educational programs that are open to the public. Our goal is to provide access to the history of the area, as well as to educate the public on different historical practices, culture, and events.
See our past and upcoming events below. Please contact us for any additional information.
Please note: All programs start at 7:00 p.m. Locations for the programs are listed below.
2025/2026 Programs
How Corn Changed Itself and Then Changed Everything Else
Tuesday, September 23 at 7 p.m.
Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
Location: Grundy County Historical Society, 510 W. Illinois Ave., Morris, IL
This program is open to all, so please share with family and friends
Presenter: Cynthia Clampitt, a member of the Illinois Humanities Road Scholar presenters
Cynthia Clampitt will present the history of corn and how it transformed the Americas before First Contact, how it traveled the world after First Contact, and its stunning impact on the creation of not only the historic Midwest but just about everything in it. About 10,000 years ago, a weedy grass that grew in Mexico and possessed a strange trait known as a “jumping gene” transformed itself into a larger and more useful grass – the cereal grass that we would come to know as maize and then corn.
Most textbooks only mention corn in the context of rescuing a few early settlers, but it in fact sustained the colonies and then the early United States. Corn virtually created the Midwest, a region that settled faster than any other region in history. It also created the region’s cities, especially Chicago, where everything from grain elevators, the Chicago Board of Trade, and the 1893 World’s Fair to times zones and the stockyards were made possible by the golden flood flowing into the City.
Andrew Carnegie’s Gospel of Wealth
Tuesday, October 28 at 7 p.m.
Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
Location: Wesley Center, 111 W. North St., Morris, IL
This program is open to all, so please share with family and friends
Presenter: Terry Lynch has been a professional actor performing on stage, television, film and radio in the Chicagoland area for more than 40 years. He has also appeared regularly on the WGN Morning Show. He and his wife Laura, a certified educator, began Histories for Kids/HFK Presents more than 20 years ago as a way to bring history to life for all ages.
Andrew Carnegie led the expansion of the steel industry during the late 19th century, becoming one of the wealthiest men in American history.
After his retirement in 1901, he became a philanthropist, believing in the “Gospel of Wealth,” meaning wealthy people were obligated to give money back to members of society. Hear how Carnegie’s philanthropic interests centering around education and world peace led to the establishment of public libraries.
Last and First: The Mid-1800’s Currency Issued by a Grundy County Bank in Morris, IL
Tuesday, April 28, 2026
Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
Location: Wesley Center, 111 W. North St., Morris, IL
This program is open to all, so please share with family and friends
Presenter: Dale Lukanich
Morris Illinois was a prime spot for commerce in the mid 1800’s. The Illinois & Michigan Canal was located to the south of town, and new railroad tracks to the north. In the early 1860’s the country and economy were going through major changes due to the Civil War. The federal government’s banking system collapsed in 1836 leaving citizens wondering what was on the economic horizon. Gold, silver, and copper coinage were in short supply. The federal paper currency was not much better. Grundy County in general, and Morris in particular, was feeling the same pinch. A local Morris bank issued state backed paper currency for a short time until Abraham Lincoln and the Secretary of the Treasury came up with a plan for the country. The National Bank Act of 1863. Now a new bank in Morris could issue National Bank notes backed by bonds to keep the Grundy County economy moving. See and hear the stories surrounding the last of the obsolete currency, and the first of the National Bank currency issued in Grundy County.
