editor@illinoisinfocus.com
Just as the historian Robin Lane Fox explained in his biography of Alexander the Great, "I have written self-indulgently," this website has also been created self-indulgently. It has been a joy visiting many wonderful Illinois communities, getting to talk to residents about their hometowns (some self-appointed boosters, when seeing a visitor with a camera in hand, have gone out of their way to come chat and explain everything about what makes their town or city great), trying to capture the best images possible, researching and learning about these places, and then putting it all together on a website in a way that will hopefully be informative, enjoyable, and visually appealing for visitors of Illinois in Focus. Robin Lane Fox also mentions in his preface that he would consider his book a failure if the biography doesn't inspire anyone to read Homer or to at least imagine what it was like to have traveled with Alexander on his conquest. Likewise, this website would be considered a failure if it doesn't inspire people to go out and explore the great state of Illinois, or, to at least imagine what life would be like in one of its many communities.
As mentioned on the homepage, one of the goals of the website is to educate residents and non-residents alike on the many wonderful places in Illinois that are waiting to be explored. It is hoped that people will be inspired to visit places they have learned about on this website, and it is also hoped that people, when visiting a page on their hometown or with a town they are very familiar with, will learn things that they never knew. These are lofty goals that can not be achieved in all cases immediately, but they are what this website strives for.
This is an ever-changing website and is nowhere near finished and will never be completely finished. Improvements will be continually made to both the quantity and quality of the community pages covered on this website. There are many cities and towns in Illinois that are not yet featured on Illinois in Focus but will be in the future. For those already included, no page here is set in stone. It is known that there is still a great deal of work to be done to even begin to adequately cover some of the communities included on Illinois in Focus.
Illinois in Focus strives to have all the information included on this website to be fully accurate. If you should be find any factual, grammatical, or technical errors with this website, we would greatly appreciate it if you would email us at editor@illinoisinfocus.com with this information so it can be corrected as quickly as possible. Also, if you feel as if something in mischaracterised or there is information that is out of date, please let us know. If you have any information that you think could enrich one of the existing pages (i.e. knowledge of a historical event that happened in a given location or any childhood memories that you might have of a particular place), please let us know along with any relevant sources that you might have.
You may notice that some of the pages on certain communities contain a short bibliography. A reasonable (although in many instances still inadequate) amount of research went into creating some of these pages on Illinois in Focus, and it is hoped that anyone who wanted to learn more on a certain topic would find a bibliography valuable. If there are any questions regarding the origin of some information, please send an email to editor@illinoisinfocus and we can hopefully point you in the right direction.
You may also contact us to request to purchase prints and/or rights to use images on this site. We are flexible and are more than willing to help you complete your project!
Illinois in Focus would like to thank you for your time and express our hope that you enjoyed your visit to our little corner of the world!
Just as the historian Robin Lane Fox explained in his biography of Alexander the Great, "I have written self-indulgently," this website has also been created self-indulgently. It has been a joy visiting many wonderful Illinois communities, getting to talk to residents about their hometowns (some self-appointed boosters, when seeing a visitor with a camera in hand, have gone out of their way to come chat and explain everything about what makes their town or city great), trying to capture the best images possible, researching and learning about these places, and then putting it all together on a website in a way that will hopefully be informative, enjoyable, and visually appealing for visitors of Illinois in Focus. Robin Lane Fox also mentions in his preface that he would consider his book a failure if the biography doesn't inspire anyone to read Homer or to at least imagine what it was like to have traveled with Alexander on his conquest. Likewise, this website would be considered a failure if it doesn't inspire people to go out and explore the great state of Illinois, or, to at least imagine what life would be like in one of its many communities.
As mentioned on the homepage, one of the goals of the website is to educate residents and non-residents alike on the many wonderful places in Illinois that are waiting to be explored. It is hoped that people will be inspired to visit places they have learned about on this website, and it is also hoped that people, when visiting a page on their hometown or with a town they are very familiar with, will learn things that they never knew. These are lofty goals that can not be achieved in all cases immediately, but they are what this website strives for.
This is an ever-changing website and is nowhere near finished and will never be completely finished. Improvements will be continually made to both the quantity and quality of the community pages covered on this website. There are many cities and towns in Illinois that are not yet featured on Illinois in Focus but will be in the future. For those already included, no page here is set in stone. It is known that there is still a great deal of work to be done to even begin to adequately cover some of the communities included on Illinois in Focus.
Illinois in Focus strives to have all the information included on this website to be fully accurate. If you should be find any factual, grammatical, or technical errors with this website, we would greatly appreciate it if you would email us at editor@illinoisinfocus.com with this information so it can be corrected as quickly as possible. Also, if you feel as if something in mischaracterised or there is information that is out of date, please let us know. If you have any information that you think could enrich one of the existing pages (i.e. knowledge of a historical event that happened in a given location or any childhood memories that you might have of a particular place), please let us know along with any relevant sources that you might have.
You may notice that some of the pages on certain communities contain a short bibliography. A reasonable (although in many instances still inadequate) amount of research went into creating some of these pages on Illinois in Focus, and it is hoped that anyone who wanted to learn more on a certain topic would find a bibliography valuable. If there are any questions regarding the origin of some information, please send an email to editor@illinoisinfocus and we can hopefully point you in the right direction.
You may also contact us to request to purchase prints and/or rights to use images on this site. We are flexible and are more than willing to help you complete your project!
Illinois in Focus would like to thank you for your time and express our hope that you enjoyed your visit to our little corner of the world!
