Portal:Illinois

Illinois (/ˌɪlɪˈnɔɪ/ ^ⓘ IL-in-OY) is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash and Ohio rivers to its south. Of the fifty U.S. states, Illinois has the fifth-largest gross domestic product (GDP), the sixth-largest population, and the 25th-most land area. Its largest urban areas include Chicago and the Metro EastofGreater St. Louis, as well as Peoria, Rockford, Champaign–Urbana, and Springfield, the state's capital.

Illinois has a highly diverse economy, with the global cityofChicago in the northeast, major industrial and agricultural hubs in the north and center, and natural resources such as coal, timber, and petroleum in the south. Owing to its central location and favorable geography, the state is a major transportation hub: the Port of Chicago has access to the Atlantic Ocean through the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence Seaway and to the Gulf of Mexico from the Mississippi River via the Illinois Waterway. Chicago has been the nation's railroad hub since the 1860s, and its O'Hare International Airport has been among the world's busiest airports for decades. Illinois has long been considered a microcosm of the United States and a bellwether in American culture, exemplified by the phrase Will it play in Peoria?.

Present-day Illinois was inhabited by various indigenous cultures for thousands of years, including the advanced civilization centered in the Cahokia region. The French were the first Europeans to arrive, settling near the Mississippi and Illinois River in the 17th century in the region they called Illinois Country, as part of the sprawling colony of New France. Following U.S. independence in 1783, American settlers began arriving from Kentucky via the Ohio River, and the population grew from south to north. Illinois was part of the United States' oldest territory, the Northwest Territory, and in 1818 it achieved statehood. The Erie Canal brought increased commercial activity in the Great Lakes, and the small settlement of Chicago became one of the fastest growing cities in the world, benefiting from its location as one of the few natural harbors in southwestern Lake Michigan. The invention of the self-scouring steel plow by Illinoisan John Deere turned the state's rich prairie into some of the world's most productive and valuable farmland, attracting immigrant farmers from Germany and Sweden. In the mid-19th century, the Illinois and Michigan Canal and a sprawling railroad network greatly facilitated trade, commerce, and settlement, making the state a transportation hub for the nation.

Refresh with new selections below (purge)

Wilco is an American rock band based in Chicago, Illinois. The band was formed in 1994 by the remaining members of alternative country group Uncle Tupelo following singer Jay Farrar departure from the band. Wilco's lineup has changed frequently, with only singer Jeff Tweedy and bassist John Stirratt remaining from the original incarnation. The other current members are guitarist Nels Cline, multi-instrumentalists Pat Sansone and Mikael Jorgensen, and drummer Glenn Kotche. Wilco has released six studio albums, a live double album, and three collaborations: two with Billy Bragg, and one with The Minus 5.

Wilco garnered media attention for its fourth album, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002), and the controversy surrounding it. After the recording sessions were complete, Reprise Records rejected the album and dismissed Wilco from the label. As part of a buy-out deal, Reprise gave Wilco the rights to the album for free. After streaming Foxtrot on its website, Wilco sold the album to Nonesuch Records in 2002. Both record labels are subsidiaries of Warner Music Group, leading one critic to say that the album showed "how screwed up the music business [was] in the early twenty-first century." The album was the most successful of Wilco's career, selling over 590,000 copies. Wilco won two Grammy Awards for their fifth studio album, 2004's A Ghost Is Born, including Best Alternative Music Album. (Read more...)

Selected biography

Paul Cornell (August 5, 1822 – March 3, 1904) was an American lawyer and Chicago real estate speculator who founded the Hyde Park Township that included most of what are now known as the south and far southeast sides of Chicago, Illinois. He turned the south side Lake Michigan lakefront area, especially the Hyde Park community area and neighboring Kenwood and Woodlawn neighborhoods, into a resort community that had its heyday from the 1850s through the early 20th century. He was also an urban planner who paved the way for and preserved many of the parks that are now in the Chicago Park District. Additionally, he was a successful entrepreneur with interests in manufacturing, cemeteries, and hotels. His modern legacy includes several large parks now in the Chicago Park District: Jackson Park, Washington Park, Midway Plaisance and Harold Washington Park. (Read more...)

Did you know...

• ... that four course records were broken during the 2023 Chicago Marathon (women's winner pictured)?
• ... that the restaurant CosMc's is named after a character from McDonaldland?
• ... that Salty Parker, who spent 60 years in organized baseball, described his lifelong love of the game as "a beautiful disease"?
• ... that authorities said the killing of Wadea al-Fayoume in Illinois was a response to the 2023 Israel–Hamas war?

Archive

Image 2Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad 1926, a Railway Post Office preserved at the Illinois Railway MuseuminUnion.
Photo credit: Sean Lamb (from Portal:Illinois/Selected picture)

Image 3The coat of arms of Illinois as illustrated in the 1876 book State Arms of the UnionbyLouis Prang.
Image credit: Henry Mitchell (illustrator), Louis Prang & Co. (lithographer and publisher), Godot13 (restoration) (from Portal:Illinois/Selected picture)

Image 4Photograph of suffragette, social worker, philosopher, and Nobel Peace Prize winner Jane Addams in 1924 or 1926.
Image credit: Bain News Service (photograph), Adam Cuerden (restoration) (from Portal:Illinois/Selected picture)

Image 5Photograph of Shoeless Joe Jackson, Black Betsy in hand, in 1913 with the Cleveland Naps, prior to his seasons with the Chicago White Sox.
Image credit: Charles M. Conlon (photographer), Mears Auctions (digital file), Scewing (upload) (from Portal:Illinois/Selected picture)

Image 6Lithograph advertisement for the CH&D Railway showing the interior of a Pullman dining car, 1894, with a Pullman porter serving two men at a table.
Image credit: Strobridge & Co. (lithographers), Library of Congress (digital file), Mu (upload) (from Portal:Illinois/Selected picture)

Image 7This 1941 photograph shows the maze of livestock pens and walkways at the Union Stock Yards, Chicago.
Image credit: John Vachon, Farm Security Administration (photographer), Darwinek (digital retouching) (from Portal:Illinois/Selected picture)

Image 8A street view of the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and StudioinOak Park. Wright built the house in 1889 and added the Studio and Connecting Corridor in 1898. The Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust has restored the property to its appearance in 1909, the last year the architect lived there with his family.
Photo credit: User:Banewson (from Portal:Illinois/Selected picture)

Image 9A illustration of the Upper Bluff Lake Dancing Figures repoussé copper plate, an artifact of the Mississippian culture found at the Saddle Site in Union County, Illinois.
Image credit: H. Rowe (from Portal:Illinois/Selected picture)

Image 10Downtown Chicago and Lake Michigan (view from the Willis Tower).
Photo credit: Adrian104 (from Portal:Illinois/Selected picture)

Image 11Hohenbuehelia mastrucata mushroom growing in Busse Woods, Elk Grove Village.
Image credit: Rocky Houghtby (photographer), Leoboudv (upload) (from Portal:Illinois/Selected picture)

Image 12"The Great Presidential Puzzle": This chromolithograph cartoon about the 1880 Republican National Convention in Chicago shows Roscoe Conkling, leader of the Stalwarts of the Republican Party, playing a puzzle game. All blocks in the puzzle are the heads of the potential Republican presidential candidates. The cartoon parodies the famous 15 puzzle.
Image credit: Mayer, Merkel, & Ottmann (lithographers); James Albert Wales (artist); Jujutacular (digital retouching) (from Portal:Illinois/Selected picture)

Image 13The dome of the Illinois State Capitol. Designed by architects Cochrane and Garnsey, the dome's interior features a plaster frieze painted to resemble bronze and illustrating scenes from Illinois history. Stained glass windows, including a stained glass replica of the State Seal, appear in the oculus. Ground was first broken for the new capitol on March 11, 1869, and it was completed twenty years later.
Photo credit: Daniel Schwen (from Portal:Illinois/Selected picture)

Image 14The Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower), the world's tallest building from 1973 to 2004. The tower's innovative bundled tube structure was designed by Bruce Graham and Fazlur Khan.
Photo credit: Soakologist (from Portal:Illinois/Selected picture)

Image 15The Old State CapitolinSpringfield. Designed by John F. Rague in a Greek Revival style and completed in 1840, the building housed the Illinois General Assembly until 1876.
Photo credit: Agriculture (from Portal:Illinois/Selected picture)

Image 16Photograph of Rockford pilot Elizabeth L. Gardner with the WASPsatHarlingen Army Air Field, Texas.
Image credit: U.S. Dept. of the Air Force (photograph); National Archives Catalog (digital file); Junkyardsparkle, Hohum, Bammesk (digital retouching) (from Portal:Illinois/Selected picture)

Image 17Marina City is a mixed-use residential-commercial building complex in downtown Chicago. The complex, designed by Bertrand Goldberg and completed in 1964, consists of two corncob-shaped 179 m, 65-story towers.
Photo credit: Diego Delso (from Portal:Illinois/Selected picture)

Image 18Symbols of many religions are carved in concrete relief on the exterior of the Bahá'í House of WorshipinWilmette. The temple was designed by the architect Louis Bourgeois and constructed between 1921 and 1953.
Image credit: ctot_not_def (photographer), Tobias Vetter (upload) (from Portal:Illinois/Selected picture)

Image 19The Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. The building was designed by Charles B. Atwood for D. H. Burnham & Company to house exhibits for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition.
Image credit: zooey (photographer), Jasenlee~commonswiki (upload) (from Portal:Illinois/Selected picture)

Image 20The LaSalle Rail Bridge and Abraham Lincoln Memorial Bridge over the Illinois River. The LaSalle Bridge was built by the Illinois Central Railroad in 1893, and the Lincoln Bridge was built in 1987 with the construction of Interstate 39.
Image credit: Joseph Norton and Ronald Frazier (photographers), Alanscottwalker (upload) (from Portal:Illinois/Selected picture)

Image 21Martyrdom of Joseph and Hiram SmithinCarthage jail, June 27th, 1844. This unusual black-and-white lithograph has a second yellow-brown layer on top of it.
Image credit: G.W. Fasel (painter); Charles G. Crehen (lithographer); Nagel & Weingaertner, N.Y. (publishers); Library of Congress (digital file); Adam Cuerden (upload) (from Portal:Illinois/Selected picture)

Image 22Map of the Multilevel streets in Chicago.
Image credit: User:SPUI (from Portal:Illinois/Selected picture)

Image 23Architectural details of Altgeld Hall at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. Designed by UIUC professors Nathan Ricker and James McLaren White, the building is one of Altgeld's castles.
Image credit: Kevin Dooley (photographer), Smallbones (upload) (from Portal:Illinois/Selected picture)

Image 24Chicago and North Western Railway locomotive shops in Chicago, December 1942.
Image credit: Jack Delano, Farm Security Administration (photographer); Library of Congress (digital file); Trialsanderrors and Yann (digital retouching) (from Portal:Illinois/Selected picture)

Image 25"Hon. Abraham Lincoln, Republican candidate for the presidency, 1860," a lithograph by Leopold Grozelier, et al. According to the Library of Congress, "Thomas Hicks painted a portrait of Lincoln at his office in Springfield specifically for this lithograph."
Image credit: Thomas Hicks (painter), Leopold Grozelier (lithographer), W. William Schaus (publisher), J.H. Bufford's Lith. (printer), Adam Cuerden (restoration) (from Portal:Illinois/Selected picture)

Image 26Aflowstone formation inside Chimney Dome, part of Illinois CavernsinMonroe County. The cave is formed in limestone and dolomite by water dissolution and features stalactites, stalagmites, rimstone dams, flowstone, and soda straws.
Photo credit: A. Frierdich (from Portal:Illinois/Selected picture)

Image 27The Cairo Mississippi River Bridge near the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers at Cairo, the lowest elevation in the state. The bridge was built in 1929 by the American Bridge Company and the Missouri Valley Bridge & Iron Co.
Image credit: Nick Jordan (photographer), Fredddie (upload) (from Portal:Illinois/Selected picture)

Image 28ACanada goose (Branta canadensis) swimming in Palatine.
Photo credit: Joe Ravi (from Portal:Illinois/Selected picture)

Image 29The McFarland Carillon is a 185-foot bell tower with 49 bells at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. The tower was built in 2008-09 and was designed by Fred Guyton of Peckham, Guyton, Albers & Viets.
Image credit: Daniel Schwen (from Portal:Illinois/Selected picture)

Image 30Lincoln Home National Historic SiteinSpringfield. The house was built for the Rev. Charles Dresser in 1839. Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln purchased it in 1844, later adding a second story.
Photo credit: Daniel Schwen (from Portal:Illinois/Selected picture)

Image 31An illustration of Kincaid Mounds, a city of the Mississippian culture, at its height. The city was located near the Ohio River on the boundary of present day Massac and Pope Counties.
Image credit: H. Rowe (from Portal:Illinois/Selected picture)

Image 32Agreat blue heron (Ardea herodias) flying with nesting material in Illinois. There is a colony of about twenty heron nests in trees nearby.
Image credit: PhotoBobil (photographer), Snowmanradio (upload), PetarM (digital retouching) (from Portal:Illinois/Selected picture)

Image 33The Chicago Theatre. Designed by the firm Rapp and Rapp, it was the flagship theater for Balaban and Katz group.
Photo credit: Daniel Schwen (from Portal:Illinois/Selected picture)

Image 34"Let Go–But Stand By:" Photograph of Frances Willard from her 1895 book, A Wheel Within a Wheel: How I Learned to Ride the Bicycle. The new safety bicycle became associated with women's emancipation.
Image credit: Frances E. Willard (book author), Woman's Temperance Publishing Association and Fleming H. Revell Co. (publishers), HathiTrust (digitization), Dennis Bratland (upload) (from Portal:Illinois/Selected picture)

Image 35Magnolia ManorinCairo, built by businessman Charles A. Galigher in 1869.
Photo credit: MuZemike (from Portal:Illinois/Selected picture)

Image 36A mural by Chicago artist Louis Grell in the Springfield Amtrak station. The mural depicts a quote by Abraham Lincoln, a map of the post-1947 Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad, and the seals of the seven states that the railroad served.
Image credit: Louis Grell (painter), RI-Bill (photographer) (from Portal:Illinois/Selected picture)

Image 37A tobacco hornworm (Manduca sexta)inUrbana.
Image credit: Daniel Schwen (from Portal:Illinois/Selected picture)

Image 38A panoramic view of corn fields near RoyalinChampaign County.
Photo credit: Daniel Schwen (from Portal:Illinois/Selected picture)

Image 39Chris Young winding up for a four-seam fastball in the bullpen while warming up before a 2007 game. Behind Young can be seen the Wrigley Field scoreboard and bleachers.
Image credit: TonyTheTiger (photographer) and Jjron (editing) (from Portal:Illinois/Selected picture)

Image 40AHoward bound Red Line train temporarily rerouted to elevated tracksatRandolph station, Chicago.
Photo credit: Daniel Schwen (from Portal:Illinois/Selected picture)

Image 41The "Chunkey Player" is an 8.5 inch (22 cm) high by 5.5 inch (14 cm) wide Missouri flint clay statuette depicting a player of the ancient Native American game of chunkey. Believed to have been originally crafted at or near the Cahokia site in Illinois, it was found in Muskogee County, Oklahoma.
Photo credit: User:TimVickers (from Portal:Illinois/Selected picture)

Image 42The Mendota Hills Wind FarminLee County. Built in 2003 by Navitas Energy, Mendota Hills was the first utility scale wind farm in Illinois.
Photo credit: Dori (from Portal:Illinois/Selected picture)

Image 43Shore of Lake MichiganatIllinois Beach State ParkinLake County.
Image credit: Yinan Chen (photographer), Slick (upload) (from Portal:Illinois/Selected picture)

Image 44A poster for the Century of Progress World's Fair showing exhibition buildings with boats in the foreground..
Image credit: Weimer Pursell (artist); Neely Printing Co., Chicago (silkscreen print); Jujutacular (digital retouching) (from Portal:Illinois/Selected picture)

Image 45The Twenty Acre Dairy Barn, first of the experimental University of Illinois round barns. The barn was designed by James M. White and Kell & Bernard for the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign in 1908
Photo credit: Daniel Schwen (from Portal:Illinois/Selected picture)

Image 46The Garden of the GodsinShawnee National Forest. The unglaciated gray sandstone of the wilderness area is more rugged than most of Illinois.
Photo credit: Daniel Schwen (from Portal:Illinois/Selected picture)

Image 47A view of Lake Falls in Matthiessen State ParkinLa Salle County near Oglesby. The park's stream begins with the Lake Falls and flows into the Vermillion River.
Photo credit: Cspayer (from Portal:Illinois/Selected picture)

Image 48A tiger swallowtail butterfly (Papilio glaucus)inShawnee National Forest.
Photo credit: Daniel Schwen (from Portal:Illinois/Selected picture)

Image 49Plants of the Midewin National Tallgrass PrairieinWill County. Tallgrass prairie once covered around two-thirds of Illinois. Midewin is the only federal tallgrass prairie preserve east of the Mississippi River.
Photo credit: User:Alanscottwalker (from Portal:Illinois/Selected picture)

Image 50The water tower and barracks complex at Fort Sheridan in 1898. The principal buildings of the fort were built between 1889 and 1910 by the firm Holabird & Roche.
Image credit: Detroit Photographic Co.; Bathgems (upload) (from Portal:Illinois/Selected picture)

Image 51The Lincoln TombinOak Ridge Cemetery, Springfield, where Abraham Lincoln is buried alongside Mary Todd Lincoln and three of their sons. The tomb, designed by Larkin Goldsmith Mead, was completed in 1874.
Photo credit: David Jones (from Portal:Illinois/Selected picture)

Image 52Vandalia State House, the former state capitol. It was built in 1836 and is maintained by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency.
Photo credit: Art davis (from Portal:Illinois/Selected picture)

Image 53A mill belonging to the grain company Bunge Lauhoff in downtown Danville. The facility was built in 1947.
Photo credit: Daniel Schwen (from Portal:Illinois/Selected picture)

Image 54Apyrite disc, also called a "miner's dollar," from a coal mine in Sparta.
Image credit: Cccefalon (photographer and digital retouching) (from Portal:Illinois/Selected picture)

Image 55The Campana FactoryinBatavia. It was built in 1936 to serve as a factory for The Campana Company, which produced Italian Balm, the most popular hand lotion in the United States during the Great Depression. The Streamline Moderne and Bauhaus design by Frank D. Chase features many innovative technologies, such as air conditioning.
Photo credit: User:MrPanyGoff (from Portal:Illinois/Selected picture)

Recent news

• November 17, 2021:

  

  The John Deere strike (pictured) ends after more than a month when workers approve a third contract offer.
• November 14, 2021: The last department store in Illinois belonging to Hoffman Estates-based Sears closes in Woodfield Mall.
• November 4, 2021: J. B. Pritzker speaks alongside Governors David Ige, Kate Brown, and Jay Inslee at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference.
• October 26, 2021: Workers for Chicago-based McDonald's in ten cities go on strike to protest the company's handling of sexual harassment in the workplace.
• October 18, 2021: The Chicago Police Department reports that more than a third of its officers have failed to meet a deadline for reporting whether they have received a COVID-19 vaccine.
• October 17, 2021: The Chicago Sky win the 2021 WNBA Finals, defeating the Phoenix Mercury in four games to win the team's first-ever championship.
• October 14, 2021: 10,000 UAW workers go on strike (pictured) in Midwestern plants of Moline-based John Deere.
• October 12, 2021: The Chicago White Sox lose the American League Division SeriestoHouston in four games.
• October 11, 2021: David Card, former professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, is awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics.

Featured content

Topics

Subcategories

Select [►] to view subcategories

Related portals

Indiana

Iowa

Kentucky

Michigan

Missouri

Ohio

Wisconsin

North America

United States

WikiProjects

US-related WikiProjects Illinois Spoken Illinois U.S. Roads Illinois State Routes

Cities Chicago Sports Chicago Bears Chicago Bulls Chicago Cubs What are WikiProjects?

Things you can do

Here are some tasks awaiting attention: Article requests : Executive branch of the government of the State of Illinois, Fort Gage, History of European exploration in Illinois, Morris Selz, Pre-Columbian history of Illinois, Wayne Motley, Western Wheel Company, Citizens Utility Board Assess : Category:Unassessed WikiProject Illinois articles and Category:Unknown-importance WikiProject Illinois articles Collaborate : WikiProject Chicago/COTW: Sears Copyedit : Category:WikiProject Illinois articles needing attention and Category:Illinois articles needing expert attention Deletion sorting : WikiProject Deletion sorting/Illinois Expand : Government of Illinois, expand bios on List of Governors of Illinois, Casimir Pulaski Day, Constitution of Illinois, Democratic Party of Illinois, Economy of Illinois, Flag and seal of Illinois, "Illinois", Illinois Republican Party, Illinois Secretary of State, Illinois state parks, expand list and introduction on List of battles fought in Illinois Featured article candidates : Improve to Featured Article status - Illinois, Springfield, Illinois Geographical coordinates : Category:Illinois articles missing geocoordinate data Infobox : Category:Illinois articles needing infoboxes Maintain : Portal:Illinois Map : Category:Wikipedia requested maps in Illinois Photo : Category:Wikipedia requested photographs in Illinois Stubs : Category:Illinois stubs, Category:Illinois geography stubs, Category:Illinois politician stubs, Category:Illinois school stubs Unreferenced : Unreferenced BLPs and Category:Unreferenced WikiProject Illinois articles Other : Find articles that belong in Category:Illinois or its subcategories, and add them to the category; tag those articles with {{WikiProject Illinois}} on their talk pages, as well as any new, untagged articles that might appear in one of those categories.

Associated Wikimedia

Commons
Free media repository

Wikibooks
Free textbooks and manuals

Wikidata
Free knowledge base

Wikinews
Free-content news

Wikiquote
Collection of quotations

Wikisource
Free-content library

Wikiversity
Free learning tools

Wikivoyage
Free travel guide

Wiktionary
Dictionary and thesaurus

List of all portals

The arts portal

Biography portal

Current events portal

Geography portal

History portal

Mathematics portal

Science portal

Society portal

Technology portal

Random portal

WikiProject Portals

Purge server cache