Booth Library will pay tribute to the teachers of Eastern’s past and present in their new exhibit that will premiere tonight.

“Teachers Tame the Prairie” is a collection of vignettes that highlight the history of teacher education at the university as well as a look at life during Eastern’s origins.

Allen Lanham, dean of library services, said the exhibition is the culmination of three years of hard work by not only the faculty and staff of Booth Library, but that of the whole institution. It is also one of the biggest exhibitions that the library staff has organized from scratch, he added.

Three years ago, President Bill Perry suggested that faculty and staff try to find a way to commemorate the history of teacher training at Eastern to coincide the re-accreditation of the College of Education and Professional Studies by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education, Lanham said.

Originally, the re-accreditation was to occur last year, but it was pushed back another year extending the exhibition launch date, he said.

Several side exhibits will feature the history of transportation, lunch, safety, celebrities who have attended the institution and the way teachers have been portrayed in the media. In every aspect of the exhibition, artifacts collected by the University Archives and Special Collections and alumni will be featured.

The west end of the Marvin foyer will feature a vignette focusing on the history of teacher training at Eastern, starting with the State Normal School in 1895.

History professor Terry Barnhart will focus on the foundations of Eastern in his presentation “The Coming of the Normal School: Vision and Mission in the Founding of Eastern Illinois University, 1895-1900.”

In his presentation, Barnhart will not explore the history of Eastern, but as public education as a whole dating back to the establishment of the first state Normal School.

“I think that there is an intellectual curiosity to know the traditions and heritage of the institution,” he said.

Charles Titus, an assistant history professor, will speak on the history of education reform in the state in a presentation titled, “In Search of Eden: America’s Endless Journey Toward School Reform.”

In his research, Titus examined why Americans have the constant need to reform public education, and more so, what has and has not been effective.

“We’re looking for the Utopia where school is this perfect place and where everybody learns,” he said. This quest for reform dates 100 years ago when there was the original push for public education to become standardized in the 1840’s, he said.

Titus said one of the ways that public reform has failed is the attempt to raise reading and comprehension scores amongst students. There has only been a marginal increase over the past 30 to 40 years, he said.”Students should realize that they are a part of the culture and tradition here at Eastern,” he said.

A day before the presentation, the final touches were still being made – pamphlets were still being edited, final details still being worked out and the last nails were hammered into place. For Lanham, to see the final product will be a bittersweet experience.

“It is a humbling moment to see all of the plans come together,” Lanham said. “Many of them had grown so much over the time and we didn’t start thinking that it was going to be so large. There’s so much detail and thousands of images – it just happened this way.”

The opening reception and programs will begin at 7 p.m. in the West Reading Room of the Booth Library. The exhibition will be on display in the Marvin Foyer of Booth Library until Dec. 10.

Shelley Holmgren can be reached at

581-7942 or

< a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected].