Daniel Overturf

Illinois Trails and Traces: Portraits and Stories along the State’s Historic Routes

Overturf’s co-author Gary Marx wrote the following introduction to their project. “Every town has a route of origin. It might be an old Native American trail, a wagon road, a stagecoach route, or an interstate highway, and technically, it might not even be a road. It could be a railroad line. Our rivers and canals had landings and ferry crossings that became fertile ground for taverns and stores and blacksmith shops, many of them seeds that sprouted into villages and towns. Eventually, enough had sprouted to form the state of Illinois.” 

Daniel Overturf will discuss the people and places explored in the book Illinois Trails and Traces, as well as the previous Marx and Overturf book entitled A River Through Illinois. His personal anecdotes about meeting people across the state, from Galena to Cairo and from Chicago to Alton provide the unpublished backstory to the portraits and places he photographed. A photographer since 1974 and a 30+ year college educator, Overturf will also provide insights to his craft and the nature of collaboration when creating a book project.

Audience Recommendations

The presentation is open to a general audience and welcomes all ages. The following groups may be best served by the material: Historians and historical society members, photographers and aspiring photographers, or anyone who may be interested in creating their own book or online project based in history with accompanying photographic or moving image content. Also, most welcome will be anyone who would like to know why the roads they love may have come from traces and trails that have been traveled for centuries.

Program Logistics

This 60-75 minute program requires the host to provide a projector that can be connected to a laptop or a computer/projector combination that will accept an external drive. Embedded in a PowerPoint program, photographs and some text will be shown via the projector screen. The host should also provide a podium, stool, and a microphone. If available and agreed upon by the host, a table and chair for a book display should be set up in a convenient location for Daniel Overturf to sell and sign books. Audience members may bring their own copies to be signed as well.

Audio or video recording is permitted by the host only and available for a limited time to those who missed the program.