Lemons Appointed to County Historical Society

Lebanon, IL (03/26/2019) — Dr. Shelly Lemons, associate professor of history at McKendree University, has been appointed to the Board of Directors of the St. Clair County Historical Society for a one-year term. She will assist with an ongoing project to complete a new library and research center in Belleville, Ill., and also help with educational outreach. She was inducted at the March 14 board meeting.

"Joining the board will help to continue the partnership I have been working to build between our history program and the public history sites in St. Clair County," said Lemons. The partnership began when she coordinated and hosted the Mid-America Conference on History at McKendree University in 2015. She included local museums in the conference planning and presentations, establishing relationships that have grown over the past four years.

The university plans to develop a public history track to enable students to better utilize local resources such as historical societies, said Lemons. It will not only prepare them with marketable, practical job skills such as project management, budget development and marketing, but also make them viable candidates for graduate degree programs in public history.

Lemons has taught at McKendree since 2010 and is the director of the Honors Program. An expert on the 1930s Dust Bowl era, she has recorded more than 100 interviews with women who lived in Oklahoma during the drought and Great Depression. During a 2018 sabbatical, she used her research to develop a book-length manuscript on interpretations for teaching the Dust Bowl.

She is past president of the Southwestern Historical Association, a former member of the Mother Jones Museum Board, and winner of the 2016 Girl Scouts of the USA Volunteer of Excellence Award for her work as a troop leader.

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