This keynote presentation launches our 10-part History of the United States series. In recognition of the nation’s upcoming 250th anniversary, the History Center is pleased to welcome historian Rose Miron for a reframing of the American origin story.

Miron will examine this land as it existed 250 years ago, centering the Native peoples of the Illinois and southern Wisconsin region and the worlds that predated, and were disrupted by, the traditional settlement narrative that often dominates the “American story.”

Rose Miron is Vice President of Research and Education at the Newberry Library and an adjunct professor at Northwestern University.

In 2026, we honor the 250th anniversary of the United States. As part of the commemoration, the History Center of Lake Forest-Lake Bluff is hosting a year-long lecture series that shows how our local history intersected and influenced the nation's past. We'll show how that history ripples through the present and arcs to our future. 

This special 10-part lecture series will bring local and regional scholars to the History Center and will be organized chronologically, giving attendees an overview of the major American events across the past two centuries. The series will cover pre-settlement Indigenous People's history, to early European arrival in the area, local influence and experiences in the Civil War through World War II, and culminates in a capstone community panel, "Shaping the Next 50 Years: A Community Conversation."