Question of the day
Thursday, May 24, 2018 - Posted by Rich Miller * In 1879, a Springfield photographer created a montage of Illinois House members. He took all their photos and then pasted them into one big picture. These pics of the montage do not do it justice… ![]()
The montage was found years ago and sent to a restorer. The finished product was unveiled earlier this week. It’s on the third floor and you should definitely go take a look. * Anyway, from the unveiling… ![]() * The Question: Caption?
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- Arthur Andersen - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 3:19 pm:
“My God, I see food in the Chamber.”
- Old Guy - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 3:19 pm:
Oh look, there I am in the corner. I forgot about that day.
- train111 - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 3:19 pm:
Hey look — there’s Michael Madigan!
Oh wait that’s 1879 not 1979.
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 3:21 pm:
“Lookie-Lookie…. 3rd row… 4 seats over… Madigan”
- Boone's is Back - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 3:23 pm:
“Even Rocky had a montage”
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 3:25 pm:
“The lobbyists are not pictured… “
- Anonymous - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 3:27 pm:
“Wow, an even whiter crowd than a happy hour at Boone’s saloon”
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 3:29 pm:
“No, this wasn’t a ‘Seersucker Caucus’ day depicted…”
- 47th Ward - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 3:30 pm:
Mapes noted that the Black caucus, the Latino caucus and Women’s caucus were much smaller back then.
Much much smaller.
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 3:30 pm:
“You can see one or two members reading ‘The Capitol Parchment’ that later evolved… “
- Norseman - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 3:30 pm:
AA, you beat me to the comment box.
- Christopher - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 3:32 pm:
Mike Madigan I [ center, with beard ], in office for 61 years at the time, presides over the 1879 Illinois House.
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 3:33 pm:
“The elevators didn’t work too well back then too…”
- 47th Ward - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 3:34 pm:
Note the spittoon next to the Speaker’s podium. Note also, there are no women legislators in the House.
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 3:35 pm:
“Members would get lunch and whatnot at the newly opened Rathskeller cafeteria… “
- 37B - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 3:36 pm:
Resolved:
That there be a fund established for public pensions as is prudent and actuarially sound. Next year.
- 47th Ward - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 3:36 pm:
If you look closely at the press gallery in the back, you’ll notice a very young, beardless Rich Miller.
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 3:36 pm:
“Back then… horse tradin’ was actually… horse tradin’…”
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 3:37 pm:
“In the 9th row… 5 over… that was Mayor Daley’s floor leader… “
- Pieroge tirebiter - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 3:38 pm:
Mike Madigan and the evil cabal he controlled before he was born.
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 3:41 pm:
“This is depicting a very important moment in state history, the ‘Nothing gets done in Illinois until Oswego has her say’ speech… a powerful moment in legislative history… “
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 3:42 pm:
“Chicago, in this picture, is represented by the members over here… on the Republican side of the Chamber… “
- Ron Burgundy - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 3:43 pm:
Pictured — The largest gathering of white guys in Illinois history until Rush started touring.
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 3:46 pm:
“If you look real close… the members are honoring the 1879 Cubs… “
- 47th Ward - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 3:46 pm:
It wasn’t so much Democrats vs. Republicans in those days. The divisions had more to do with regions and of course, whether one had a beard or was clean-shaven.
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 3:49 pm:
“… considered the ‘Bill Black’ of his time… “
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 3:52 pm:
“You can see Governor Shelby Moore Cullom working the chamber to get the White Sox a new stadium…”
- 47th Ward - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 3:52 pm:
Hey, that guy in the third row is playing Candy Crush on his phone.
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 3:54 pm:
“Oh yes… you have a good eye… he was considered a rebel, never wearing spats on his shoes… “
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 3:57 pm:
===Hey, that guy in the third row is playing Candy Crush on his phone.===
Ok, that one got me, lol, well played.
“It was called the ‘70 Club’ back then, and ironically a Ken Dunkin won that award 5 time’s back then… “
- 47th Ward - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 3:58 pm:
Yes, even in those days the House page’s most important job was to get the lunch orders right.
- Dance Band on the Titanic - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 4:00 pm:
Hello old friends. We meet again.
- 47th Ward - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 4:01 pm:
This was obviously long before the fax machine, so Miller had to have his report written out by hand. Then he’d have to show it to his subscribers one at a time. It took forever for news to spread. And the comments were unprintable.
- Anonymous - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 4:02 pm:
‘This is cool…..but what a pain in the neck”
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 4:02 pm:
“… and he held that distinction for all these decades until Scott Drury became the most unliked member of the GA ever, Drury surpassing him, quite easily… “
- 47th Ward - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 4:04 pm:
I believe what they are debating here is whether to appoint a new Legislative Inspector General or to leave the position vacant.
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 4:09 pm:
“Other members didn’t vote each other’s switches, they mimicked their voices on roll calls, which got even more confusing when trying to get confirmations”
- zatoichi - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 4:11 pm:
A rare Edison audio tube from 1879 was also found in the photographer’s studio. A close listen had the words budget, grumble grumble, got a light, cough, idiot, educatin’, tax, back bench mushroom and hands off me, sir were clear.
- 47th Ward - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 4:17 pm:
(Mapes, to himself): An entire House with no women? I was born in the wrong century.
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 4:19 pm:
“They raised district office allotment from $1.85 to a controversial $2.05.. which even today… is considered one of the top 5 hardest votes in General Assembly history”
- Arthur Andersen - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 4:21 pm:
“That Chamber was a dump. Ours is so much nicer.”
- I Miss Bentohs - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 4:23 pm:
There is a guy eating only a cut up apple for lunch? That can’t be good.
- A Jack - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 4:26 pm:
So that is what a Republican majority looks like…..
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 4:27 pm:
“Higher education was fully funded back then… for whole fiscal years… “
- sulla - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 4:30 pm:
Cue the jazz music and the slow camera pan into the photo at the end of The Shining. Replace Jack Torrance with Mike Madigan.
“You’ve ALWAYS been the Speaker sir.”
- 47th Ward - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 4:31 pm:
Speaking of trap doors, blind alleys and loopholes, here’s a photo montage of the Illinois House circa 1879.
- A guy - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 4:33 pm:
Trivia: Name this guy who was Speaker before Mike Madigan?
- Amalia - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 4:36 pm:
Two and a half pictures of men.
- A Jack - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 4:37 pm:
The GA from the last time pensions were fully funded.
- 47th Ward - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 4:37 pm:
Back in those days, if a Speaker wanted to know if a Representative was still employed by the Cook County Sheriff, he had to send a telegram.
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 4:38 pm:
“I dunno if you can tell… the inside doors were copper too… “
- 47th Ward - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 4:41 pm:
Sometimes, late at night when you’re all alone in the chamber, you can almost hear the ghosts of General Assemblies past, kicking the pension can down the road.
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 4:42 pm:
“… and due to that, the governor sold 3 of the state trains, forcing members to take their fastest horses and buggies up and down what we now call I-55”
- Obama’s Puppy - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 4:55 pm:
That is Mike Madigan third from the right.
- Lucky Pierre - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 4:58 pm:
Would you mind signing this portion to get Sam Mc Cann on the ballot for Governor?
- Ms Silence Dogood - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 5:01 pm:
OMG, I didn’t know there was a naked lady statue in the House Chambers.
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 5:02 pm:
“The missing member? Well, that would be Representative Jedediah Cross, who represented Oswego. He was golfing the day the montage was first put together… “
- Henry Francis - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 5:03 pm:
My god (exclamation point) it’s just like the last scene in The Shining.
- SI Guy - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 5:05 pm:
I see Mike Madigan stole the DeLorean again
- Boomdun - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 5:07 pm:
Mapes was overheard “wondering if anyone noticed he had himself placed in the front row”
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 5:49 pm:
“… Pike’s Peak was a pimple… “
- Marty Funkhouser - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 6:10 pm:
Mapes: How many of these people have I threatened?
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 9:18 pm:
“Back then… Diversity was a wooden ship that steamed down the ole Mississippi River… “
- wordslinger - Thursday, May 24, 18 @ 11:23 pm:
So, we reverse the course of the Chicago River, and my Downstate peeps will have to scrape what off their shoes?
Uh-huh.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIfQipkkOqs
- Anonymous - Friday, May 25, 18 @ 7:54 am:
My art teacher would correct you to say this is a collage, not a montage. Collages are pasted-up still images. Montage is a sequence of moving images.