A message from the Effingham County Museum's President, Delaine Donaldson 

A  PERSONAL REFLECTION REGARDING WHY WE HAVE A MUSEUM-----------

“THOSE WHO ARE IGNORANT OF HISTORY ARE DOOMED TO REPEAT IT” was a statement emblazoned across the narrow cork bulletin board at the front of the classroom in Effingham High School’s room 207 nearly every year from Fall semester 1966-Spring semester 1997.  The statement, a paraphrase of one made by philosopher and writer George Santayana over a century ago, guided me as a social studies instructor throughout the course of my teaching career.  It is still the center of my purpose today as a member of the Effingham County Museum Board.  I want visitors to the Museum to know about the wonderful heritage of this part of the State of Illinois.

That personal philosophy also is based on an article which President Kennedy wrote for American Heritage magazine more than half a century ago.  He believed that history is a pleasure for its own sake, as well as being a means of judgment.  I agree.  He stated that the past judges the present; that a knowledge of history is a “means of sympathy by which we related our own experience with the experience of other people who have gone before us.”  History provides strength.

He concluded the article by saying, “All of this leads to this final conclusion about history.  It is a means of responsibility, above everything else responsibility to those who came before us and struggled and sacrificed to pass on our present precious inheritance of freedom, responsibility to those who will come after us and to whom we pass on that inheritance.” 

It is my sincere desire that when visitors come to the historic Effingham County Courthouse and see all of the exhibits which are there, they experience the feelings which J.F.K. stated so eloquently many years ago.   I strive to encourage displays throughout the building which make the visit a learning experience for all who enter the Museum.