To celebrate the Illinois Bicentennial in 2018 and to spark curiosity about Illinois history and its implications for our state’s present and future, Illinois Humanities, in partnership with the Illinois State Historical Society, launched a grants program entitled Forgotten Illinois. The core question to which this program responds is, “What can lesser-known features of Illinois history tell us about the ever-evolving identity of our state?” By shedding light on chapters of our history that are significant despite their obscurity, and by using media and digital storytelling platforms to make them widely accessible, Forgotten Illinois intends to engage numerous partners throughout the state in feeding curiosity about the many facets that comprise Illinois’s complex identity.