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'Egyptian Key' magazine showcased Southern Illinois

Thursday, March 9, 2006 6:35 AM CST

Sixty-three years ago this month the first issue of a new Southern Illinois magazine, "Egyptian Key," appeared on area newsstands. It was dated April-May 1943.

The work of Will Griffith and his wife, Katherine Quick Bicknell Griffith, the publication was then issued every two months. Its editorial offices were located in the building on the northwest corner of Monroe Street and Illinois Avenue in Carbondale.

"Egyptian Key will be devoted to the causes, the efforts, the hopes of Egypt," Griffith wrote in a policy statement in the first issue.

"Egypt" was the informal name given to the southernmost counties of Illinois in the early years of the state when a drought upstate caused farmers to "come down into Egypt" to replenish their supplies of corn. The name is reinforced by the existence of several area communities named for ancient cities in the country of Egypt in north Africa - such as Thebes, Karnak and Cairo.

Griffith was insistent upon using the name "Egypt" rather than "Little Egypt," which was the name of a belly dancer who appeared at the Columbian Exposition or World's Fair in Chicago in 1893.

"The area is not small geographically, industrially, nor intellectually," Griffith wrote in one of the first of the "Egyptorials" or commentaries that appeared in each issue of the magazine.

The magazine, Griffith wrote about this area, "will trace her growth, her history and her future. It will hold up to the world her accomplishments. It will light a torch for the citizens of Egypt. It will cheer her leaders and damn her defamers. It will boost, not knock."

On the cover of that debut issue was a photograph of the Old Stone Face, a distinctive rock formation southeast of Harrisburg, the first of many scenic area views the magazine would publish over the years.

The table of contents set the tone for the issues to follow. Area historian Barbara Burr Hubbs had an article about the early history of the area, "Under Three Flags" (French, British and American) and a piece about the origin of the name "Egypt."

Will Griffith wrote the first of the "Idols of Egypt" series about William Jennings Bryan, a native of Salem in Marion County. Katherine Griffith wrote "An Old Landmark Passes," about the historic Halliday Hotel in Cairo

that had been destroyed by fire on Feb. 22, 1943.

The Griffiths collaborated on a long, illustrated article, "Spotlight on Egypt," which introduced readers to communities and important geographic highlights of the area.

Later, "Egyptian Starlight" would become a regular feature of the magazine, usually dealing with a contemporary personality of the region.

Although Griffith had promised not to "knock" Southern Illinois, he couldn't help chiding the area in an "Egyptorial" entitled "A Diagnosis" in which he took the region to task for allowing upstate residents to take control of the course of events in Illinois, despite the facts that the first capital (Kaskaskia) was in "Egypt" and that most of the first senators, governors, lieutenant governors and secretaries of state had come from "Egypt."

The other commentaries promoted a bill before the state legislature that would allow bachelor's degree programs to be offered at what was then still Southern Illinois Normal University, and a note regretting the passing of William A. McAndrew, SINU athletics director.

"Egyptian Key" was published bi-monthly until Will Griffith died on May 24, 1950.

His widow struggled to get out two final issues before the magazine expired.

The next-to-last issue included a "Starlight" on Will Griffith written by SIU professor and Dean of Men Eli G. Lentz.

Griffith was born on Oct. 2, 1889, in Terre Haute, Ind., but spent most of his life in Southern Illinois, selling bank supplies, editing a weekly newspaper and doing freelance writing, before starting the "Egyptian Key" and founding the Greater Egypt Association.

BEN GELMAN is the former Sunday news editor for The Southern Illinoisan and an avid bird watcher.