Professor Emerita Natalia Marie Belting (1915-1997) taught history for 43 years at the University of Illinois until her retirement in 1985. Professor Theodore Pease offered Natalia Belting a job as a secretary in the history department in 1942 with the understanding that she would get to teach American history when there was an opening on the faculty. During the three years that she was department secretary, Dr. Belting was a substitute teacher in all history classes except ancient history. At the time the hierarchy of teachers at the University of Illinois went from instructor to assistant professor to associate professor to full professor. When Natalia became an instructor, there were three women history teachers at the UI, one of whom had taught there since 1918. The women were all good teachers but none of them, including Dr. Belting, ever reached full professor. Dr. Belting was the first woman in the history department who was promoted to Associate Professor. There were charges of prejudice against women but the reason given by the history department for not promoting them was that the men did more research and publishing. Professor Robert Sutton, a colleague of Natalia Belting and a friend for over 50 years, said that the women probably were not encouraged as much as the men were. In fact, Professor Belting told students at Leal Elementary School researching her history that even official written university records said that women had no place teaching in a university. If women were hired, they were not promoted.
Natalia Belting was born in Oskaloosa, Iowa, where her father, Paul Everette, was a high school principaL She moved to Urbana, Illinois in 1920 where she attended Leal Elementary School for grades one through three, and her father worked as an assistant professor of education at the UI. Her mother was Anna Maree Hanselman. Natalia graduated from high school in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and attended Coe College for one year. Then she moved to Urbana in 1933 and received her bachelor's degree in journalism in 1936. She completed her master's degree in 1937 and her PhD in history in 1940 at the UI.
Dr. Belting really had four careers: she was a history professor, a writer, a lay minister, and an environmentalist. Her first career was as a teaching scholar. As an historian, she was especially interested in the early french settlements in North America. She got an architectural historian to help her design her home like early French houses. They had to get their ideas for the house from bills of sale, contracts, and other documents kept by the French because all the other houses of that style had been tom down. She also was interested in the prehistoric Indians who lived in Illinois circa 1,000 A.D. The Indians had lived in this vicinity for 2,000 or more years. Professor Sutton said that Natalia Belting probably knows more about them than anyone he knows.
As a writer, she published Kaskaskia Under the French Regime, then she wrote two children's books from that historical research. She has published 24 children's books about history and mythology. Two titles are Pierre of Kaskaskia and Calendar Moon. Her book, Moon Was Tired of Walking on Air, was published in September, 1992. Professor Belting wrote articles on Illinois history for The News-Gazette from 1978 for several years. Her third career was as a lay minister in the Presbyterian Church. She would substitute for ministers who were at meetings or on vacation. She was a volunteer staff member at the McKinley Presbyterian Student Foundation for more than ten years. Her last career is as an environmentalist. From the road you can hardly see her former house near Brownfield Woods because the bushes and trees she planted have all grown up around it. This gives her privacy and provides homes for birds and small animals. Dr. Belting loves animals and she had two cats and six dogs that lived with her. She also had a large garden on her six acres of land. After finding many arrowheads and pieces of quartz on her land, she believed Indians may have camped there at one time.
During World War II, Natalia's father lived with her in a house on North Coler Street. They bought a cow and she learned to churn butter. She said it was difficult to learn how to churn rich, sweet butter, but she finally learned how. Butter was rationed at the time because of the war, and it was hard to get. Everybody who tasted her butter liked it so much that they wanted some. She gave her friends some of the butter, but it was kept secret because of the rationing. Professor Belting visited local schools to talk with fourth grade students about Illinois history. In 4th grade, state law says that the students have to learn their state history. Many people remember Natalia Belting as a great expert on the history of the early French settlers and the Indians who lived in Illinois.
