A free preview of Ken Burns' upcoming PBS documentary, The Roosevelts: An Intimate History, will be presented at 4 p.m. Saturday, September 13 in the historic Orpheum Theatre, 57 South Kellogg Street in Galesburg.

Knox College and Tri States Public Radio are sponsoring the sneak peek of the film in advance of its airing on Peoria station WTVP-TV. The seven-part film will be televised from 7 to 9 p.m. each night from September 14 to September 20, with nightly encores from 9 to 11 p.m.

The Roosevelts: An Intimate History chronicles the lives of Theodore, Franklin, and Eleanor Roosevelt, three members of one of the most prominent families in American politics. This is the first time in a major documentary television series that their individual stories have been interwoven into a single narrative, according to information provided by PBS.

The series encompasses the history the Roosevelts helped to shape: the creation of National Parks, the digging of the Panama Canal, the passage of innovative New Deal programs, the defeat of Hitler, and the postwar struggles for civil rights at home and human rights abroad. It is also an intimate human story about love, betrayal, family loyalty, personal courage and the conquest of fear.

(Photo above: Theodore Roosevelt speaks at Knox College in 1900, when he was the running mate to presidential candidate William McKinley.)