Established | 1976 |
---|---|
Location | 1899 W Winchester Rd, Libertyville, IL 60048 |
Coordinates | 42°15′45″N88°06′24″W / 42.2626°N 88.1068°W |
Type | History Museum |
Visitors | 45,000 per year [1] |
Nearest car park | On site (no charge) |
Website | www |
Bess Bower Dunn Museum, formerly known as the Lake County Discovery Museum, is an interactive museum of history, art, and popular culture located in Libertyville, Illinois. The museum was established in 1976 in Wauconda, IL and sited in Lakewood Forest Preserve as part of the larger Lake County Forest Preserve District. It was later moved to Libertyville, IL and renamed the Bess Bower Dunn Museum. The museum is dedicated to sharing the entwined stories of people, events and nature through exhibitions, education and community engagement in Lake County, Illinois. [2] [3]
Originally a group of pre-American Civil War farm properties, the land and buildings that surrounded the original museum location in Wauconda were part of the Lakewood Farms, an estate created after 1937 by Chicago contractor Malcolm Boyle. Boyle acquired area plots over time, gradually erecting seventeen structures which briefly served as a working dairy farm, and later served as offices, libraries, storage, exhibit and gallery spaces for the museum and its collections. [4]
Friends of the Lake County Discovery Museum began gathering support in 1971 [5] and after the Farms complex was acquired, the museum was launched in 1976. [6] Six years later the donation of the Curt Teich Postcard Archives brought five semi-truck trailers of postcards and related files to the museum. [7] As the museum's collections and archives continued to grow, the museum moved to new, larger facility which it shares with Preserve District offices in Libertyville. [1]
The Dunn Museum's collections, which comprise nearly 20,000 artifacts and 1,000 linear feet of archival materials, are securely housed in a modern environmentally controlled care and storage facility. Irreplaceable collections held in public trust are protected with precise temperature and humidity control, as well as security and fire suppression capabilities, preserving Lake County's cultural heritage for future generations to discover and enjoy. Archival holdings within the museum's distinguished collections can be accessed by appointment by visitors, researchers and history enthusiasts. Artifacts from the collections are showcased in exhibitions and education programs.
The museum hosts Lake County History Archives (including archives of other conservation areas like Ryerson Woods [8] ), a collection on nearby Fort Sheridan (a former U.S. Army base nearby) and records of a Lake County-based American Civil War regiment of Illinois troops, the 96th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment. The archives also holds the Amet/Essany Studios Collection, covering the career and works of Waukegan native Edward Amet, a pioneer in 35mm motion picture projection. In addition to a compilation of Lake County one-room school narratives, the museum also preserves a selection of materials relating to Zion, Illinois social and civic organization for minorities, the Booker T. Washington Club. [9]
When the museum was in Wauconda, it hosted the largest public collection of postcards in the U.S., the Curt Teich Postcard Archives. [2] Curt Teich and Company was a Chicago-based printer of postcards, posters, stationery, and maps from its establishment in 1898 until its sale in 1978. The company produced millions of images in the postcard form, and kept reference copies of each image, along with original production notes and materials. During World War II, Curt Teich and Company produced over three million maps for the U.S. Army map service, including 100% of all invasion maps produced. After the business was sold, son Ralph Teich donated the entire Teich collection, contained in five semi-truck trailers to the new Discovery Museum. [7] In 2016, the postcard collection was transferred to the Newberry Library.
In addition to permanent exhibitions, the museum regularly hosts special exhibitions.
Recent exhibitions have included a gallery of Ansel Adams photography [12] [13] and the Blues musical form. [14]
Lake County is situated in the northeastern corner of the U.S. state of Illinois, along the shores of Lake Michigan. As of the 2020 census, it has a population of 714,342, making it the third-most populous county in Illinois. Its county seat is Waukegan, the tenth-largest city in Illinois. The county is primarily suburban, with some urban areas and some rural areas. Due to its location, immediately north of Cook County, Lake County is one of the collar counties of the Chicago metropolitan area. Its northern boundary is the Wisconsin state line.
Libertyville is a village in Lake County, Illinois, United States, and a northern suburb of Chicago. It is located 5 miles (8 km) west of Lake Michigan on the Des Plaines River. The 2020 census population was 20,579. It is part of Libertyville Township, which includes the village, neighboring Green Oaks, and portions of Vernon Hills, Mundelein, unincorporated Waukegan and Lake Forest, and part of Knollwood CDP. Libertyville neighbors these communities as well as Gurnee to the north and Grayslake to the northwest. Libertyville is about 40 miles north of the Chicago Loop and is part of the United States Census Bureau's Chicago combined statistical area (CSA).
Mettawa is a village in Lake County, Illinois, United States. Per the 2020 census, the population was 533. The village maintains trails for pedestrian, bicycle and equestrian usage. Five forest preserves of the Lake County Forest Preserve District are located within village boundaries.
The North Shore consists of many affluent suburbs north of Chicago, Illinois, bordering the shore of Lake Michigan. These communities form part of Cook and Lake Counties. Exactly which communities comprise the "North Shore" is often a topic of debate, and some definitions include suburbs which do not border Lake Michigan. In general, Evanston, Wilmette, Kenilworth, Winnetka, Glencoe, Highland Park, Highwood, Lake Forest, Northbrook, Deerfield, Glenview, and Lake Bluff are recognized as part of the North Shore.
The Palatine, Lake Zurich and Wauconda Railroad (PLZ&W) was an 11-mile (18-kilometer) short-line railroad built to connect the towns of Palatine, Lake Zurich, and Wauconda in the northern part of the U.S. state of Illinois.
Ela Township is a township in Lake County, Illinois, USA. As of the 2010 census, its population was 42,654.
Fremont Township is a township in Lake County, Illinois, USA. As of the 2010 census, its population was 32,337.
Libertyville Township is a township in Lake County, Illinois, USA. As of the 2010 census, its population was 53,139. The village of Libertyville is part of the township, as are parts of Green Oaks, Lake Bluff, Lake Forest, Mettawa, Mundelein, North Chicago, Rondout, Vernon Hills and Waukegan.
Curt Otto Teich was an American publisher of German descent who produced popular color postcards, primarily of scenes from American life. He was a pioneer of the offset printing process. Under his management, the Curt Teich & Company became the world's largest printer of view and advertising postcards.
The former Cathedral of All Saints of the Polish National Catholic Church in Chicago, referred to in Polish as Katedra Wszystkich Świętych is a historic church building located in the Bucktown neighborhood of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Colloquially referred to as the White Cathedral, it is a prime example of the so-called 'Polish Cathedral style' of churches in both its opulence and grand scale. Along with St. Wenceslaus, St. Mary of the Angels, and Holy Trinity it is one of the many monumental Polish churches visible from the Kennedy Expressway. Due to the building's high maintenance costs it was sold in December 1993 and now houses Covenant Presbyterian Church of Chicago, a church affiliated with the Presbyterian Church in America. A former chapel at All Saints Polish National Catholic Cemetery on Higgins Avenue and River Road was expanded and now houses the current Cathedral of the Western Diocese of the Polish National Catholic Church.
This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Lake County, Illinois.
Wauconda Bog Nature Preserve is a tamarack bog nature preserve located in Wauconda Lake County, Illinois. It is a National Natural Landmark.
David Woodhouse is an American architect born in Peoria, Illinois. He is the founder of David Woodhouse Architects, now Woodhouse Tinucci Architects.
Stanley A. Piltz was an American photographer and publisher of Mid-Century Modern graphic design and printed ephemera. Stanley A. Piltz Company, San Francisco, issued many Linen Type postcards from the 1930s to the 1950s, depicting scenes of California, especially of the San Francisco Bay Area and the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition. They consisted primarily of scenic views, city, town, civil and military infrastructures and national monuments views. Linen Type postcards were produced on paper with a high rag content which gave the postcard a fabric type look and feel. At the time this was an inexpensive process. Along with advances in printing technique, linen type cards allowed for vibrant ink colors. Stanley Piltz pioneered the Linen Type postcards with his "Pictorial Wonderland Art Tone Series".
René Romero Schuler is an American painter and sculptor who constructs her paintings with trowels and palette knives. Schuler is inspired by the Bay Area Figurative Movement of the 1950s and '60s. She has taught painting at the Illinois Institute of Art and Chicago City Colleges, lectured at Northwestern University, and was board member of the Loyola University Museum of Art (LUMA) in Chicago.
Enella Benedict was an American realism and landscape painter. She taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and was a founder and director for nearly 50 years for the Art School at the Hull House.
Lake County Forest Preserves is a governmental organization that purchases land and oversees the use of such public open-space in Lake County, Illinois. It is a member of Chicago Wilderness.
Stephen Hallet Willard (1894–1966) was an American painter and photographer who produced many images of Western scenery, especially desert views. Willard latter published many of these same images as linen postcards, printed by Curt Teich. He photographed the deserts and mountains of the West for 58 years. His mastery of the black and white photograph, combined with his passion for the landscape, translates into a body of work documenting remote areas of the West few Americans had seen or visited.
Burton Frasher was an American photographer and publisher of mid-century modern ephemera. His black-and-white landscape photographs of the American West have been widely reproduced.
The Northwest Suburban Conference (NWSC) was a high school athletic conference in the northwestern suburbs of Chicago, primarily centered around western Lake County and northwestern Cook County. All of the schools were members of the Illinois High School Association (IHSA).