Free and open to the public
Open today 1:00 PM - 4:30 PM | Museum Hours
Free and open to the public
Open today 1:00 PM - 4:30 PM | Museum Hours
Once again, Memorial Day weekend has snuck up on us. As we take the time to remember and thank those who have served in the Armed Forces across the nation, let us also remember Wilmette’s local involvement and rich history through challenging times of war and crisis. Here at the Wilmette Historical Museum, there is a wealth of resources that detail what Wilmette and Gross Point were like during [...]
Wilmettians have long been proud of their beautiful gardens, but if you find yourself with an itch to grow your own food these days too, you are not alone.Many of us hear the phrase "victory garden" and think of WWII, when patriotism was directly linked to growing one's own food.(Left) William H. Gage in a garden, 1914, Wilmette Historical Museum Collections Online. William Gage, son of Katherine and Stanley, lived [...]
John Gage used this marbled cover notebook in our collection as a journal beginning on June 7, 1830. On the first page he explained his purpose quite clearly: "Bot this book this day. I paid 4/ for it calculating to use it for a private journal of what transpires from day to day." John, his wife Portia, and their three sons were early land developers of Wilmette and helped build much [...]
In our collections we have a somewhat unusual device: a police fingerprinting camera used by the Wilmette Police Department. This highly specialized camera was manufactured by the Folmer & Schwing (Graflex) division of Kodak in 1921. The Wilmette Police Department used this camera, which takes closeup images of fingerprints, from approximately 1921 to at least 1937.We're not sure how often the camera was used or how effective it was in nabbing criminals, but [...]
Despite our museum being closed for now, we want to stay engaged with you, our members and community. So, we’ve decided to create these blog posts to highlight our collections. We’ll start with an artifact or photograph from our own holdings and tell you more about it, plus share ways to dig deeper on your own. Don’t forget that you can take a look at the rest of what’s [...]
