For years a quilt covered the bed in the master bedroom of the Ansel B. Cook House. We knew it had something to do with the Union Church, but not much else. One day a volunteer asked if we had a list of all the signatures on it. We didn’t. So several volunteers came together…
Welcome back to my somewhat belated second installment on the history of the Native American peoples of Lake County! When we left off in my last post, it was the early 1600’s. In what would become Illinois, the Inoca Confederation had risen to become the most powerful tribal group, while on the East Coast of North America, French, Dutch,…
Chances are you’ve never heard of Samuel Insull, but his fingerprints are all over Libertyville. Stick around this town long enough and you will surely use a building or service with a history that can be drawn back to Mr. Insull. He was like a living Monopoly Man with his hands in utilities, railroads, schools,…
This second week in April is National Library Week – a time to celebrate the contributions of our nation’s libraries and librarians and to promote library use and support. For a special National Library Week podcast episode we interviewed some of our own librarians about what a day on the job looks like and also…
Writing a post about the Native American peoples who originally lived in the vicinity of Libertyville is something I’ve been meaning to do for a while, but kept putting off. This was in large part due to the fact that, unlike other topics I’ve posted about, there aren’t many written records I can use for…
