Bess Bower Dunn Museum facts for kids
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| Established | 1976 |
|---|---|
| Location | 1899 W Winchester Rd, Libertyville, IL 60048 |
| Type | History Museum |
| Visitors | 45,000 per year |
| Nearest car park | On site (no charge) |
The Bess Bower Dunn Museum is an exciting museum located in Libertyville, Illinois. It's a fun place where you can learn about history, art, and even popular culture. The museum used to be known as the Lake County Discovery Museum. It first opened its doors in 1976 in Wauconda, IL. Later, it moved to Libertyville and got its new name. The Dunn Museum loves to share the amazing stories of people, events, and nature in Lake County, Illinois. They do this through cool exhibitions, educational programs, and community events.
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History of the Museum
The land where the museum first started in Wauconda was once a group of farms. These farms were put together after 1937 by a Chicago builder named Malcolm Boyle. He bought many plots of land over time. He built seventeen buildings that were briefly used as a working dairy farm. Later, these buildings became offices, libraries, storage, and exhibit spaces for the museum's collections.
People who supported the museum started gathering help in 1971. After the farm complex was bought, the museum officially opened in 1976. Six years later, something big happened! The museum received a huge donation: the Curt Teich Postcard Archives. This collection filled five large semi-truck trailers with postcards and related files. As the museum's collections grew bigger and bigger, it needed more space. So, the museum moved to a new, larger building in Libertyville. It now shares this building with the offices of the Lake County Forest Preserve District.
What You Can See: Collections
The Dunn Museum has nearly 20,000 artifacts and lots of historical documents! These items are kept safe in a special storage area. This area has controlled temperature and humidity. It also has security and fire safety systems. This helps protect Lake County's cultural heritage for everyone to discover and enjoy in the future. If you're a visitor, researcher, or history fan, you can see some of these special items by making an appointment. Many artifacts from the collections are also shown in the museum's exhibitions and education programs.
Lake County History Archive
The museum is home to the Lake County History Archives. This includes collections about other nature areas like Ryerson Woods. There's also a collection about Fort Sheridan, which was a U.S. Army base nearby. You can also find records about a Lake County group of Illinois soldiers from the American Civil War. This group was called the 96th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment.
The archives also hold the Amet/Essany Studios Collection. This collection is about Waukegan native Edward Amet. He was a pioneer in early motion picture projection using 35mm film. The museum also keeps stories from Lake County's old one-room schools. Plus, it has materials about the Booker T. Washington Club. This club was a social and civic group for minorities in Zion, Illinois.
Curt Teich Postcard Archives
When the museum was in Wauconda, it had the largest public collection of postcards in the U.S. This was the Curt Teich Postcard Archives. Curt Teich and Company was a company in Chicago that printed postcards, posters, and maps. They started in 1898 and sold their business in 1978. The company made millions of postcards. They kept copies of every image, along with their original notes. During World War II, Curt Teich and Company made over three million maps for the U.S. Army map service. They even made 100% of all the invasion maps!
After the business was sold, Curt Teich's son, Ralph Teich, gave the entire collection to the new Discovery Museum. This huge collection filled five semi-truck trailers! In 2016, the postcard collection was moved to the Newberry Library.
Exhibitions to Explore
The museum has permanent exhibitions that are always there to see. They also regularly host special exhibitions that change over time.
- One gallery shows the fossil life of Liberty County. You can see mammoth fossils there! It also has a life-sized model of a Dryptosaurus. This dinosaur model was made by a Chicago artist named Tyler Keillor.
- Another gallery is dedicated to the native cultures of the area. It even features a replica of a wigwam, which is a type of home used by some Native American groups.
- Recent special exhibitions have included a gallery of Ansel Adams photography. There was also an exhibition about the Blues musical style.
