Chicago’s Black Metropolis

Highland Park Historical Society presents ‘Chicago’s Black Metropolis’, focusing on African-Americans whose energy and ingenuity helped Chicago become the commercial and  cultural  center of the American Midwest. The program will be held in the auditorium of the Highland Park Public Library, 494 Laurel Avenue, at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, February 19, 2019.           The program was initially presented to an audience in Paramaribo, Suriname in 2013 by Highland Park Historical Society Board Member Jeff Stern at the request of his daughter, who was then the Public Affairs Officer at the U.S. Embassy there.

Family Heirloom Recipes from the Illinois State Fair, an Illinois Bicentennial Project

Come join us as the Highland Park Historical Societys' own Catherine Lambrecht dishes on her book, Family Heirloom Recipes from the Illinois State Fair, an Illinois Bicentennial Project. The book is based on Cathy’s work through The Greater Midwest Foodways Alliance, and was also inspired by her own family’s heirloom recipes. Since 2009, Greater Midwest Foodways has sponsored and judged Family Heirloom Recipes contests in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, Minnesota, Missouri, South Dakota and Wisconsin. Cathy has compiled many of the winning recipes from 1950 or earlier, along with their histories, in what many are already considering a landmark book. “If nothing else, should this book inspire you to document a family favorite recipe to share with loved ones, then we have accomplished our mission,” Cathy says.