Mission
The mission of the Highland Park Historical Society is to preserve our community’s past, to inspire an appreciation of our history and culture and share with the community and scholars the rich history of Highland Park, Illinois.
The Society is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization and is administered by a volunteer Board of Directors. The Society’s archives and research collections are housed in the Highland Park Public Library.
Museums
The Highland Park Historical Society maintains and preserves two historic structures: Francis Stupey Cabin and Robert G. Robinison Bandstand. Click on each image below for more information on each site.
Exhibits and Education
Throughout the year, the Society hosts lectures and educational events at our historic sites as well as throughout the community. Educational Field Trips are conducted throughout the year and Teacher Toolkits are available by appointment.
Highland Park Archives and Local History Collections
Highland Park’s history is a valuable community resource, and sharing your unique collections is vital to our efforts. Preserving and making available the history of Highland Park is the focus of the Highland Park Archives and Local History Collections (HPALHC), a collaboration between the Highland Park Public Library, the City of Highland Park, and the Highland Park Historical Society. The collaboration documents the distinct, diverse community of Highland Park and its inhabitants through government records, organizational records, family interviews, papers, correspondence and images, photography collections, maps, and much more in both digital and physical formats.
This valuable community resource is housed at the Library, and digital archives can be accessed via the Library’s website at hplibrary.org/archives-5304. Whether for research or for exploration and discovery, HPALHC ensures that the history of Highland Park is available and accessible. To preserve this history and enhance the collection, HPALHC welcomes contributions of historical documents and/or artifacts pertaining to Highland Park.
Together, let’s preserve Highland Park’s history.
Please contact Nancy Webster, archivist, at the Highland Park Public Library at (847) 432-0216, ext. 138, or via email at nwebster@hplibrary.org, about historical documents and/or artifacts about Highland Park that you may have, or with research questions.
Some collections of note:
- Highland Park City Records; and local collections documenting business, progressive and vocational education in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, cultural life, and photography.
- Architecture records of J. Marion Gutnayer and Robert Arnold
- Jesse Lowe Smith Photographic Botany Collection
- Highland Park Woman’s Club
- Ravina Festival programs
- Ravinia Artists
- Photographs of Highland Park and environs
- 100 years of Highland Park High School Yearbooks
- Oral Histories
- Local Artifacts
In 2010 the Society became the recipient of an $86,000 Basic Processing and Preservation Planning Project matching grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, the granting agency of the National Archives and Records Administration. This grant has allowed us to focus on organizing, preserving and making the Collections accessible to the public online.
CLICK HERE FOR ONLINE CATALOG
