Events & Exhibits

Preserving Family Recipes

FREE Workshop: Preserving your Family recipes. When you dip your madeleine in your Proustian tea, make it more than a memory. This workshop, in partnership with Society life member the First Bank of Highland Park, will provide the tools to preserve your family’s culinary history whether the original format is digital, oral or on a file card! Limited seating, please reserve.

Chicagoland Dream Houses

Please join Lake Forest College Professor and Highland Park resident Siobhan Moroney at Secret World Books, 1774 Second Street, Wednesday, May 28, 7:30 PM. She will discuss her book, Chicagoland Dream Houses How a Mid-Century Architecture Competition Reimagined the American Home," including the Highland Park dwellings, architects and organizations' role.

Preserving Family Heirloom Recipes – How to Save and Celebrate Your Food Traditions

Presented by Valerie J. Frey Heirloom dishes and family food traditions are rich sources of nostalgia and provide vivid ways to learn about our families’ past, yet they can be problematic. Many family recipes and food traditions are never documented in written or photographic form, existing only as unwritten know-how and lore that vanishes when a cook dies. Even when recipes are written down, they often fail to give the tricks and tips that would allow another cook to accurately replicate the dish. Unfortunately, recipes are also often damaged as we plunk Grandma’s handwritten cards on the countertop next to a steaming pot or a spattering mixer, shortening their lives.

‘Food in the Midwest: More Interesting Than You May Think,’ with Cynthia Clampitt

The history of the Midwest is remarkable for many reasons, not least of which is the diversity of its population, and therefore of its regional cuisine. Everyone contributed to what was developing,  from the Ojibwe harvesting wild rice in Minnesota to Belgian hoteliers in Chicago inventing new dishes.

Grand Concert Sesquicentennial with Elijah Gray’s Electro Music by Telegraph, Inventions of Electrifying and Broadcasting Music Began in Highland Park, Illinois

Grand Concert Sesquicentennial Electro Music by Telegraph: On December 29, 1874,...

Planes,Trains and Automobiles: Lake County Transportation, 10th Annual Lake County History Symposium, Part 2 of 2

From railroads to car racing and leisure boating, Lake County has a long transportation history. Join us at the 10th annual Lake County History Symposium to hear local transportation stories, January 9 and 16, 2025 from 6:30–8:30 pm. Each day will feature three unique presentations, followed by engaging discussions and Q&A sessions with the speakers. The Symposium is an annual gathering of people interested in the history of Lake County, Illinois. Professionals, students and enthusiastic historians are invited to submit proposals for presentations at the Symposium. Presentations can also be given by museums, historical societies and individuals. Submissions are accepted until November 8, 2024. Questions? Contact Sarah Salto at ssalto@LCFPD.org or 847-514-6749.

Planes,Trains and Automobiles: Lake County Transportation, 10th Annual Lake County History Symposium, Part 1 of 2

From railroads to car racing and leisure boating, Lake County has a long transportation history. Join us at the 10th annual Lake County History Symposium to hear local transportation stories, January 9 and 16, 2025 from 6:30–8:30 pm. Each day will feature three unique presentations, followed by engaging discussions and Q&A sessions with the speakers. The Symposium is an annual gathering of people interested in the history of Lake County, Illinois. Professionals, students and enthusiastic historians are invited to submit proposals for presentations at the Symposium. Presentations can also be given by museums, historical societies and individuals. Submissions are accepted until November 8, 2024. Questions? Contact Sarah Salto at ssalto@LCFPD.org or 847-514-6749.

Story of Chicago’s South Asians and Their Food

Chicago has the country’s third-largest urban population of South Asians (a community that includes Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, and Nepalis) – and a vibrant South Asian food scene. Colleen Taylor Sen will tell the story of this community from the early 20th century when a small community lived on the Far South Side to the present. She’ll also talk about the evolution of the city’s South Asian grocery stores and restaurants, including the transformation of Devon Avenue on the Far North Side from a mainly Jewish shopping district in the 1960s to a mecca for South Asian shoppers from all over the Midwest. Today, Chicago’s Indian food lovers can enjoy a wide range of cuisines from the simple fare of taxi drivers’ "dhabas" to a Michelin-starred temple of cuisine.

Stupey Cabin open house – November 30, 2024 Last for 2024!

Cabin Curious? Look for us next on Saturday, September 7th: 10 AM to Noon. Tour of the outdoor exhibit, ‘Good Neighbors: Making a Difference in Highland Park’ at 11 AM. First Saturday of the month from 10 AM to Noon, or by reservation.

American Doughboys in the First World War with Robert Mueller

American Doughboys in the First World War reviews America's participation in "the war to end all wars" as we take listeners on a trip across the battlefields of Northern France to describe the events, people, and places of America's contribution to the defeat of the German kaiser. Famous engagements such as Belleau Wood, Cantigny, St-Mihiel, and Meuse-Argonne are reviewed with images of what the battlefields look like today. We end by relating the enormous changes that the conflict brought to warfare, society, and populations around the world.