This website hosted by the Illinois State Library offers images and descriptions of historical items in libraries and museums across the state of Illinois. Mount Prospect’s history is represented by three collections. The items included in these collections are primarily from the collections of the Mount Prospect Historical Society and the Mount Prospect Public Library. Dimensions…
History - Page 2 of 3
Mount Prospect in the News
Events in Mount Prospect over the past 100 years have been documented by a few local newspapers; occasionally the Chicago Tribune would make brief mentions of the village, and the Daily Herald has been a source of Mount Prospect news since 1901. Two other newspapers were focused just on Mount Prospect. Both papers document life…
Origins of Winter Holiday Celebrations
Mistletoe, presents, candlelight--all of these and more are part of winter holidays. The origins of the traditions carried out this time of year are both ancient and modern. The editors of JSTOR an online resource of academic articles have collected a variety of articles which address aspects of the winter holiday season (as well as…
Veterans Day, 2018
November 11, 2018 marks the 100th anniversary of the armistice which ended World War I--The Great War. Ceremonies commemorating this event have been taking place across the United States and in Europe. The Great War impacted nearly every community in the United States but has often been considered the "Forgotten War." Today there are resources…
Seeing Into the Past
Books and other texts can link us intellectually to the past but photographs and films of other eras take us into those past moments. Photographs from 1911 are not exactly rare but they are precious. Film showing motion was only just becoming more available in 1911 so a film of New York City in that…
New Web Resource: National Geographic Virtual Library
The Library now subscribes to National Geographic Virtual Library and National Geographic Kids (brought to you by the incredible database company, Gale Cengage). The Virtual Library contains every single page of every issue of National Geographic since it began publication in 1888, all issues of National Geographic Traveler, published since 2010, and over 300 books.…
New States Added to WWII Draft Registration Cards!
Fold3 has added new U.S. states to its collection of WWII Draft Registration Cards! The collection (via the National Archives) now also includes Alabama, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, West Virginia, Utah, Alaska, Wyoming, and Virginia. The cards in this collection are registration cards for the draft and do not necessarily indicate that the individual served in the…
Tales Told by Found Photographs
The stories of our families are told through many forms of documents. Family photographs, however, are unique because they have visually captured moments in time that now only live as memories. A discarded photograph album lead a writer in New York to the story of black families that lived in the Crown Heights neighborhood of…
The History of Santa Claus
The holiday season is full of traditional events and practices, many of which revolve around the figure of Santa Claus. But who is this figure? What is his history? That story goes back to 280 CE in Myra, an area now in modern Turkey, where Saint Nicholas lived and worked as a bishop. After his…
Celebrating Veterans Day
Veterans Day, originally known as Armistice Day, was first set as a U.S. legal holiday to recognize the end of World War I. This "armistice" took place on November 11, 1918. In 1938 legislation was past to formally dedicate November 11 to the "cause of world peace." With the urging of veterans organizations, the U.S.…
