DuPage history museum wins state excellence award
Some historians say that history is using the past to make sense of the present. The Illinois Association of Museums says the DuPage County Historical Museum is doing an excellent job of that.
The museum association honored the museum's exhibit "Inheriting DuPage: A Family History" with an Award of Excellence in September, and also recognized the DuPage Society of Model Engineers, which operates a train display at the museum, with a Gold Award for its 50 years of service.
"Inheriting DuPage" consisted of 300 objects from the more than 5,000 artifacts documenting the stories of five of DuPage County's founding families: the Torodes, the Fullers, the Rodgers, the Plummers and the Thurstons. The artifacts were preserved by county resident Patricia Torode Vaillancourt Woodstrup and donated after she died in 2003.
"A lot of collections and donations to museums do not come in as complete and documented as this one," said Michelle Podkowa, museum manager and educator. "They're not as large, they're not as all-inclusive for such a large number of family members, and many of them are just a piece here and there of something historically significant."
Mychal Brown, a volunteer in 2010 when she started documenting and cataloging the collection and now hired on as a museum assistant, was responsible for much of the exhibit.
"It's the largest donation we've ever received and a lot of it dates back to the early period of DuPage history, so it's very exciting," Brown said.
The exhibit's display coincided with the 175th anniversary of the county's founding.
Reviewers for the museum association "commended the museum on focusing on one family and telling the generational stories using the large collections of artifacts from one of its descendants," according to a letter announcing the award.
"It is a unique way to experience, learn and celebrate the 175th anniversary of the founding of DuPage County."
Another anniversary was celebrated this year: the 50th of the DuPage Society of Model Engineers, a nonprofit group separate from the museum that maintains and operates the HO-gauge model train on the museum's lower level.
Group members built the display in 1965 and have been its stewards since, running the trains for the public from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. every third and fifth Saturday of the month.
The All Aboard train exhibit is on permanent display on the museum's lower level. "DuPage County Model Railroad: A Closer Look," a photograph-rich book of information about many sections of the model train, is for sale in the Museum Gift Shop.
"Inheriting DuPage: A Family History" was a temporary exhibit and recently came down to allow space for "Wedding Traditions Unveiled," an exploration of 100 years of courtship rituals and wedding traditions in the county. However, the museum maintains the artifacts of "Inheriting DuPage: A Family History" in its collections.
For information about the DuPage County Historical Museum, visit dupagemuseum.org or stop in at 102 E. Wesley St., Wheaton.