Photo collection donated to McHenry Historical Society

“200 for 2000,” a millennium photo project initiated and underwritten by CLIX Photographs and Savables Inc. of Crystal Lake, was recently donated to the McHenry County Historical Society Museum in Union.

Store owner and project originator Anne Nevills brought the archivally preserved photo scrapbooks resulting from the project to the museum, where they were accepted for preservation by Exhibit and Collection Coordinator Kira Halvey.

In the fall of 1999, approximately 200 area photographers including amateurs, students and professionals, participated in the effort to document McHenry County at the beginning of the new century. Twenty out of the 200 photographers were professionals selected by the 200 for 2000 Committee to participate. Except for one, all the photographers shot black and white film.

There were four categories to choose from as subject matter for the documentation of McHenry County life: People, landscape, business and recreation.

The ultimate goal was to record a moment in McHenry County history representing the life diversity and changes in the county as seen by a broad spectrum of people who were living it. The millennium project was finished in April 2002.

All the resulting photographs, now donated to the McHenry County Historical Society, will be safely preserved — their value in documenting the passage of time to increase as the coming years unfold. To contact the McHenry County Historical Society about the 200 for 2000 Millennium Photo Project or to learn more about the society and its mission, call (815) 923-2267 or view the website at mchsonline.org.