Fifty years from now, the children of 21st Century Midlothian will be led by their parents-or possibly grandparents-to a small building at 146th Street and Springfield Avenue. There they will pull out old photographs of kitchens in the community, taken in the early 1990s by their forebears.
The young children will probably be amazed at the size of our refrigerators and giggle at the prehistoric-looking microwave ovens. And they`ll probably ask what the big fuss was about something called Slim-Fast.
But the children will come away a bit more knowledgeable not only about their families but their community-a prospect that makes local historical society members of the present time very happy.
While everyone knows the history of our country, few people know the history of their own community. That`s a gap that numerous southwest suburban historical societies are trying to fill.
”People should know about their roots,” said Deborah McAdams, one of the founders of the Midlothian Historical Society, which is planning the kitchen documentation project. ”Community history is as important as national history. Don`t we all want to know where we came from?”
Local historical societies have blossomed in the last couple of decades, and almost every southwest suburban community has a historical society. Those that don`t are usually covered by a neighboring group. There also are historical societies for townships, counties and even regions. Most are run by volunteers.
”Once we`ve determined where we`ve come from, we can better determine where we`re going,” said Alice DeBoer, a librarian with the South Suburban Genealogical and Historical Society, which is based in South Holland.
”We`re living in a time where traditional values are fleeing and people are yearning to understand where they came from,” said Virginia Ferry, founder and past president of the Joliet Area Historical Society. ”We believe that by reintroducing the role models of the past, we can give a strong sense of identity.”
While the history of Chicago`s southwest suburbs is just a blink of the eye compared to some cities elsewhere on the globe, local historians say there are numerous entities that make the area unique: The Illinois & Michigan Canal, the railroads and the strong connections to Chicago.
”Many people may not realize that some of the (southwest suburban) towns go way back,” said Mona Creer of the Orland Historical Society. ”Many young people may think Orland Park has only been around for 20 years and doesn`t look very old. But this year, Orland Park celebrated its centennial. And Orland Township started to be settled back in the 1850s. So there`s a lot more history here than what meets the eye.”
While a number of historical societies have been around for decades, there has been much activity in recent years. Many new societies have been formed in the last two decades and the older ones are drawing more attention. One of the catalysts for the interest in community history, said Scott Mason, the vice president of the Tinley Park Historical Society, was the country`s 1976 bicentennial.
”Our society started as an offshoot of a local bicentennial commission which was gathering the town`s history,” he said. ”The bicentennial also got people to think about their community`s history.”
Another catalyst has been a concern to preserve and restore the one-of-a- kind historic icons-from records to buildings-that were quickly disappearing.
”People realized there was a limited opportunity to save some of our historic treasures of the past,” said Robert Paddock, curator of the Gladys Fox Historical Museum in Lockport. ”If we didn`t move now, those treasures could be gone forever.”
For example, the need to document that fragile history was the impetus that formed the Midlothian Historical Society two years, said McAdams.
”Our village incorporated in 1925 and we`ve only had six mayors since then,” she said. ”So the information about the growth of our village is still there and it`s important to write it down now.”
Since forming two years ago, the Midlothian society has made much progress. It has collected numerous photographs and artifacts and is going to open a museum next spring in an old public library at 146th and Springfield Avenue.
”We want to have a repository for people to come and share in the community`s history,” said McAdams.
That is the main goal of most historical societies-preserving history by creating a treasury of local records and artifacts. Those records become invaluable, said the historians, and offer information that usually can`t be found elsewhere.
Historical societies are usually more than eager to share their materials with members of the public-whether it`s elementary school students writing a simple school paper on their community`s history or someone searching for specific information.
Often, the rare artifacts and documents that societies collect come out of the blue-usually in the form of someone walking up to the historical society with an armload of materials, said historians.
”We had a man come in here a month ago who had been in charge of the Civil Defense program in Roseland during World War II,” said DeBoer. ”He had kept a scrap book of all the newspaper articles that had been written about Civil Defense and gave that to us. There was a lot of historical value to it.”
Although they deal in history, another goal of the societies is to look to the future.
For example, many of the societies work with local schools trying to get children interested in local history. And then there are the planned projects such as Midlothian`s 1990s kitchen documentation.
”We`ll file away the photographs for them and then in 50 years they can come back and show their children-or grandchildren-what a kitchen from the 1990s looked like,” said McAdams. ”We`re trying to create a sense of history for our future inhabitants.”
