The Elmhurst History Museum Promotes Daniel Lund

The Elmhurst History Museum (E.H.M.) in west suburban Elmhurst, Illinois announced today, Wednesday, July 12, 2017 that Daniel Lund had been promoted to Curator of Collections effective on Wednesday, July 5, 2017. Mr. Lund replaces longtime E.H.M. staff member Nancy Wilson, who retired as Curator of Collections at the end of last month. The E.H.M. stated, “Mr. Lund takes over the responsibilities of managing and curating the museum’s collection of more than 20,000 artifacts, photographs and historically significant objects as well as contributing to exhibits and providing references services to the public.”

Figure 1 Credit: Elmhurst History Museum Caption: The Elmhurst History Museum in Elmhurst, Illinois has promoted Daniel Lund from part-time Registrar to full-time Curator of Collections.

As Registrar of the E.H.M., Lund had worked at the E.H.M. in a part-time capacity for over three years, from December of 2013 to June of 2017. [Although they all use the term registrar, a property registrar at a museum is very different job from a college registrar, which is a very different job from being a hospital registrar.] He also worked in this period at the Elmhurst Public Library as Technology Assistant from February of 2014 to September of 2015 and at the Prairie Trails Public Library as Reference Clerk from September of 2015 to May of 2017.

The E.H.M. stated Lund “has been integrally involved in collection care, inventory, and the ongoing project to digitize the Elmhurst History Museum’s collection. Daniel was also involved in growing and integrating the museum’s searchable online database of historical photographs and ephemera into the EHM’s web site to make more collection items accessible to the public and researchers. He also initiated a weekly Throwback Thursday Feature on social media that showcases photos from the museum collection that has quickly become one of the most popular posts each week.”

Lund earned a Bachelor of Arts in History, Art, Humanities from Valparaiso University at 2011; a Master of Library & Information Science, Archives and Records Administration at the University of Michigan in 2011; and a Master of Arts in Historical Administration from Eastern Illinois University in 2013. As an undergraduate student, he was Editor of Lighter, a literary magazine, from August of 2009 to May of 2011. He was also a photographer for the school newspaper and yearbook. As an undergrad, he belonged to Pi Gamma Mu (International Social Science Honors Society) and Phi Sigma Kappa Social Fraternity.

Lund was a Circulation Assistant from May to August of 2010, and Archives Assistant from August to December of 2010; and Interlibrary Loan Assistant from May of 2010 to May of 2011 at Valparaiso University’s Christopher Center for Library & Information Resources. As a graduate student, he was also an Interlibrary Loan Assistant from August of 2011 to December of 2011 at the University of Michigan Library at Ann Arbor.

Before he came to work at the Elmhurst History Museum, Lund had a number of internships and volunteer opportunities in the collections departments of museums. He was an Intern at the Aurora Historical Society from March to April of 2012; a Collections Volunteer at the DuPage County Historical Museum from March to May of 2012; an Archives/Collections Assistant at the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County at Mayslake Peabody Estate in Oak Brook, Illinois from April to July of 2012; a Department Graduate Assistant in Eastern Illinois University’s Historical Administration program in Charleston, Illinois from August of 2012 to May of 2013; an Intern at the Lakeshore Museum Center in Grand Rapids, Michigan from May to December of 2013; and an Intern at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan from May to December of 2013.

The E.H.M. stated, “His work experience in collections at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum and the Lakeshore Museum Center in Michigan combined with his research and technology skills honed in various museum, library and academic positions made him an ideal fit for his new role at the Elmhurst History Museum.”

“In this new capacity, one of the top priorities I have is to better engage the community with the collection of the museum,” said Lund. “I want people to know what we have and why we have preserved it. I also hope to show why the business of collecting pieces of history is important to the City of Elmhurst.”

Elmhurst is not just an affluent railroad suburb. It is something of a small city, with a real downtown. It is home to the Lizardo Museum of Lapidary Art, as well as the Elmhurst History Museums. Elmhurst is also home to Elmhurst College, IC Catholic Prep (formerly Immaculate Conception High School), Timothy Christian School, and Elmhurst Hospital.

The Elmhurst History Museum is a department of the City of Elmhurst. The Elmhurst Heritage Foundation, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, provides support in the form of advocacy, education, and fundraising.

Since 1975, the Elmhurst History Museum has been housed in the Glos Mansion in downtown Elmhurst. [For some reason, the Elmhurst Historical Museum changed its name to the Elmhurst History Museum.] Built in 1892-93 for Henry L. Glos (1851-1905) and his wife, Lucy Schween Glos (1852-1941), the Romanesque-style mansion is three stories tall, not counting the basement. It features roughhewn limestone exterior walls, a tower, copper dormers, leaded glass windows, and white oak woodwork. Henry Glos was the first village board president of Elmhurst, and held the post for nearly twenty years. A real estate investor, he built a commercial block at the intersection of York Street and Park Avenue. He opened the first bank in Elmhurst. Henry and Lucy Glos were also active church members and had active social lives. In 1892, the City of Elmhurst gave Henry Glos permission to build a mausoleum provided that it be made of stone and cost him at least $5,000. He then had built a granite-and-bronze mausoleum in the Beaux Arts style at a cost of $20,000 at 142 East Park Avenue. Henry & Lucy Glos had no children and she conveyed the Glos Mansion, Glos Mausoleum, and associated property to the City of Elmhurst in 1939. Her conditions were that she be allowed to live in the Glos Mansion for the duration of her life, that she be buried in the Glos Mausoleum, that no-one else be buried in the Glos Mausoleum or surrounding land, that no playground be developed north of the Glos Mausoleum, that the city government alone could use the properties but no firehouse be erected on the properties, and no other buildings of any kind be erected on the properties. The Glos Mansion served as Elmhurst City Hall from 1946 until 1970. The address is 120 East Park Avenue, Elmhurst, Illinois 60126. The phone number is (630) 833-1457.

In addition to the operations in the E.H.M. headquarters, the E.H.M. staff also operate a second smaller museum, the Churchville Schoolhouse, a one-room schoolhouse that was built around 1850. It is located on Church Road, north of Grand Avenue, in Bensenville.

The Field Museum of Natural History in March, 2018

The Field Museum of Natural History’s entrance pavilions are at opposite ends of Stanley Field Hall, which has a north-south axis. The two porticos (porches) are each reached by two successive flights of stairs.

Both porticos of The Field Museum of Natural History are flanked by two small porches, which each have two caryatids (columns in the shape of maidens). On the facade, the wings are adorned with a colonnade of attached fluted Ionic columns. The building’s fluted Ionic columns have volutes (spiral-scroll-shaped crowns).

Each portico of The Field Museum is tetrastyle in antis with double-ranked fluted Ionic columns capped by volutes. An entablature crowned by a pediment rests atop the columns. The continuous frieze in each case is relatively plain. The wave-themed acroteria that crown the pediments are borrowed from the Palace of a Fine Arts, which housed The Field Museum until 1920 and now houses the Museum of Science and Industry.

The Field Museum of Natural History isn’t “just” a museum. Visitors can watch scientists at work through windows at the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice DNA Discovery Center’s Pritzker Laboratory.

Mrs. Charles (Laura) Schweppe, a daughter and co-heiress of John Graves Shedd, the former partner of Marshall Field I who succeeded him as president of Marshall Field & Company, and who, under the guidance of Stanley Field founded the Shedd Aquarium, donated an exhibit of 100 bronze sculptures by Malvina Hoffman to The Field Museum. They represent every race, nation, and tribe in the human family (more or less). On January 9, 1933, the first group, Unity of Man, went on display.

In addition to the four figures Henry Hering (1874-1949) made for the corners of Stanley Field Hall, he also made the twelve plaster round lion head shield escutcheons that line it. These are replicas of the marble round lion head shield escutcheon he made for the pediment of the facade of The Field Museum of Natural History.

Christmas at Chicago’s Union Station

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This is a POLAR EXPRESS display in the Great Hall of Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This is a closeup of the THE POLAR EXPRESS steam locomotive mock-up in the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This is the headlamp of THE POLAR EXPRESS steam locomotive mock-up in the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This Union Station Company rail car loaded with super-size gifts is part of THE POLAR EXPRESS mock-up in the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This is a Christmas tree in the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This Christmas tree in the Great Hall of Union Station in downtown Chicago has emblems of Amtrak, Metra, and historic railroad companies whose routes they now operate like Burlington.

Cinemas sculptor Alfonso Iannelli (1888-1965) Helped Design

This is the Pickwick Theatre Building, an Art Deco movie palace and office building erected in downtown Park Ridge, Illinois in 1928.

The architects were Roscoe Harold Zook and William F. McCaughey. Sculptor Alfonso Iannelli, who also worked on the Adler Planetarium, contributed to this building.

In recent years, the Vlahakis family, who’ve owned the building for 50 years, have been able to turn the building into a multiplex by adding smaller theaters around the original auditorium. The latest one, with a screen four times the size of the one in the auditorium, will open in time to screen INFINITY WARS in May, if all goes well.

The Catlow Movie Theater is a cinema that opened in downtown Barrington, Illinois in 1927. The Tudor Revival style of architecture is not confined to the facade of the cinema. As with the Pickwick Theatre in Park Ridge, Illinois, sculptor Alfonso Iannelli (1888-1965) played a role in the design and decoration of The Catlow Movie Theater.