Cobweb volume 45 number 4: Oct-Dec 2011

C OBWEB

VOLUME 45, NO. 4, OCTOBER-DECEMBER 2011

A publication of the Des Plaines History Center

COLLECTIONS IN FOCUS: LOCAL ART ON EXHIBIT receptions conclude with a raffle drawing for sponsorship prizes and the presentation of a People's Choice Award.

In return for the use of exhibit space, the Art Guild generously donates a percentage of their proceeds to the History Center. This collaboration between the Art Guild and the History Center is a great way for the two organization to share resources. Upcoming dates for Art Guild 10 shows in 2012 will be announced soon.

At our recent Holiday Open House, the History Center opened the Kinder House to exhibit several items of art from our collection. The History Center's artwork focuses on local artists and local subjects. Four of the local artists featured are Herbert J. Day, Margaret Selleck, Alfred Ahbe, and Joe Stanek, Jr. The following artists’ biographies are from the current exhibit.

Above: Untitled winter scene by Joseph Stanek, Sr., 1934, from the Des Plaines History Center collec-

This year, we've continued working with the Des Plaines Art Guild as they present the Art Guild 10 series of shows at the Des Plaines History Center. Each Art Guild 10 exhibit features the art of ten different members of the organization and an artists' reception, in which the artists present additional examples of their work, including prints, note cards, and other smaller items for sale. The art

Above: House at Prairie and Graceland Avenues

by Herbert J. Day, 1925, from the Des Plaines History Center collection.

LOCAL ART ON EXHIBIT | STEPPING UP TO STANDARDS AT THE HISTORY CENTER │END-OF-YEAR REVIEW│

LOCAL ART ON EXHIBIT (CONT.) Born in England in 1875, Herbert J. Day moved to Des Plaines in 1922 where he built a home and studio on the corner of Laurel Avenue and Thacker Street. Day received his training at the Art Institute of Chicago and Smith Academy. Focusing on oil and watercolor paintings, he became a commercial artist working at advertising agencies and also painted for local residents. His favorite locales included the Des Plaines and Galena areas, Southern Illinois around Elizabethtown, the Illinois Ozarks, Indiana around Hobart and Turkey Run, and Wisconsin. Herbert Day died August 23, 1950.

Originally from Utah, Margaret Selleck lived in Wisconsin from 1918 to 1925 and later moved to Illinois. She studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, and the University of Wisconsin.

As a member of the Northwest Art League and the All-Illinois Society of the Fine Arts, Selleck's work appeared in exhibitions at such locations as the Edgewater Beach and Drake hotels and throughout the Chicago area. During the 1930s she lived at 930 Woodlawn Avenue in

Des Plaines, eventually moving to Wilmette until the time of her death in 1958. In addition to her work as a watercolor artist, she also presented lectures on historical Chicago and Illinois topics. Selleck is featured in the Illinois Women Artists Project sponsored by the Peoria Historical Society and Bradley University.

Joseph Stanek, Sr. was born in 1877 in Eastern Europe and immigrated to the United States in 1899. He was a self-taught artist who worked as a painter at a wagon factory and then at the Benjamin Electric Mfg. Co. in Des Plaines as a maintenance painter. He spent his lunch breaks painting on enameled metals produced at the factory and would “bake-off” his art in a furnace, firing them at 1200-2000 degrees Fahrenheit. Stanek's earliest work has been dated to around 1903, and many of his paintings were given to fellow employees at Benjamin Electric. He died in July 1957.

Born in Des Plaines on May 8, 1897, Alfred Ahbe was the son of John F. and Savena Meyer Ahbe. Alfred was a self-employed commercial artist, who lived at 1604 Ashland Avenue until he died on March 6,

1972. Many more paintings by Ahbe can be found at the home of the Grice family in Des Plaines, who are closely related to the Ahbes. The house in this painting by Ahbe, located on Hawthorne Lane was originally the Davison homestead.

George and Margaret Wolfram purchased the home in 1889, and it was later owned by Henry P. Neve.

Neve's daughters, Helen and Marion, lived there until 2004.

STEPPING UP TO STANDARDS Earlier this year, the Des Plaines History Center joined other history organizations nationwide in an ongoing program called “StEPs” (Standards and Excellence Program for History Organizations), offered through the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH).

Although the History Center has followed standards for many years, this is a new opportunity for us to evaluate how we are doing.

StEPs is a voluntary assessment program to help us identify our existing strengths and areas needing improvement.

What are the benefits? StEPs increases our credibility with funding providers, the community, and our stakeholders; raises awareness of the importance of the standards; underscores our funding requirements for staffing, training, materials, and equipment; improves policies, planning, and practices.

Because we can work on the standards as we go, StEPs does not increase our workload but helps improve the work we already do.

Above: “Wolfram House on Hawthorne Lane” by Alfred Ahbe, from the Des Plaines History Center collection.

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The StEPs program covers our governance, programs (audience and interpretation of historical information), stewardship of collections and

Right: “Des Plaines River” by Margaret Hall Selleck, 1945, from the Des Plaines History Center collection. structures, and management. The StEPs workbook provides lists of standards for each area, identifies practices that are not acceptable, and gives performance indicators to help us benchmark our progress.

We have begun the process of reviewing the StEPs workbook, as well as looking at ways we provide access to historical programs and collections. We have already begun relating to the standards by introducing a new Collections Plan and a Historical Interpretative Plan for the History Center.

2011 IN REVIEW

coming out in full force, showing how much the History Center means to you and the wider community.

Although the new “Joy of History” annual giving campaign, formerly known as “Yorbl'ing”, is still underway for 2011, we want to acknowledge the contributors from the 2010 Yorbl'ing Campaign, as well as the 2011 Half-Year Campaign. Thanks to all who continue your support, year after year.

Your Support Helped Bring the History Center Back Into Balance.

As we reach the end of 2011, the great news is that your support has helped the History Center regain stable footing in operating funds. Significant adjustments made in this year's budget to reduce spending along with your contributions have paved the way toward erasing the deficit we were initially facing at the beginning of the year.

We wish to once again thank the Des Plaines Park District for the enormous support and services they've given us, and the City of Des Plaines for renewing its annual contribution and services. Without those two sources of funding, many activities at the History Center would have ended. You, our donors especially, have continued

IN MEMORIAM We close the year recognizing our many good friends whom we’ve lost, including Richard Grzebieniak, Dorothy Grice, Irv Moehling, and especially our Executive Director of 22 years, Joy Matthiessen. Their contributions, not just to the History Center, but to the community of Des Plaines as a whole, are well remembered.

The History Center's Busy Crafting Group Raises Funds If you’ve purchased home-made cookies at the Winter Wonderland event or holiday craft items at the Library book sale, then you have met the industrious group of women who make many of the items you see in the History Center's gift shop. Judy Hart, Lois Garner, Rosemary Reinke, and LaVerne Zavacki have done excellent work coordinating these fundraising activities. Thanks to the numerous volunteer cookie bakers who brought in their home-made treats, the craft group spent an entire afternoon readying the cookies for the bake sale on December 3. The following week, they prepared all their holiday craft items, including items donated by other crafters, for sale at the Library event on Saturday, December 10. The next day, they sold items at one of their condo buildings.

So much work went into these fundraisers, but it paid off well! The craft group brought in more than $1100 this month, from these activities alone. Thank you! We appreciate all that you do.

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If you are reading this but aren’t a History Center member, join today!

An upcoming issue of the Cobweb features the truck farming era of Des Plaines and the Moehling family farm.

Above: Moehling Farm. DPHC photograph P3703.

Stop by and bring your friends!

Left: Methodist Camp Grounds railroad platform, 1909.

DPHC photograph 1990.38.7.

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