An Arabian Halloween

Happy Halloween!

Begging, or trick-or-treating, is believed to have begun in the United States in the 1910s. Around the same time, costumes for children and adults became popular for Halloween parties.

In this 1915 photograph, Diamond Lake resident, Gordon Ray, is wearing what appears to be a store bought costume (note the unusual fabric and crease marks). The photo was taken “the morning after” Gordon attended a masquerade dance in Long Grove.

I have often referred to this as Gordon’s “Valentino” costume, but in his autobiography he does not identify the costume, only the dance he attended. Also, Rudolph Valentino—the silent-film star—did not make his debut until 1921, six years after this photo was taken. It is also tempting to call this a “Lawrence of Arabia” costume, but again the association is too late. The British soldier, T.E. Lawrence, became known as “Lawrence of Arabia” for his role in the Arab Revolt of 1916-1918.

The Arabian-themed costume was probably a popular choice due to the West’s long fascination with Eastern cultures. Gordon would have seen any number of Arabian images in films, nickelodeon reels, vaudeville acts, books, and newspapers.

Halloween Postcards

The Lizzie Schlager Collection at the Lake County History Archives consists of 500 postcards from around the world. Elise Walters Schlager Wandel (1878-1928) was a Waukegan resident who collected postcards between 1899 and 1912. This was during the heyday of postcard collecting when you could purchase a postcard for a penny.

“Lizzie,” as she was called, saved postcards that friends and family sent. We know she was actively collecting them, because at least one sender wrote: “This is for your collection.”

Holiday postcards, particularly for Christmas and Easter were common. There are several Halloween postcards in the Archives’ collection. The fact that there are not more may suggest the lack of popularity in that holiday at the turn of the 19th century. In the 1910s, Halloween was an up and coming holiday and not near as popular as it would become by the 1950s, and certainly today.


The two Halloween postcards shown here were produced by the International Art Publishing Company and designed by Ellen Hattie Clapsaddle. Ms. Clapsaddle (1865-1934) was a prolific postcard artist. She began her artistic life in 1885 as a china painter and also did home decorative painting.
Her children-themed postcards are highly sought after. Other subjects she was fond of painting were landscapes, animals and Christmas scenes.

For more information on postcard artists check out Susan Brown Nicholson’s book, “The Encyclopedia of Antique Postcards.”

Halloween Costumes

With Halloween fast approaching, I'm sharing some holiday photos and postcards over the next couple of weeks.

Halloween costumes for adults and children became popular in the early 1900s in North America.
Shown here is an unidentified girl dressed as an "Indian Princess" circa 1905. The photo is credited to Bess Dunn, a county historian and photography enthusiast.

More than likely the girl's dress is homemade. There are three beaded appliques sewn to the front of the skirt. The appliques are reminiscent of detailing seen on women's dresses of this period or slightly before.

The costume is embellished with layers of jewelry. The girl's headpiece appears to be a string of pearls, and her bracelets have heart-shaped charms. The many beaded necklaces consist of shells and unknown materials.



In this circa 1920 photograph (left) is one of the sons of Robert and Frances (Crane) Leatherbee of Lake Forest. Yes, that's a boy with a pageboy haircut, wearing a Native American inspired shirt and pants, and an embroidered pillbox style cap.

The photo was taken at Brae Burn Farm, Lake Forest, more than likely by Dorothy Gleiser, the daughter of the farm manager. The 400-acre gentleman's farm was owned by Robert Leatherbee, an executive of the Crane Company of Chicago. The family lived in a sprawling one-story stucco home, from about 1914-1922 before selling the property to a developer and moving to Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

As represented in these children's costumes, Native American culture was romanticized and appropriated by non-native peoples. Today, awareness of cultural sensitivity has led to discussions about the portrayal of Native Americans and their heritage in Halloween costumes and popular culture.

Meet Mrs. Redmond

This pleasant photograph of Mrs. Thresa Davin Redmond was taken in 1918 by students of Everett School working on a community history project. She probably put on the blouse and scarf over her day dress to look more presentable for her young visitors. The students wrote: “It is a pleasure to visit Mrs. Redmond. She is so lovable, active, and quick witted, a laugh as ringing as a girl’s, and a keen sympathetic interest in her friends and neighbors."

Mrs. Redmond was born, Thresa Davin, in Meehan’s Settlement, July 15, 1838. The area was named for Michael Meehan who lived in Section 18 of Deerfield Township on Corduroy Road.

The name, Thresa Redmond, does not appear in county census records. However, there is an Anne Redmond living on Telegraph Road, born in 1839. Knowing that errors and variations on names were common in census records, it is possible that Thresa and Anne were the same person.

Nordmeyer Sorghum Farm

Sweetener consumption has been on the rise in the U.S. and around the world for decades. Sugar, corn syrup, and Sucralose are just some of the sweeteners used in food and beverages. In the 19th century, the sweetener of choice was sweet sorghum made from sorghum cane.

This circa 1910 photo of the Charley Nordmeyer farm shows a sorghum mill. The farm was located north of Gilmer Road and east of Erhart Road in Fremont Township. Illinois was a large sorghum producer at this time. Not all farms had sorghum mills, but most produced sorghum for personal use or for profit. There was always at least one mill in the area for farmers to bring their cane to be crushed into juice.

Seen here is George Schneider feeding the mill. The sorghum is stacked at left and fed into the mill by hand. The horses are the power source, walking in a circle to grind the cane. The juice is then collected in the metal "milk" cans shown in the foreground, and taken home to be cooked into sweet sorghum, also known as sorghum molasses.

The sorghum molasses was used as a natural sweetener, sometimes poured as syrup over hot cakes. The various parts of the plant left after crushing the cane could be used for livestock and poultry feed.

For more information on the tradition of sweet sorghum mills check out this interesting website on the preservation of the art of making sweet sorghum.

JFK in Libertyville

Feeling a little nostalgic for the "good ol' days" of presidential campaigning?

This Associated Press Photo was recently donated to the Museum. It shows Senator John F. Kennedy standing atop a car while campaigning for the presidency in Libertyville on October 25, 1960. Senator Paul Douglas of Illinois is seen at lower right.

Kennedy's route through the Chicago suburbs was printed in the Chicago Tribune the day of his visit. It listed Kennedy's motorcade leaving O'Hare Airport Inn at 9:20 a.m., and traveling by U.S. Highways 45 and 12 to Libertyville. The motorcade passed through Des Plaines and was scheduled to arrive in Libertyville at 10:20 a.m., and then onto Barrington, Carpentersville, Dundee, Elgin, Aurora, Joliet and so on.

The Tribune reported the next day that Kennedy's reception in Libertyville was "almost as chilly as the day," but you'd never know it from the crowd pressing in on him in this photograph. The Tribune went on to say that "as he went south down the Fox river valley the crowds increased in size and warmth."

The senator's day of campaigning through traditionally Republican territory ended with a rally at the York Township High School in Elmhurst in front of a crowd of 6,000.

Swan School

Community histories often include a section on the local school, but schools are rarely researched in and of themselves. One reason may be that school is so much a part of the infrastructure of our lives that it is overlooked in the grander scheme of things.

Many of us are quite sentimental for our school days; going to class reunions or meeting with former classmates over a cup of coffee to regale hilarious and sometimes embarrassing moments from the past.

In light of this curiosity, and to promote more interest in the history of schools, I've decided to regularly feature a school in my posts. One of the more substantial collections at the Lake County Discovery Museum's Archives (now the Bess Bower Dunn Museum of Lake County) is the School Collection. It includes histories for 52 one-room schools, photographs, and board of directors' ledgers for a number of schools.

To start, I've chosen the Swan School in Fremont Township for its somewhat central location.

The Swan School, once located at the southeast corner of Route 83 and Peterson Road, was named for Deacon Swan who donated the land for the school. The naming of schools was often handled in this way.

Swan School, circa 1900. Dunn Museum 81.21

 

As families settled newly opened regions of the country, the first building constructed after a home was a neighborhood school. The first school lessons taught in Lake County were in the home of Laura Sprague (1815-1899) in Half Day in 1836. Laura Sprague School in Vernon Township is named in her memory. The following year, the first proper schoolhouse was built in Libertyville.

The original Swan School was erected in 1856. By 1861, there were 70 one-room schoolhouses throughout Lake County.

Schools were central to each community. They were often used for church services, since schools were built before churches. Meetings and social gatherings such as dances and spelling bees were also held at the schools.

Miss Josephine Kische (later Ullrich) with her scholars in front of the Swan School's new brick schoolhouse, 1926. 

Dunn Museum 81.21

As listed on the back of the photo from left to right: Top row -- "Orphan" from Chicago who lived with a local farmer, Miss Kische, Ethel Meyer. Second row -- Dorothy Radke, Vernon Willard, Mary Fincutter, Anna Fincutter, Edward Fincutter, Jack Zahnle, Margaret Fincutter, Cecelia Grosser, ?? Willard, ?? Willard, Marge Sorenson (later Obenauf). First row -- Helen Radke, Helen Sorenson, Fiester boy, Fiester boy, Willard boy, Willard boy, Billy Meyer, Virginia ??, Fiester girl, Titus girl, Louis Meyer, Virginia Wirtz, Titus girl, Titus girl.

Swan School students, 1953. Dunn Museum 93.6.14

 

This above 1953 photograph of unidentified Swan School students retains much of the rural, farming atmosphere of earlier class photos. There's even a touch of mischief in their broad smiles.

Swan School lintel, circa 1926. Dunn  Museum. 95.6.2

In 1995, the Swan School was razed. Intersection improvements made it necessary for the school to be moved. The County of Lake tried unsuccessfully to find a buyer. 

For a selection of the Museum’s one-room school histories available online click here.

- Diana Dretske, Curator ddretske@lcfpd.org