By Fiona MaxwellDirector of Museum Operations and Communications, Frances Willard House MuseumHistory PhD candidate, University of Chicago “If I have any special gift as a public worker, it is one I learned from my mother, that of developing the talents of others through warm appreciation and practical encouragement.”–Frances Willard Though known today as the Frances … Read more
“How strange it seems with so much gone Of life and love, to still live on.” Eighty-three Christmases have come to mother, and forty-eight to me. We have sped along the mile posts of years beyond our nearest comrades and are still here, but “They recon not by months and years Where these have gone … Read more
By Amelia Perkins, Philosophy PhD student, Northwestern University I spent this summer as an intern at the Frances Willard House Museum and WCTU Archives, through Northwestern’s Chicago Humanities Initiative, a program which matches graduate students with Chicago-area organizations seeking summer interns. I applied to CHI with the vague idea that it would be good to get … Read more
By Kristin Jacobsen, Assistant Archivist, Frances Willard House Museum and WCTU Archives Men may have dominated the California Gold Rush in the mid-nineteenth century, but the women of the state were energized by a longer-lasting undertaking – the temperance movement. A newly available collection of historical records tells the story of some of these women, the … Read more
By Fiona Maxwell, Director of Museum Operations and Communications; PhD candidate in History at the University of Chicago “Look up and off, and on and out; it is the curse of life that nearly everyone looks down.” – Frances Willard By 1874, Frances Willard had acquired a local reputation as a public speaker. Yet, when … Read more
By Janet Olson, Archivist On January 13, 2021, the Circulating Collectible Coin Redesign Act of 2020 was signed into law. The bill directs the Treasury Department, through the U.S. Mint, to issue quarter-dollar coins featuring “prominent American women,” effective January 1, 2022 through the end of 2025. The act allows up to five coin designs … Read more
2020 was a watershed year when much of the research, planning, and preparation for the Willard House Garden historic reconstruction efforts came to fruition. Beginning with a planning grant we received from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, we have worked to make the gardens surrounding the house a unique and special setting for Evanston’s … Read more
I’m Cate LiaBraaten, and I have been the Museum Operations Manager at the Frances Willard House since 2018. I have worked on a variety of tasks and projects that range from administrative to curatorial. This spring, I will be leaving the museum to focus on writing my dissertation. As I leave this position behind, I … Read more
In the spring of 1900, hundreds of people received invitations to the dedication of the new National Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) headquarters at “Rest Cottage, Evanston, Illinois.” Rest Cottage was the nickname Frances Willard had given her home – at least partially in jest as so much of her working life happened within its walls. … Read more
March is Women’s History Month and this year we are thinking about the places where women’s history happened, why it is so important to preserve them, and how easily they can be lost and forgotten. In advance of our program (Sunday 3/28 at 4 pm) – A Conversation with Michelle Duster: author of Ida B. … Read more