Dunn Museum, Grayslake Heritage Center post new exhibits
The Bess Bower Dunn Museum in Libertyville and the Grayslake Heritage Center have debuted interesting new exhibits recently. Here’s what you need to know about them.
Gift inspires women in military exhibit
When Waukegan resident Ellen Powell donated photos of her aunt who served the military as a pilot during World War II to the Dunn Museum, staff members were “all blown away,” said Diana Dretske, museum curator. “The photos are incredible,” she said.
Staff was inspired and decided to make a full-blown exhibit honoring women serving in the military she said.
The exhibition is open through June 13 using the museum’s own collections such as women’s military uniforms and the latest donation of photos.
Through research, staff learned that Powell’s aunt, Janice Christiansen, grew up in Waukegan, attended Waukegan High School and loved photography and airplanes.
“She paid to take flying lessons at the Waukegan Airport, and then World War II was happening,” Dretske said.
The Waukegan Civil Air Patrol, to support the war, was established and Christiansen joined. Their jobs included watching for enemy aircraft, Dretske said. Then a new civilian women’s unit was created. “It was civilian at the time, not part of the military,” Dretske said. Christiansen applied and was one of roughly 1,000 women from the nation who completed the training.
Dretske said the women’s unit test flew planes. “The women also would fly missions where they would be towing a target behind them. Live ammunition would be shot at the target,” she said.
It took women in that unit years to get recognized as war veterans, Dretske said. “It finally happened in 1977.” So Christiansen is now considered a war veteran and part of the military.
The museum exhibit shows Christiansen wearing her flight suit, standing in the cockpit with her comrades. “It’s just very dynamic. We were just blown over by her story,” Dretske said.
Dretske said the exhibit depicts all the branches of military service and features Lake County women’s stories from World War I, World War II and the Korean War.
Christiansen died in 1965 and left her photos to her niece. “What we found was just over time how the more that women were present — how it became more acceptable that women really can do a lot. At one time the Navy thought they’d need two women to do the job one man could do. They learned it wasn’t true,” Dretske said.
Also in the exhibit is an inspiration wall, in which Lake County residents share personal stories of themselves or women they know who served. “We’re collecting these stories for our archives,” Dretske said.
“March is women’s history month,” she said. “It’s a great time to come see the exhibit and see how in times of war when our country has needed to come together, everyone came to the fore and helped. Women showed they were critical to the war efforts. It’s very inspiring.”
Breaking Barriers: Women in the Military requires prepaid online tickets for specific times between 10 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. The exhibit also will be open from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. March 24 and March 26.
Information: 847-367-6640, lcfpd. org.
Prohibition stories told at Grayslake Heritage Center
At the Grayslake Bars and Prohibition exhibit running until Oct. 21, kids and adults can see what they’d look like during the early 20th century in a hands-free dress-up station. That part of exhibit helped it win an award of excellence from the Illinois Association of Museums.
The exhibit can be viewed from noon to 4 p.m. Wednesdays to Saturdays at the Grayslake Heritage Center.
The exhibit includes a look at Grayslake’s earliest taverns, explaining how Avon Township (where Grayslake is located) went dry in 2016, which was four years before the national Prohibition laws banned alcohol sales everywhere.
“Those in the know could find places in the area to drink illegally,” said Michelle Poe, the museum’s executive director. “The Grayslake Hotel, for example, was fined more than once for serving alcohol.”
She said a local newspaper account said wives were complaining that their husbands came home so inebriated during Prohibition that they didn’t want dinner and went straight to bed.
The exhibit showcases photos and artifacts from a local collector and the Grayslake Historical Society.
Poe said one of the fun facts visitors will learn at the exhibit is that Grayslake’s first-known tavern building became a silent movie theater during Prohibition, and then became a bar when alcohol became legal again. Today, the bar is called Charlie’s.