Greater Chicago Chapter of the Victorian Society in America

01/23/2019

Visit to Halim Museum of Time and Glass

12/21/2018

The Chicago you know becomes new when Victorian Society members enter 19th century private homes and view collections the public never sees. Museum curators can tell stories about their collections they don't reveal in the exhibit. Learn more about a society, open to all, which invites you to fun you can't have on your own. Hear about summer schools in London, Newport, and Chicago, plus study tours nationwide for those who want to delve deeper into the 19th Century.

12/20/2018

Dear GCCVSA Members,

As incoming chapter president, I'm excited about our schedule of 2019 events. The first will be Saturday, January 19: a docent led tour of the new Halin Museum of Time and Glass in Evanston. Details to follow.
Larry Lesperance

01/26/2018

Happy Birthday - Virginia Woolf
Adeline Virginia Woolf 25 January 1882 – 28 March 1941) was an English writer. - Wikipedia

She is considered one of the foremost modernist authors of the 20th century and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Born in an affluent household in Kensington, London, she attended the Ladies' Department of King's College and was acquainted with the early reformers of women's higher education.[2]

Having been home-schooled for the most part of her childhood, mostly in English classics and Victorian literature, Woolf began writing professionally in 1900. During the interwar period, Woolf was a significant figure in London literary society and a central figure in the influential Bloomsbury Group of intellectuals. She published her first novel titled The Voyage Out in 1915, through the Hogarth Press, a publishing house that she established with her husband, Leonard Woolf. Her best-known works include the novels Mrs Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927) and Orlando (1928), and the book-length essay A Room of One's Own (1929), with its dictum, "A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction."

Woolf became one of the central subjects of the 1970s movement of feminist criticism, and her works have since garnered much attention and widespread commentary for "inspiring feminism", an aspect of her writing that was unheralded earlier. Her works are widely read all over the world and have been translated into more than fifty languages. She suffered from severe bouts of mental illness throughout her life and took her own life by drowning in 1941 at the age of 59.

11/09/2017

1) Ravenswood Fellowship Methodist Church, an 1890 building by architect John Woollacott; 2) 4500 block of N. Hermitage stopping to view the exterior and hear the history of a series of homes built during the 1870's-1880's; 3) Abbott Pharmaceuticals; 4) All Saints Church, the oldest frame church in Chicago, designed by John Cochrane, architect of the Illinois State Capitol, and built in 1883

09/02/2017

“Jarvis Hunt and the Chicago Golf Community”
Saturday, September 23 2017 10:00 AM

The Greater Chicago Chapter of the VSA will tour houses, “cottages”, and other buildings designed by architect Jarvis Hunt for Chicago’s first “golf community,” built around the Chicago Golf Club south of Wheaton in the early 20th century. Jarvis Hunt is the nephew of Richard Morris Hunt and the architect of Kansas City Union Station, Great Lakes Naval Station and the Cyrus H. McCormick II estate in Lake Forest.

Facilitating for this event for us will be Mr. & Mrs. Robert Jacobsen, friends of VSA Vice President and member Keith Letsche. Our day will begin at 10:00 AM with a tour of the Jacobsen’s home, which was Hunt’s home after his divorce. It will be followed by a driving tour of the exteriors of neighboring Hunt residences. We will have the possibility of also viewing the interior of Ballyshear, the home of Mr. Charles Blair McDonald, who spearheaded the founding of the Chicago Golf Club.

The highlight of our tour will be luncheon at the prestigious Chicago Golf Club courtesy of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Jacobsen, with the opportunity to see the clubhouse designed by Jarvis Hunt. The Chicago Golf Club is an exclusive private club that is the nation’s oldest 18-hole golf course. The luncheon will consist of: cream of asparagus soup, three-scoop (tuna, chicken, and egg) salad with fruit, key lime pie, and tea and coffee. A special diet luncheon is available. Please indicate your special diet needs on the reservation slip below. The cost of the luncheon is included in your event fee.

Proper dress is required in the clubhouse! Men should wear dress slacks, a collared shirt, and dress shoes (coats and ties have been waived for summer afternoons). Women should wear a sleeved dress or sleeved full blouse with a skirt or slacks and appropriate shoes. No collarless or sleeveless shirts, tight-fitting or loud-colored garments, tank-tops, jeans of any kind, shorts, sweat pants, or other athletic wear, tennis or athletic shoes, flip-flops, or sandals are permitted. Unfortunately, participants not properly dressed will not be permitted in the clubhouse. Also, no cell-phone use is allowed in the clubhouse dining areas or parlors.

This Tour is limited to twenty (20) participants. We will meet at the Jacobsen’s home, 1 S 617 Hawthorne Lane, Wheaton, IL at 10:00 AM sharp. To get to the Jacobsen’s, take Illinois route 38 (Roosevelt Road) west in Wheaton past Main Street to West Street/Warrenville Road, then south on Warrenville Road to Merrill Road (just past St. Michael’s Cemetery on the left), east on Merrill to Hawthorne Lane, then south on Hawthorne past the “Private Road” sign and the culvert bridge. The Jacobsen’s is the first house on the left. Please park on the road, not in the driveway.
_________________________________________________________________________________
“Jarvis Hunt and the Chicago Golf Community”
Cost: $40 per GCC Member/ $45 per Non-Member – Saturday, September 23 2017 10:00 AM
Cost of Luncheon Included

Name: ____________________________________ Guest’s Name: _________________________________
Telephone Number: _________________________ Cell Phone: _________________________________
Amount Enclosed: ___________________________ Members/Non-Members: _____________/___________
Special Diet Requirements: ___________________________________________________________________________________
Registration Deadline: Monday, September 18, 2017
Information Contact: Keith Letsche at 630-293-0192 or keithletsche@aol.com
Please fill out reservation form and return with a check to: GCCVSA, PO Box 3815, Oak Park, Il 60303-3815

06/22/2017

Dion Boucicaut's play
London Assurance
directed by Terry McCabe

Sunday, July 23, 3:00 PM
City Lit Theater, 1020 W. Bryn Mawr, Chicago, Il
(inside Edgewater Presbyterian Church)

“London Assurance”, the comedy sensation of 1841, has been produced repeatedly in New York and London up to the present day, but has not been seen on a Chicago stage for 120 years. Boucicault's play is the well-built bridge between the great comedies of manners from the late 18th century like Oliver Goldsmith's “She Stoops to Conquer” and the great comedies of the 1890's like Oscar Wilde's “The Importance of Being Earnest”.

An appetizer reception will follow the play with members of the cast and the director.

Order your own ticket through the City Lit Theater box office.
WWW.CITYLIT.ORG
773-293-3682
boxoffice@citylit.org

City Lit Theater is one block from the Bryn Mawr stop of the CTA red line and steps from the box stop along Sheridan Rd. Use CTA trip planner for details. Limited free street parking is available on side streets. Check pay-box regulations if parking on Bryn Mawr. Francesca's restaurant, 1039 W. Bryn Mawr, has valet parking for patrons and sometimes accepts non-patrons. Or use ParkWhiz.com on-line to select a parking lot and space.
___________________________________________________
City Lit Theater, 1020 W. Bryn Mawr, Chicago, Il
Sunday, July 23, 2017 3:00 PM
Cost: $10 member/non-member for reception. Order your own ticket for the play through the box office.
Name: __________________________________
Guest’s Name:______________________________
Telephone Number: __________________________
Cell Phone: __________________________
Registration Deadline: Wednesday, July 12, 2017
Information Contact:
Larry Lesperance: 773-944-9466; LL4852@aol.com
Please fill out reservation form and return with a check made out to: GCCVSA
Mail form and check to:
Larry Lesperance, 5555 N. Sheridan Rd. Apt. 1710, Chicago, Il. 60640

City Lit Theater Company, located in Chicago, is dedicated to the vitality and accessibility of the literary imagination.

06/02/2017

“Tiffany’s Revolution (in Chicago and Elsewhere): Art and Meaning”
Lecture by Dr. Richard Guy Wilson
The Lecture Gallery of the
Chicago Architecture Foundation
224 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, Illinois
Sunday, June 18 2017 6:30 – 7:30 PM
Among American artists of the later nineteenth and early twentieth century, Louis Comfort Tiffany was the leader in changing the course of American art and design. His Favrile, or luminescent glass, revolutionized the stained-glass industry, and he also introduced new items for homes and designed the interiors of many houses, public buildings, and businesses. Well known on the international stage with many awards from the various world’s fairs, he was the most famous American artist in Europe. This talk will look at the tremendous variety of his work across the United States and examine some of his contributions to Chicago.
Dr. Richard Guy Wilson is a noted architectural historian and Commonwealth Professor in Architectural History at the University of Virginia. Dr. Wilson’s research and writing has focused on American architecture from the 18th to the 20th centuries. He has authored, co-authored or edited over a dozen books. He has served as an advisor and commentator for several televised programs on PBS, C-SPAN, the History Channel, and A&E. Dr. Wilson is the director of The Victorian Society in America Newport Summer School.
The evening’s lecture is being presented by The Victorian Society in America Chicago Summer School, to which the Greater Chicago Chapter has made many substantial donations. The lecture is being offered free of charge as a way for The Greater Chicago Chapter to say thank you to its members and supporters.
Registration Deadline: Tuesday, June 13, 2017
Please fill out reservation form and return to:
GCCVSA, PO Box 3815, Oak Park, IL 60303-3815

04/25/2017

2nd Presbyterian Church of Chicago
Announcing our April Lecture:

“Discovering Dodge”

William De Leftwich Dodge, American Muralist (1867-1935)

Judy Koessel, owner of an 1890s Victorian home, will talk about what happened when she asked the question

“Who painted the mural on my ceiling?”

What started as a simple question became a detective story as one question led to another. Ms. Kossel became immersed in the life of the artist William De Leftwich Dodge and the array of murals he produced during a long illustrious career, including his most impressive achievement - the Dome of the Administration Building at the 1893 Columbian Exposition.

The plot thickened as Cook County announced plans to demolish all the homes in her neighborhood to control flooding.

Come to hear Judy’s unique story as she discovered she was living with a treasure from Chicago’s history, and realized she had crossed paths with the artist once before. Learn why she made the decision to leave her fairy tale dream home, and help her in her journey to find a new home for the mural so it can continue to tell the story of an important piece of Chicago History.

Wednesday, April 26th, 2017
6:00pm reception
7:00pm lecture
Second Presbyterian Church
1936 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago
$10 suggested donation per person
Questions: historic2ndchurch@yahoo.com or 1-800-657-0687

Parking for the event is available in the lot immediately north of the church. In addition to lot parking, Michigan and Cullerton Avenues have convenient street parking. Please enter through the church's front entrance located on Michigan Avenue.

Help us to keep going and growing.
To Give:
Mail a check payable to:
Friends of Historic Second Church at 1936 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL 60616, or
Visit our website at www.2ndpresbyterianfriends.org/support/donate,
Thank you.

01/09/2017

MASTERPIECE will premiere a new miniseries, Victoria, on Sunday, January 15th at 9/8c. The six-episode drama follows Queen Victoria (Jenna Coleman) from the time she becomes England’s monarch in 1837 at the age of 18 through her relationship with her first prime minister, Lord Melbourne (Rufus Sewell), and her courtship and marriage to Prince Albert (Tom Hughes). (It is expected that in ensuing years, the Victoria series will cover her full reign.)

Our screenwriter is Daisy Goodwin, who first started reading the Queen’s diaries as a student at Cambridge University. She has since written the novel, Victoria, recently published by St. Martin’s Press. Both the series and Goodwin’s novel are based on the Victoria’s diaries. I’d be happy to share a copy for a giveaway at your next Chapter event.

12/05/2016

Possible 2017 GCC-VSA Events - yet to be confirmed
Hull House/Jane Adams – February
Berghoff Building Architecture - April
VSA Summer School - June
City Lite Theater - London Assurance - July
Historical Tour of St Charles Road - September
All Saint Episcopal Day of the Dead - October

11/18/2016

Interesting Victorian Women:
Sara Josephine Baker -- the pioneering physician who is credited with saving the lives of 90,000 children -- was born in 1873. At the turn of the 20th century, the impoverished slums of New York City were among the most densely populated places on Earth, and epidemics killed an estimated 4,500 people each week in the overcrowded immigrant tenements. With a third of children born in the slums dying before their fifth birthday, Baker famously remarked that "It is six times safer to be a soldier in the trenches than a baby in the United States."
Baker grew up in a Quaker family in Poughkeepsie, New York, and studied medicine at the Women’s Medical College in Manhattan, the medical school run by Emily Blackwell, the sister of Elizabeth Blackwell, America’s first woman doctor. With diseases such as measles, dysentery, typhoid, and diphtheria running rampant in the city's Lower East Side, Baker was put in charge of the Health Department’s newly formed Bureau of Child Hygiene, the first of its kind in the country. In this role, Baker approached public health in a dramatic new way -- rather than focusing on tracking down sick children, whose chances for survival were often slim in the age before antibiotics, she decided the new bureau would focus on prevention and education.
Among her most successful initiatives, she sent nurses to visit all new mothers within a day of delivery to teach them about proper infant care, including encouraging breast-feeding, regular bathing, and fresh air. She also set up a network of milk stations to provide clean, pasteurized milk to mothers who couldn't breastfeed, a healthy alternative to the dirty water, contaminated milk, or beer otherwise fed to infants. Moreover, Baker convinced city officials to require that midwives have licenses since many mothers and infants died each year during deliveries by untrained midwives. She even developed special capsules for administrating silver nitrate to the eyes of newborns to prevent blindness due to congenital gonorrhea. Within three years of launching her programs, the infant death rate in New York City dropped by an astounding 40%.
Baker went on to help support the launch of the Federal Children’s Bureau in 1912, now an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, to develop such public health initiatives nationwide. By this time, Baker had become well-known both in the US and overseas as a champion of public health. When she was asked to teach a course on child hygiene at the New York University School of Medicine, she agreed with only one condition -- the school, which at the time refused to admit female students, had to allow Baker and other women to enter the program as well. She graduated with a doctorate in public health in 1917 and continued to teach at the medical school for 15 years, publishing more than 250 articles in the professional and popular press. Baker died in 1945 at the age of 71 but her incredible legacy lives on today in public health programs across the world.
To read Sara Josephine Baker's fascinating autobiography, "Fighting for Life," visit http://amzn.to/2fTZJuH -- or you can read more about her life in the NY Review of Books at http://bit.ly/2fvtkOp