An online exhibit featuring 10 vintage wedding dresses
from 1875 to 1917.
These wedding dresses come from the collection of the Libertyville Historical Society and are displayed in the Ansel B. Cook Home in Libertyville, Illinois. The brides who wore these dresses represent a true slice of American society: one of the brides was a Wisconsin farm girl, another an Irish immigrant, and two were Mayor's wives. The dresses are as varied as the women who wore them and each dress reflects the fashion and spirit of the times in which it was worn.
The following memoir was sent to the Cook Memorial Public Library in the spring of 2004. We initially thought to add it to the books in our Local History Collection, but after reading Mr. Boyd's charming prose we knew it deserved a wider audience. With the permission of the authors we have reproduced the text as a web page and added illustrations using digital copies of vintage postcards from the Libertyville Historical Society. We have also added an index to every name and business mentioned in the text. We hope you'll enjoy reading these memories of "Bud's" growing up years in Libertyville. We have certainly enjoyed making them available to you.
The following essays were written by local historian C. E. Carroll in the 1950s. Mr. Carroll's love for Libertyville and its history were known throughout the county, and his pride in his community echoes in his writing.
Vintage post cards of the Lake County Fair in Libertyville from 1900 to the 1920's.
Libertyville was full of action in the 1920s. Click on the links to the left to discover her many facet and look for the "clipping files" to read headlines and articles from the local paper.
A look at some of the manufacturing companies that called Libertyville home in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
In the early part of the twentieth century, Sears, Roebuck and Company began selling house plans and the kits to build them. Their mail order home business peaked in the 1930s and they published their last home catalog in 1940. Over 100,000 families built Sears homes throughout those years and some of those families lived in Libertyville.