To Protect and Preserve: An Early History of the Forest Preserve District of Cook County, Illinois, 1900-1930

Introduction

In the 1900s and 1910s, a few far-sighted individuals led the charge to create the Forest Preserve District of Cook County, Illinois, a vast, yet easily accessible expanse of forest near Chicago, one of the country’s largest metropolitan areas. This online exhibit explains how advocates envisioned preserving thousands of acres of land, lobbied local and state officials for supportive legislation, and won approval from Cook County voters.

The advocates had to answer hard questions:

The Perkins lantern slides and the Forest Preserve District of Cook County records

The centerpieces of this online exhibit are the glass lantern slides used by Dwight Heald Perkins, one of the principal advocates for the forest preserves in Cook County. In his lectures, public talks, and conferences, Perkins used the slides, which represented forest scenes from Cook County, to engage state lawmakers and the general public.

The Perkins slides and most of the other materials used in this exhibit come from the Forest Preserve District of Cook County records housed at Special Collections and University Archives, University of Illinois Chicago Library. That collection first opened to the public in 2011.

Funding

Funding for the original (2009) online exhibit and for processing the Forest Preserve District of Cook County records were provided by a generous grant from the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation.

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