Community Corner
'Who Was Sadie Cooksey?' Time Running Out to See Outstanding Traveling Exhibition at Geneva History Center
Don't miss the opportunity to see this exhibition and catalog!
Since July 22, the Geneva History Center museum has hosted Who Was Sadie Cooksey?, a photographic traveling exhibition developed by Maine photographer Maggie Foskett.
The genesis of this exhibition reaches back to 1979, when Foskett stumbled onto an isolated cemetery on the former grounds of the Illinois State Training School for Delinquent Girls in Geneva. The “Girl’s School,” as it is known by locals, was located south of the railroad tracks on Route 25, where the Fox Run subdivision is today.
The exhibition’s narrative concentrates on a single figure— (1904-1924)—whose tombstone caught the photographer’s attention. Foskett explains that the exhibition’s title, , is a question with no answer.
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Sadie was one of hundreds of girls committed year after year for immorality or incorrigibility. The dates on her tombstone are all we know of her. Nevertheless, intensive historical research on Foskett’s part allows her to share with her audience a likely semblance of what Cooksey’s life was like on the school’s self-sufficient state run farm during the early years from 1894 to 1930.
An exhibition catalog has been created as a lasting legacy for this exhibition, the and the nameless girls that remain part of Geneva’s forgotten past. To preview this catalog, please visit the Geneva History Center website at www.genevahistorycenter.org and click on the link "Buy Who Was Sadie Cooksey? Exhibition Catalog."
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In conjunction with this exhibition, visitors can view the winners of the along with selected submissions which are on display in the Museum Lobby. Entries are images of Geneva—people, places or anything Geneva—and were judged by professional photographers.
Both exhibitions are closing on Saturday, Nov. 5. he public is able to visit Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the r, 113 South 3rd Street, Geneva. Admission is free; donations are accepted. For more information, please telephone the Geneva History Center at 630-232-4951.
