Designed for children between the ages of 4 and 12
Summer is a great time to explore the Geneva History Center through the summer Passport to Adventure Program! The annual program is your ticket to the many other amazing and exciting activities that museums provide to enrich our lives and communities. If you are interested, pick up a Passport booklet available at the Geneva History Center starting May 29. The booklet contains descriptions, telephone numbers, locations, open hours, handicapped and train accessibility and admission fees on museums in the Kane-DuPage County area. The Program begins each year on Memorial Day and runs through Labor Day 2012. Fill your passport with as many stamps as you can! After visiting five sites, participants who return their passport to the location…
Competition aims to capture unique images of Geneva, IL.
Want to be part of a museum exhibition at the Geneva History Center? The Geneva History Center is hosting the 2nd Annual Community Photo Contest and Exhibition. This competition aims to capture unique images of the community and essence of life in Geneva to help preserve images of Geneva for future generations. Photographs can be submitted now through June 1, 2012. A jury comprised of professional photographers will select a total of 25 photographs for display in the Geneva History Center Museum lobby from June 14 through Nov. 1, 2012. Cash prizes include: First place $150, Second place $100, Third place $50. Sponsored in part by the Geneva Cultural Arts Commission and Fox Valley Sudden Values. The contest is open to everyone and the …
The longtime Geneva teacher and volunteer died of an apparent heart attack April 7. Many people remember the influence Mary Bencini had on their lives. This is the
Like so many Genevans, I was shocked on Easter morning (via Facebook!) to discover Mary Bencini, longtime Geneva teacher and volunteer, advocate for children and community causes, had died the night before. All I could think was, what a huge loss for the community. It was a thought echoed and repeated that day, and all the days since. Her Facebook page filled up with remembrances and tributes. And I didn’t know her that well! We were certainly acquaintances; we knew each other and I talked with her upon many occasions in regard to various events—and they were varied, and many—she might be working on. So ... I give the floor, in terms of trying to get a look at Mary Hogan Bencini, whose services are set for Saturday, to those who knew …
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he Mary Hogan Bencini Room will be dedicated 3 p.m. Saturday, April 21, at the Geneva History Center.
The Geneva History Center is providing another legacy to the late Mary Bencini, who will be remembered Saturday, April 21, during a service at Malone Funeral Home. The Community Room, setting for the bulk of the center’s events, will be named in her honor. The Mary Hogan Bencini Room will be dedicated Saturday. “That room is where her heart is,” said Terry Emma, a friend of Bencini, who was a member of the Geneva History Center board and was an active volunteer. Visitation for begin will begin at 9 a.m. Saturday at Malone Funeral Home, 324 E. State St., with a service to follow at 1 p.m. In a nod to Mary’s passion for reading and writing, instead of prayer cards, there will be bookmarks. The Geneva History Center will host a reception to …
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Being unexpected guests with the Lincolns on the eve of the President's assassination turns out to be a pleasant surprise, and occasionally, an experience that tugs on the heartstrings.
The Geneva History Center's visit with the Lincolns on Feb. 19 was sold out and for good reason. It was a first-class, emotional show and one we hope will be an annual event in Geneva. Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln, expertly played by Debra Miller and Michael Krebs, took audience members on an interactive journey back in time to the 1800s, at the end of the Civil War. The audence spends an intimate 60 minutes with the presidential couple, enjoying an interactive story that is full of humor, inspiration and emotion. To begin, Lincoln spoke of the splendid fashion the crowd was sporting and even started in on the lawyer jokes. "Of course you know why they call it practicing law, don't you?" he said. "Because they never get it exactly right…
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Tickets are available soon for one of Geneva's biggest and most fun fundraising events. So set your calendar for Friday, May 11.
Sixty local celebrity men will demonstrate their cooking skills when the Geneva Chamber of Commerce presents the Fourth Annual “60 Men Who Cook” to benefit the Geneva History Center, Geneva Lions Club and Rotary Club of Geneva. The event is at 6 p.m., Friday, May 11, at the Kane County Fairgrounds, 525 S. Randall Road, St. Charles. Attendees will sample hors d’oeuvres, main dishes, side dishes and desserts—all made by men they know in the community—and then vote for their favorite to take home the “Peoples’ Choice Award” in each of the four categories. Tickets and voting online will be available soon at www.genevachamber.com. The evening will also include a cash bar and raffle.
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Geneva mourns the loss of two of its most beloved and well-known historians—Dick Jaeger and Merritt King—on Tuesday, Jan. 24.
Dick Jaeger, the beloved Geneva History Center volunteer and patron, died on the same day as his compatriot, Merritt King. Dick had been battling for several weeks—we knew because of the prayer requests at church—but it's sad, and hard to believe Geneva could lose two of its great historians on the same day. Dick died around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 24. Seven-term alderman and Geneva's historian emeritus Merritt King died that morning, at around 6 a.m. "It's just another sadness and loss for the History Center and for Geneva," said HPC Executive Director Terry Emma. "We're in total dismay. It just doesn't seem to connect." Dick was the man who created the three-dimensional miniature models of historic buildings in Geneva. For Geneva's 175th…
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12:11 pm on Sunday, April 29, 2012
my heart goes out to Norma and her family. I'm not able to attend the funeral as I'm in Florida but I'll be praying for all of you...Fondly, Ethel Lencioni \ more ›
Kane County is rich with Native American history.
Look. Look hard. Not through space, but through time. That oil change place wasn't always there. Or that shopping center. Long before the Europeans came—at least 9,000 years—this area was home to a series of Native American tribes, from the Achiligonan to the Tionontati. At one time or another, Illinois was home to more than 40 tribes. In Kane County, the Potawatomi called the Fox Valley home. The first documented Native Americans in the area were hunters. An extensive dig at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia in 1970-71 revealed 17 sites dating from 6,500 B.C. There is a public display of the finds on the 15th floor of Fermilab. At what is today Fermilab, Native Americans lived in 10 permanent settlements from the 13th …
With help from all over Geneva, the eighth annual Creche Luncheons on Thursday and Saturday reflect a wide level of community involvement, for a community treasure.
The upcoming eighth annual Geneva History Center Creche Luncheons (Thursday and Saturday, and both sold out) are truly a community affair. Not only do the luncheons take place at the center and museum at 113 S. Third St., they also benefit a community treasure (the 18th century Neapolitan creche that used to grace The Little Traveler and which the center acquired in 1990), feature community celebrity servers and feature table decorations by members of the community. They are sponsored by a Geneva service organization, the Geneva Rotary Club. And Geneva High School culinary students are cooking the food! This is perhaps the third year the center has utilized student talent, said Executive Director Terry Emma. “We think it’s a little more …
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The historic Geneva creche once owned by Kate Raftery is on display at the Geneva History Center. Two fund-raisersa are coming up, too.
The "Geneva crèche,: as it has come to be called, has had quite a journey over the years—a journey that's captured in part in the latest "Geneva History Minute" video. Kate Raftery opened The Little Traveler on Third Street after her in-home business selling imported goods became successful. It's still a mystery exactly how the crèche pieces were acquired, but it's believed they were purchased on a buying trip to Europe in the late 1920s, possibly in France or Italy. The pieces date back to the 1700s. A display ad published in The Geneva Republican confirms the crèche was first on display in 1930, described as "a beautiful old Sicilian Crèche." There are more than 40 figures, including the Holy Family, angels, shepherds, three magi, and a …
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Christine Donovan
11:37 am on Friday, April 20, 2012
Very appropriate honor to a woman who's passion was Geneva; it's past, present & future. more ›