Featured Exhibitions
Mystery Photos from the Downers Grove Reporter
Collection are on display now! Please help us identify unknown photographs. Your knowledge is an integral component in preserving our history. This collection will be exibited indefinitely.
Collections Corner
Featuring the Museum's most recent acquisitions and a variety of objects from the Museum's educational collection. Bring the family in and enjoy handling real tools, clothing and other three dimensional objects from the past. Learn about the Museum's latest additions to its collections. In addition, visitors will enjoy Kid's Tea Time, a display featuring children's tea sets dating before the Civil War through the beginning of the 20th century.This exhibit is ongoing and will be updated as the Museum acquires new artifacts.
Ongoing Displays
The Downers Grove Hall of Fame recognizes the contributions of the community's more noteworthy past residents.
The History of the Downers Grove Fire Department
takes a look back at the first one hundred years of the Downers Grove Fire Department from its inception as an all volunteer force in 1898 to today's trained professionals. Highlights of this permanent exhibit include the community's first motorized fire truck and junior size fire fighter outfits to try on.
Never Done...
A Woman's Work in a Turn-of-the-Century Kitchen examines the domestic activities of females in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Upcoming Exhibits
A History of Downers Grove Girl Scouting
October 2011-January 2012
The Girl Scouts of America is turning 100 this year, and the Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana are joining with the Museum to celebrate. This exhibit will highlight major changes and milestones within the organization and feature uniforms, handbooks, photographs, programs, memorabilia and other artifacts from the collections of the GSUSA and the Museum. Related programs will be offered throughout the exhibit’s duration.
Tools of the Trade
February-April 2012
See what kinds of tools people used in a variety of professions in Downers Grove’s history. From household and farming tools of the nineteenth century to technological advancements created to make one’s job easier of the twentieth century. The exhibit will feature objects from the Museum’s collections, including a plow, blenders, a washing machine, a variety of cameras, typewriters, accounting machines, etc.
