By Liz Clemmons and Denise Raleigh
The Gail Borden Library in Elgin is celebrating Women’s History Month in March with an original exhibit it created about Elgin trailblazers from the past. Elgin: A Women’s City Without Many Pictures pairs each woman’s story with a silhouette instead of a photo—images of these women being nonexistent or difficult to find.
Elgin historian E.C. “Mike” Alft had commented in Elgin: A Women’s City, his book on which the exhibit is based, that few photos of prominent women were taken as they were generally not covered by newspapers in the past. Library staff seized on the idea of representing these women including scientist Mildred A. Engelbrecht, baseball player Charlene Barnett and ballerina Lisa Boehm with silhouettes alongside their stories.
Jumping to modern day where we have so many more talented women storytellers, the exhibit spotlights women journalists of today. Area high school students’ interviews with women journalists are shown at Celebrating Today’s Women Journalists. Former NBC5 political editor Carol Marin, now a director of the DePaul University Center for Journalism Integrity & Excellence; WTTW Chicago Tonight co-anchor Brandis Friedman; Daily Herald Assistant City Editor and Diversity Editor Madhu Krishnamurthy; General Manager, USA for TimeZoneOne, & recent editor-in-chief Chicago magazine Amy Carr; and Chicago Tribune visual journalist Stacey Wescott were some interviewed for the exhibit.
Gail Borden Library has long history of using extraordinary exhibits for the community at no charge. These museum-quality exhibits have driven summer reading events and fit nicely in its 153,826-square-foot main building. These exciting exhibits draw attention to books and other materials related to its summer reading theme like GIANTS: African Dinosaurs in 2005 and SPACE: Dare to Dream in 2007.
This summer, the Library is planning a surprise new exhibit. Please check www.gailborden.info to find out what it is in the upcoming weeks.
The arrival of fall will find another fun exhibit at the Library when a giant pirate ship sales into town. Pirate Island, an exhibit from the Miami Children’s Museum, will offer activities for young sailors to learn how to tie knots, decode messages, speak “pirate” and discover the legends of pirates.
The 5-Star Gail Borden Public Library serves a wonderfully diverse community of approximately 150,000, and it welcomes over 870,000 (non pandemic times) visitors annually.
Serving and collaborating with the local community since 1874, the Library’s main prairie style building along the Fox River was completed in 2003. The Rakow and South Elgin branches along with the Bookmobile also help to serve the community.
The Library offers books, eBooks, streaming movies and classes, dynamic programming with STEM and technology themes, as well as special events such as job and career expos, technology fairs and new-parent initiatives. Unique museum-quality exhibits have featured life-size dinosaurs, interactive exhibits such as Adventures with Clifford The Big Red Dog™ and the history of space, which gave local students the opportunity to chat live with an astronaut aboard the International Space Station.
The Library and its staff members have been recognized as leaders across the state as well as on a national level. Among its numerous awards, the Library received the nation’s highest honor for the industry, the National Medal for Museum and Library Service in 2009.
