With our most recent harvest, the IDHH has added nine new collections! Today we’re highlighting two collections from the Des Plaines Public Library: City of Destiny and Greetings from Des Plaines.
City of Destiny features items that tell the story of Des Plaines’s governmental growth from a nineteenth-century village to a modern city. These items include governmental and public buildings, portraits of elected officials, newspaper clippings, events such as planting trees for Arbor Day, and even sheet music with fifty reasons that “You Will Like Des Plaines!”
Revised Ordinances of the Village of Des Plaines [page 2]. 1886. Des Plaines Public Library. City of Destiny. Courtesy of the Des Plaines Public Library.You Will Like Des Plaines, Sheet Music [page 2]. 1924. Des Plaines Public Library. City of Destiny. Courtesy of the Des Plaines Public Library.Greetings from Des Plaines is a collection of postcards, featuring buildings and scenic views in Des Plaines as well as Chicago. Though some postcards are unsent and blank, many are postmarked with stories of the people who sent and received them.
Main Street W. from Pearson Street. c. 1900. Des Plaines Public Library. Greetings from Des Plaines. Courtesy of the Des Plaines Public Library.
Des Plaines Public Library, 1916 [front]. March 31, 1916. Des Plaines Public Library. Greetings from Des Plaines. Courtesy of the Des Plaines Public Library.Des Plaines Public Library, 1916 [back]. March 31, 1916. Des Plaines Public Library. Greetings from Des Plaines. Courtesy of the Des Plaines Public Library. The postcard sender hopes to see the recipient soon, to share some “pretty useful” crochet patterns.