DuPage County Historical Society (DCHS) launched the Museum’s collection and made the Museum possible. While DCHS is a separate organization, the DuPage County Historical Museum (DCHM) often partners with this group to host events and projects throughout the county. Every year, DCHM hosts the annual meeting of DCHS in October. Typically this event is held the 3rd week of October, for details go to the Events and Programs Calendar.

To find out more about DCHS, visit their website at dupagehistory.org.

The DuPage County Genealogical Society (DCGS) has partnered with the Museum for over nearly a decade, providing a public annual meeting at DuPage County Historical Museum every September on a local genealogical theme. They offer a wonderful genealogical conference every March and provide genealogical assistance to the public every month, at their monthly meeting at Wheaton Public Library.

To find out more about DCGS, visit their website at dcgs.org.

Culinary Historians of Northern Illinois (CHNI) seek to understand social and cultural history through the study and celebration of food and drink. The Museum partners with CHNI for programs throughout the year. CHNI has put a call out for cookery manuscripts (recipes): Preserve family recipes, 50 years or older, with the Culinary Historians of Northern Illinois. Having such a collection of recipes and comments is an important research tool for those working on new perspectives on cultural, political and social history.

For more information, email CHNI at [email protected] or visit culinaryhistoriansofnorthernillinois.com.

A county-wide initiative to encourage the collection of DuPage County histories from community members and to make those histories accessible to all.

While a primary focus of the project is to collect and record the memories and stories of DuPage County, an additional focus will be to collect the histories of the people who now call DuPage County home. The project includes initiative based programming at local history museums, libraries, and other willing institutions that serve DuPage County. Fostering collaboration county-wide, this project will create and maintain lasting relationships between cultural institutions throughout the county and further bind the people of DuPage County through their common and distinct histories.

How will the stories be used?

The DuPage County Historical Museum, in conjunction with the Voices of DuPage, will keep a digital copy of all oral histories. The oral histories can be loaned to other museums, libraries, schools, and other cultural institutions within and outside the county. Stories will be used primarily for educational purposes, research, and exhibits. Individuals and groups who participate in the oral history project may keep copies of their own digital interview to be used for their own purposes.

Telling your story

The DuPage County Historical Museum provides a variety of ways for individuals to record their rich and diverse histories. Each year, the Museum chooses a different theme in an attempt to broaden the knowledge of first-person histories of Wheaton and DuPage County. Please keep this theme in mind before setting up an appointment. All interviewers are trained to record histories from the current or any of the previous years’ themes.

Themes: Civil Rights Experiences, Veterans, Farming in DuPage, Women in Politics, World War II, Immigration, COVID-19, 2020 Civil Rights and Black Lives Matter Movement.

The Museum offers several drop-in events for individuals to share their stories throughout the year. For details, go to the Events and Programs Calendar.

Individuals may contact the Museum to set up a personal appointment. Groups may arrange for a special session, which may take place off site, if needed.

For more information, please contact us.