Lake Bluff History Museum is reviving the “Chautauqua-style” program — a format rooted in the village’s history as a popular late-19th century summer resort known as the Lake Bluff Camp Meeting. The resort was a premier site for the Chautauqua movement, a unique American tradition that blended entertainment, community debate and religious education.
The Museum’s Chautauqua-Style programs will honor this legacy through interactive deep dives led by local historians. Highlights include:
6/14: Remarkable Women of Lake Bluff
6/21: Lake Bluff Junction: How Railroads Shaped Lake Bluff
8/9: Artists of Lake Bluff
9/20: Lake Bluff’s Sen. Robert McClory and Watergate
10/11: A resident’s Memories of the Lake Bluff Children’s Home
10/22: Historic Documents: The Promise of Liberty
10/25: How Culture, Community and Faith Shaped Lake Bluff: The Lake Bluff Camp Meeting & Chautauqua
Separately, the Museum also be a semi-regular presenter at this summer’s Lake Bluff Farmers Market. To inspire the next generation of historians, the Museum is hosting story-time for children on Friday mornings at the Farmers Market several times this summer.
These sessions are designed to make the past tangible through classic storytelling and hands-on artifacts, helping children discover how their lives in Lake Bluff connect to the broader American story.
Dates when Lake Bluff History Museum will be at the Lake Bluff Farmers Market:
6/12: Pioneer School Days – what it was like to go to a one room school
6/26: Pioneer Games – what a playdate looked like in the early days of LB
7/17: What did your great, great. great grandparents wear when they were young?
7/31: Going to the Beach in the old days
8/14: How Lake Bluff celebrates the 4th of July and why it is important
8/28: Stories of Important people and places in our home town