Year-End Giving at the History Center

Annual Appeal 2026-2027:

Your Home for History, From Near and Far

The History Center is a place to return to again and again. Come for an exhibit, stay for a program, walk through our historic gardens, or bring your questions to the Archives. Every visit is a chance to discover something you never knew about the place you call home. Whether you visit often or connect with us from farther away, you are part of the History Center community, and each year the Annual Appeal invites you to help keep this place your home for history.

Why It Matters

Every organization needs people who believe deeply in its purpose. At the History Center, annual donors are those people. Your gift gives us the confidence to dream and the means to create: an exhibition that reveals a surprising connection, a garden that becomes a place of discovery, stories from the Archives brought into people’s lives. You help us see what is possible, and then you help us make it happen.

Unlike gifts to a specific project or event, an Annual Appeal gift goes where it is needed most. It cares for our collection, tends our gardens, and brings exhibitions and programs to life for neighbors, families, and schools. The Archives Renovation and Local Legends each support a particular part of our work. The Annual Appeal keeps it all running, every day of the year.

This year, we look ahead to two milestones in 2027.

Our new exhibit, Lake Forest Away, will explore the places local families have wintered and summered, revealing another dimension of community life. And a renovated Archives building will open with an accessible research and learning environment for anyone to explore our community’s history. We are planning both with real ambition, because supporters like you make it possible. If you have given before, we hope you will renew your gift and consider increasing it this year.