History Center Wins IAM Innovation Award

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

April 9, 2026

History Center Wins IAM Innovation Award

The History Center is thrilled to announce that the new gardens on our campus have won the Illinois Association of Museums (IAM) Innovation Award. This competitive award is given to institutions that demonstrate a high level of originality in exhibition design and development. This award recognizes our continued efforts to create the most engaging exhibitions for our expanding audiences. 

Over the past decade, The History Center has built a dynamic indoor space for gathering and celebrating the stories of the community. During the pandemic, however, the museum learned the importance of being able to share our stories outside of our walls. Expanding the museum's digital exhibits, online programming and collection access just wasn't enough. A vision began to unfold--to bring history outdoors by transforming the landscape around the History Center into a storytelling platform that would be free to the public and accessible all year long.

So, what stories to tell? One, in particular, was waiting to be told.

While there are numerous gardens on museum grounds, there are none that we have found that show the evolution of landscape design over time. The story for these gardens focused on how significant landscape design styles and land conservation efforts were adopted early on in Lake Forest, and how they grew to influence the nation. But this wasn't a single era of landscape design—the nascent phases were there at the turn of the last century, and grew throughout the 1900s, evolving as gardens evolved.

The significance of our free gardens is that they offer a "walk through history" allowing visitors to go from pre-settlement prairie, through early traditional gardens, into the naturalistic garden style of designers such as Jens Jensen. This outdoor exhibit shows how the extraordinary transformation of the 1950s led to a completely different model for cultivating plants, expansion of the use of lawns, and a reinterpretation of how home gardens are used. American landscape design moved from the back garden to the "back yard," complete with the new lawn furniture made from aluminum in factories that had been focused on the war efforts. The garden walk then continues into today's landscape design, with our modern garden. Smaller gardens include the herb garden and children's garden. Each space invites participants in to learn, enjoy, and explore the space through ADA signage and paths. We are one of the few ADA-accessible free gardens in northern Illinois. 

The gardens help us share those stories in a tangible way. They connect people to history they can see, touch, and walk through. Once an underused expanse of lawn, the History Center's nearly two-acre site now features one half mile of walking paths that welcome visitors even when the museum is closed. It transforms our space into a public resource and allows us to engage with the community in new, meaningful ways. Fourteen interpretive signs along the half mile of paths tell the story of the design vision, landscape architects, historical references, and ecological functions. From highlighting the impact of sustainable planting to tracing how Lake Forest's design traditions influenced broader conservation movements, these signs educate and inspire. 

We also had to design around significant groundwater issues which led to numerous structural innovations in managing the built environment to serve as both rainwater storage and drainage for the gardens. The parking lot, in particular, serves as a massive water reservoir that passively feeds into the gardens so that no irrigation system in needed.

We are thrilled to be recognized for our innovation and thank the Illinois Association of Museums for their hard work and dedication in supporting museums large and small across Illinois. Please stop by and stroll the gardens soon!

*The Illinois Association of Museums (IAM) supports and advocates for museums throughout the state. IAM helps museums preserve cultural heritage, offer educational programs, and foster community engagement. By providing resources and networking opportunities, IAM ensures that museums can thrive and make a lasting impact on society.