Join us at the Des Plaines Public Library this summer for our bi-monthly drop-in History Huddle program! Perfect for parents looking for family-friendly fun their kids this summer. We will host quick, drop-in, interactive activities and crafts that will expose kids to history in a fun way.

Join us on Saturday, June 20 from 1 to 5 pm for the 5th Annual Des Plaines Community Pride Celebration at Trinity Lutheran Church!

Learn about the Native American chief, Chief Alexander Robinson, and his family who lived in the area before Des Plaines from his family historian, Dan Melone.

State Representatives Michelle Mussman and Justin Cochran are presenting a town hall at the Des Plaines History Center on June 16!

Do you have any questions about policies and bills from the General Assembly? Join them at 6 to 8 pm and hear the latest updates on the past legislative session in Springfield.

Join us at the Des Plaines Public Library this summer for our bi-monthly drop-in History Huddle program! Perfect for parents looking for family-friendly fun their kids this summer. We will host quick, drop-in, interactive activities and crafts that will expose kids to history in a fun way.

Sip and shop local.  Explore the downtown business district plus more outside vendors will be on the route!   Registration and Meet up/Prize Drawings will be held at the Des Plaines Theatre! Opened to Des Plaines Chamber Members and to the public!  

All ages. No registration required. Join us in celebrating the start of the 2025 Summer Reading Challenge!

Iension - Carousel of Science

Come out to Lake Park and enjoy live entertainment, inflatables, food trucks, paddle boats, kayaking, sailing on the lake, and golfing hosted by the Des Plaines Park District!

You are cordially invited to join the Des Plaines History Center for the 59th Annual Member’s Meeting on May 20, 5:30 to 9:00 p.m, in the River Room at the Golf Center in Des Plaines.

Join Storyteller and Author Lynn Rymarz as she weaves the fictional story of Army Nurse Frances McGrath from The Women by Kristin Hannah and the true story of Army Nurse Lynda Van Devanter from her memoir Home Before Morning.

The Ken Project with the Des Plaines Art Guild

Ken, a long-time Des Plaines resident with an artistic eye, loved to find images and curate them. He meticulously cut and curated pictures from car magazines and Architectural Digest and put these images together to create complex and beautiful collections. In this program, participants will use discarded CD cases as a canvas for Ken’s images. Learn to make something new and beautiful from upcycled images using CD cases that would have otherwise gone to a landfill.

For more information and registration, visit www.dpag.org/event-details/the-ken-project-sustainable-collage-project-3.

The workshop is free, but registration is required.

Join us on April 28 for a meet & greet with State Representatives Justin Cochran and Michelle Mussman at the Des Plaines History Center! There are two tour spots (5:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.) of the Kinder House. You can also check out our new exhibit, Flora, Fauna, and Us —The Environmental History of Des Plaines, created in partnership with the Field Museum and the Izaak Walton League.

Join us at Arndt Park for our annual Earth Day celebration hosted by the Des Plaines Park District! Participants will enjoy crafts, games, giveaways, and entertainment, all while learning about the importance of making our planet a cleaner and safer place to live. The event is free and perfect for families.

Once upon a time, the Chicago Bears ruled the gridiron. Between 1921 and 1946, the Monsters of the Midway captured an incredible seven (!) NFL titles and helped shape the early days of professional football. Join author Joe Ziemba for our April Coffee Talk as he takes you back to an era when the game was gritty, hard-nosed, and led by larger-than-life figures like owners George Halas and Dutch Sternaman, and Hall of Fame players Red Grange, Bronko Nagurski, and Sid Luckman.

The Ken Project with the Des Plaines Art Guild

Ken, a long-time Des Plaines resident with an artistic eye, loved to find images and curate them. He meticulously cut and curated pictures from car magazines and Architectural Digest and put these images together to create complex and beautiful collections. In this program, participants will use discarded CD cases as a canvas for Ken’s images. Learn to make something new and beautiful from upcycled images using CD cases that would have otherwise gone to a landfill.

For more information and registration, visit www.dpag.org/event-details/the-ken-project-sustainable-collage-project-2.

The workshop is free, but registration is required.

In this program, artist and writer Michael Workman invites audiences to explore how writing, history, and landscape intersect to shape cultural memory. Workman approaches writing as a form of cultural archaeology—an excavation of the layered relationships between language, identity, and place. Through this lens, participants are encouraged to see the local environment not only as a backdrop but as a living archive of stories, gestures, and voices that continue to inform community life across Illinois.

Blending storytelling, performance, and reflective discussion, Workman leads participants through accessible exercises that connect observation, movement, and writing.

By the end of the program, attendees will have produced short fragments of writing and new ways of perceiving their environment—connecting artistic practice to civic imagination.

Author Cyndee Shaffer uses excerpts from letters her mother, Mollie Weinstein Schaffer, wrote home during World War II to provide a romantic yet frightening glimpse into the life of a woman in uniform during this crucial time in history. The 150,000 women who served in the Women’s Army Corps are now seen as undersung heroes of the Second World War. This memoir describes Mollie's life as a WAC enlistee, serving in England when it came under attack, in France immediately after the Allied invasion, and in Germany after VE Day. From her experiences during basic training in Daytona Beach to the climactic moment when she saw the Statue of Liberty as her ship approached American shores upon her return home, this work provides a glimpse into the life of a woman in uniform during this crucial time in American history.

Registration is required.
Coffee Talks are free for members and $10 for nonmembers. Please use this link to register online today.
Nonmembers may pay in advance online or at the door on the day of the event.

In the fall of 1779 George Washington took his 10,000 men into winter camp at Morristown, New Jersey after six long years of fighting. It would be a brutal winter of suffering, depression, starvation, betrayal, mutiny, treason and an attempt to kidnap George Washington by the British.

By the spring only 8,000 men would be left in Morristown with less than two thirds fit for service. Books have cemented Valley Forge as one with Omaha Beach, the Death March of Bataan, and Washington crossing the Delaware.

But the winter of Valley Forge was mild in comparison to other winters. Temperatures did not plummet to unheard levels and snowfall was normal. And the men were not starving on the scale that would later follow at Morristown. The winter of 1779 to 1780 was the worst in a century and would mark Washington’s darkest hour where he contemplated the army coming apart from lack of food and, money, six years of war, desertions, mutiny, the threat of a devastating attack by the British, and incredibly, a plot to kidnap him.

And yet Morristown would mark a turning point. After a long winter of suffering, he was joined by Lafayette in May who promised Washington a second fleet of French support, leading to the final defeat of the British in 1783.