One of the most beautiful libraries that I have ever visited was the Feehan Memorial Library at the University of Saint Mary of the Lake in Mundelein, Illinois (about an hour’s drive north of Chicago). Built in 1929, and inspired by sixteenth-century Italian palaces, the architecture of the library may not be the most practical,…
Author: Bet Arkeh
Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty
One of the most iconic symbols of the United States is the Statue of Liberty in New York City. Completed by Frederic Auguste Bartholdi and Gustave Eiffel (who, soon afterwards, built Paris’ Eiffel Tower) in 1886, France gave this statue to the United States as a gift. Her fame grew after Ellis Island opened in…
Ronald Reagan’s Birthplace and Boyhood Home
Although Illinois is known as the “Land of Lincoln,” Abraham Lincoln was born in Kentucky, not Illinois. The motto “Land of Lincoln” came from the fact that Lincoln lived in Illinois for a significant portion of his life, and also became its senator. Barack Obama also served as senator of Illinois. However, Ronald Reagan was…
Ukrainian National Museum of Chicago
Chicago ranks among the top three cities with the largest Ukrainian population in the United States. The first Ukrainian immigrants came to Chicago during a wave in the late nineteenth century, but three more waves of immigration followed throughout the twentieth century. Many Ukrainians settled in a western area of Chicago, which is now known…
Lenin Museum in Tampere, Finland
One of the strangest museums that I have ever visited was the Lenin Museum in Tampere, Finland. As its name implies, it is dedicated to the first leader of the Soviet Union, Vladimir Lenin. It is currently the only museum outside of Russia dedicated to him. Finland has a museum focused on Lenin, because the…
Chinese American Museum of Chicago
The Chinese American Museum of Chicago just reopened its doors to the public on July 1, 2020, after being closed since March, due to the COVID-19 outbreak. A video of the reopening is available on a Chinese website: http://video.sinovision.net/?id=57080&cid=124&fbclid=IwAR1JFmQDCF61-jNvMpIFVFGaAakkRuMxtn4yZFGysYTXGUQN_BPZhh8fWOI Many people from China began arriving to the United States during the California Gold Rush of…
Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History
The Smithsonian is a network of 20 museums run by the U.S. government. Perhaps the most popular of them is the National Museum of American History in Washington D.C. Completed in 1964, and originally called the National Museum of History and Technology, the museum, unsurprisingly, contains the largest collection of United States history in the…
DeKalb, Illinois and Barbed Wire
Most people may not know it, but Illinois has made an important contribution to barbed wire history. Although different people had been working on barbed wire during the mid-nineteenth century, it was not until 1874 that developments really skyrocketed in DeKalb, Illinois. According to my tour guide at the Joseph F. Glidden Homestead in DeKalb,…
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, also known as “The Met,” in New York City is arguably the best art museum in the United States. Founded in 1870, the Museum continues to expand as it collects more and more artwork. This past April, 2020, The Met turned 150 years old. Published in 1967, the children’s novel,…
Allen County Public Library
The largest research library focused on genealogy in the entire world is the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah. However, the second largest genealogy library in North America is the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Both libraries are open to the public for free, however, the first is a private,…
Bet Arkeh 