The Little White School Museum, 72 Polk Street, Oswego, is celebrating Black History Month and Women’s History Month with special programs and a special exhibit through March.
At 1:30 p.m. Sunday, March 6, the museum will celebrate both Black History Month and Women’s History Month when Marlene Rivero presents “Elizabeth Keckley—Presidential Seamstress.”
All ages are welcome for this presentation about Mary Todd Lincoln’s seamstress. Admission is $5.
Initially known for the clothes she created for president Abraham Lincoln’s wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, Keckley gained a reputation as a first-rate dressmaker while enslaved. For over two and a half years, she used her hands and needle to provide for the 17 people in her slave master’s household. After she gained her freedom, she eventually started her own business and employed 20 women, a feat unheard of in those days.
The presentation host will be the Little White School Museum, the Oswegoland Park District, and the Oswegoland Heritage Association in partnership with the Illinois Humanities Road Scholar Speakers Bureau.
Pre-registration is urged for this program, but walk-ins the day of the program are welcome. To preregister, call the park district at 630-554-1010 or visit their web site, www.oswego
landparkdistrict.org.
The museum’s special exhibit celebrating February’s Black History Month, “Nathan Hughes: Union Soldier,” a special exhibit honoring Black Civil War veteran Nathan Hughes, who is buried in the Oswego Township Cemetery, is continuing in the museum gallery. The exhibit, curated by museum manager Anne Jordan, recounts Hughes’ history as an escaped slave who enlisted in the 29th U.S. Colored Infantry Regiment and who brought his family to the Oswego area after the war. He farmed and raised his family on Minkler Road south of Oswego. His grandchildren became the first Black high school graduates in Kendall County.
For more information on the Little White School Museum, call 630-554-2999 or visit their web site at www.littlewhiteschoolmuseum.org.
—Little White School Museum