Calendar of Events

100 Years of Girl Scouting

December 9, 2011 – March 30, 2012
Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from Noon-4pm
Admission free, donations welcomed.
David L. Pierce Art and History Center, 20 East Downer, 2nd Floor Gallery

Curated by the Aurora Historical Society and the Girl Scouts of Northern Illinois, this exhibit showcases memorabilia and tells the story of Aurora-area scouting which has touched the lives of thousands over many decades. Opening reception Friday, December 9, 2011 from 5-8pm. Admission to the reception and exhibit is free. Free parking at the Downer/Stolp Deck (have your ticket stamped in the gift shop).

The Orphan Trains: The History and the Human Side of the Story

Sunday, February 19, 2012
2pm
Pierce Art and History Center
20 East Downer Place Aurora, IL 60505
Please park across the street in the free parking deck at Stolp and Downer. Use Stolp Avenue entrance (now best accessed from Benton which is 2-way traffic). Be sure we stamp your ticket in our gift shop.
$5.00 (members $3.00)

The Orphan Train movement was a social experiment during the period 1854-1929, when the rural life was romanticized and Americans thought that orphaned, abandoned or homeless children from the city streets of the East should be taken away to start a new life and help settle the country in wholesome, religious homes in the Midwest. More than 200,000 children rode an “Orphan Train” to new lives. Today the Orphan Train movement is seen as the forerunner of modern-day foster care.

For more information, go to the National Orphan Train Complex (http://www.orphantraindepot.com/).

Our speaker, Carol Chandler, a retired nurse and grandmother of 5, has researched 231 children who came to the 16 northwestern counties of Illinois and has assisted members of her audiences in tracing their own histories. She is on the board of the Lee County Genealogical Society.

Official 175th Birthday Party for the City of Aurora

Friday, March 2, 2012 you are invited to celebrate 175 years of Aurora history at two special gatherings.

COMMEMORATION OF ESTABLISHMENT OF POST OFFICE IN 1837
PICTORIAL POSTMARK
United States Post Office
525 North Broadway, Aurora, IL 60505
2:00pm

Join city officials and the Aurora Historical Society to commemorate the establishment of Aurora’s post office on March 2, 1837. View a unique exhibit jointly curated by the Aurora Historical Society and the Post Office, including photos and artifacts. There will be comments from community leaders, and musical entertainment, as well as a reading of the 1837 letter that created Aurora’s own post office.

Postal employees will help celebrate the anniversary by offering, until 4pm, a commemorative postmark to mark this once-in-a-lifetime event. The commemorative postmark is free, however it can only be placed on First-Class Mail postage. For your convenience, the Aurora Historical Society will sell special pictorial envelopes with postage already affixed for $3.00 each (2 for $5.00), cash only please. After your purchase a postal representative will cancel the stamp(s) with a cancellation designed for this event only (see illustration). Additionally, cancellations and cancelled envelopes can be ordered for 30 days after the event by using the order form downloaded here. After 30 days the equipment used will be destroyed, guaranteeing this cancellation will become a one-of-a-kind collectable.

In addition, pictorial envelopes which were cancelled at the event may be purchased throughout the year in the gift shops of the Historical Society, while supplies last.


BIRTHDAY PARTY
Aurora Transportation Center, 233 North Broadway, Aurora, IL 60505
5:00-8:00pm

Join city officials and the Aurora Historical Society at a birthday party with hors d’oeuvres, beverages and birthday cake. At 6:00pm there will be a short program featuring current community leadership as well as *appearances* by notable Aurorans of the past and the goddess Aurora. Our oldest citizens and members of pioneer families will be honored. Music, including new pieces composed for this historic moment, will be by the Aurora family blues/rock band, Bradley Keven Green.

Both events are free and open to the public.

Will you be 100 (or more) in 2012?
Did your family settle in Aurora prior to the Civil War (1865)?
Do you think you have lived continuously in Aurora for longer than anyone else?

The City of Aurora wants to honor you! Please click here and send us some basic information. We will verify the details and contact you about being an honored guest at the official opening of the Demisemiseptcentennial on March 2, 2012 at 5pm at the Aurora Transportation Center.

To see images of past events, please check out the Past Events page, or our facebook page here.