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Thursday, March 28, 2024

The History Detective – New old books

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As a History Detective, my research adventures take me through many old books. I visit libraries and archives, and on-line data bases looking for the facts and stories that have made the events of today. I look for answers to questions that seem out of reach. But on occasion, those sources I am looking for find me! Over the years, I have been given or have purchased many a box of junk, which unbeknownst to most, contain gems of historical data. When I have the time, I look through the material, organize it (in my head, if nowhere else), and hopefully will remember to use it when necessary.

This summer, I visited the book sale at the Morton Arboretum Library. There, among the other botanical and floral treasures, I found some books that I wish I’d found before I wrote Naperville: A Brief History. The oldest book, An American Geological Railway Guide was written in 1890, a reprint and updated version of the 1878 original. In addition to mapping and listing every train station on every railroad in the United States, this book provides a detailed description of the Niagara limestone that is found and was once quarried in Naperville.

A hundred years after the Railway Guide was written, a Soil Survey of DuPage and Part of Cook Counties, Illinois was published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This large paperback volume with more than 80 large, foldout maps not only describes soil properties found in Naperville, but also the crops, wood and water management. The Soil Survey also includes a short, three-paragraph history of settlement from 1673 to 1979. Now that is a BRIEF history!

Another book I found, or rather found me, was Standardized Plant Names: A Catalogue of Approved Scientific and Common Names of Plants in American Commerce. It was written and/or edited in 1923 and ascribed to Frederick Law Olmsted (the book resulted from a commission that was formed in 1915), the famous landscape architect for Central Park in New York and the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina. In many ways, this find was a Christmas-in-July gift from an old Naperville family, the Von Ovens, who were the owners and operators of the Naperville Nurseries. The inside cover of the book contained a hand-written note, “Season’s Best Greetings Naperville Nurseries 1924.” This book is a wonderful source of not only the scientific names, but more importantly the common names of plants that were available in Naperville and elsewhere.

To quote Thomas Jefferson, “I cannot live without books.”

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Bryan Ogg
Bryan Ogg
Bryan Ogg is a local historian and curator of local legend, stories and lore.

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