One hundred years ago May 28, about six months after the guns fell silent in the First World War, the Allied Powers and Germany signed the Treaty of Versailles to formally end the conflict.
The La Grange Area Historical Society will honor veterans of that war from the area with a summer-long display of artifacts, photos and memorabilia at the Vial House Museum and Archive, 444 South LaGrange Rd., La Grange.
“We wanted people to remember World War I,” said Mark Truax, president of the society. “It’s an important part of history.”
Truax said the society has had different events remembering World War II, but never anything for what had been known as The Great War before the second conflict broke out.
Truax has been a member of the society for eight years and is now in his second term as president. He also serves as a substitute math teacher at Gurrie Middle School.
Included in the exhibit:
• The officer’s uniform of 1st. Lt. Charles Vial, a lifelong La Grange resident who spent his childhood at 124 S. 7th Ave. and later lived at 316 S. Spring Ave.
• A photo of Camp Grant, the U.S. Army facility in Rockford where enlistees from the La Grange area went for training.
• The uniform of Sgt. Henry D. Livezey, originally from the East Coast, who later lived at 324 S. 6th Ave.
• The YMCA volunteer uniform of Vida Llewellyn, La Grange native and Lyons Township High School graduate who met Livezey while he was visiting the area and later married him.
The exhibit also displays photos, memorabilia and weapons. A special section focuses on women who served, particularly during World War II, which is also included in the exhibit.
“I made a decision in January that that was the direction we wanted to go,” Truax said.
Most of the items were already in the possession of the society, catalogued and stored in its archives on the second floor of the Vial House. Once the decision was made to put on the exhibit, staff began selecting artifacts.
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“Now it was a question of how much we actually had,” Truax said. “I’m learning myself.”
Executive Director Sarah Parkes said they had more artifacts than they realized.
“We really didn’t have enough for World War I alone, and more people held on to their items from World War II. That’s when we decided to go a little broader in scope,” Parkes said.
It took about a month to sort and decide which would be appropriate for display.
Parkes, the only paid employee of the society, has a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of California Berkley. She said she appreciated the six to eight volunteers who helped sort.
“It’s different when you get all of the items out of their boxes and look at them,” she said. “Then the process of piecing it together makes sense.”
The exhibit will run June 8 to Sept. 29. Hours are 7:30 a.m. to noon on Wednesdays, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays through Aug. 24, and 1-4 p.m. the last Sunday of each month. For more information, go to lagrangehistory.org.