Our recently closed exhibit at the Evanston History Center included a feature our exhibit team worked hard to imagine and create. We called it the “talk-back tree,” somewhat following our “Lifting as We Climb” theme. We created a tree of plywood and paint and put out post-its in leaf colors for vistors to write on. We asked them to tell us about an important woman in their lives or in Evanston, and what made her important.
The comments we received were amazing. The tree was regularly covered with notes (as you can see from the photos) and the notes mentioned all sorts of women — most often family members, mothers, grandmothers, aunts — but sometimes women from the visitor’s personal past. Many also mentioned women from Evanston today and from Evanston history. Many were written by children. We hoped it made the exhibit a little more fun and personal.
This web site is in some ways an online extension of that tree. We have received comments about the women we’ve highlighted here. Some of those comments reference a personal connection to the stories we are telling. We’d love to continue the conversation about the meaning women, especially Evanston women, have had in our virtual visitor’s lives. So, write your comments here…
