Editor’s note: Ever heard of crowdsourcing? It’s when a company or organization reaches out to its user base to help solve a problem that previously may have been outsourced to a paid employee. Well…the Lake Forest-Lake Bluff Historical Society is calling on the crowd to help fill in a Timeline of Lake Forest History. The Historical Activities Committee wants and needs help from the citizenry. Here’s their call for volunteers:

Lake Forest 150th Anniversary
TIMELINE PROJECT — LOOKING FOR VOLUNTEERS

The City of Lake Forest’s 150th Historical Activities Committee is creating a Timeline of Lake Forest History in honor of Lake Forest’s Sesquicentennial Celebration in 2011. The Timeline will be available online in February. We are looking for volunteers to help pitch in with the task of gathering information for the Timeline — 150 years is a lot of history!

Lake Forester Research

Do you enjoy leafing through old newspapers? Then we need your help in gathering historical
information for the Timeline of Lake Forest History. Use the Historical Society’s collection of Lake
Foresters to identify important events or developments in Lake Forest history for inclusion in the
timeline. In a nutshell, the project entails:

- Browsing through yearly volumes of the Lake Forester at your own pace
- Identifying significant events or occurrences to be included in the timeline
- Making a photocopy of the article and/or photograph in the Lake Forester that describes the
event
- Writing a bullet point description of the event

Topical History Research

Are you interested in finding out more about the history of a particular topic or institution in Lake Forest history? We’re looking for volunteers to use the Historical Society’s library and clippings file collection to gather information and piece together brief topical or institutional chronologies for the Timeline of Lake Forest History. You may spend time researching an entire category or focus just on one item from that category. Topics could include (but are not limited to):

- Businesses
- Churches
- Athletics
- Weather events or fires
- Neighborhoods
- Military
- Schools
- Literature
- Clubs and organizations
- Architecture
- Celebrations

Volunteers may come in to the Historical Society for an afternoon or a morning or as little as an hour each week. Historical Society staff will provide training and assistance to all volunteers. A few materials (not including Lake Foresters) can be borrowed and worked on from home.

To volunteer, contact: Laurie Stein Curator, Lake Forest-Lake Bluff Historical Society, 361 E. Westminster, Lake Forest; 847.234.5253; lstein@lflbhistory.org

Volunteers may come in during Historical Society staff hours: Tuesday-Friday, 9:30 a.m.-4:00 p.m. or Sunday, 1:00-4:00 p.m. The Historical Society parking lot is located just north of the Lake Forest Library.