St. Charles History Museum reopens, launching online exhibit on women’s suffrage

Last year was a challenging time for the St. Charles History Museum because of the pandemic.

Staff continued to work at the museum even when it was forced to close because of restrictions, said St. Charles History Museum Executive Director Lindsay Judd.

Judd, who grew up in St. Charles and served as an intern at the museum in 2009, was named the museum’s new executive director last year. In 2019, the museum hired an independent contractor to help the museum develop a two-year strategic plan.

“From our strategic plan, we identified five values that represent the museum – heritage, community, stewardship, education and research,” Judd said.

The museum and the Curious Fox Gift Shop recently were able to reopen with occupancy restrictions in place.

“Even when we were forced to shut down, staff was still in the building working,” Judd said. “Aside from holidays and our normal January shutdown, we did not close.”

Despite the economic problems the pandemic has caused, Judd noted the museum was able to balance its budget last year. The museum received a $2,500 grant from Illinois Humanities and $15,500 from the Paycheck Protection Program last year.

Museum officials plan on applying for grants this year to help fund the museum’s general operations and projects.

The Paycheck Protection Program loan funded staff for eight weeks, Judd said.

The St. Charles History Museum plans to open a virtual exhibit on women’s suffrage March 8. March is Women’s History Month.

“This exhibit will be hosted online for audiences to learn about the strength and courage it took to secure the vote for women in 1920,” Judd said. “We will take an in-depth look at some of St. Charles’ most prominent supporters of suffrage, including Clara Farson, who was the daughter of S.S. Jones, who is the gentleman that named our town.”

The museum plans to host a 5K virtual run in May as its first fundraiser of 2021.

“We decided to make this a virtual run so that way we can move forward with it regardless of what’s going on with the pandemic,” Judd said.