Remembrance of Things Past
The title of this exhibit is especially appropriate since it is the work of our Site History Committee to remember the things that happened in the past on Fermilab's site. We have worked for over six years gathering documents, photographs, memories, and artifacts that are important to preserve if we are to know and appreciate our history. Much of what we have been able to capture has come from the people who lived here before the state of Illinois donated the land to the United States Atomic Energy Commission, now the Department of Energy.
For thirty years visitors have wondered how Fermilab came to occupy 6,800 acres of land at the edge of DuPage and Kane Counties. Among their initial questions are:
- How old is Fermilab? Has Fermilab always looked this way? What was here before?
- Who were the people who lived here? What happened to them? Where did they live? Where, why and when did they go?
- Why are farmhouses and barns parts of a physics research lab?
- What do the site numbers mean?
In 1997 we hosted an Open House for the families of the farmers who were displaced in 1967-69. We invited them back again in 1998. Both times we displayed photographs of their farms and their pre-1967 lives so that we might learn some answers to the questions. We have been fortunate to get wonderful responses from our guests and we have learned much.
In 1998, Fermilab's former director, John Peoples, suggested that we raise the level of our photograph exhibit and assemble a formal show for the Fermilab Art Gallery. We took his suggestion to heart and brought together some of the history of thirteen of the fifty-six farm families who lived here before 1968. We hope to include more families in future exhibits.
This exhibit of historic photographs is our gift to the generous families who gave so much of themselves so that the Nation and the World might have Fermilab.
Acknowledgments
We wish to thank the farm families who opened their homes and historic photograph collections to us for this exhibit. All of the materials could not have been assembled without their personal involvement. We deeply appreciate their generous assistance.
At the Lab, we sincerely appreciate the support of the Fermilab Directorate, especially Bruce Chrisman and Angela Gonzales. We are very grateful to the Fermilab Art Gallery Committee for their willingness to show this history collection and their artistic expertise and guidance in preparing the exhibit. And we are thankful for the cooperation of the Fermilab Visual Media Services Department, and Cindy Arnold in Duplicating.
We also thank Argonne National Laboratory Information and Publishing Division Offices of Media Services and Records Management, for preserving the negatives of early photographs of our site, August Colorchrome for processing the many Argonne, Fermilab, and personal family photographs, and Reinhard Brucker for carefully matting all of the photographs.
The Northern Illinois University students of Prof. E. Taylor Atkins provided much biographical information by collecting oral histories from many farm families in 1998. The early historical research done by Karyl Louwenaar in 1968-69, supported by photography from Argonne National Laboratory, in the early days of the National Accelerator Laboratory, has been invaluable in the preparation of this book and the work of our committee.
Special thanks for the web presentation of this exhibit is given to Dave Ritchie Jr., David J. Ritchie and Nadezhda Anikeev.
For moral and editorial support we thank May West.
Fermilab Site History Committee
Adrienne W. Kolb, Archivist
Susanne Freund, Robert Lootens, Pam Fox
Linda Olson-Roach, Rodney Oxe
August, 2000 - August, 2001