Oak Park: The Evolution of a Village

by Arcadia Publishing

Overview

Journey to the past with historian David M. Sokol as he reveals the city that nurtured and inspired the likes of Ernest Hemingway, Ray Kroc and Frank Lloyd Wright.

Though it is a handsome village, with stately trees and often-generous lawns, Oak Park has neither major waterways nor dramatic vistas. But it is rich in figures of historical importance such as Ernest Hemingway, Doris Humphrey, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Percy Julian, Ray Kroc, and William Barton. It is also blessed with the world's largest concentration of Prairie School buildings designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and his followers. The Oak Park community has nurtured such innovation with one hand while fiercely holding on to its own identity with the other, negotiating its relationship with Chicago and facing down a century and a half of constantly-shifting challenges.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781609490706
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	05/27/2011
Series:	Brief History
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

David M. Sokol is professor emeritus and former chair of the Department of Art History at University of Illinois at Chicago, where he taught American art and directed the program in museology. He began teaching at UIC in 1971 and still directs the work of several graduate students. He also served as a museum curator and administrator and is the author of many exhibition catalogues for museums, college galleries, art centers and commercial galleries. He served a term as a trustee on the Oak Park Village Board from 1977 to 1981, several years on the Plan Commission and many years as chair of the Historic Preservation Commission. Sokol served as vice-president of the Unity Temple Restoration Foundation and as a member of the board of the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio Foundation. He currently chairs the Oak Park Public Art Advisory Commission and recently completed a term on the Illinois Historic Sites Advisory Council. He was elected to the Oak Park Library Board in April 2011. Sokol is also a past president of the American Culture Association. In addition to his other books, articles, reviews and exhibition catalogues on both American and European art and architecture, Sokol is the author of Oak Park, Illinois: Continuity and Change and co-author of the guidebook to the Prairie School District of Oak Park and has written a monograph on Frank Lloyd Wright's Unity Temple, The Noble Room.