Monthly, handwritten financial statements that state the balance of, interest on club funds, and disbursements of funds of the club from 2005-2013

A list of awards granted to various garden clubs throughout Illinois, as well as potential programs and a letter from the Botanic Garden thanking the Ravinia club for their donation of two rare books regarding Marilyn Alaimo. Included in this folder are awards that do not take the form of ribbons; Award 19, awarded to Marilyn Putz (née Alaimo) for Garden Therapy. Additionally, there is a postcard from Ravinia Garden Club President Marilyn Alaimo thanking them for their contribution to the Botanic Garden’s Collection.

A Letter to the Editor of ‘Garden Talk’ from Ravinia Garden Club President Marilyn K. Alaimo regarding an upcoming lecture program titled “Jens Jensen Remembered”, which discusses his landscape architecture works and the application of his design principles. Also included is a list of different potential classes and those who would teach them.

An overview of the Ravinia Garden Club as prepared by the organization, a list of members who participated in it at the time it was prepared, news articles, a copy of the bylaws, and various information regarding the Blue Star Memorial Markers, as well as communication between then Senator Mark Kirk and Marilyn Alaimo congratulating her on receiving to permit to renovate the memorial site.

This folder contains a folder titled “#33 The Illinois Historic Preservation Award”. This Folder contains a page stating the issue of the disrepair in the cemetery, pictures detailing the issue, and a letter of appreciation from the Deerfield Township for the work done in restoring it.

A green scrapbook that contains within the various original correspondences, mailing lists, and notices sent to members of the Ravinia Garden Club and members of the public advertising their events and Programs

Handwritten monthly financial statements by the Ravinia Garden Club treasurer from the years of 2009-2015. These statements state the balance of club funds, the interest gained on them, and their disbursements.

A variety of newspaper clippings regarding the Ravinia Garden Club and their involvement in various communities and Universities throughout Illinois, a membership roster that lists their members’ names, addresses, and contact information, and attendance during critical meetings. Additionally, there are assorted program listings, park plans and an awards packet disseminated by the Garden Clubs of Illinois, Inc. for the year of 2010.

A comprehensive collection of proposed and enacted budgets, disbursements and expenses, awards the club won, different elected and presiding club officials, and a historian mission statement outlining their duties.

This folder contains two sets of the Ravinia Garden Club’s Constitution and By-Laws: one revised set from 2003, another from 2012, and an original from 1989.

This file contains yearbooks. Three yearbooks cover the founding articles and members of the Ravinia Garden Club from 1927, and the last one covers the same founding articles and member roster updated from 1928.Yearbooks: 1927, 1930, 1931, 1933, 1934.

This folder contains a laminated list of Charter Members, Honorary Members (both living and deceased), members who obtained various awards and citations for serving in the club, past Presidents, select member profiles, as well as an overview of the Historian’s Files regarding meeting minutes and membership records. Lastly, there is a color photograph and laminated newspaper article dedicated to Ravinia Garden Club member Mary Black.

This folder contains a variety of documents and papers regarding the Ravinia Garden Club’s various activities. These include diagrams for service projects and exhibition hall layouts for conventions, information obtained from nearby businesses and sources regarding different horticultural styles from other cultures, correspondence between members, contracts for club members to speak and present at an event, a program books from 2001-2002, a clean copy of the curated history packet from in the first file in this box, a copy of the constitution and by-laws, handwritten flower arrangement ideas and proposed designs, newspaper articles about club members, proposals for projects, and assorted information packets regarding flower arrangement designs.

This folder contains various drafts and proposals for projects the Ravinia Garden Club was either involved in or working on acquiring, including the original letters and envelopes. This also includes correspondence between the club and various governmental officials, such as representatives from Lake County, the State of Illinois, and even Congressman Steven Kirk regarding the club’s work on the Blue Star Memorial. Further artifacts found within this folder include a pamphlet from the dedication service, photographs, and various other awards that the club had won throughout the years.

This folder contains a folder containing multiple documents regarding the Ravinia Garden Club’s application for the Award #18A for renovating the Blue Star Memorial. In this folder are pamphlets from the dedication ceremony, a summary detailing the proposal of the project and its background, the original application form, newspaper articles covering the club receiving the award, and certificate of appreciation from the Officers and Enlisted men from Fort Sheridan, and pictures documenting various stages of the project as it was implemented.

This folder contains more information, documentation, and pamphlets regarding flower shows that the Ravinia Garden Club has either attended or hosted in the past. In addition to a few choice photographs, advertisements, and newspaper articles, this folder has a few pamphlets. The flower show pamphlets included in this particular are “Garden and Flower Show” (1933), the 15th Annual Chicago Flower Show (1941), “It’s Environmental, my Dear” (1986), “Sailing Ships to Space Shuttles” (1991), “Mystery at the Mansion” (1992), “Grace Notes” (1996), “Summer Solstice” (1997), “Water Works” (1998), and “Y2K” (1999). There are two pamphlets that do not have dates listed on them; “Red, White, and….. Green”, and “Flying Manes”.

This folder contains an unbound copy of “The Handbook for Flower Shows”, authored by the National Council of State Garden Clubs, Inc., and published in 1999.

A collection of projection slides converted from photographs taken at a flower show that the garden club hosted. The slides provided do not indicate the date, place, or time the event took place.

This folder contains a collection of correspondence between members of the club and members of the community at outside of the club regarding projects that the Ravinia Garden Club was involved in during the years of 1999-2003. This primarily involves communication between members of the club and the District of Highland Park and Moraine Township regarding past, present, and future projects.

A collection of projection slides converted from photographs taken of a clearing located in Ellison Bay, Door County, Wisconsin. These slides do not indicate what date these were taken, nor what project they were a part of.

This folder contains preserved ribbons and physical awards that the Ravinia Garden Club won from participating in flower shows run by other garden clubs and organizations, including project awards. There are over 40 ribbons and awards in this folder, dating from 1927 to 2014. The first laminated page in this folder serves as an index denoting the organization of the ribbons and the various levels and types of awards won.

This folder includes within the original articles of incorporation of the Ravinia Garden Club filed with the state of Illinois. The official (re) incorporation of which is dated to be July 11th, 1986. Also included are the Garden Club’s Bylaws, correspondence with another regarding potential projects, IRS correspondence regarding their incorporation as a non-profit organization, their non-profit application paperwork with both the state of Illinois and the Federal Department of the Treasury, and correspondence between the then club president Betty Haude and a lawyer regarding their attempt to become a non-profit tax exempt organization.

This folder contains within various flower show schedules and pamphlets that provide the itinerary and description of each show between the years of 1973-1993. These pamphlets are from the “Fragrant Fantasies” show from 1980, “All on a Summer’s Day” in 1990, “Melodies of Spring” from 1985, “Hail Columbia” from 1993, “In the Fullness of Time” from 1973, “Ravinia, Her Charms and Destiny”, from 1977, “Great Performances in Bloom” in 1983, and “Perennials” in 1998. These pamphlets are arranged in the same order as they were received, and contains many duplicates that have original notations and documents from their original owners. The last pamphlet includes a list of former club members and selected dignitaries, a 70th anniversary award, and a letter from the National Council of State Garden Clubs, Inc.

This folder contains within it various documents regarding the civil projects that the Ravinia Garden Club either assisted or participated in during the years of 1939-2003, with the majority of the public works occurring in the earlier half of the 20th century. These documents include consultations with various Horticulturalists, letters to and from the Chicago Botanic Garden, quotes for supplies, work, and plants, committee, and annual reports on the club’s activities regarding their civic work, as well as surveys, maps, diagrams, outlines, and plans for the aforementioned works. Notable civic works included in this folder are the Ravine Project, the Botanical Collection of Flowering Crab Trees and various renovations in and to Jen Jensen Park, as well as renovations to the Ravinia Business District and the outlying neighborhoods.

This folder includes various pamphlets, artifacts such as posted advertisements and a sheet that outlines the mission and purpose of the garden club in order to attract new recruits and members to join. This folder also includes two pamphlets that detail the work that the club has done from 1927- 2007, a pamphlet from a dedication service to Highland Park’s Michael F. Bonamarte Jr., and several packets intended to provide a terse summary of flower shows and floral design for new and prospective members of the garden club.

This folder contains within it a summary of the Ravinia Garden Club’s civic and Community Beautification Projects from 1928-2007). It also includes a Civic and Community project report from 2007, which details the planting of the Patriot Tree at the Highland Park Police Station, the dedication of the Blue Star Marker at the gate to the Fort Sheridan Cemetery, and the landscaping of the Fort Sheridan Cemetery grounds. . Furthermore, there are the Ravinia Garden Club report from 2006-2007, from 2005-2006, the cost estimates from those reports, and conservation committee report from 1999 and 2000. There is a second folder that goes into further detail about the Patriot Tree project, detailing the dedication service at the Highland Park Cemetery. This folder also contains photographs of the ceremony, and the various members of the Ravinia Garden Club in attendance. This folder also contains the original Historian Files that detail the preliminary contents of the Ravinia Garden Club’s collection.

This box and single folder store only three white envelopes in them that contain the original handwritten and typed Meeting Minutes and Treasurer Reports from the years of 1974 to 2000. There are various versions of the reports contained within these envelopes, such as regular board meetings, general assembly meetings, and meetings combined between both the board members and the regular assembly.Additionally, there are a few meetings minutes detailing the events of special meetings where outgoing and incoming board members convened to pass on their duties.These envelopes are arranged as they were received, with the older documents arranged in the first folder, and the newest arranged in the last folder.

This folder contains a curated history of the Ravinia Garden Club between the years of 1927 and 2003. It was compiled and edited by garden club members Marilyn Alaimo, Jeanne Voisin, Peggy Fucik, and Betty Haude. The loose packet included in this folder details the history of the club, going over its humble beginnings, what membership in the club entails, the members’ education, their philanthropic philosophies, the civic and community projects that they have undertaken throughout the years, their contributions to other sites, and flower shows. Additionally, it lists their charter members and those who have served as officers and chairmen since the club’s inception. This packet is assembled in a scrapbook-esque manner, and contains photographs relevant to each historical subsection.

This folder contains various newspaper articles and Public Relations related materials from the listed years of 1926-1985. These articles vary from advertising events and projects the club undertook, or celebrates the awards that they won. Most of these photographs feature members of the club, and either glued onto cardstock to preserve them or are included as just the loose pages themselves.

This folder contains black and white photographs that document the Flowering Crab Tree Collection at various stages of its development, as well as one of the commemorative plaque.

This folder contains various flower show pamphlets and advertisements that commemorate some of the clubs anniversaries between the years of 1977-2007

This folder contains documents, photographs, and logistical information regarding the Ravinia Garden Club’s 90th Anniversary Celebration. In it is an Invitation Pamphlet, a news release, a summary packet that gives an overview of the club’s background, history, and impact on the surrounding communities, a mayoral proclamation honoring the club, a certificate of merit from the National Garden Clubs, Inc., a newspaper article featuring the club’s anniversary, and logistical documents regarding dinner reservations at MLG.

This folder contains within a series of handwritten monthly financial statements for the RGC between the dates of Sept. 1, 2014, to August 31st, 2015 under the care of Barbara Ruffalo, the acting treasurer at that time.

This folder contains within a single carbon copy application for parking usable at Jens Jensen Park on behalf of the Ravinia Garden Club.

This folder contains various aspects of the RGC’s Environmental Awareness Conservation campaign, which includes various pamphlets and advertisements, newspaper articles promoting the use of environmentally friendly practices, procedures for safe waste disposal, three editions of the Lake County Forest Preserve’s Horizons magazine, a guideline packet for publicity writing/ reporters, internal communique between club members, stamps from a campaign of some sort, and the RGC Secretary’s Environmental Reports from the year of 2008, and from May 2011.

This folder was included in this box, but was empty at the time it was cataloged.

This folder contains a copy of the RGC’s constitution and bylaws from 2003.

This folder contains a job analysis detailing the role of the treasurer for the RGC, and various treasurer reports between the years of 1939-2006.

This folder contains financial statements dating from September 30th, 2016, to December 31st, 2016 maintained by B. Ruffalo.

This folder contains the membership, officer, and honorary member rolls between the years of 1940-2005.

This folder contains limited membership rolls and the annual reports from the First VP/Membership Chair from the years of 1943-2011.

This folder contains membership application forms, questionnaire forms for new member sponsors, a copy of the various committees in the club, a job description detailing the roles of the First Vice President, a membership idea pamphlet, various RGC recruiting advertisements, and a copy of a new members form.

This folder contains Treasurer reports from 2012-2013, Publicity Chair reports from 2005-2009, internal club communique regarding advertising events, a packet titled “Publicity Ideas”, and copies of various ads that the club placed online or in local newspapers.

-One flower show judging handbook from the NCSGCI published in 1987-One award binder detailing the Blue Star Memorial Project and the awards given to the club by the Garden Clubs of Illinois, Inc. This binder includes pictures and other artifacts taken during the dedication ceremony.