Elmhurst History Museum hosts Smithsonian exhibit on rise of American backyard

ELMHURST – The American backyard was as we know it today was invented after WWII.

According to Elmhurst History Museum Curator of Exhibits Lance Tawzer, before the backyard became an extension of the home, it was a rural place to keep chickens and for the dog to roam. After the war, however, as people moved from the city to the suburbs, the backyard was transformed into a place for patios, pools, grills and family time.

This is the focus of the Smithsonian travelling exhibit "Patios, Pools and the Invention of the American Backyard," which will make its Chicago area debut in the Elmhurst History Museum on March 18 and run through May 29.

"It's about that flight from the city, from living in a high rise or a tenement in the city that had no backyard, coming back from the war and moving to the suburbs and suddenly I have a backyard," Tawzer said. "It's sort of about how America discovered this space and figured out how they wanted to use it."

People determined that the backyard could be an extension of the home. It provided an outdoor space that could be used for cooking, entertaining and recreation.

"This is an overlooked space that architecturally we don't think much about, and yet they were able to create a whole exhibit about it," Elmhurst History Museum Marketing and Communications Specialist Patrice Harrigan Roche said.

The museum wanted to host this Smithsonian exhibit because, according to Tawzer, the backyard an important element of the Elmhurst community and other surrounding suburbs. In fact, the museum is collaborating with the Elmhurst Garden Club for the flower arrangements that will decorate the gallery space.

"We consider ourselves a venue to our community," Tawzer said. "We are hosting an exhibit that hasn't been in Illinois, and we are also going to personalize it, we are going to localize it and we are going to make it as good as it can be."

To do so, the museum asked Elmhurst residents to contribute photographs of their backyards during the 50's and 60's. These pictures will be on display alongside the show. The photo gallery include a range of images, from children's picnics to men mowing the lawn.

"Back then, people were not doing lifestyle shots," Tawzer said. "You got your picture taken on your birthday, you got your picture taken when you got dressed up, [but] they weren't taking pictures in their backyard. So they are actually not [as] prevalent as you would think."

An important aspect of this exhibit is its interactivity, something that Tawzer and the Elmhurst History Museum always try to achieve. Inside the gallery, he created a vignette of a mid-century American backyard where people can enter the scene and participate in the fun. Children will be able flip burgers and hot dogs on a fake grills while parents pose for pictures wearing era-appropriate sunglasses.

"This is an opportunity for them to just immerse themselves into a little bit of 1950s backyard fun and then hopefully they will post pictures to their Facebook page," Tawzer said. "We are always trying to figure out ways to make the exhibit experience live outside the [museum] walls."

"I think that is one of [Tawzer's] real trademarks," Roche said. "He is becoming known for doing a really great job of making history accessible to people."

The exhibit will include an original soundscape of lawn mowers, birds chirping and glasses clinking that is meant to bring to life a traditional BBQ.

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For more information about the Elmhurst History Museum, visit www.elmhursthistory.org.