Trailside Museum: The Legend of Virginia Moe

By Jane Morocco and Paul Harvey Jr.

On October 8, 1930, Charles "Cap" Sauers, general superintendent of the Cook County Forest Preserve District, wrote a letter to Alfred M. Bailey, director of the Chicago Academy of Sciences, about an idea he had. He proposed developing several nature study museums with the support of Bailey and the Academy of Sciences. Bailey eagerly wrote to Sauers that he had the Academy's full cooperation. By 1932, the Trailside Museum of Natural History was opened in River Forest, Illinois, the first of its kind in the Midwest. Several curators would come and go, but one in particular, Virginia Moe, dedicated more than 50 years of her life to the museum, animals, and people of Cook County. This is truly her story.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Mar 9, 2015
• ISBN: 9781439650271

Jane Morocco

Jane Morocco's personal connection to Trailside began as a child in the 1950s, when her mother, a field biologist, took her on weekly visits to see the animals. After volunteering for 10 years with Virginia Moe, Morocco became a licensed wildlife rehabilitator by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. Images gathered for this project are from the Cook County Forest Preserve archives, as well as from private collections.

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