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t done one of these photo challenges for a while but when i saw ann christine s lens artists challenge this week i thought it would be a good opportunity to share some pictures that i captured while i was in bloomington illinois recently after visiting the david davis mansion we had some time to spare so we stopped in at the mclean county museum of history whenever i see things like this on display i wonder if i couldn t start my own museum goodness knows i have enough outdated items laying around in the basement one of the items that i found most interesting was william brigham s scrapbook this 19 x 19 scrapbook contains notes photographs and hand drawn district maps and was the working manuscript for brigham s 1951 book project the story of mclean county and its schools once a visiting school group had left we seemed to have the museum to ourselves and it was eerily quiet this room served as the circuit courtroom from 1903 to 1976 david davis mansion posted by sue mac s girl on march 31 2025 posted in photography tagged david davis mansion illinois travel 9 comments i have to admit i was feeling a bit down after returning from my trip to england and paris last summer although i always enjoy visiting local places like cantigny the chicago botanic gardens and the morton arboretum to name but a few seeing so many new and exciting things left me wanting to experience so much more i was sure that there would never be another opportunity to travel on such a grand scale again or even venture out to see more of the us however i have since the publication of my book the eternal song tried to adopt the attitude that it s never too late for a new adventure and when we had occasion to travel downstate just before christmas i jumped at the chance to do some more exploring the david davis mansion or clover lawn in bloomington illinois is a gilded age house that was once the home of supreme court justice and u s senator david davis we were told that we had chosen a good time to tour the house as it is always beautifully decorated for christmas although i noticed that there were no such ornaments on the outside not pc perhaps the 3 storey house built between 1870 and 1872 has 36 rooms and we were able to see many of them we were the only people visiting at the time so we had our own private tour guide and the young lady whose name i wrote down so i could give her a mention and then unfortunately lost was very knowledgeable she was an intern studying at the local college and this was her final tour so we counted ourselves lucky to have secured her services davis commissioned french born architect alfred h piquenard who had designed the state capitol building in springfield to design the mansion although davis was away from home much of the time his wife sarah resided in the house in bloomington and the two wrote to each other frequently leaving behind letters that gave an interesting perspective on what life was like at the time davis had served as abraham lincoln s campaign manager and after winning his election to the presidency lincoln appointed the fiercely independent davis to a place on the u s supreme court where he served until 1877 the house remained in the family until 1960 when it was donated to the state of illinois it was added to the national register of historic places in 1972 and was designated a national historic landmark in 1975 lens artists photo challenge seen better days posted by sue mac s girl on october 4 2021 posted in challenges travel tagged illinois lens artists minnesota seen better days 22 comments this week tina is looking for things that have seen better days for the lens artists photo challenge the first two images were captured in marion illinois some parts of the city definitely looked like they d seen better days as had the sink in the jail at the williamson county illinois historical society museum an old wheel outside the cabin and a rusty piece of farm equipment at spring valley nature center must have seen better days i took this picture on a whim as i was walking through a parking lot it seemed like it might come in useful for a photo challenge and it did finally a picture taken recently at the duluth train museum of an engine that had probably seen better days january squares room up top posted by sue mac s girl on january 11 2021 posted in challenges photography travel tagged illinois minnesota squareup st louis texas wisconsin 15 comments there is plenty of room up top for becky s january squares photo challenge this week and the view is pretty spectacular from up on the top floor of these high rise buildings in downtown chicago of course it doesn t necessarily have to be a high rise in chicago you can catch a great view from up top these less conventional structures the gateway arch in st louis the ymca leaning tower in niles a lookout tower at fort snelling in minnesota and the moser tower millennium carillon in naperville whether corporate or cute there s always room up at the top oakbrook terrace tower in oakbrook illinois the amegy bank tower in houston the james h and joann n collins tower along the river walk in st charles and a lookout point in the rose garden of olbrich gardens in madison wisconsin january squares photo challenge step up posted by sue mac s girl on january 6 2021 posted in challenges photography travel tagged buildings illinois minnesota squareup stepping up texas 27 comments this month becky is asking us to square up for the january squares photo challenge so here i am stepping up with a few images to kick off the year going up steps along the river walk in downtown chicago naperville and san antonio some impressive steps leading up to even more impressive buildings the baha i temple in wilmette the baps shri swaminarayan mandir in bartlett mccormick house at cantigny park and the state capitol building in minneapolis stepping up to the sky or just up to the garden the norge ski jump at fox river grove the moser tower millennium carillon in naperville and the chicago botanic garden and winding things up stepping up at the grove redfield estate in glenview mccormick house at cantigny park marion cultural and civic center in illinois and the state capitol building in minnesota lens artists photo challenge capital posted by sue mac s girl on february 6 2020 posted in art challenges family photography travel tagged architecture capital family gardens illinois lens artists madison minnesota photography sculptures travel utah wisconsin wyoming 15 comments this week guest host viveka has given us the topic capital for the lens artists photo challenge we have visited a few state capitals on our travels around the us so here is my take on the subject living in illinois as we do springfield would be the obvious place to start madison is about the halfway point between our house and where our daughter and her family live in wisconsin so we sometimes meet there to visit places like olbrich botanic gardens and the capital building we have family living in indiana so a trip to indianapolis is usually one of our destinations just my luck one of the sharpest pictures i ever took was one of the steam plant which is the only reason i include it here also pictured the soldiers and sailors monument white river gardens and a fountain at the indianapolis museum of art a recent visit to st paul minnesota resulted in some pictures of the capital building the cathedral of st paul and the conservatory at como park zoo our youngest daughter and her husband lived in salt lake city utah for a brief period so we spent a week there taking in the sights which included the capital building temple square and the college of pharmacy our visit to cheyenne wyoming was only a short one as we were on our way to utah but we stopped long enough to visit the capital building lens artists photo challenge creepy posted by sue mac s girl on november 11 2019 posted in art photography travel tagged creepy digital art ghosts illinois lens artists minnesota north carolina old houses photography spirits travel 17 comments this week ann christine has chosen creepy as the subject for the lens artists photo challenge i ve always had a fascination for visiting old houses especially unoccupied houses that have a history we have been to quite a few and there were some where i could definitely feel a presence as though past residents were watching us wander through the rooms which at times can be rather creepy one such house was the lincoln tallman house in jaynesville wisconsin we were the only visitors there at the time and although we were accompanied by a tour guide i definitely got the feeling that someone else was there with us stairways in particular have a strange feeling about them like this one at the taylor house in freeport illinois the chapel at the cuneo mansion in vernon hills seemed like a place that might get a visit from a spirit or two ghosts don t wait until night time to make themselves felt and glensheen mansion in duluth with its macabre history was definitely a place where you might expect to feel the chilly presence of a restless spirit another house that had rather a creepy feel to it was the dole mansion in crystal lake it must have been a beautiful place when it was first build but when we visited it a few years ago it was badly in need of renovation and many rooms were inaccessible for safety reasons the biltmore mansion was too full of tourists to get any kind of feel for the place but i imagine at night you might come across one or two spirits wandering the hallways as you have probably guessed i am still unable to get about owing to being on crutches especially now that we have several inches of snow on the ground so i had ample time to add a few ghosts to the images train lines posted by sue mac s girl on october 25 2019 posted in challenges photography travel tagged chicago colorado galena illinois lines lines squares milwaukee photography squares trains travel wisconsin 7 comments i suppose it was inevitable i do seem to have quite a few train lines in the photo files so here are some for becky s square lines challenge the first set are all in chicago the second set includes lines from bartlett milwaukee glenwood springs in colorado and galena illinois lens artists photo challenge history posted by sue mac s girl on march 18 2019 posted in art challenges photography travel tagged architecture chicago history illinois lens artists photography south dakota springfield texas travel 11 comments this week patti has chosen history as the subject for the lens artists photo challenge coming from a country so rich in history i deeply regret not taking up photography while i was still living in england from the majesty of london s past with its towers bridges and cathedrals to the roman ruins of verulamium in st albans and the mysteries of stonehenge in wiltshire i saw all these historic places yet have nothing to show for it at least no pictures for which i can take credit a few years after arriving in chicago my husband bought me my first slr camera and ever since then i ve tried to document all the places of interest that we ve seen if for no other reason than to look back at the images in the years to come perhaps with the grandkids and hopefully their families and say this is part of your country s history an important part of chicago s history was the great chicago fire in 1871 it destroyed so much of what had gone before but led to one of the greatest revival stories in american history the sculpture shown above is part of the southern bridgehouse of du sable bridge or the michigan avenue bridge as it is more commonly known entitled regeneration and created by henry hering it shows workers rebuilding chicago after the great fire below is the iconic chicago water tower the only public building to survive the fire on a recent trip to texas we visited another of america s famous historic sites the alamo in san antonio i don t pretend to understand the rights wrongs or reasons for many of the wars that have been fought down through the ages but as in all battles men died at the alamo fighting for a cause that they believed in south dakota has its share of historic sites even prehistoric ones including the mammoth site in hot springs and the indian village archaeological site in mitchell something a little more recent mount rushmore national memorial designed by sculptor gutzon borglum depicts four u s presidents washington jefferson roosevelt and lincoln representing the birth growth development and preservation of the united states speaking of abraham lincoln one of the first places i photographed when i got my minolta film camera was the lincoln home national historic site in springfield illinois later images captured with a canon eos rebel show the old state capitol building and lincoln s law offices both in springfield spikes spires posted by sue mac s girl on march 8 2019 posted in challenges photography travel tagged architecture biltmore chicago green bay illinois milwaukee photography postaday spikysquares travel 5 comments after dabbling in architecture for the lens artists photo challenge i decided to look up for my 3rd entry in becky s spiky squares photo challenge here are a few spikes and spires from chicago milwaukee asheville bartlett marion oak brook and green bay posts navigation older entries recent posts artists reception milwaukee arts bronzeville to harlem riverfront museum caterpillar in peoria patterned by nature part 2 simply red out and about busted in the park seeing the sights a grand time in grand rapids archives archives select month july 2026 may 2026 november 2025 october 2025 september 2025 july 2025 june 2025 april 2025 march 2025 february 2025 january 2025 december 2024 november 2024 october 2024 september 2024 may 2024 march 2024 december 2023 november 2023 october 2023 september 2023 august 2023 december 2022 october 2022 august 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