The Rogers Park/West Ridge Historical Society is an all-volunteer organization focused on preserving and sharing the story of Chicago’s Far North Side. We have openings for volunteers who like history or would like to get involved in one of Chicago’s most interesting, diverse and attractive communities. Our volunteers include long-time neighborhood residents, newer arrivals looking for an introduction to the community, and current students from the Loyola University Public History department. We welcome anyone who wants to be part of the community we all share, and we have openings to fit a variety of interests and schedules.
Click each item on the list to learn more.
Help organize and manage the Living History talks, help out with the Historic House Walk or get involved with planning our program of summertime neighborhood tours. You can become an on-going member of an event team, or help out when you can with check-in and set-up at individual events.
Our digitizing project involves volunteers who sort, scan and identify photos donated to the Society. We also need help categorizing, organizing and digitizing selected documents in our physical archive. The photo team meets weekly during daytime hours, and welcomes new members.
Since 2019. the Society has offered a service to local property owners, for a fee, that researches the history of their home or other property. Members of the research team work with mostly online resources such as historic maps, census reports, newspaper archives and other historic documents to prepare reports on the history of individual homes and the stories of the people who lived there. Volunteers should have some general familiarity with doing online research, but we can provide interested volunteers with training in genealogical and site-specific historical research and writing.
Our Website and Email Marketing team creates website content, and creates and sends emails announcing our programs and events. We also need writers who can researcg aand write articles on historic topics, personal memoirs and reports on our events and activities. Experience with WordPress, marketing or social media is helpful.
RPWRHS currently maintains Facebook and Twitter accounts, and we’d especially like to add Instagram and other forms of social media. If you are familiar with any of these platforms, we could use your help in creating interesting content for our social media followers.
We also have opportunities for volunteers willing to offer their professional expertise in accounting, law,, data management and fundraising.
We have a limited number of openings on our board of Directors for those who are interested in taking a leadership role in the organization. For information about our expectations for Board Members, Click Here
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- Volunteer Kristen Jacobson leads Glenwood Arts District walking tour
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- Volunteer Greeters Carol Veome and Dave Kalensky at the House Walk
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- Volunteer History Detectives use Internet resources to identify photos in the digital archive
