Author Events

2019 NCRS National Convention

Author Tom Russo will present a seminar on the 1973-82 GMAD buildsheet July 15, 2019 at the NCRS national convention in Greenville, SC.

Elmhurst History Museum launched roller skate exhibit

Now archived, this special exhibit took visitors on a nostalgic trip to the glory days of roller skating that ran from July 13, 2018 through November 2018 at the Elmhurst History Museum. The museum exhibit featured a special roller skating series of historical panels from the 1930s through the 1960s titled Chicago Rink Rats: The Golden Age of Roller Skating. Skaters from Chicago's celebrated rinks, now gone will tell of their adventures. It included a tribute to the Elm Rink that operated in Elmhurst from 1956-1989.

The exhibit was based on author Russo's Chicago Rink Rats: The Roller Capital in its Hey published November 2017. The book chronicles America's rediscovering a recreational pasttime of roller skating. As American entered the war times, a new impetus would elevate roller skating to the number one recreational sport in America by the end of the 1940s decade. Relive this period by visting this exceptional exhibit hosted by the Elmhurst History Museum.

The Elmhurst History Museum features "Jenny on the job," a WWII poster propaganda campaign by the federal government to influence women's attitude and delcare it was OK to wear slacks, coveralls and work gloves for factory work. This poster series were distributed to war plants and, this particualar poster, encouraged women to roller skate for recreational fitness and health!