Just in time for the holidays, Gail Borden Public Library is selling a limited edition book celebrating the Elgin library’s 150th anniversary.

“Celebrating 150 Years of Service: A Loving Snapshot Book,” the 108-page tome not only contains photos documenting the library’s past but focuses on how it’s serving the Elgin area today, Gail Borden Public LIbrary Foundation President Karen Fox said.

“The Gail Borden Public Library is a treasure in the Elgin community, and this was our opportunity to showcase it a little differently,” Fox said.

Those behind the book have been working on it for more than a year, according to Director of Development Denise Raleigh.

“We hired Jim Davis near the end of 2024, the library’s 150th year. We wanted to capture all the different ways we celebrated this milestone as well as to honor the past,” Raleigh said.

The work is called a “snapshot” because while it does look at the facility’s past, they didn’t want it to duplicate other books that cover the library’s history in depth, particularly the one published in 1996 by former Elgin Mayor Mike Alft — “Books and More: A history of the Gail Borden Public Library” — which the new book credits, she said.

Davis worked at the Daily Herald for 39 years, retiring in 2017. He was an editor for 35 years and wrote a weekly column for more than 20. Two years ago, he and his wife, Elgin native Margaret Brady, started a memoir writing business called Editing for Life.

For the Gail Borden book, the couple interviewed Fox; Jean Bednar, president of the Gail Borden Public Library Board; Carole Medal, Gail Borden’s chief executive officer; and Martha Martinez, Gail Borden’s bilingual social services manager.

“Jim read a myriad of documents that have been written about the library,” Raleigh said. “There were days and days of editing and re-editing as we wanted the photos and text to mesh well.”

In order to make sure the photos were part of the narrative, they also hired book designer Christopher Simon, she said.

The team sifted through thousands of photos for the project, including those in the Elgin History Museum’s collection and the library’s own flickr account (www.flickr.com/photos/gailborden/albums), before selecting 156 shots.

Davis said a key document in his research was paperwork the library district filed that led to it receiving a 2009 National Medal for Museum and Library Service from the Institute of Museum and Library Service.

The book looks at what the library has done over the years, things that have been important to its development and how it has differentiated itself from other libraries, Davis said. It explores how the library remains relevant in the digital age.

Among the things he learned, he said, was that Elgin was the first entity in Illinois to receive a charter to create a library district; the library oversaw two census counts; and it played a key role in providing services to people during the COVID-19 pandemic. Martinez was a key source of information about the counts as well as the library’s pandemic work, he said.

Davis also admitted, with a laugh, that at one time he thought, like many others have, that Gail Borden was a woman.

As it turns out, the man who made his fortune in condensed milk never lived in Elgin. He married Eunice Church, a widow with two sons, who had ties to Elgin. When he decided to expand his business beyond the East Coast, Borden established the Elgin Milk Condensing Co. in 1865.

Borden frequently visited Elgin and bought a home in the city in 1873, but he never lived in it. Because of health issues, he moved back to his native Texas, where he died in 1874.

In the early 1890s, the library would move into Borden’s unused Elgin mansion at Spring Street and Highland Avenue, which was donated to Elgin Township by Borden’s stepsons with the proviso that it be named the Gail Borden Public Library.

In the 1970s, the library district was created and a new library opened at the southwest corner of Kimball Street and Grove Avenue. The current downtown library at 270 N. Grove Ave. opened in October 2003.

The Rakow Branch on Bowes Road in Elgin made its debut in August 2009 followed by the South Elgin Branch on South McLean Boulevard in July 2016.

The book costs $25 and can be purchased at the main library’s customer relations desk. Only 150 copies were printed.

“It will be available to check out, but not for a few months,” Raleigh said. “We have not made any decisions on a digital version yet but I imagine that it will be in the future.”

Mike Danahey is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/19/gail-borden-library-anniversary-book-davis/