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Ells Laflin was born in Chicago in 1898. He spent a large part of his youth and later life in Lake Forest, in the family country place, Ellslloyd (Hawthorne Place). His parents were Josephine Knowland Laflin and Louis Ellsworth Laflin Sr. Namely, Ells graduated from Lawrenceville Preparatory School in 1918, and from Princeton in 1924.  He received from Yale an M.A. in 1938 and a Ph.D. in 1941 in areas of drama, religion, and Egyptology.  He even spent a postdoctoral year at the University of Chicago, Oriental Institute studying hieroglyphics.

His major work was the writing of at least seventy-seven full-length plays, of which seventeen were produced, and forty one-act plays, of which thirty-three were produced, mostly at schools and colleges.  He also lectured on drama at Rollins College, FL, and at Lake Forest College, as he ran the drama department in the 1950s. Mostly, Laflin traveled and wrote many plays that were performed locally by the theatre group of PlayReaders.

R. Hunter Middleton was born near Glasgow, Scotland in 1898 and came to the U.S. at the age of ten, living in Alabama where his father managed a coal mine. He studied painting at the Art Institute of Chicago and, upon graduation in 1923, began designing new typefaces for Chicago's Ludlow Typograph Company. Ten years later he became art director for the firm, and he continued this relationship until 1970.

Middleton was a member of many typographic arts societies and he joined the Caxton Cub in 1945. He became an honorary member in 1984.

During World War II he formed his Cherryburn Press when he acquired a large shipment of Thomas Bewick engraved blocks that came to Chicago. The Newberry later acquired many of these blocks as gifts from Middleton.

Thomas Bewick was born at Cherryburn House, Mickley, Northumberland, near Newcastle, in 1753. Thus, Middleton's press was named for this avocational interest in Bewick, to which he turned with great seriousness of purpose after his "retirement" from Ludlow in 1970. That very year the Newberry Library published Cherryburn's "monumental" one-hundred Bewick print collection. Middleton's work encouraged a revival of scholarly interest in Bewick's work and his medium, wood engraving.

Middleton's contribution to the printing of the plates, in addition to his preservation of them, was his make-readies that layered paper to press the print page into the grooves cut by the engraver bringing Bewick's past work to life.

Middleton was generous about entertaining visitors at his press in the basement of his northside Chicago home, among them the late David Woodward, who continued some Cherryburn Press work in Madison, WI.

In the 1960s through the early 1980s, Middleton was the recognized "dean" of Chicago classic book design. One project with a Lake Forest connection was his design guidance for Susan Dart's 1984 book, Market Square (Lake Forest-Lake Bluff Historical Society).

Brevet Brigadier General Eugene Beuharnais Payne was born in Seneca Falls, New York on April 15, 1835. His family quickly moved to Lake County Illinois and Payne studied locally in Waukegan. He graduated law school from Northwestern University in 1860 and was admitted to the bar to practice within the same year.

With the start of the Civil War, Payne formed the first Infantry company of Union troops (37th Regiment) in the state of Illinois and served throughout the conflict until September of 1864.. Most notably, Payne fought and later wrote/described in both his letters and a later 1903 pamphlet about the battle of Pea Ridge in Arkansas. Furthermore, just as this collections shows a soldier's perspective on battle, it also clearly testifies about the marriage of Eugene B. Payne and his wife Adelia A. "Delia" Wright. They married on January 26th, 1862 and as clearly expressed throughout the letters, the couple shared a deep connection of love.

After the war, the decorated general Payne, returned to Illinois and was elected a member of the State Legislature in 1864 and served until 1868. He also returned to practicing law for 17 years and became an officer/examiner of the United States Pension Bureau in Washington and later in Cleveland, OH. He wrote a number of volumes on this type of federal work and led a steady life overall. He died on April 7, 1910 in Washington at the age of 75.

Pauline Palmer Wood was the daughter of Pauline Kohlsaat and Potter Palmer, Jr. of Chicago; her brother was Potter Palmer III. She was the granddaughter of Bertha Honoree and Potter Palmer, Chicago leaders in the last third of the nineteenth century. Like her sister, Bertha, Wood attended Concord Academy. After European travel and World War II, she married Arthur MacDougall Wood (1913-2005) on November 17, 1945. She had two children: Pauline Palmer Wood Egan (b. 1948) and Arthur M. Wood, Jr. (b. 1950). Wood was active in the Chicago Historical Society and the Lake Forest Garden Club.

Arthur MacDougall Wood was the son of R. Arthur Wood and Emily Smith Wood of Highland Park. In 1931 R. Arthur Wood had been president of the Chicago Stock Exchange. Wood graduated from Princeton in 1934 and from Harvard Law in 1937. After brief practice as an attorney in Chicago, Wood entered the military during World War II. After returning from military service, he joined Sears Roebuck & Co., Chicago, and rose to lead this major international company in the 1970s. Wood also participated in many high-profile national leadership roles as one of the country's key corporate heads. After his retirement in 1978 he served as president of the Art Institute of Chicago.

The family lived in the former Hugh McBirney Johnston/A.B. Dick, Jr. house on North Green Bay Road, Lake Forest, now occupied by Arthur M. Wood, Jr. and his family.

The original Saville Organ factory was located in Northbrook, Illinois and later moved to Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. One still stands in The Auditorium Theatre in downtown Chicago.

American Architect well known for his designed buildings in Chicago Area
Created the design for Lake Forest Market Square, the first planned shopping center in the United States.
A Leader of the Arts and Crafts Architectural Movement seen with buildings like his home Ragdale, Lakeside Press Building, Second Presbyterian Church (Chicago) and Marktown
Member of the American Institute of Architects and received the AIA Gold Medal
Married Frances (Wells) Shaw and Father of Three

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Phi Beta Kappa was founded in williamsburg Virginia and held its first meeting on December 5, 1776. The goal was to create an extremely serious student organization for those involved in Liberal Arts education. The "National council of United Chapters of Phi Beta Kappa" was founded in 1888 and changed its name to "The Phi Beta Kappa Society" in 1988. There are 286 American college chapters; The Lake Forest College chapter was granted in 1961 and began operations in 1962.