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Frederick Cornelius Leonard Van Steenderen obtained his undergraduate degree from Utrecht University in the Netherlands in 1890. He received his master’s degree at Penn College in 1892 and his Ph.D at the University of Iowa in 1905.

In 1906,Van Steenderen was hired by Lake Forest College as a professor of romance languages. Prior to this position, Van Steenderen was an instructor of modern languages at the Vianen Institute, Racine College Grammar School, Penn College, the State University of Iowa and Lake Forest Academy. He published a number of academic and literary works throughout his life. Van Steenderen was a member of the Modern Language Association of America, Algemen Niederlansch Verbond and the Alliance Francaise.

Sylvia Shaw Judson was the second daughter of architect Howard Van Doren Shaw (1869-1926) and poet, Frances Wells Shaw (1872-1937). She was born in Chicago, Illinois and grew up in a home her father designed and built in Lake Forest, Illinois, which he called Ragdale. Judson would later move back to Ragdale with her family in 1942 and build a studio on the grounds.

With a strong interest in sculpture, Judson graduated from the Art Institute of Chicago in 1918. While there she studied under sculptor Albin Polasek. She then studied under Antoine Bourdelle in Paris at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière. In 1921, Judson married Clay Judson. They had their first child, Alice, in 1922. Their second child, Clay Jr., was born in 1926.

Judson joined the Quaker Church in 1949, later creating a work depicting a Quaker martyr, "Monument to Mary Dyer," in 1958. Judson’s husband Clay died in 1960. She remarried in 1963 to Sidney Gatter Haskins. That same year, Judson traveled to Cairo, Egypt to teach sculpture classes at the American University there.

During her lifetime Judson published two books, "The Quiet Eye" (1954) and "For Gardens and Other Places: The Sculpture of Sylvia Shaw" (1967).

A great deal of Judson’s sculptures depict children or animals; today many reside in outdoor public spaces or private gardens. Notably, Judson's sculpture, "Little Gardener," is displayed in the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden at the White House. Judson’s work has been exhibited at numerous locations including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Illinois State Museum, the Chicago Public Library, the Sculpture Center of New York, and Lake Forest College.

Judson has received a number of awards and honors during her lifetime. Her statue "Little Gardener" was awarded the Logan Prize from the Art Institute of Chicago in 1929. She won another award from the Institute in 1947, the Clyde Carr Prize. In 1949 she received the Purchase Prize at the Philadelphia Museum's International Sculpture Show. In 1952, she was given an honorary Doctorate of Sculpture from Lake Forest College. Judson served as president of the Chicago Public School Art Society from 1948-1950 and the vice-president of the women’s board at the Art Institute of Chicago from 1953-1954.

Judson died in 1978. Her work has made a revival over the past 30 years due to the publication of the book, "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" in 1994 which depicts her statue, "Bird Girl" (1936) on its cover. The film adaptation of the book also featured this statue.

Kay McCarter was Eleanor "Cissy" Patterson's personal secretary.

Elinor Josephine Medill Patterson was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1881 to Elinor (Nellie) and Robert Patterson. Later she changed the spelling of her first name to Eleanor. She was known most of her life by the name “Cissy,” a nickname her brother gave to her in childhood.

Coming from a wealthy family, Patterson was educated at Miss Porter’s School in Farmington, Connecticut. She met her future husband, Count Josef Gizycki, while traveling in Vienna with her aunt and uncle in 1901. Despite the distance, with Patterson back in the United States in Washington DC, the two were married in 1904. Soon after she went to live with the Count in Russia.

Count Gizycki and Patterson had one daughter, Felicia, born in 1905. The couple’s married life was tumultuous resulting in Patterson leaving her husband several years into their marriage and fleeing to London. The Count followed her there and kidnapped their daughter. Nearly a year later, in 1908, Felicia was returned to her mother; however it took 13 years for Patterson to obtain a divorce from the Count. Reunited with her daughter, Patterson brought Felicia back with her to the United States. They moved to Lake Forest, Illinois, but by 1913 had moved to Washington DC.

With much of her family, including her grandfather and brother in the newspaper industry, by 1920 Patterson had begun writing for her brother’s paper, the New York Daily News. In 1925, Patterson married again, this time to a New York lawyer, Elmer Schlesinger. The marriage was short lived, as Schlesinger died four years later. During the time they were together, Patterson published two novels, "Glass Houses" (1926) and "Fall Flight" (1928).

In 1930, Patterson became editor of William Randolph Hearst’s Washington Herald. In 1939, as Hearst’s financial situation declined, Patterson decided to buy the Herald, as well as the Washington Times from him. She merged the two papers into one, The Times-Herald. She dedicated herself to the paper, as editor, publisher and owner. Patterson died in July of 1948.