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Membership

Membership in the Society is open to all who are interested in the Fort, including current and former residents, veterans, non-residents, and any member of the public with an interest in the Fort and its history.

The current cost of an annual membership is $30. When paying online, you'll have the option to pay for up to 3 years in advance.

When does your year start for your membership? The date you pay becomes your anniversary date. You'll be reminded before this date when it's time to renew.

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Donations

The Society is a 501(c)3 Not For Profit organization under the laws of Illinois. Donations to the Society are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. The Society routinely holds events which are open to the public and uses some of these events to raise funds to assist in fulfilling our Mission.

Monetary donations support the Society's efforts and are always very much appreciated. Click the Donate button to make monetary donations.

If you are interested in donating appreciated stock, please contact the Society from the Contact page.

The Society maintains a secure storage facility for the collection of donated or purchased artifacts from the Fort's past. If you have items pertaining to the Fort's history, including personal photographs from the Fort, copies of the Fort's newspaper or other published materials, or any other item you think may be of interest to the Society, please contact the Society about donating. All object donations must comply with out Acquisitions Policy, below.

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ACQUISITIONS POLICY

FORT SHERIDAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY

This documents the Fort Sheridan Historical Society (the Society) policy regarding the donation of artifacts to the Society.

MISSION: The Fort Sheridan Historical Society honors, supports, educates about, and promotes the Fort and its history. This mission guides the acquisition of artifacts for our collections.

POLICY:

A. The terms "artifact" and "object" are understood to include three-dimensional artifacts, photographs, documents, audiovisual and electronic materials, and other formats.

B. This policy supercedes all previous Society acquisition policies.

C. General Conditions

1. The provenance of the object must be satisfactory to the Society.

2. The Society must be able to give proper care to the object, including conservation, maintenance, and storage. The acceptance of an object should not result in an expense for conservation disproportional to the usefulness of the object.

3. To be accepted, the donation typically must be made without restriction or encumbrance. In special cases, an object may be accepted with reasonable restrictions (for example, agreeing not to make a diary available to researchers until after the donor's death).

4. All decisions regarding the acceptance and disposition of the object, including but not limited to exhibit, loan, conservation, and deaccession, are reserved to the Society. No artifact may be accepted with the condition that it be placed on permanent exhibit.

5. All acquisitions become the property and responsibility of the Society. Once legal title has been established, an object cannot be given back to the donor or their legal agent. The Society will not accept objects on a loan basis except by specific approval of the Board of Directors of the Society.

6. For each donation, the Society will collect, where possible and reasonable, the donor’s name and contact information, a signed or emailed deed of gift transferring legal ownership to the Society, the date of the donation, the object’s provenance, and any history or other information which associates the object with Fort Sheridan. Once received, the Society will take at least one photograph of the object and enter the collected information into a catalog of object donations.

7. The Society will not offer or provide an oral or written appraisal of any donation or potential donation.

8. The Society will typically only accept donations made at no cost to the Society, unless otherwise specifically approved by the Board of Directors of the Society.

9. Disposal: Any object in the Society’s collections and owned by the Society without restriction may be disposed of at any time and for any reason by the Society.