Living Museum Vol 1 1939

The big break in Virginia’s career was not her successful venture into writing for nature magazines or her column for the newspaper. It was an unexpected opportunity to edit a journal devoted to the subject she liked best and knew most about, the natural world in Illinois. In 1938, Governor Henry Horner informed the new director of the Illinois State museum, Thorne Deuel that he was interested in building a new structure to replace the crowded quarters on the 5th floor of the Centennial Building – but that was a project that would depend upon increased support from the people of Illinois. One of the most productive of Deuel’s ideas for generating that support turned out to be hiring Virginia Eifert to edit a monthly publication devoted to the interests of the Illinois State museum. It was called the living museum.

Aside from achieving its intended purpose of publicizing the museum (the circulation reached more than 25,000 under Virginia’s editorship), the Living Museum provided an ideal outlet for the talents of its editor-author-illustrator. Virginia was essentially free for 27 years to write the kinds of essays she wanted to write. Many of her very best writing is within the pages of the 326 issues that she produced, and those essays provide a remarkable record of her interests and development after 1939.