Presenting the Alden Finney Brooks Collection

“Presenting the Alden Finney Brooks Collection” showcased the artwork of Alden Finney Brooks, a Chicago painter with a unique connection to Kenilworth. 

Alden Finney Brooks (1840-1932) was an American artist well-respected in the Chicago art scene of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He worked primarily in oil paint and watercolors. Brooks and his wife Ellen raised an artistically inclined family near Hyde Park, Chicago. Their eldest daughter, Elizabeth Brooks Maher, was a watercolor painter married to Prairie School architect, and local legend, George W. Maher. Alden Finney Brooks spent his remaining years on the North Shore, where two of his daughters lived. His time in Kenilworth is captured in several of his paintings, including some that were on display in the exhibit.

Alden Finney Brooks’ work is found in the collections of the Chicago History Museum, Chicago Public Library, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and National Portrait Gallery. In 2020, the Kenilworth Historical Society acquired nearly 90 paintings by Alden Finney Brooks, greatly enhancing our existing collection of his work.

The exhibit was on display from May 2023 to February 2024.