Vintage Educational Chart In The Dining Room

This is a look back to when I was very excited to share this vintage educational chart with you on my summer house tour a few years ago. While my dining area looks really different today, I still love old Chicago history. In fact, I have this very cool old pre-1909 sign that still hangs in my home and part of an old civil service window in my foyer. When I bought this 1940’s educational chart from my friend, Janice, I was excited to hang the vintage educational chart in the dining room. I was even more excited when I googled the background and found out the origins are much closer to me than I ever imagined!

This old Chicago school educational chart was one of many printed by A.J.Nystrom and Co, and some are still used today. I learned a little about the printing company who created the chart (and you can still find a bunch of charts for sale on Etsy). But, it turns out Hilary S. Jurica, an ordained priest born and botanist who was born 1892 who designed the charts attended and taught at St. Procopius Abbey, which is a few blocks away from me! How is that for some crazy stuff! I felt like the sign was coming home! I love when history intersects with real life! I also found out that Benedictine University (which is right down the street) has a great museum full of specimens that had been collected and studied many by Jurica as the museum is named for him. It has everything from small bugs to taxidermy animals. It’s very interesting if you are into that kind of thing. My kids enjoyed visiting when they were little.

I love that this vintage educational chart in the dining room is a nice size to cover a lot of the wall and has such great colors. it goes so well with my blue and yellow tablecloth and the hand-drawn chandelier shades on the chandelier!

The chandelier shades feature bees and dotted stars drawn in blue marker and little leafy botanical elements drawn in a yellow marker. I love how something so easy can look so cute and is really inexpensive!

If you liked this post, you might also like: