Since the 1850s, Lake Forest, located 30 miles north of Chicago on Lake Michigan, has been a distinctive suburb. It has been a retreat from the diseases, public accessibility, rougher elements, soot, stockyard smells, and general density of bustling city life. For at least five generations, it has been the retreat for Chicago's leading New England-descended families, such as the Farwells, Swifts, and Armours. And for over 150 years, Lake Forest has been the home for a community of educators, merchants, artisans, designers, and a wide variety of estate specialists, the latter from pre-Civil War escaped slaves and Scots and Irish immigrants to today's notable garden and interior artists. Legendary Locals of Lake Forest draws on rare archival images from local and Chicago public and private sources.

Lake Forest residents Susan L. Kelsey and Arthur H. Miller last worked together on Images of America: West Lake Forest (2012), the inspiration for new interest in the former prairie community west of the 1850s lakefront elite Chicago suburban retreat. This surge has culminated in a 2014-2015 Lake Forest-Lake Bluff Historical Society exhibit, West Side Stories. Other Arcadia titles, written with Shirley M. Paddock, include Then & Now: Downtown Lake Forest (2009) and Images of America: Lake Forest: Estates, People, and Culture (2000).