About Tinker Swiss Cottage is a historic house museum located in the heart of Rockford, Illinois. The museum complex contains the historic house museum, barn, and carriage house from the Tinker family. In addition, the property is the home of the founding site of Rockford and contains a Pre-Columbian Native American conical mound.
Mission Statement Tinker Swiss Cottage Museum and Gardens preserves and shares the legacy of the Tinker family and inspires visitors to connect with history.
Vision Statement TSCMG is widely recognized as the site where the threads of Rockford's early history are woven together to provide a context for growth and development.
Collection The museum collection contains over 10,000 objects with over 98% of the collection obtained from the original objects of the occupants of the Tinker Swiss Cottage.
Collection Policy Tinker Swiss Cottage Museum collects and documents Robert H. Tinker's life and legacy and the lives of the occupants of the Swiss Cottage. We actively seek materials related to Robert Hall Tinker, his wives Mary Dorr Manny Tinker and Jessie Dorr Hurd Tinker; his father-in law, Josephus Dorr; his niece Marcia Dorr; and his sister-in-law Hannah Dorr. Material related to business ventures including the Manny Reaper Co., as well as documents related to his political life and the families philanthropic enterprises are of interest to us.
Land Acknowledgement We acknowledge that Winnebago County resides within the traditional homelands of many Indigenous nations:
Hoocąk (Ho-Chunk, formerly Winnebago) Kiikaapoi (Kickapoo) Bodéwadmik (Potawatomi), Odawa, and Ojibwe (Three Fires) Asâkîwaki (Sauk) and Fox Kiash Matchitiwuk (Menominee) Meshkwahkîha (Meskwaki) Myaamiaki (Miami) Peoria Očeti Šakówiŋ (Sioux).
These people, along with other tribes before them, have stewarded this land throughout history and continue today.
