Guide to articles in Chicago History magazine.
Published by the Chicago Historical Society, 1945-present.
Digital copies of
issues from 1970-present found online at: https://issuu.com/chicagohistorymuseum
To view other copies, please visit or contact the
Abakanowicz Research Center.
Chicago History Museum
Abakanowicz Research Center
1601 North Clark Street, Chicago, IL 60614-6038
https://www.chicagohistory.org/visit-us/research-center/
Guide compiled by Marian Roth, ed. by Heather Leslie.
This guide is in 3 parts:
Part 1: Listing articles in recent issues of the magazine, going backward to the beginning of the "new series" that began in 1970.
Part 2: List of the separately published indexes to the "new series" of the magazine. [Indexes that were published in the magazine are listed with the issue where they were published.]
Part 3: Chronological listing of articles in the original series of the magazine, from 1945 to 1969, ending with v. 8, no. 12.
-------------------------
Part 1 of the Guide
Volume 46, number 2
(Fall/Winter 2022-23)
The Designers of ‘Treasured
Ten: Selections from the Costume Collection’, by Jessica Pushor
Chicago is on the
Lands of the Potawatomi, by John N. Low
Chicago’s 1948-1949
Railroad Fair, Joseph M. Di Cola
Making History:
Reviving Chicago Theater: Interviews
with Robert Falls and Roche Schulfer, by Timothy
J. Gilfoyle
Volume 46, number
1 (Spring 2022)
Remembering Timuel D. Black Jr.
The Presentation-
St. Joseph Twinning and Sharing Relationship in the 1970s, by Kevin Ryan
“People from the city and suburbs
talked and listened.”
The Good Communists
and the Chicago Health Movement of the 1970s: A Speculative Retrospective, by
Judith Kegan Gardiner
Making History:
Culture Makers:
Interviews with Timuel Black and Margaret Burroughs, by
Timothy J. Gilfoyle
Volume 45, number
2 (fall/winter 2021-22)
The Chicago Fire
Cyclorama, by Carl Smith
Before there were movie theaters and
virtual reality there were hand-painted cycloramas that allowed visitors to
immerse themselves in a scene.
Looking Again, by
Frances Dorenbaum
To collect objects means to care for
them. In this conversation, Vivian Maier: In Color curator Frances
Dorenbaum talked about art collecting and caretaking with Jeffrey Goldstein,
who recently donated a portion of his Vivian Maier images to the Museum. Many
of these color images are on display in the exhibition.
Polka King “Li’l Wally” Jagiello and the Chicago sound, by Robert M.
Marovich
The Chicago
Sun-Times Photo Archives, by Lee Bey
Making History:
The Transformation
of the Rehabilitation in Chicago: Interview with Dr. Joanne C. Smith, by
Timothy J. Gilfoyle
Sadly, Dr. Joanne Smith died on
September 6, 2021, shortly after this article was completed and submitted. The
Chicago History Museum and Chicago History magazine hope it serves to promote
the humane vision of Dr. Smith and the enduring legacy she leaves to Chicago
Volume 45, number
1 (spring/summer 2021)
Treatment of a
Cotillion Gown, c.1956 designed by Ann Lowe, by Holly Lundberg
See what goes into preparing a dress
from the Museum’s world-renowned costume collection for loan and display.
American Medina: Stories of Muslim Chicago, by Peter T. Alter
The Chicago Muslim Oral History
Project interview more than 150 Muslim Chicagoans from a variety of backgrounds
– read their stories in their own words.
Democracy Limited:
Chicago Women and the Vote, by Elizabeth Fraterrigo
Explore women’s activism in Chicago
to secure the right to vote – and beyond.
Making History:
Transforming
Disability into Ability: Interview with Shirley Welsh Ryan, by Timothy J.
Gilfoyle
Volume 44, number
2 (fall 2020)
Sylvia Pankhurst,
the East London Suffragettes, and the Chicago Strikers, by Katherine
Connelly
Chicago in January 1911 gave Sylvia
Pankhurst an extraordinary insight into the condition of workers in America and
informed new
ways of organizing..
Practitioners of
Progress, by Brittany Hutchinson
The accomplishments of Black nurses , in defiance of the abject racism and sexism they
faces, changed the course of the medical history of Chicago.
Separatism and
Equality: Women at the University of Chicago, 1895-1925, by Anya Jabour
During the Marion Talbot and
Sophonisba Breckinridge’s tenure, women students at the University of Chicago
enjoyed both educational opportunity and female community.
Making History:
Banking in Chicago:
Interviews with Michael Moskow and Rick Waddell, by Timothy J. Gilfoyle
Volume 44, number
1 (spring 2020)
William Grant
“Habeas Corpus” Anderson, by Ethelene Whitmire
Attorney William Anderson developed a reputation for being a technical
legal expert and frequently defended African American clients.
Education, Politics,
and Race in Chicago, 1926–67, by William A. Hoisington Jr.
Built as part of Chicago’s junior high experiment, Emil G. Hirsch School
saw its share of social and political turmoil in the mid-twentieth century.
Chicago’s First
Contested Mayoral Election, by Charles H. Cosgrove
The results of Chicago’s 1844 mayoral election came down to a margin of
seven votes and became a matter for the city council to decide.
Making History:
Cultural Production
in Chicago: Making History Interviews with Barbara Gaines, Criss Henderson, and
Carlos Tortolero, by Timothy J. Gilfoyle
Volume 43, number
2 (summer 2019)
“No Use for Men,” by
Robert Pruter
The Illinois Women’s Athletic Club established a sports program that
championed women’s efforts to win local, national, and Olympic competitions.
Pioneering Social
Justice, by Lynn Y. Weiner
Established after a mass faculty resignation, Roosevelt College became a
model of democracy in higher education.
A Shift in Power:
South Side Elevated Car 1, by Norman Carlson
The technology of Multiple Unit control developed by Frank J. Sprague
first applied in 1897 to Car 1 had worldwide significance.
Making History:
Chicago-Born and
Bred: Making History Interviews with Frank M. Clark Jr. and Richard L. Duchossois, by Timothy J. Gilfoyle
Volume 43, number
1 (winter 2019)
Modern by Design:
Chicago Streamlines America, by Olivia Mahoney
During the 1930s, Chicago became a national center of streamlined design,
a popular style that transformed the look and feel of everyday life in America.
No Coughing. No
Sneezing. No Spitting., by Rosemary K. Adams
One hundred years ago, as World War I was winding down, Chicago’s
commissioner of health issued an urgent request: “Help us to keep Chicago the
Healthiest City in the World.”
Yesterday’s City, by
Robert M. Marovich
Shelby Jean Davis and the Cumberland Ridge Runners performed weekday
evenings on WJJD’s Suppertime Frolic, but behind the scenes, Shelby
and her family experienced financial challenges similar to those of her fans.
Making History:
North Side, South
Side, All Around the Town: Making History Interviews with Anne McGlone Burke
and Josephine Baskin Minow, by Timothy J. Gilfoyle
Volume 42, number
2 (summer 2018)
Black Catholic
Revolution, by Matthew J. Cressler
In the late 1960s, the social unrest that swept the nation transformed
Chicago’s Catholic community.
West Side Voices,
by Helen Kinskey and Peter T. Alter
In collaboration with the Studs Terkel Center for Oral History, young
people conducted interviews for Forty Blocks: The East Garfield Park Oral
History Project and the North Lawndale Sesquicentennial celebration.
Making History:
Breaking Chicago’s
Glass Ceilings: Making History Interviews with Deborah L. DeHaas and Adele S.
Simmons, by Timothy J. Gilfoyle
Volume 42, number
1 (winter 2018)
Giving Wings to the
Pursuit of Excellence, by Richard C. Lindberg
The challenging formative decades of the Normal School reveal the
historic strength and resilience of Chicago’s teacher training institutions.
A Playground for the
People, by Rosemary K. Adams
Before Soldier Field was the home of the Chicago Bears, it was a site for
school sporting events, religious gatherings, political rallies, and civic
demonstrations.
Nelson Algren and
Polonia’s Revenge, by Mary Wisniewski
In response to Never Come Morning, Chicago’s Polish American residents
launched a war against Algren that colored his views of Chicago for the rest of
his life.
Making History:
Chicago’s Global
Entrepreneurs: Making History Interviews with John A. Canning Jr. and Ronald J.
Gidwitz, by Timothy J. Gilfoyle.
Volume 41, number
2 (summer 2017)
Saving Sabella, by
Emilie Le Beau Lucchesi
The heart-wrenching story of Sabella Nitti, an Italian immigrant who was
charged with murdering her husband, exposing unfairness in the justice system.
A Wheel with a View,
by Russell Lewis
Created for Chicago’s 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, this popular
attraction continued a tradition of urban observation towers combined with
innovative technology.
Making History:
Chicago’s Education
Innovators: Making History Interviews with Paul Adams III and Walter Massey, by
Timothy J. Gilfoyle
Volume 41, number
1 (winter 2017)
Composing the Union’s Battle Cries, by Christian McWhirter
By expressing radical sentiments in song, Root & Cady influenced how Americans experienced the Civil War and transformed Chicago’s music publishing industry.
Sing a New Song, by Robert M. Marovich
J. Wesley Jones and his celebrated Metropolitan Community Church Choir captivated audiences with their stirring perforances of formal sacred music.
Snow Days, by Rosemary K. Adams
Despite the occasional hazards of Chicago winters, generations of residents have managed to enjoy the cold weather in various ways.
Making History:
Ordinary People Leading Extraordinary Lives: Making History Interviews with Fritzie Fritzshall and Art Johnston, by Timothy J. Gilfoyle
Volume 40, number
1 (spring 2016)
An Industrial Spectacle, by
Dominic A. Pacyga
Chicago's meat-packing district showcased the marvels of mass production and helped create modern consumer culture.
Consumer City, by
Daniel J. Story
From 1890 to 1930, outdoor advertisers transformed the cityscape and developed a surprisingly nuanced vision of Chicago's potential.
Hope and Healing on the Battlefield, by Sister Betty Ann McNeil, D.C.
During the nation's bloodiest conflict, the Daughters of Charity fulfilled their mission to seek and serve those most in need.
Making History:
Chicago's Public Servants: Making History Interviews with William M. Daley and Jesse White Jr., by Timothy L. Gilfoyle
Bill Daley and Jesse White have devoted their lives to public service.
Volume 40, number
1 (winter 2015)
The Art and Politics of Chicago's Sanitary Fairs, by Evie Terrono
The impressive exhibitions of 1863 and 1865 popularized the righteousness of the Union cause and spurred the development of the arts in the postbellum era.
Quelling the Camp Douglas Conspiracies, by Stephen E. Towne
In addition to fighting on the front lines, the Union army functioned as a domestic security agency to monitor and suppress Confederate sympathizers in the North.
Remembering the Grand Army of the Republic, by Robert I. Girardi
Founded as a support network for Civil War veterans, the GAR established a legacy that remains visible today.
Making History:
Wisconsin Roots: Making History Interviews with Richard M.
Jaffe and John W. Rowe, by Timothy L.
Gilfoyle
Richard M. Jaffe and John W. Rowe may have started from humble beginnings, but each became a leading corporate citizen of Chicago.
Volume 39, number
3 (fall 2014)
"The Park is Ours," by Brian Mullgardt
During the tumultuous 1968 Democratic National Convention, the whole world was watching as police and demonstrators faced off near Grant Park; but further north, residents of the Lincoln Park neighborhood staged their own Protest.
Up from Little Hell, by
Lawrence J. Vale
From their inception in the early twentieth century, Chicago's public housing projects invited controversy as entire neighborhoods were destroyed to pave the way for new homes for the poor.
Challenging the Medical Establishment, by Greta S. Nettleton
In the late nineteenth century, Rebecca Keck, a successful practitioner of naturopathic medicine, challenged the state of Illinois' newly established medical laws.
Yesterday's City:
Goose Island's Earliest Residents: The Irish of Kilgubbin, by J.
Nicole Robinson
When asked about Goose Island, many Chicagoans will think first of beer and factories.
Making History:
Serving Chicago: Interviews with Mary Dempsey and Bernie
Wong, by Timothy J. Gilfoyle
Mary Dempsey and Bernarda "Bernie" Wong are part of a long and deep tradition of Chicago women engaging in transformative social and municipal services.
Volume 39, number
2 (summer 2014)
The Wedding of Land and Lake, by Carl Smith
Chicago's rich natural resources made it a desirable destination for settlers, but it was the young city's astute management of water that transformed it into America's great inland metropolis.
The Jackson Park Caravels, by Joseph M. Di Cola
The World's Columbian Exposition included replicas of the three ships from Columbus's first voyage -- the Santa Maria, Nina, and Pinta. The caravels delighted fairgoers and later developed a storied history of their own.
White Sox World Travelers, by Richard C. Lindberg
On the eve of the Great War, Charles Comiskey's White Sox and John McGraw's New York Giants introduced baseball diplomacy to a world on the brink.
Making History:
Sporting Heroes: Interviews with Mike Krzyzewski and Jerry Reinsdorf, by Timothy
L. Gilfoyle
Few Chicagoans have transformed American sports as much as Mike Krzyzewski and Jerry Reinsdorf.
Volume 39, number
1 (summer 2013)
Sideline Suffragists, by Suellen Hoy
Although often omitted from accounts of women's early twentieth-century campaigns to win the vote, Chicago's teachers and trade unionists joined the larger movement to secure that right of citizenship.
Shalom Chicago, by Olivia Mahoney
The history of Jewish Chicago is deeply rooted in the city's past.
Protesting Hitlerism, by Angela Hoover
As the Nazi Party began its terror campaign in 1930s Germany, Chicagoans tried to stem the tide.
Making History:
Advocates for the Hopeless: Interviews with George Leighton
and Barbara Bowman, by Timothy J.
Gilfoyle
Barbara Taylor Bowman and George N. Leighton have left indelible marks on their professions in Chicago and the nation.
Volume 38, number
2 (fall 2012)
The Burning Hive, by
Gary Krist
The crash of the Wingfoot Express --the first major aviation disaster in the nation's history-- had taken the lives of a dozen people and brought utter panic into the heart of the second largest city in the country.
Jailhouse Makeovers, by Douglas Perry
In 1924, two beautiful defendants accused of murder captured the attention of Chicagoans - and the sympathy of jurors.
Yesterday's City:
Golf and the Chicago Girl, by Raymond Schmidt
Chicago was regarded as one of the major centers of American Women's golf from World War I to the mid-1930's.
Making History:
First Families of Philanthropy: Making History Interviews with Renee Crown and Marshall Field V, by Timothy J. Gilfoyle
Few surnames are better known in Chicago than those of Crown and Field.
Volume 38, number
1 (spring 2012)
The Water Question, by
Leslie Coburn
Before the advent of soda
machines, bottled beverages, and safe tap water, Chicagoans - human and animal
alike - relied on public drinking fountains.
Crossroads for a Culture, by Rosalyn R. LaPier and David R. M. Beck
Chicago provided a home for a diverse group of American Indians during the Progressive Era.
Yesterday's City:
Chicago's Other Coliseum, by Robert Pruter
Millions flocked to Chicago during the fair. When it closed, civic leaders decided to sustain Chicago as an attraction by constructing an immense indoor arena called the Coliseum.
Making History:
The Making of Millennial Banks: Interviews with Norman R. Bobins and William A. Osborn, by Timothy J. Gilfoyle
Norman R. Bobins and William A. Osborn personify the dramatic changes in American and international banking in the second half of the twentieth century.
Volume 37, number
2 (summer 2011)
Striking Out on its Own: Labor and the Modern Church, by Heath W. Carter
In 1894, labor leaders and trade activists, disillusioned by the customs of the Protestant establishment, formed a church for the working classes.
Lincoln's Chicago, by Olivia Mahoney
On November 8, 1860, two days after being elected president, Abraham Lincoln wrote to vice president-elect Senator Hannibal Hamlin of Maine: "I am anxious for a personal interview with you...Can you, without much inconvenience, meet me at Chicago?"
A Most Unfortunate and Evil Day, by Derryn E. Moten
As a young African American woman faced the death penalty in Virginia, Chicago women's clubs fought to save her life.
Making History:
University of Chicago Luminaries: Making History Interviews with Hanna Gray and Janet Rowley, by Timothy J. Gilfoyle
The careers of Hanna Gray and Janet Rowley share many common elements. Both women entered academic professions dominated by men. At different times, each experienced gender discrimination.
Volume 36, number
3 (winter 2010):
Taking the Plunge into Civil Rights, by Ellen Skerrett, with Margaret O'Brien Steinfels,
Barry Hillenbrand, and Peter Steinfels
A student campaign to integrate a Catholic club brings nuns and a priest to a picket line on Michigan Avenue.
An Unforgettable Day: Queen Elizabeth visits Chicago, by Rosemary K. Adams
On July 6, 1969, only days after celebrating Independence Day, Chicagoans welcomed Elizabeth II for a whirlwind thirteen-hour visit.
Yesterday's City:
Elisha Talbott and the Railway Age, by John H. White, Jr.
Perhaps more than any other city, Chicago capitalized on the birth and development of the railway industry.
Making History:
Culture Makers: Interviews with Timuel
Black and Margaret Burroughs, by Timothy
J. Gilfoyle
The 2008 election of Chicagoan Barack Obama as president of the United States revived interest in the city's African American heritage. Among the most influential chroniclers of Chicago's rich African American past are Timuel Black and Margaret Burroughs.
Volume 36, number
2 (spring 2009):
The Unknown Life of Ellen Gates Starr, by Suellen Hoy
In her later years, the cofounder of Hull-House led a private but purposeful life filled with social activism, friendship, and faith.
Here Comes Everybody: The 28th International Eucharistic
Congress, by Jill Thomas Grannan
In June 1926, Chicago shined as its people played host to one of the largest Catholic celebrations the nation --and the world-- had ever seen: The twenty-eighth International Eucharistic Congress.
The Ramblers and the Demons, by Raymond Schmidt
Loyola and DePaul universities briefly vied for glory during the college football boom of the 1920s.
Volume 36, number
1 (fall 2008):
Monuments to Memory, by Gerald R. Gems
Chicago's sports stadiums that have been home to storied seasons that have shaped the city's reputation and its collective memory.
The Literature of the Sox Side, by Eileen M. McMahon
For more than a century, authors have captured the larger-than-life athletic ability of the White Sox and the hopes and dreams of their fans.
Making History:
Banking on Chicago: Interviews with Edgar Jannotta and Martin Koldyke, by Timothy J. Gilfoyle
Edgar Jannotta and Martin Koldyke epitomize the impact of investment banking on Chicago philanthropy and education.
Volume 35, number
3 (spring 2008)
Regulating Urban Living, by Margaret Garg
Tenement buildings spurred some of Chicago's earliest government racism, class conflict and capitalist power.
Solidarity Forever, by
Bucky Halker
Between 1865 and 1900, thousands of labor songs surfaced in Chicago, urging the workingman to battle for his rights.
Making History:
The Linebacker and the Nun: Interviews with Dick Butkus and
Sister Rosemary Connelly, by Timothy
Gilfoyle
At first glance, Dick Butkus and Sister Rosemary Connelly share little in common.
Index to Volume 35
Volume 35, numbers
1 & 2 (summer 2007)
North Shore Town and Gown, by Michael H. Ebner
A complex legacy connects the college and community of Lake Forest.
Rolling Low in Chicago, by
Peter T. Alter
A treasure on wheels, a sparkling 1978 Chevrolet Monte Carlo, dominates the Chicago History Museum's new first-floor lobby.
Yesterday's Chicago:
Miss Chicago and Dad Dearborn, by Guy Szuberla
"Miss Chicago" and "Dad Dearborn" were once familiar to most readers of the city's newspapers. During the first half of the twentieth century, the two characters appeared regularly in the editorial cartoons of Chicago's leading papers.
Making History:
Architects of Culture: Interviews with Ronne Hartfield and
Helmut Jahn, by Timothy J. Gilfoyle
Ronne Hartfield and Helmut Jahn are mavericks of Chicago culture.
Volume 34, number
3 (fall 2006)
The Klan Moves North, by
David Craine
In the 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan emerged in Chicago to fight the perceived dangers of urban life.
We Belong in Washington Park, by Truman K. Gibson, Jr.
African American lawyers and businessmen led the long struggle against racially restrictive covenants.
Yesterday's City:
Henry Field's Legendary Expeditions, by S. J. Redman
Henry Field, the grand-nephew of department store giant Marshall Field, wanted to work in a museum from a very young age.
Index to Volume
Volume 34, number
2 (spring 2006)
The Legend of Scarface, by Theodore J. Karamanski
Decades after the gangland era, Al Capone continues to haunt Chicago.
The Gilded Age of Camp Lincoln, l886-l9l6, by Eleanor L. Hannah
Although designed as a rigorous training opportunity, summer camp remained the highlight of the year for many members of the Illinois National Guard.
To Chicago and Back: Bulgaria and the World's Fair of 1893, by Petko Ivanov
In 1876, Bulgaria was liberated from centuries of Turkish rule. The newly independent country hoped to establish a strong presence at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition.
Making History:
Interviews with Andrew McKenna and Ray Meyer, by Timothy J. Gilfoyle
Andrew McKenna and Ray Meyer grew up in modest Chicago families. Few could have predicted they would become two of the leading figures in American sports.
Volume 34, number
1 (fall 2005)
Bookbinding and the Progressive Vision, by Sherri Berger
Through binding books, Hull-House's Ellen Gates Starr turned her personal faith in art into a program of reform.
Emmett Till's Day in Court, by Joy L. Bivins
Franklin McMahon's courtroom drawings record the beginning of the modern Civil Rights Movement.
Making History:
Interviews with Carol Marin and James J. O'Connor, by Timothy J. Gilfoyle
Journalist and television news anchor Carol Marin and utility executive James J. O'Connor both rose from humble beginnings to the highest pinnacles of their professions.
Volume 33, number
3 (spring 2005)
Standing Up for Gay Rights, by John D. Poling
At a time when mainstream society did not accept gays and lesbians, Mattachine Midwest arose to fight against decades of discrimination and advance the rights of homosexuals.
A Compassionate Eye: The Photographs of Declan Haun,
1961-69, by Leigh Moran and Peter T.
Alter.
Haun's work offers unique perspectives on one of the most socially and politically turbulent decades in American history.
Yesterday's City:
"No Beer for Babies": The Child Welfare Exhibit, by James Marten
One day in May 1911, Susan Glaspell, the journalist and, later, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, turned down an invitation to go for a drive --a still-novel activity at the time-- to attend the Child Welfare Exhibit in Chicago.
Making History:
The Patron and the Artist: Interviews with Stanley M.
Freehling and Richard Hunt, by Timothy J.
Gilfoyle
Stanley M. Freehling and Richard Hunt both figured prominently in Chicago's post-World War II cultural revival.
Index to Volume 33
Volume
33, number 2 (fall 2004)
Teen Chicago, by Marie L. Scatena
By drawing on historical scholarship and collaborating with teens, the Chicago Historical Society launched an innovative project that explored teenage life across the twentieth century.
Coming of Age in Chicago, by Joy L. Bivins and Harvey J. Graff
The history of the city's teenagers reveals there is more to teens than meets the eye.
Bringing Attitude to History: The Teen Council, by Raymond Yang
I looked forward to my first official day as the Teen Council Coordinator in July 2003 with great anticipation and a bit of trepidation.
Teen Council Interviews
Every Teen Council member can describe the interviews with which they truly identified or that really touched them. These interviews and the Teen Council's thoughts on them follow.
Volume 33, number
1 (summer 2004)
Stunned with Sorrow, by
Suellen Hoy
The Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary were among both the victims and the heroes of the horrific 1958 Our Lady of the Angels school fire.
Girls, We Must Enlist!, by Virginia R. Boynton
Many Chicago women fought World War I on the home front, in their kitchens and neighborhoods.
Chicago's Global Communities, by Peter Alter
Interview with Tam Van Nguyen, Vietnamese Association of Illinois
Making History:
Chicago Natives: Interviews with Edward A. Brennan and
Carole Simpson, by Timothy J. Gilfoyle
Born in Chicago and reared in modest, middle-class families, Edward A. Brennan and Carole Simpson both rose to the pinnacles of their professions.
Volume 32, number
3 (spring 2004)
Monuments to a Lost Nation, by Theodore J. Karamanski
Symbolic Native Americans appeared on the Chicago landscape after the city's first inhabitants had faded from the area.
Chicago Teachers Unite, by
John F. Lyons
Determined to succeed, the new Chicago Teachers Union launched a series of programs to attract members and overcome deep divisions among the city's educators.
Making History:
East Coast Transplants: Interviews with Henry B. Betts and
Robert V. Remini, by Timothy Gilfoyle
During the four decades after their arrival in Chicago in the 1960s, Henry B. Betts and Robert V. Remini redefined their respective professions.
Index to Volume 32
Volume 32, number
2 (fall 2003)
Inferno at the Iroquois,
by Anthony O. Hatch
In December 1903, the horrific fire at the luxurious five-week old Iroquois Theatre shocked Chicago.
Harold Washington: The Man and The Movement, by Tracye A. Matthews.
In 1982, a diverse coalition of Chicagoans, led by the African American community, recruited the charismatic and politically savvy U.S. Congressman Harold Washington to run for mayor.
Monuments to Education, by Dale Allen Gyure
High School architecture in the Progressive Era reflected secondary education's changing role in American society.
Volume 32, number
1 (summer 2003)
A Shrine of Patriotic Memories, by Jennifer R. Bridge
The controversial and lucrative Libby Prison museum offered a new way to remember the recent Civil War.
The Game of the Century, by
Peter T. Alter
This year's all-Star game marked the seventieth anniversary of an event born in Chicago.
Yesterday's City:
Chicago's Sisters of Mercy, by Joy Clough, R.S.M.
A chilly wind blew along the deserted shoreline as the weary travelers stepped ashore. Before them on the shores of Lake Michigan lay an outpost of civilization, a makeshift wooden village sinking in mud. It was September 23, 1846, and the Sisters of Mercy had arrived in Chicago.
Making History:
Architects of Chicago Culture: Interviews with Ramsey Lewis
and Walter Netsch, by Timothy Gilfoyle.
Few native-born and bred Chicagoans have shaped the city's twentieth-century cultural landscape like Ramsey Lewis and Walter Netsch.
Volume 31, number
3 (spring 2003)
From the President, by Lonnie G. Bunch
An overall view of this issue of Chicago History, an exploration of Chicago's sports tradition
Recasting the Black Sox Legend, by Daniel A. Nathan
Bernard Malamud's The Natural revisits professional baseball's darkest days.
Champions: Sports and the Chicago Daily News, by Richard Cahan and Mark Jacob
Sports have always had heroes, and early newspaper photographers eagerly captured those heroes on film.
Chicago's Global Communities, by Peter T. Alter
Recent immigrants from India and Poland reveal their perspectives on Chicago, one of the world's most ethnically diverse cities.
Making History:
Writing Crime in Chicago: an
Interview with Sara Paretsky, by Timothy J. Gilfoyle
The creation of Sara Paretsky, the character of Victoria Iphigenia (V.I.) Warshawski not only redefined the private eye genre in the final two decades of the twentieth century but put Chicago on that literary map.
Index to Volume 31.
Volume 31, number
2 (fall 2002)
Ministering Hope to Chicago, by Suellen Hoy
Missionary sisters broke racial boundaries with their work in the city's African American neighborhoods.
Chicago's Global communities, by Peter T. Alter
Recent immigrants from Mexico and Romania reveal their perspectives on Chicago, one of the world's most ethnically diverse cities.
Yesterday's City:
Albert Lasker's Advertising Revolution, by Arthur W. Schultz
The advertising business was already in its formative stages in 1898, when eighteen-year-old Albert Davis Lasker arrived in Chicago from Galveston, Texas, to work as an office boy at the Lord & Thomas advertising agency.
Making History:
Civic Entrepreneurs: Interviews with Richard L. Thomas and
Arturo Velasquez, Sr., by Timothy J.
Gilfoyle
In the second half of the twentieth century, business and civic leaders Richard L. Thomas and Arturo Velasquez, Sr., made indelible, but largely unrecognized, contributions to Chicago.
Volume 31, number
1 (summer 2002)
Revisiting 1968, by Timothy Dean Draper
The Chicago Conspiracy Trial attempted to make sense of the events of the Democratic National Convention but created its own chaos.
Read all about It, by
David Paul Nord
Three newspapers competed for readers in a growing and increasingly diverse Chicago.
Making History:
William Warfield: Ambassador of Music, by Timothy J. Gilfoyle
William Warfield ranks among the most influential American musicians of the twentieth century.
Volume 30, number
3 (winter 2002)
From the President, by Lonnie G. Bunch
Making Votes Count, by
F. Richard Ciccone
Legend says that Richard J. Daley 'stole' the 1960 election for John F. Kennedy, but that race was neither the first nor the last characterized by suspicious tallies.
Jackson versus the Cherokee Nation, by Robert V. Remini
President Andrew Jackson's policies against Native Americans led to the removal of the Cherokee people from their home in the eastern United States.
CHS and the Presidency, by Russell L. Lewis
It would be virtually impossible to write a history of America without its presidents. Although the 'Great Man' approach to history has fallen from favor, the profound impact of the forty-two men who have held this office on the course of the nation and the world is undeniable.
Making History:
The Space Age in Chicago: Interviews with James A. Lovell
and John D. Nichols, by Timothy J.
Gilfoyle
Astronaut Jim Lovell and corporate executive John Nichols never met until the evening of May 17, 2001, when each received a Making History award from the Chicago Historical Society.
Index to Volume 30
Volume 30, number
2 (fall 2001)
Making the Mile Magnificent, by John W. Stamper
Arthur Rubloff's vision for Michigan Avenue changed the face of the city.
Chicago's Theatre, by Ralph Pugh
What's in a name? In the case of the Chicago Theatre, it suggests a history not only of itself but also of its neighborhood, Chicago's Loop.
Yesterday's City:
Annexation and Chicago's Northern Border Communities, by Neal Samors
By the early part of the twentieth century, Chicago had reached most of its territorial borders, the result of annexation (adding incorporated and unincorporated land to the city), primarily during the 1880s and 1890s, to expand its land area.
Making History:
Philanthropists as Civic Activists: Interviews with Cindy
Pritzker and Irving Harris, by Timothy J.
Gilfoyle
Cindy Pritzker and Irving Harris have much in common. Each have spent the bulk of their lives in Chicago and both enjoy a Jewish heritage.
Volume 30, number
1 (summer 2001)
Exiles in Suckerland, by Timothy B. Spears
Even as nineteenth-century small-town migrants reached for the glamour and prosperity Chicago promised, they longed for the good old days on Main Street.
The Irish of Chicago's Hull-House Neighborhood, by Ellen Skerrett
Holy Family Parish brought art and culture to its West Side neighborhood.
Making History:
Chicago Intellect: An Interview with Garry Wills, by Timothy J. Gilfoyle
In the final third of the twentieth century, Garry Wills was arguably America's most prolific writer.
Volume 29, number
3 (spring 2001)
From the Editor, by
Rosemary K. Adams
Tragedy in the Parish, by Daniel Greene
A survivor of the Our Lady of the Angels fire reveals how the disaster devastated her neighborhood.
Stardust and Street of Dreams: Chicago Girls Clubs, by Alice Murata
More than twenty thousand Americans of Japanese ancestry settled in Chicago. The reason: the forced relocation of Japanese Americans from their West Coast homes to internment camps and then to inland areas.
Yesterday's City:
The Street Formerly Known as Crawford, by Amanda Irene Seligman
In 1944, streetcar conductor Carl Cheever called out "Crawford Avenue" to announce a stop on a street that was legally named "Pulaski Road."
Making History:
Chicago's Emissaries of Culture: Interviews with Eppie
Lederer and Lois Weisberg, by Timothy J.
Gilfoyle
Few Americans immediately recognize the names Esther "Eppie" Lederer and Lois Weisberg. Yet only a handful of Chicagoans have wielded as much influence not only in the city, but throughout the United States.
Index to Volume 29
Volume 29, number
2 (fall 2000)
From the Editor, by Rosemary K. Adams
Reel Life, Real Censorship, by Raymond J. Haberski, Jr.
Chicago's Motion Picture Commission debated control of a powerful new medium.
Sears Beautiful, by Stephen Eskilson
During the 1930s, the famed Chicago retailer revolutionized department store architecture.
Yesterday's City:
A League of His Own: William Hulbert and the Founding of the National League, by Tom Melville
No better example of baseball's sordid history exists than the story of the National League's origin, which, like the Doubleday myth, has been modified and rewritten to justify the interests of the present.
Making History:
Chicago Fortunes: Interviews with Lester Crown and John H. Johnson, by Timothy J. Gilfoyle
Together, Johnson and Crown reflect the changing sources of wealth in twentieth-century Chicago.
Volume 29, number
1 (summer 2000)
From the Editor, by
Rosemary K. Adams
For many children, summer was not complete without at least one spin on Riverview Park's Flying Turns ride.
The Backbone of the Union, by Paul Street
During the 1930s, formerly company-loyal black workers in Chicago's stockyards emerged as dedicated union members.
Fighting Racism at the YMCA, by Virginia R. Boynton
As the Country fought racial prejudice abroad, Chicago YWCA members tackled the issue at home.
Yesterday's City:
The Beach Boys: Chicago's First Junior Lifeguards, by Chris Serb
In the early 1900s, the relatively new sport of recreational swimming gained popularity all over the country. The city of Chicago and its local park districts cleared much of the lakefront and built jetties and piers to capture sand and create beaches, then hired the best swimmers to serve as lifeguards.
Making History:
Corporate Consciences: Interviews with John H. Bryan and
Newton N. Minow, by Timothy J. Gilfoyle
In the late-twentieth century, Newton N. Minow and John H. Bryan emerged as moral consciences in the worlds of American communications and corporate life.
Volume 28, number
3 (spring 2000)
From the Editor, by
Rosemary K. Adams
If you have lived in Chicago any length of time, you have most likely heard the tale of, "Resurrection Mary."
Welcoming Jewish Americans, by Elliot Zashin
Philip Seman's Chicago Hebrew Institute helped Jewish immigrants adapt to American life during the early 1900s.
This Haven of Rest and Health: The Chicago Daily News Sanitarium, by
Cynthia Mathews
During the late nineteenth century... social service organizations and private groups, including several newspapers, established fresh-air charities in many cities across the United States.
Yesterday's City:
The Marseilles of Lake Michigan, by Theodore J. Karamanski
Chicago's nickname--before the "windy city," "the city that works," or "the city with big shoulders"--was the "Queen of the Lakes."
Making History:
Creating a Dance: Interviews with Bruce Graham and Maria Tallchief, by Timothy J. Gilfoyle
Few American artists have dominated their respective crafts as architect Bruce Graham and ballerina Maria Tallchief have done.
Index to Volume 28
Volume 28, number
2 (winter 2000)
From the Editor, by
Rosemary K. Adams
Monstrous Productions or the Best of Womanhood?
Progressive-Era Women in Medicine, by
Brigid Lusk
At the turn of the century, women who pursued careers in medicine faced an uphill battle, but pioneers such as Sarah Hackett Stevenson and M. Helena McMillan paved the way.
That's Good News! Chicago and the Birth of Gospel Music, by John Russick and Gwen Ihnat
"This thing gospel, it was something new; they didn't take to it too well.... The preacher get up there and say, ‘You can't sing no gospel, only preach the gospel. I've been thrown out of some of the best churches in the country for that."
--Thomas Andrew Dorsey
Yesterday's City:
The Golden Age of Chicago Baseball, by Ray Schmidt
Before radio and television brought the games into every home, baseball attracted thousands of fans to ballparks around Chicago every summer weekend; the accounts of these contests shared equal billing in the city's newspapers with those of major league baseball teams.
Making History:
Stars of Chicago: Interview, by Timothy J. Gilfoyle
The lives of Etta Moten Barnett and the late Sid Luckman embody the history of entertainment, sports, and race relations in the United States.
Volume 28, number
1 (summer 1999)
From the Editor, by Rosemary K. Adams
Strong Medicine, by Steven M. Schwartz
Michael Reese and Mount Sinai hospitals stood as the cornerstones for two disparate Jewish communities in turn-of-the-century Chicago.
A People without a Nation, by Barbara J. Ballard
African Americans at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition stood as a people without a nation until Florvil Hyppolite let African American leaders use the Haitian Pavilion as a platform for protest.
Yesterday's City:
The Race is to the Swift: The 1886 National Typesetting
Championship, by Walker Rumble
Chicago's
Kohl & Middleton's Dime Museum at 150 South Clark Street (now 10 South
Clark Street) hosted the 1886 National Championship, the first of its kind. The
event and its setting marked a coming of age for type racing.
Making History:
Wisconsin's Finest: Interviews with William Cronon, Abner Mikva, and Patrick Ryan, by Timothy J. Gilfoyle
In numerous ways, William Cronon, Abner J. Mikva, and Patrick G. Ryan personify the historic links between the city and its northern neighbor.
Volume 27, number
3 (winter 1998-1999)
From the Editor, by Rosemary K. Adams
Justice for the Child: The Beginning of the Juvenile Court in Chicago, by David S. Tanenhaus
To save young boys from being locked up with "murderers, anarchists, and hardened criminals," a group of Chicago politicians, lawyers and activists pooled their efforts to create the nation's first juvenile court.
A Meeting of the Waters, by Emily J. Harris
Overview of Illinois and Michigan Canal National Heritage Corridor.
Yesterday's City:
The Chicago Press Club: The Scoop behind The Front Page, by Richard Digby-Junger
The Front Page, a 1928 Broadway play and 1931 movie starring Adolphe Menjou and Pat O'Brien, was the first commercially successful story about news reporters, specifically Chicago jazz or muscle-style journalists, in the United States.
Making History:
From Wrigley Field to Outer Space: Interviews with Ernie
Banks and Mae Jemison, by Timothy J.
Gilfoyle
Ernie Banks and Mae C. Jemison "made history" in dramatically different pursuits.
Index to Volume 27
Volume 27, number
2 (summer 1998)
From the Editor, by
Rosemary K. Adams
For Home, Family, and Equality: African American Women's
Clubs, by Anne Meis Knupfer
Chicago African American women's clubs rallied for the suffrage movement so strongly they accomplished what no other such local organization had yet done--they elected an African American official.
Rooting, Uprooting: The West Side, by Susan M. Samek
Life on the West Side is a story of contrasts, conflicts, and coming together. It is a story, too, of residents uprooted--displaced often by industry, institutions, urban renewal, and gentrification. And it is the story of new residents putting down their own roots.
Yesterday's City:
The Fair and the Fan Dancer: A Century of Progress and
Chicago's Image, by Lisa Krissoff Boehm
The 1933-34 World's Fair, A Century of Progress, attempted to erase the city's vice-ridden reputation, but had the opposite effect thanks to lackluster architecture and a certain fan dancer.
Making History:
Urban Migrants: Interviews with Milton Friedman, John Swearingen, and Mary Ward Wolkonsky, by Timothy J. Gilfoyle
Since its founding in the 1830s, Chicago has been a magnet for migrants. Three "Making History" Award recipients for 1997 are among the most influential of recent years.
Volume 27, number
1 (spring 1998)
From the Editor, by Rosemary K. Adams
Time is Money, by Arnold Lewis
European visitors were fascinated, and sometimes horrified, by the hectic pace of life in 1890s Chicago.
Chicago's Front Yard, by Dennis H. Cremin
Chicagoans and visitors to the city have long thought of Grant Park as the city's front yard. Because of its high visibility, this "yard" has drawn much attention--and controversy.
Women of Chinatown, by Peggy Spitzer Christoff
In the years of "exclusion laws" governing Chinese immigration, the population of Chinese American communities, such as Chicago's Chinatown, was overwhelmingly male. Women still had an impact on the community, however, as the lives of these five women illustrate.
Making History:
Ardis Krainik: In Memoriam, by Timothy J. Gilfoyle
Under Ardis Krainik, the Lyric Opera of Chicago became world renowned. At the time of her retirement in 1996, Krainik was regarded as "the most powerful woman in opera."
Volume 26, number
3 (fall 1997)
From the Editor, by Rosemary K. Adams
Chicago's "Black-and-Tans," by William Kenney
During the 1920s, the work of talented jazz musicians such as Joseph "King" Oliver, Louis Armstrong, and Johnny Dodds at South Side cabarets wrote a new chapter in the history of jazz.
Here We Are Again: Kukla, Fran and Ollie, by Rosemary K. Adams
Thousands of fans--adults and children alike and including Helen Hayes, John Steinbeck, Katharine Hepburn, Marlon Brando, and Tallulah Bankhead--tuned in to see the clever, wise, gentle shows created by Burr Tillstrom, Fran Allison, and the colorful cast of Kuklapolitan Players.
The Forgotten Fire, By Jonathan J. Keyes
The fire of l874 made it dramatically clear that the reforms that followed the Great Fire of l871 were insufficient to protect the city from conflagration.
Index to Volume 26
Volume 26, number
2 (summer 1997)
From the Editor, by Rosemary K. Adams
Chicago's Public Enemy, by David E. Ruth
The mainstream and "pulp" media of the 1920s and 1930s both glamorized and condemned the gangster lifestyle exemplified by Al Capone.
Maxwell Street at Mid-Century
In 1994, when the Maxwell Street Market closed and was relocated, many Chicagoans mourned the end of a great street market, a city tradition reaching back over a century.
Memory's Landscape, by
Theodore J. Karamanski
Statues and memorials built in Chicago in the wake of the Civil War helped to heal animosity between returning veterans and the rapidly changing city.
Volume 26, number
1 (spring 1997)
From the Editor, by Rosemary K. Adams
Expanding Empire: Chicago and the West, by Olivia Mahoney
With its strategic location and industrial capabilities, Chicago played an important role in settlement and development of the West.
"We Do Have to Work Hard," by Katherine R. Morgan
A young schoolteacher's letters home provide a glimpse into public schools and everyday life in 1870s Chicago.
Pilsen / Little Village, by Ralph Pugh
Pilsen / Little Village, on Chicago's Lower West Side, is a neighborhood of remarkable continuities. Once part of a trade route between important waterways, the area has a long history of commercial importance.
Making History:
A Chicago School of Literature--Gwendolyn Brooks and Studs
Terkel, by Timothy J. Gilfoyle
Gwendolyn Brooks and Studs Terkel have more in common than just Pulitzer Prizes, honorary degrees, and Chicago pedigrees. For some, their accomplishments have come to define certain genres to twentieth-century American literature.
Volume 25, number
3 (fall 1996)
From the Editor, by Rosemary K. Adams
The Brotherhood, by Beth Tompkins Bates
In its early work in organizing Pullman porters and maids, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters drew on the efforts of many of Chicago's social activists, such as Irene McCoy Gaines, Mary McDowell, and Ida B. Wells-Barnett.
Remembering the Great Chicago Fire
The dramatic events of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 remain vivid 125 years later in the personal accounts of those who witnessed it.
Parades, Protests, Politics, by Kathleen Zygmun
Another chapter in American political history was recorded in Chicago when the city hosted the 1996 Democratic National Convention in August. Although this was the first main-party convention held in Chicago since 1968, when the infamous demonstrations brought world-wide attention to the city, Chicago has hosted a total of fourteen Republican, eleven Democratic, and more than twenty-four third-party conventions.
Making History:
Writing Law and History in Chicago: Interviews with John Hope Franklin and Abraham Lincoln Marovitz, by Timothy J. Gilfoyle
At the end of the twentieth century, few Americans evoke more admiration than historian John Hope Franklin and Judge Abraham Lincoln Marovitz.
Volume 25, number
2 (summer 1996)
From the Editor, by Rosemary K. Adams
Chicago's Hope, by Sydney Lewis
By sharing their experiences of Cook County Hospital, a doctor, nurse and patient reveal the ongoing quest for life at one of Chicago's most renowned medical institutions.
Jun Fujita's Chicago, by Eileen Flanagan
In 1964, the Chicago Historical Society received an exceptional gift when Florence Carr Fujita donated a collection of negatives and photographs taken by her late husband Jun Fujita.
Making History:
Quarks, Neutrinos, and Virtual Perfection: Interviews with Robert W. Galvin and Leon M. Lederman, by Timothy J. Gilfoyle
At first glance, Leon M. Lederman and Robert W. Galvin have little in common. A closer examination, however, uncovers common ground in these seemingly disparate careers in science and industry.
Volume 25, number
1 (spring 1996)
From the Editor, by Rosemary K. Adams
America Remembers Lincoln, by Merrill Peterson
In every era, America celebrates its own image of Lincoln. The centennial of Lincoln's birth in 1909 inspired an outpouring of reverence and affection for the sixteenth president.
Abraham Lincoln and the Chicago Historical Society, by Russell Lewis
On January 18, 1861, William Barry, secretary and librarian of the five-year-old Chicago Historical Society, wrote to Abraham Lincoln, informing him that "at a statute meeting of this Society, held the 15th instant, you were elected one of its Honorary members."
Yesterday's City:
"All Prairiedom has Broken Loose," by Raymond Brod
The 1858 Senate debates between Stephen Douglas and Abraham Lincoln combined with politics the elements of a circus, of a picnic, and a religious revival.
Volume 24, number
3 (fall 1995)
The Chicago Defender and the Realignment of Black Chicago, by Wallace Best
Under Robert Abbott's leadership, the Chicago Defender encouraged African Americans to uphold tradition by voting Republican, the "party of Lincoln." Only after his retirement did the newspaper shift its support to the Democratic Party.
A Temple of Practical Christianity, by Paula Lupkin
The Chicago YMCA's 1894 skyscraper at 19 South LaSalle Street embodied the organization's successful combination of commercial and religious values.
Rogers Park/West Ridge, by Emily Clark
Photographer Henry Delorval Green captured daily life in Rogers Park/West Ridge in the 1940s and 1950s.
Yesterday's City:
Glory on the Gridiron, by Robert Pruter
For more than a century, schools have defined themselves in part by the success of their athletic teams, because triumph on the gridiron reflected glory on the school; and defeat, humiliation. To triumph over or to lose to one's closest rival raised the stakes even further.
Index to Volume 24
Volume 24, number
2 (summer 1995)
A Profitable Partnership, by R. Tripp Evans
In establishing the Kato Shop, Clara Barck Welles fused the ideals of the international Arts and Crafts Movement with her own visionary practice of employing members of two marginalized groups: women and immigrants.
The Romance of Transit
During the 1920s, the Chicago Rapid Transit Company commissioned the city's finest graphic artists to produce advertising posters that encouraged Chicagoans to use rapid transit for more than commuting to work. The posters reprinted here are from the Chicago Historical Society's Prints and Photographs Collection.
Opposite Sides of the Barricade, by John Franch
Daily News publisher Victor Lawson led Chicago's press in a bitter battle against Charles Tyson Yerkes, the unscrupulous transit baron who sought complete control of the city's public transportation system.
Yesterday's City:
Of the Women, For the Women, and By the Women, by Kristie Miller
April 18, 1925 was a raw, cold day, but a large crowd had gathered outside Chicago's Furniture Mart on North Lake Shore Drive for the opening of the Woman's World's Fair, an exposition to publicize the entry of women into nearly every field of endeavor.
Volume 24, number
1 (spring 1995)
Chicago and the Rise of Brewery Architecture, by Susan K. Appel
At the turn of the century, Chicago became headquarters to many architects specializing in brewery architecture, a field that faded with the dawn of Prohibition.
The Past and the Promise, by Olivia Mahoney
Douglas/Grand Boulevard, located on the city's Near South Side, has enjoyed a long and vibrant history from its early settlement in the 1850s to the present day, as residents plan for the future.
Friendless Foundlings and Homeless Half-Orphans, by Joan Gittens
In nineteenth-century Chicago, the debate over the care of needy children raised issues of government versus private control and institutional versus family care.
Volume 23, number
3 (1994-95)
Land and Learning, by Jeffrey Charles
Between 1850 and 1940, Northwestern University, the failed Chicago University, and its successor institution, the University of Chicago, participated in extensive land development activities that have shaped the modern urban landscapes of Evanston and Chicago.
The Nguyen Family, by Al Santoli
As they established their lives in Chicago, the Nguyen family, like countless other immigrants, face the challenge of retaining the traditions of their native land while fitting into American culture.
Chicago's Negro Leagues, by Linda Ziemer
Before the founding of the Negro National League in 1920, black professional baseball players earned their living playing ball in a semiprofessional league.
Yesterday's City:
Chicago's Horseless Carriages, by Louis S. Schafer
Many people today think that the often snail-like pace of city traffic is the result of the automobile age. At the turn of the century, however, most Chicagoans felt similarly trapped in a slow-moving urban jungle.
Index to Volume 23
Volume 23, number
2 (fall 1994)
An Uneasy Alliance, by Douglas Greenberg
Throughout the country's history, Jewish and African Americans have confronted each other over a divide that is cultural as well as religious and racial.
The Edgewater Beach Hotel
For decades this stucco palace by the lake epitomized grandeur and luxury.
Dream Making, by Neil Harris
The year 1893 marked a turning point in American cultural marketing, as Chicago's World's Columbian Exposition set a new standard for extravagant spectacle and the projection of fantasy.
Yesterday's City:
Critiquing Cubism, by Randolph J. Ploog
The Chicago newspapers are putting out the strangest headings and the silliest comments. The articles in the newspapers sound far more crazy than are the pictures which they are shouting about.
Volume 23, number
1 (spring 1994)
From the Editor, by Claudia Lamm Wood
Watchdog on Crime, by Dennis E. Hoffman
As director of the Chicago Crime Commission, Virgil Peterson proved that organized crime was a national blight.
Building a New Religion, by Paul Eli Ivey
Inspired by the classical revival architecture of the World's Columbian Exposition, Christian Scientists embarked on a monumental church building boom in Chicago.
Cartoon Commentary, by Jerold J. Savory
At Chicago's 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, Puck and other magazines used cartoons to comment on everything from admission fees to women's rights.
Yesterday's City:
Conventions and Curiosities, by Adam Langer
The sign in front of the crumbling castle walls on South Wabash Avenue warns that all trespassers and souvenir hunters will be prosecuted. In the confusion of broken glass, pebbles, and dirt, it is difficult to imagine that any valuable treasures wait to be unearthed. But if memories were souvenirs, this foreboding ruin would be filled with them.
Volume 22, number
3 (November 1993)
From the Editor, by Claudia Lamm Wood
Culture and Commerce, by
Constance K. Casey
The World's Columbian Exposition combined capitalism and culture in a celebration of human progress since the voyage of Columbus.
Irish Blood, by Paul Luning
Controversy over the 1889 murder of Dr. Patrick Henry Cronin sparked a debate about the loyalty of the Irish to the United States.
Holy Family Church, by Michael A. Marcotte
A Chicago photographer captures the drama of one of Chicago's oldest churches.
Yesterdays City
Temple of a Living Art, by Douglas Clayton
Calling themselves the Chicago Little Theatre, Maurice Browne's players found a permanent home in a tiny theater on the fourth floor of the Fine Arts Building on Michigan Avenue.
Index to Volume 22
Volume 22, number
2 (July 1993)
From the Editor, by Claudia Lamm Wood
The Giant Jewel, by Susan Talbot-Stanaway
During the bleakest years of the Great Depression, Chicago's lakefront glittered with the vivid colors of the A Century of Progress Exposition, which promised a bright new future for the city and the nation.
A Home at Last, by Janice Rosenberg
In 1897 Chicagoans celebrated the dedication of a glorious new library.
The Evolution of an Evil Business, by Richard Lindberg
Chicago's corrupt and lucrative gambling operations of the late nineteenth century spawned the organized crime syndicate of the twentieth century.
Yesterday's City:
"The Fair in Black and White," by Marian Shaw
From May through October 1893, over twenty-one million people from across the country and around the world descended upon Chicago to visit the World's Columbian Exposition. Among those visitors was Marian Shaw, a forty-two-year-old writer and schoolteacher from Minneapolis. As a correspondent for The Argus, a North Dakota newspaper managed by her brother, Shaw filed at least twelve reports of the fair.
Volume 22, number
1 (March 1993)
From the Editor, by Claudia Lamm Wood
Praying for God's Help, by Richard Digby-Junger
Forced to choose between marriage or inheriting her father's wealth and power, Jessie Bross faced a difficult decision.
Down to Business: The Tribune Company, by Rick Kogan
The claim first appeared in the Chicago Tribune edition of Sunday, February 7, 1909. On the front page, above everything but the paper's name, was the bold, brassy headline: "The Greatest Issue of the World's Greatest Newspaper."
Paradises Lost, by Stan Barker
Coney Island and the amusement park have become synonymous in American legend. At its peak, Coney Island had three major parks; Chicago, in the same period, boasted no less than five. Chicago, not Coney Island, is where the amusement park was born. Sadly, in the city where it all began, only memories and old photographs are left of Chicago's paradises lost.
A Vision of Urban Social Reform, by Ellen Christensen
In designing the Abraham Lincoln Centre, a combination church and social settlement house, the young architects, Frank Floyd Wright and Dwight Perkins tested their vision of a new democratic American architecture.
Yesterday's City:
Chicago's Geography, by Johann Georg Kohl, translated by Craig T. Reisser
Kohl--best known to modern academic geographers for his writings on urban development, city structure, and transportation theory--was excited by Chicago's commercial bustle and meteoric development. Chicago's situation commanding rail and water transportation routes intrigued him.
Volume 21, number
3 (December 1992)
From the Editor, by
Russell Lewis
The Merchant Prince of Cornville, by Emily Clark and Patrick Ashley
Although he gained international notoriety as a playwright, real-estate developer S. E. Gross achieved his greatest success by building affordable housing in Chicago.
Getting Down to Business:
William Blair & Company, by Russell Lewis
Motivated by an intense pride in Chicago and the Midwest and a plan to help finance the expansion of local companies, William McCormick Blair founded Blair, Bonner & Company in 1935.
Tunnel Vision
For Chicago's underground freight tunnels, the Great Flood is only the latest chapter in their fascinating history.
Yesterday's City:
Bringing Christmas to the City, by Frederick Neuschel
For years, Captain Herman "Christmas Tree" Schuenemann heralded the Christmas season when his schooner, filled with pine trees, arrived at the Clark Street Bridge.
Book Review:
"Dig and Dream": Writing Chicago's History in 1991, by Steve Rosswurm
This review covers works on Chicago history produced during 1990 and 1991, including monographs, reference works, synthetic volumes, document collections, works of genealogy and films.
Index to Volume 21
Volume 21, numbers
1 and 2 ( spring and summer 1992)
From the Editor, by Neil Harris and Barry D. Karl
From Esprit de Corps to Joie de Vivre, by Alexandra Gillen
While a distinct women's culture persisted in the early years at the University of Chicago, its tenor changed as the women began to revel in their social freedom.
Red Maroons, by Robert Coven
Robert Hutchins defended academic freedom at the university at a time when the nation was less accepting of dissident voices.
The University and the City, by Daniel Meyer
The ambitions of the new University of Chicago reflected the larger scale and quickened tempo of twentieth-century urban life.
Unwelcome Neighbors, by Stewart Winger
When African-Americans sought better housing in the neighborhoods around the University of Chicago in the 1930s and 1940s, university officials supported restrictive covenants to block racial integration in these communities.
Volume 20, numbers
3 and 4 (fall and winter 1991-92)
From the Editor, by Russell Lewis
Anti-labor Mercenaries or Defenders of Public Order?, by Clayton D. Laurie
The use of federal troops to quell labor unrest during the Pullman Strike heightened the controversy over the military's role in civil disturbance.
How Lincoln Won the War with Metaphors, by James M. McPherson.
Endeared to many generations of Americans for his eloquence and homespun humor, Lincoln used language brilliantly during the Civil War to sustain Northern enthusiasm for the Union cause.
Yesterday's City:
Excursion on the Lakefront, by William Lafferty
Chicago's lakefront is today virtually barren of the commercial shipping that established the city as one of the nation's major ports earlier in this century. The lakefront excursion boat is almost the only remnant of the huge flotilla of vessels that made the two branches of the Chicago River and the shore area surrounding the river's mouth a hub for water-borne commerce.
Index to Volume 20
Volume 20, numbers
1 and 2 (spring and summer 1991)
From the Editor, by
Russell Lewis
Onward Christian Soldiers: The Social Gospel and the Pullman Strike, by Matthew C. Lee
Although many Protestant churches declared their mission to include alleviating social and economic problems among the urban poor, most opposed the rights of labor during the Pullman Strike.
Black Abolitionists, by Olivia Mahoney
Although denied political power by law, Chicago's black abolitionists made their voices heard through committees, publications, conventions, and civil disobedience.
Stanislav Szukalski's Lost Tune
Sculptures by Polish-born artist Stanislav Szukalski captured in photographs with captions.
Yesterday's City:
"A Wonderfully Busy Place," edited by H. Roger Grant
Although travel accounts from the late nineteenth century are common, good ones are rare. One insightful narrative came from the pen of Frank W. Blowers (1867-1927), a resident of Detroit, Michigan, who in November 1888 wrote to his sister in England about a recent visit to Chicago. His forty-two page missive contains two parts: the first recounts his rail journey while the second (reprinted here) relates his four-day stay in Chicago.
Volume 19, numbers
3 and 4 (fall and winter 1990-91)
From the Editor, by Russell Lewis
"Don't Shake--Salute!," by David E. Ruth
The anti-influenza campaign of 1918, rooted in middle class values and martial discipline, advocated sunshine, fresh air, and deference to authority.
Who Divided This House?, by John Hope Franklin
By continuing to protect slavery, the country's founders failed to rid the new nation of its most shameful institution.
Bridges, by Janice Rosenberg
Chicago's bridges span the river as wonders of engineering as well as works of art.
South Side Boss, by James L. Cooper
Congressman William L. Dawson set the city's first powerful black political machine into motion.
Yesterday's City:
The Scoundrel and the Scientist, by Pamela D. Hodgson
Within days of opening its doors in 1892, the University of Chicago began planning an observatory to house the world's largest refracting telescope and an array of scientific instruments that would rival any in the world. The university dedicated the Yerkes Observatory by Williams Bay, Wisconsin, five years later in October of 1897.
Index to Volume 19
Volume 19, numbers
1 and 2 (spring and summer 1990)
From the Editor, by Russell Lewis
The Great Fire and the Myth of Chicago, by Ross Miller
Although the Great Fire left the city in ruins, many welcomed the chance to build a modern Chicago.
The Business of Culture, by Carol Baldridge and Alan Willis
Widely recognized as an architectural innovation, the Auditorium Building also played a crucial role in Chicago's cultural and commercial development.
Bessemer Park, by Maureen O' Brien Will
John Becker documented neighborhood activities--from boating to moving a building--in his photographs of the Bessemer Park community.
Battling the "National Sin," by James Pyne
Between 1822 and 1824, citizens clashed over whether Illinois would become a slave state.
Yesterday's City:
Crime-fighting Scientists, by Dennis E. Hoffman
John T. McCutcheon's cartoon, which appeared in the June 12, 1930 edition of the Chicago Tribune, depicts Chicago's growing reputation for lawlessness in the eyes of the nation in the late 1920s and 1930s. Frustrated by inept and corrupt public officials, citizens sought new tactics to fight crime.
Volume 18, number
4 (winter 1989-90)
From the Editor, by Russell Lewis
Building a Better Life, by Catherine Sardo Weidner
Italians and Poles came to Chicago with different dreams--one to prosper and return to their homeland, the other to build a new world in America.
White City, Capital City, by Howard F. Gillette, Jr.
Hailed as a landmark of the City Beautiful movement, architect Daniel Burnham's 1909 plan of Chicago fell prey to city politics. But in the more favorable political climate of Washington, D.C., Burnham realized his urban vision.
Coming Together, by Mary Ann Johnson
Wallace Kirkland's documentary photographs of Hull-House clubs capture the spirit of neighborhood groups in the 1920s and 1930s.
Slavery in French Colonial Illinois, by Winstanley Briggs
Early settlers enslaved both Indians and Africans, but they developed peculiar forms of frontier slavery for each group.
Yesterday's City:
Tripping the Light Fantastic, by Perry R. Duis
By the middle of the nineteenth century, upper class social life in Chicago revolved increasingly around dancing. Eager to become expert and graceful dancers, the city's elite sought to learn the steps most popular in the East, such as the latest schottish, polka, galapade, waltz, and cotillion.
Volume 18, number
3 (fall 1989)
From the Editor, by Russell Lewis
The Battle of the Two Colonels, by James C. Schneider
In the pages of Chicago's two daily newspapers, publishers Robert R. McCormick and Frank Knox waged a public debate over America's entry into World War II.
A Taxing Dilemma: Early Lake Shore Protection, by Robin L. Einhorn
Financing effective Lake Michigan breakwaters and protective structures has always been more difficult than engineering them.
The Big Picture
Often idealized city booster visions of urban order and economic opportunity, bird's-eye views captured the rapid growth of the nineteenth-century city. At first made only to astound, aerial views evolved into important tools for urban planning.
Packinghouse Blues, by Paul Street
Lured to World War I Chicago by the promise of steady work in the meat-packing industry, blacks found themselves relegated to the most exhausting, filthy, and backbreaking jobs in the stockyards.
Yesterday's City:
The Buzz Saw Reformer, by George D. Bushnell
Newspapers made George E. Cole an icon and pictured him chopping down the "Council Gang" at the roots.
Volume 18, number
2 (summer 1989)
From the Editor, by
Russell Lewis
Not Only a Game, by Gerald R. Gems
Eager to promote good citizenship, turn-of-the century industrialists and reformers worked to recruit immigrants for the American team.
On Their Own Terms: Mass Culture and the Working-Class World, by Elizabeth Cohen
Rather than buy into the expanding mass consumer culture of the 1920s, Chicago's ethnic workers adapted that culture to suit their traditional needs.
Banding Together, by Clark Halerk
Long before Chicago's segregated musicians' union locals merged at the height of the civil rights movement, black musicians struggled for equality with their white counterparts.
Yesterday's City:
The South Side's Baseball Factory, by Richard Lindberg
A significant chapter in sports history was written in Comiskey Park.
Volume 18, number
1 (spring 1989)
From the Editor, by Russell Lewis
Chicago's Cathedral of Commerce, by Katherine Solomonson
With much fanfare, the Chicago Tribune in 1922 invited architects worldwide to compete for the design of its new office tower. Publishers Robert McCormick and Joseph Patterson envisioned a building that would suitably represent the Tribune's role as civic, cultural, and commercial leader. Part Gothic cathedral, part monument, the winning entry fused European tradition and American design.
No Freaks, No Amazons, No Boyish Bobs, by Susan M. Cahn
Worried that baseball's status as the national pastime would not survive World War II, Cubs owner Philip K. Wrigley devised a new spectacle to insure that it did. The All-American Girls Baseball League entertained a war-weary public with its calculated combination of feminine charm and masculine athletic ability.
Labor's Last Stand, by
Toni Gilpin
Unwilling to accept International Harvester's formula for harmonious labor relations, workers at the company's McCormick and Tractor works joined the Farm Equipment Workers, a combative and particularly radical labor organization. A strike staged in August of 1952 brought the struggle between the company and the union to a final showdown.
Yesterday's City:
Prey for Work, by Perry R. Duis
A crowd of unemployed men congregates outside 563 W. Madison Street, c. 1910. Looking for work was never easy, but widespread employment agency fraud made the experience even more traumatic.
Volume 17, number
3 and 4 (fall and winter 1988-89)
From the Editor, by Russell Lewis
A Grip on the Land, by Timothy B. Spears
To nineteenth-century Americans the traveling salesman symbolized the freedom and adventure of the open road, but in reality a salesman's life was not easy. To deal with its hardships, he developed a unique set of skills and a personal sense of landscape.
White Hot Jazz, by Burton W. Peretti
Restless and bored with 1920s middle-class society, a group of rebellious teenagers embraced Chicago's black jazz scene and became an important force in the creation of a national biracial musical culture.
Black Sox, by Robert I. Goler
Eight Chicago White Sox (later dubbed the "Black Sox" by the media) agreed to throw games during the 1919 World Series in exchange for money from gamblers who intended to bet against the heavily favored Chicago team.
Smoldering City, by Karen Sawislak
Though Chicago's post-fire reconstruction is often romanticized, this period of the city's history was hardly devoid of gritty physical and ideological struggle.
Yesterday's City:
Butch O'Hare, Chicago's Borrowed Hero, by Perry R. Duis
Few know anything about the quiet young man after whom O'Hare Airport is named. City Hall will tell you that he was "a Chicago air hero," but that answer is only partially correct. Edward Henry "Butch" O'Hare, Chicago's honored World War II pilot, was actually a St. Louisan with few ties to Chicago.
Index to Volume 17
Volume 17, number
1 and 2 (spring and summer 1988)
From the Editor, by Russell Lewis
Big Table, by Gerald Brennan
When beat writers were censored from the Chicago Review, its student editors struggled to publish the suppressed works on their own. Their sense of mission, and their effort to force the art, literature, and culture of the 1950s avant-garde into the mainstream, foreshadowed the controversies of the 1960s.
"I March Because I Must," by David J. Garrow
In the summer of 1966 Chicago tensed as Martin Luther King, Jr. and black citizens marched for the right to fair and open housing. The marches forced the city to confront the housing issue at an extraordinary summit meeting.
Staging the Avant-Garde, by Stuart J. Hecht
In the 1960s Hull House theater won acclaim for pioneering avant-garde theater in Chicago but lost touch with Jane Addams's original commitment to community theater.
"Welcome to Chicago," by David Farber
To demonstrators, Chicago in 1968 was a symbol, a place from which to make their voices heard. To Mayor Daley, the city was home, where things had to work. When police and protesters clashed in the streets and parks, both sides struggled to use Chicago for their own ends.
August 1968, by Staf Leinwohl
A Chicago photographer recalls the events of August 1968 in a review of his work from that year.
Yesterday's City:
The Lakefront: Chicago's Selling Point, by Perry R. Duis
The lakefront has always played a special role in Chicago's self-image as an economic center and meeting place.
Volume 16, numbers
3 and 4 (winter 1987-88)
From the Editor, by Russell Lewis
Pleasure Garden on the Midway, by Paul Kruty
An undisputed masterpiece by architect Frank Floyd Wright, Midway Gardens was also a pioneering effort to merge urban cosmopolitanism and popular entertainment in a concert garden setting.
Soldiers Without Guns, by
Perry R. Duis
Chicago during World War II was recorded by Office of War Information photographers. This photographic essay traces the agency's efforts to convey a positive image of the home front to the nation.
Clarence Darrow: Lawyer for the People, by Arthur and Lila Weinberg
On the fiftieth anniversary of his death, Darrow's biographers recount the life of one of this century's most celebrated civil liberties lawyers.
Eye-Catching Music, by David M. Guion
A center for music publishing in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Chicago has also been the inspiration for many popular songs.
Yesterday's City:
Steele MacKaye's Grandiose Folly, by Larry Anderson
On paper, Steele MacKaye's Spectatorium, a colossal theatrical enterprise planned for the Columbian Exposition, seemed to epitomize this entertainment frenzy. In reality it ranked among the great disasters of American show business.
Volume 16, number
2 (summer 1987)
From the Editor, by Russell Lewis
On the Frontier of Culture, by Sarah J. Moore
With art education as a guiding principle, the Central Art Association encouraged the development of an American art movement centered in Chicago.
Altgeld the Suffragist, by Sandra D. Harmon
As dedicated suffragists, Governor John Peter Altgeld and his wife Emma opened the doors of state government to Illinois women in the 1890s.
Doing Time: Life in Joliet Prison in the 1890s
Most of the photographs that follow were taken by Joliet State Penitentiary staff photographer Sidney W. Whetmore and used later in his article, "Life in a Great Prison," and his book Behind the Bars at Joliet. All photographs are from original negatives in the CHS Prints and Photographs Collection.
North Shore: Patron of Ravinia Park, by Michael H. Ebner
When financial failure threatened the future of Ravinia Park, residents of the North Shore's eight communities banded together to save it.
Yesterday's City, by Perry R. Duis
As Chicago's skyline grew, so too did elevators, from crude hand-powered platforms to opulent "cages in the sky."
Volume 16, number
1 (spring 1987)
From the Editor, by Russell Lewis
Pictures at an Exhibition, by Stefan Germer
The Interstate Industrial Exposition's art exhibitions shaped Chicagoans' aesthetic tastes and established the city as a lucrative market for the latest European painting.
Chicago's Dance Bands and Orchestras, by Charles A. Sengstock, Jr.
Chicagoans danced their way through much of the early twentieth century. This photographic essay traces the dance band craze as it swept the city.
"Those Exciting Times," by Frederic Trautmann, translator
A soldier from the Eighth Illinois Cavalry Regiment recalls his experiences while camped outside of Washington, D.C., during the Civil War.
Homeless Children, Childless Homes, by Paula E. Pfeffer
As agencies devoted to the welfare of orphaned and illegitimate children were established in late nineteenth-century Chicago, divergent philosophies of adoption began to emerge.
Yesterday's City, by Perry R. Duis
Elisha Gray, the "wizard of Highland Park," invented his own telephone, but the patent for this invention went to his rival Alexander Graham Bell.
Volume 15, number
4 (winter 1986-1987)
From the Editor, by Russell Lewis
Being Born in Chicago, by Susan Sessions Rugh
Appalled by high infant mortality rates, American physicians and health officials at the turn of the century sought ways to make the birth process safer for mothers and babies. In Chicago, a center for the new field of obstetrics, doctors advocated prenatal care and hospital birth.
The Genius of the Gridiron, by Sheldon S. Cohen
When Jay Berwanger played football for the University of Chicago Maroons, he was devastating on both offense and defense. His skill and versatility won him the first Heisman Trophy in 1935.
Imagining Chicago, by Scott La France and Wim de Wit
The following unbuilt architectural designs, all from the Society's Architectural Collection, help us imagine how Chicago might have looked.
"A Furor of Benevolence," by Beverly Gordon
Chicago was the site of the first and last great sanitary fairs of the Civil War years. Both were highly successful in raising money for the Union army; they also contributed much to Chicago's great expositions and world's fairs.
Yesterday's City, by Perry R. Duis
The nineteenth-century struggle over Dearborn Park, as examined by Perry R. Duis, reminds us of the value of open space in a congested city.
Book Reviews:
The Limits of Power: Great Fires and the Process of City Growth in America, by Christine Meisner Rosen [review by Michael H. Ebner];
The Curve of the Arch:
The Story of Louis Sullivan's Owatonna Bank, by Larry Millett [review by Katharine W. Hannaford]
Volume 15, number
3 (fall 1986)
From the Editor, by Russell Lewis
King of the Hoboes, by Roger A. Bruns
Ben Reitman was determined to change the world. With flamboyance and zest, he crusaded for a deeper understanding of hobo life. To many he seemed an eccentric rogue, but to the homeless men of Chicago's tenderloin district he was both friend and inspiration.
Henry Demarest Lloyd's Winnetka, by Michael H. Ebner
Winnetka gave Henry Demarest Lloyd the opportunity to implement his alternative vision of American society. In return, he imbued the village with a distinctive communal character and a progressive sense of civic pride.
Chapin & Gore's "Jolly Portrait Gallery," by Joseph B. Zywicki
James J. Gore was an adventurer and frontiersman; Gardner S. Chapin, a stockbroker and entrepreneur. Together they built perhaps the most successful, and certainly the most colorful, dining and drinking establishment in late nineteenth-century Chicago: Chapin and Gore Saloon and Restaurant.
A Woman for Mayor? by Sharon Z. Alter
A mere three years after women won the vote, factions in Chicago campaigned to put a woman in City Hall. Louise DeKoven Bowen, social reformer and suffragette, was their choice.
Book Reviews:
Where the Action Is: Memoirs of a U.S. Communist, by Jack Kling [review by Patrick M. Quinn];
Back of the Yards: The Making of a Local Democracy, by Robert Slayton [review by Dominic A. Pacyga];
Power and Society:
Greater New York at the Turn of the Century, by David C. Hammack [review by Arnold R. Hirsch]
Volume 15, number
2 (summer 1986)
From the Editor, by Meg Walter
Anarchism: The Movement Behind the Martyrs, by Bruce C. Nelson
"Socialism in America is an anomaly, and Chicago is the last place on the continent where it would exist were it not for the dregs of foreign immigration which find lodgment here."
--Chicago Daily News, January 14, 1886
Haymarket, 1886!
The industrial workers of Chicago, most of whom were foreign born, united to campaign for a nationwide mandatory eight-hour workday. The Haymarket Riot of 1886 and its repercussions became an important symbol of this campaign.
Cataclysm, and Cultural Consciousness: Chicago and the Haymarket Trial, by Carl S. Smith
"Here you will tread upon a spark, but there, and there, and behind you and in front of you, and everywhere, flames will blaze up. It is a subterranean fire. You cannot put it out."
--August Spies, 1886
Chicago's Martyrs: A Parable for the People, by Ann Massa
Poet Harriet Monroe watched with the rest of the world as the Haymarket Affair unfolded. Struck by the poignancy of the events, she struggled with the meaning they held for her in her personal, unpublished reflections.
Review Essay, by Steven Rosswurm
Writers of all persuasions have recorded the history of the Haymarket Affair. Steven Rosswurm surveys this body of literature, now a century old.
Book Reviews:
American Workers,
American Unions, 1920-1985, by
Robert Zieger [review by Paul Street];
From the American System to Mass Production, 1800-1932: The Development of Manufacturing Technology in the United States, by David A. Hounshell [review by Peter H. Cousins];
The Transplanted: A History of Immigrants in Urban America, by John Bodnar [review by Kristin Szylvian Bailey]
Volume 15, number
1 (spring 1986)
From the Editor, by
Russell Lewis
The Enduring Chicago Machine, by Richard C. Wade
Machine politics are not peculiar to Chicago, but the city's machine has outlasted its counterparts around the country. To understand its longevity and current condition, the author turns to history.
Samuel Insull and the Electric City, by Harold L. Platt
"Here is an industry which supplies convenience and comforts to the day laborer which kings could not command half a century ago."
--Samuel Insull, 1928
Sincerely, Louis H. Sullivan
The letters that appear on the following pages narrate the creation of Sullivan's autobiography; they trace it through its conception, planning, writing, editing and production. Excerpts from the Autobiography are interspersed among the letters to give them a broader context.
Review Essay, by Daniel P. O'Neill
Daniel P. O'Neill reviews a range of frontline scholarship on Catholicism.
Book Reviews:
More Work for Mother: The Ironies of Household Technology from the Open Hearth to the Microwave, by Ruth Schwartz Couvan [review by Kathryn Grover];
All the World's a Fair: Visions of Empire at American International Expositions, 1876-1915, by Robert W. Rydell [review by Mary Cordato]
Volume 14, number
4 (winter 1985-86)
"Ain't We Got Fun?", by Lewis A. Erenberg
Beginning in the late nineteenth century, Chicagoans sought release from conservative Victorian values. They replaced them with a new urban culture of novel and exciting entertainments such as amusement parks, motion pictures, vaudeville, dance halls and nightclubs.
LaSalle Street, by Peter B. Hales and Robert Bruegmann
A cross section of Chicago's built environment visible along LaSalle Street can be read as a history of the city's growth during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Shaping Chicago's Shoreline, by John W. Stamper
A new investigation suggests that George W. Streeter, responsible in legend for the landfill that is now Streeterville, was in fact little more than a nuisance to the tycoons and land barons who literally shaped the shoreline.
Chicago Chronicles, by Perry R. Duis
Although an urban biography is often the only available complete story of a city, it is perhaps the most neglected part of urban history. The author examines some of Chicago's more distinctive biographies and their roles in documenting the city's history.
Review Essay, by Arthur Zilversmit
Lincoln reconsidered again: Arthur Zilversmit compares three very different portraits of our sixteenth president.
Volume 14, number
3 (fall 1985)
From the Editor, by Russell Lewis
To build the Catholic City, by Edward R. Kantowicz
Between 1891 and 1945, Catholic church architecture flourished in Chicago as immigrant Catholics proclaimed their allegiance and identity through their sacred structures.
Moving Picture Palaces: Color Photographs of Theater
Interiors by Don DuBroff and Russell Phillips, by Larry A. Viskochil
During the last four years, DuBroff and Phillips, commercial and architectural photographers by trade, have photographed more than forty Chciago-area theatre interiors. This fascinating study traces the evolution of the American movie theatre, illuminating its historical, cultural and architectural significance.
Remembering Lucy Flower Tech: Black Students in an All-Girl School, by Nancy Green
For more than fifty years young black women took advantage of the unique educational opportunities at Lucy Flower Technical High School. And though their own goals were often in conflict with the curriculum, they always felt the school had something special to offer them.
Making the City Work: Machine Politics and Mayoral Reform, by Paul M. Green
Three of Chicago's most notable mayors--Cermak, Daley, and Washington--promoted reform to strengthen their office and further their political careers. How each mayor's definition of reform changed city government and politics is examined in the following article.
Volume 14, number
2 (summer 1985)
From the Editor, by Timothy C. Jacobson
H. L. Mencken and Literary Chicago, by Anthony Grosch
For a brief time in the 1920s, H. L. Mencken championed Chicago as the literary capital of the United States. His romance with the city's literati and influence on subsequent generations of Chicago writers are the subjects of this article.
Chicago Magazines, by Henry Regnery
Chicago has been home to many literary and popular magazines over the years. Three that were devoted to literary and social criticism--The Dial, The Chap-Book, and Modern Age--influenced the cultural and intellectual life of their times.
Cairo and Chicago: Cities at the Center, by Gerald George
As unlike as two towns can be, Cairo and Chicago evoke speculation about the rise and fall of cities and the purpose of the historical societies and museums that tell their stories.
"Fra Lorado," Chicago's Master Sculptor, by Patrick Reynolds
Bringing beauty to the commercial city has long been a concern of Chicago artists. Lorado Taft's public sculptures are some of the most ambitious to grace the city.
Review Essay, by Jon C. Teaford
Jon C. Teaford assesses recent investigations of urban political power and new ideas about who has governed the city and for what purposes.
Book Reviews: by Alphine W Jefferson, H. Roger Grant, Sidney H. Bremer, Melvin Dubofsky for:
Making the Second
Ghetto, by Arnold R. Hirsch [review
by Alphine W. Jefferson];
Technological Utopianism in American Culture, by Howard P. Segal [review by H. Roger Grant];
Sister Carrie: The Pennsylvania Edition, by Theodore Dreiser, edited by John C. Berkey et al [review by Sidney H. Bremer];
Working-Class America: Essays on Labor, Community, and American Society, edited by Michael H. Frisch and Daniel J. Walkowitz, and
Wilhelm Liebknecht, Letters to the Chicago Workingman's Advocate, edited by Philip S. Foner [reviews by Melvyn Dubofsky]
Volume 14, number
1 (spring 1985)
Twice to the Fair, by Paul C. Nagel
Historian and philosopher Henry Adams traveled twice to Chicago in 1893 to visit the World's Columbian Exposition. What he learned there constitutes his own special Chicago education.
Home at the Top: Domesticating Chicago's Tall Apartment
Buildings, by Carroll William Westfall
Between 1880 and 1930, Chicago apartments became popular as domestic substitutes for houses. But over the last fifty years, declares architectural historian William Carroll Westfall, apartments have sheltered income better than people.
Historical Exhibitions as History, by Wim de Wit
Exhibitions are an important part of the Chicago Historical Society's efforts to interpret the history of the city. Recently, the Society reevaluated its collecting policy and exhibition program. What follows is one curator's point of view.
Book Reviews:
Farewell to the Party of Lincoln, by Nancy J. Weiss [review by Arnold R. Hirsch];
Confidence Men and Painted Women: A Study of Middle-Class Culture in America, 1830-1870, by Karen Halttunen [review by H. Wayne Morgan];
The Automobile and Urban Transit: The Formation of Public Policy in Chicago, 1900-1930, by Paul Barrett [review by Clay McShane];
Chicago's Public Wits: A Chapter in the American Comic Spirit, edited by Kenny J. Williams and Bernard Duffy, and
The Mirth of a Nation: America's Great Dialect Humor, edited by Walter Blair and Raven I. McDavid, Jr. [reviews by Robert Bray];
The Urban
Establishment: Upper Strata in Boston, New York, Charleston, Chicago, and Los
Angeles, by Frederic Cople Jaher
[review by Craig Buettinger]
At the Society / The Dan Ryan Expressway, by Larry Viskochil
Larry Viskochil, curator of prints and photographs, offers his insights into the following photographs from the exhibition, The Dan Ryan Expressway: Photographs by Jay Wolke, now on view at the Society.
Yesterday's City / Caruso in Chicago, by Dick and Liz Griffin
Was Enrico Caruso the greatest tenor ever? Chicagoans thought he was. Here Dick Griffin and Liz Griffin tell of Chicago's musical love affair with the legendary opera star.
Volume 13, numbers
3 & 4 (fall and winter 1984)
Preface, by Thomas Willis
Making Music Chicago Style, by Robert L. Brubaker
Music has always been an important part of the life of a city and Chicago is no exception. From the beginning, music was at the center of Chicago's burgeoning urban culture. This entire issue is devoted to the subject.
Volume 13, number
2 (summer 1984)
From the Editor, by Timothy C. Jacobson
Commentary on Los Angeles, by Derek Fraser
The pattern in London, Boston, and Chicago--suburbs surrounding a true city--does not hold for Los Angeles, whose famous sprawl represents suburbs without the city.
A Nation of Suburbs, by Kenneth T. Jackson
Today more Americans live in suburbs than in cities themselves. Kenneth Jackson considers how this came about and whether it can continue.
The Origins of the Suburban Idea in England, by Robert Fishman
London's suburbs offered shelter from city life for a rising middle class and established part of an enduring suburban tradition.
Brookline and the Making of an Elite Suburb, by Donald Dale Karr
Social segregation, security, and scenery made Brookline the garden of Boston. Its planners knew what they wanted and how to resist undue influence from the metropolis.
The Result of Honest Hard Work: Creating a Suburban Ethos for Evanston, by Michael H. Ebner
Moral discrimination made Evanston a place apart from its very beginning and long determined the character of its relationship with the larger city.
Review Essay, by Carol O'Connor
Suburban historian Carol O'Connor looks at some recent books in the field and suggests directions for further work.
Book Reviews:
Fields Into Bricks,
by Robert Thorne, reviewer:
The Rise of Suburbia, edited by E.M.L. Thompson;
Class Schools, by
Carl Kaestle, reviewer:
Class Politics & Public Schools: Chicago, 1900-1950, by Julia Wrigley
Battleground: The Autobiography of Margaret A. Haley, edited by Robert L. Reid
Volume 13, number
1 (spring 1984)
From the Editor: Maps and the City, by Timothy C. Jacobson
Evolution of the Chicago Map Trade: An Introduction, by Michael P. Conzen
This introduction to the evolution of the Chicago map trade provides a broader setting for the activities of prominent mapmakers.
Chicago's First Maps, by Gerald A. Danzer
Between the lakes and the great western river system lay the site that would become Chicago. Early maps foretold its advantages.
Rufus Blanchard: Early Chicago Map Publisher, by Marsha L. Selmer
For half a century beginning in 1854, the name Rufus Blanchard was synonymous with Chicago mapmaking. His career began at the Chicago Map Store at 52 LaSalle Street.
George F. Cram and the American Perception of Space, by Gerald A. Danzer
For Americans who craved information and liked to keep up-to-date, George F. Cram offered fact-filled and affordable atlases that portrayed an orderly though changing world in which all the pieces fit together as progress marched ahead.
Maps for the Masses: Alfred T. Andreas and the Midwestern
County Atlas Map Trade, by Michael P. Conzen
The story of Alfred T. Andreas provides an intriguing glimpse of American mapmaking and the ways in which advances in printing, marketing, and business practices shaped the role of maps in the lives of ordinary people.
Rand, McNally in the Nineteenth Century: Reaching for a National Market, by Cynthia H. Peters
From modest beginnings as a railroad ticket printer, Rand, McNally and Company grew to a modern publisher of maps, atlases, and guidebooks. New production and marketing techniques were key to their success.
Volume 12, number
4 (winter 1984)
From the Editor, by Timothy C. Jacobson
Commentary on Old Houses, by Michael Kammen
What do old buildings mean? Americans commonly have seen, especially in old houses--the House of the Seven Gables, Tara, Lincoln's log cabin--metaphors for their past. In this Commentary, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Michael Kammen wonders whether they should not be something more as well.
Skyscrapers and the City, by Paul Goldberger
The skyscraper--and thus the modern urban skyline--are American inventions. No other architectural form seems to belong so naturally to the big American city. The two biggest--New York and Chicago--boast masses of tall buildings of every vintage and design and beg comparison. With this in mind, Paul Goldberger considers some of the buildings themselves and the city space they fill.
Apartment Houses and Bungalows: Building the Flat City, by Wim de Wit
Like other large cities with distinctive skylines, Chicago is proud of its skyscraper image. Spectacular though they are, its tall buildings dominate only the Loop and the lakefront. Beyond, for miles to the north, south, and west, stretches the other city where Chicagoans actually live--the flat city of apartment houses and bungalows.
Architecture and the American Spirit, by Laurence Booth
Should architecture reflect national character? Or should it represent a more abstract artistic statement? In America, argues practicing architect Laurence Booth, a rich civilization beckons architects to build in keeping with national ideals. Economy, politeness, optimism, and freedom are values that have characterized some of the city's best building in the past--and still might do so again.
Hull-House as Women's Space, by Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz
Architecture at its best should help make comfortable the people who use it. To do so, it must, as commonly understood, sensibly relate form to function. At the turn of the century Jane Addams's Hull-House served many functions, something that is reflected in its exterior decoration and interior spaces
Review Essay: Joan Draper on Reading Architecture, by Joan Draper
Architectural historian Joan Draper assesses some recent work in the field and speculates on where the next enquiries should lead.
Book Reviews:
Planning Here and
There, by Carl W. Condit, reviewer:
Towards the Planned City: Germany, Britain, the United States, and France, 1780-1914, by Anthony Sutcliffe;
Uplifting Games, by
Perry R. Duis, reviewer:
Muscles and Morals: Organized Playgrounds and Urban Reform, 1880-1920, by Dominick Cavallo;
Housework and
Architecture, by Daniel Prosser, reviewer:
The Grand Domestic Revolution: A History of Feminist Designs for American Homes, Neighborhoods, and Cities, by Dolores Hayden
At the Society: Chicago Furniture
In January, a chapter in Chicago's history with importance far beyond this city unfolds in a major new exhibition: "Chicago Furniture: Art, Craft, & Industry, 1833-1983." It will be accompanied by a major book and catalog by decorative arts curator Sharon Darling. A preview on patent furniture appears here.
Yesterday's City: The Daily News Building, by Jim Bowman
The Daily
News Building, now the Riverside Plaza Building, on the Chicago River, is an
example of immensely serviceable city architecture. Here journalist Jim Bowman
recounts what made it remarkable in 1929 and why it still appeals.
Volume 12, number
3 (fall 1983)
Commentary: Ritual Fairs, by Warren Susman; Utopian Fairs, by Howard Segal
Chicago History invites historians to reflect on the nature of cities and history. International expositions, the subject of this issue, are urban events that suggest many meanings. Warren Susman sees them as rites of passage in American society; Howard Segal sees them as a chapter in the history of utopianism.
The White City in Peril: Leadership and the World's
Columbian Exposition, by Frank A. Cassell
and Marguerite E. Cassell
The 1893 fair was an unforgettable event. But before the gates ever opened, the local and national interests promoting it confronted obstacles that came close to preventing it.
Everything Under One Roof: World's Fairs and Department
Stores in Paris and Chicago, by Russell
Lewis
International expositions and department stores developed simultaneously in the nineteenth-century city. Each offered an array of comforts, conveniences, and entertainment, and together they defined a new urban ideal based on consumption.
Fashion and the Fair, by Jeanne Madeline Weimann
Fairs offer opportunities for the promotion of ideas as well as for the celebration of material wonders. In 1893, meetings and lectures, called "congresses," addressed many of the important social and moral issues of the day. The Congress of Women included sessions on education for women, women's legal status--and dress reform.
Book Reviews:
Out of Sight, Out of
Mind, by Jon A. Peterson, reviewer:
Garbage in the Cities: Refuse, Reform, and the Environment, 1880-1980, by Martin V. Melosi
Stewards of Wealth, by George H. Roeder, Jr., reviewer:
Noblesse Oblige: Charity and Cultural Philanthropy in Chicago, 1849-1929, by Kathleen D. McCarthy
Private Eyes, Public
Order, by Catherine Mambretti, reviewer:
"The Eye That Never Sleeps": A History of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, by Frank Morn
At the Society / Maxwell Street
This fall two photographic exhibitions highlight the past and present of one of Chicago's most distinctive places: Maxwell Street. Here Alan Teller describes its history and the work of two of the photographers who have recorded it.
Yesterday's City / A Century of Progress
The immediacy of past events is sometimes best evoked by those who actually participated in them. Something of what the 1933 Century of Progress exposition and the people who made it were like is recaptured in the following two reports, each recorded at the time.
Volume 12, number
2 ( summer 1983)
Whose City? Part Two, by Perry Duis
By the end of the nineteenth century, Chicago's public and semi-public places symbolized for many Chicagoans their hopes and fears about city life. Skyscrapers, department stores, and grand railway terminals opened new vistas of city space, but commercial activity always expanded faster than the streets. Solutions--like the automobile, which it once was hoped would make for cleaner and safer streets--themselves became a part of the problem.
Bread and Labor: Chicago's German Bakers Organize, by John B. Jentz
Nineteen eighty-three marks the 300th anniversary of German immigration to America, a movement of people so great that by 1900, Germans comprised the second largest ethnic group in America after the English. Millions came to stay, and as individuals and as a group they vastly enriched the life of the republic. Pursuit of a better life led them into many occupations. The Germans who found themselves in the bakery trade in Gilded Age Chicago formed a union in hopes of realizing the promise of opportunity in America.
Arthur Holitischer's Chicago: A
German Traveler's View of an American City, by
Frederic Trautmann
Some Germans came to America not to stay but to write about it. In 1910, Arthur Holitischer visited Chicago and other cities and wrote a vivid account of what he found there. His impressions of Chicago are translated here for the first time.
On the Air with Jack L. Cooper: The Beginnings of
Black-Appeal Radio , by Mark Newman
"Ma Perkins," "Sam 'n' Henry," "Lum 'n' Abner," "Fibber McGee and Molly," "Lights Out," Don McNeil's "Breakfast Club"--great names from radio's golden age. During the twenties and thirties, these and other Chicago-based programs held millions of Americans close to their sets. Few people realize, however, that Chicago was also the first home of influential programming developed specifically for black audiences by show business veteran Jack L. Cooper.
Reviews:
Street Signs Chicago, by Charles Bowden and Lew Kreinberg [review by Fredric Miller];
Touching Base:
Professional Baseball and American Culture in the Progressive Era, by
Steven A. Riess [review by James E.
Fell, Jr.];
City People, by Gunther Barth [review by Ron Grossman];
The Making of the Third Party System: Voters and Parties in Illinois, 1850-1876, by Stephen L. Hansen [review by Nicholas C. Burckel]
The Society, by Ellsworth H. Brown
Four special activities highlight the Society's role in the intellectual community, and its own commitment to internal renewal.
Volume 12, number
1 (spring 1983)
Whose City? Public and Private Places in Nineteenth-Century Chicago, by Perry Duis
The rise of the industrial city raised new questions about the nature of urban space, about who might use it and for what. Notions of what was public and what was private--and of what fell in between--found new definition as life in the city changed. Chicago, which grew tremendously in these years, offers an instructive example.
Prairie State Utopia: The Spirit Fruit Society of Chicago and Ingleside, by H. Roger Grant
Radically different examples of the faith in action are the subject of the following two articles in this issue of Chicago History. For adherents of the tiny Spirit Fruit Society, Christianity led away from the city and engagement with their fellows to an isolated communal farm in northern Illinois.
Sowing the Seeds of Reform: The Chicago Tract Society, 1889-1910, by Thomas J. Dorst
For members of the Chicago Tract Society, Christianity called for a sustained ministry to the city's immigrant population whom they hoped to make into productive citizens in a morally well-ordered city.
Claude A. Barnett and the Associated Negro Press, by Linda J. Evans
In its heyday of the 1930s and 1940s ANP--Associated Negro Press reached into the homes of thousands of black Americans. With an effective mixture of reforming zeal and business acumen, Claude Barnett, its founder, built ANP into a major news-gathering network that helped to heighten black self-esteem long before the civil rights revolution of the 1960s. For years, the ANP's home was a small office on Chicago's South Side.
Reviews:
Urban America: From Downtown to No Town, by David R. Goldfield and Blaine A. Brownell [review by Harold L. Platt];
The Investment Frontier: New York Businessmen and the Economic Development of the Old Northwest, by John Denis Haeger [review by William J. Cronon];
Pollution and Reform in American Cities, 1870-1930, edited by Martin V. Melosi [review by Mark S. Foster]
The Society: A Word from the Editor, by Timothy C. Jacobson
Volume 11, number
3 (fall and winter 1982)
The Marshall Field Annex and the New Urban Order of Daniel
Burnham's Chicago, by Ann Lorenz Van
Zanten
The palatial form and elaborately modeled details of the Marshall Field Annex are reminders of the grand and gracious air that Daniel Burnham and his partner, Charles Atwood, sought to transfer from Chicago's World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 to the Loop.
The Blue Sky Press of Hyde Park, 1899-1907, by Paul Kruty
Drawing from the great number of Chicago artists and writers of the time, three ambitious young men and the circle of hard workers who gathered around them produced almost fifty books and a monthly magazine which form a significant chapter in the history of American fine art printing.
Chicagoans Under Wraps, by Elizabeth Jachimowicz
On November 20, 1982, a permanent gallery devoted to the exhibition of costume will open at the Chicago Historical Society. The gallery's first exhibit, Chicagoans Under Wraps, includes outerwear from a great variety of cuts and shapes worn in Chicago from 1860 to 1982.
Chicago's City Championship: Northwestern University vs. The University of Chicago, 1892-1905, by John S. Watterson
The evolution of college football from a controversial, rough-and-tumble game to its embrace as an important and integral part of the modern university can be traced through the rivalry that developed in Chicago between the Purple of Northwestern University and the University of Chicago Maroons.
The Thanksgiving Day Race of 1895, by George S. May
America's first automobile race had an inauspicious beginning.
A Century of Chicago Toys, 1880-1980, by Steven Sommers
Over the past 100 years, the Chicago region has been home to an enormous toy industry. Scores of firms large and small have manufactured everything from bicycles to electric trains to paper dolls. This article describes some of the most famous.
Illinois Toys: 1880-1980, by Olivia Mahoney
An exhibit which will open at the Chicago Historical Society on December 18, 1982, includes more than 300 toys, books, and games manufactured in Chicago and northern Illinois over the past one hundred years.
Uncle Mistletoe: A Chicago Christmas Tradition, by Robert P. Ledermann
"They hadn't slept long when an odd little guy
A-riding a carpet flew in and said Hi!
My name's Uncle Mistletoe! Just take my hand
We're going on a journey to Santa Claus Land!"
--Portion of "A Christmas Dream" (1946 display window poem), by Helen McKenna
Richard Teller Crane's War with the Colleges, by Abigail Loomis and Franklin E. Court
"Academic learning beyond the essentials of the grammar grades in public school is waste of time and waste of money for the boy who is to enter commercial life."
--R. T. Crane, as quoted by Hollis W. Field in the Chicago Tribune, June 9, 1907
Educating "The Whole Boy" at the Chicago Manual Training School, by Nancy Farwell Leman
If Stanley Farwell's career is any measure, Richard T. Crane's support of vocational training was well placed. Yet Farwell, a graduate of the Chicago Manual Training School, found that a university education also had much to offer him in his search for success.
Review Essay: Touring
the Great Lakes, by Irving Cutler:
Around the Shores of Lake Superior: A Guide to Historic Sites, by Margaret Beattie Bogue and Virginia A. Palmer;
The Great Lakes Guidebook: Lake Superior and Western Lake Michigan, by George Cantor;
The Great Lakes Guidebook: Lake Huron and Eastern Lake Michigan, by George Cantor;
Around Lake Michigan, by Jean R. Komaiko
The Society, by Ellsworth H. Brown
In the summer of 1787 the Constitutional Convention met in Philadelphia and drafted the document that would become the fundamental law of the land. The Society now holds a copy of the first public printing of the Constitution.
Volume 11, number
2 ( summer 1982)
"In the Suburbs of Toun": Chicago's North Shore to
1871, by Michael H. Ebner
"[Lake Forest] bears no aspect of a business character--indeed most of the residents are engaged in business in Chicago; or they have retired upon competency, and live here to cultivate their novel and esthetic taste, and educate their children."
--Waukegan Gazette, March 25, 187l
Chicago's Leading Men's Clubs, by George D. Bushnell
As Chicago's leaders found time to lend their talents and energy to the city, their clubs were catalysts for action in the political, cultural, economic, and social arenas.
Inside State Street: Photographs of Building Interiors by
Kathleen Collins, by Howard S. Becker
Because interiors betray so much about people and their way of life--if we are willing to make the inferential leaps the theory of interiors demands--photographs of interiors can provide a wonderful source of knowledge about culture.
Montgomery Ward & Company and Three Statues on Chicago's Skyline, by Margot Gayle
Only one of these statues has survived to the present, but their tale is an intriguing one.
Looking Backward: Around Town with the Saddle and Cycle Club
The Society, by Ellsworth H. Brown
The strength of the curatorial staff and the other department headships is sustained by new appointments; the direction of collecting activities, publications, and the intellectual life of the Society are governed by their thoughts.
In the Steps of
Chicago's Immigrants: A Review Essay, by Paula K. Benkart
and Randall M. Miller:
Ethnic Chicago, edited by Peter d'A. Jones and Melvin G. Holli
Book Reviews::
Letters from Ring, by Clifford M. Caruthers [review by W. Gordon Milne];
From Streetcar to Superhighway: American City Planners and Urban Transportation, 1900-1940, by Mark S. Foster [review by Michael L. Thaller];
The Badger State: A Documentary History of Wisconsin, edited by Barbara and Justus Paul [review by Patrick M. Quinn];
An Ordered Love: Sex Roles and Sexuality in Victorian Utopias: The Shakers, The Mormons, and The Oneida Community, by Louis J. Kern, and
Religion and Sexuality: Three American Communal Experiments of the Nineteenth Century, by Lawrence Foster [reviews by Kirk Jeffrey];
Dictionary of the History of the American Brewing and Distilling Industries, by William L. Downard,
The Great Chicago Beer Cans, by Phil Pospychala and Joe McFarland, and
The Beer Poster Book, by Will Anderson [reviews by Russell Lewis];
God's Frontiersmen: The Yale Band in Illinois, by John Randolph Willis, and
Pioneer's Progress: Illinois College, 1829-1979, by Charles E. Frank [reviews by M. Guy Bishop]
Notes: Guide to Illinois Archives, Community History Conference, Norwegian-American Historical Association
Volume 11, number
1 (spring 1982)
When Cholera Scourged Chicago, by William K. Beatty
Neither medical science nor civic pride could prevent the cholera from reaching Chicago and claiming more than 5,000 lives.
"Remember Ellsworth!": Chicago's First Hero of the Civil War, by Meredith M. Dytch
"At double-quick and at the call of the bugle, these sixty or more young athletes would form figures of crosses, double crosses, squares, triangles, like the dissolving figures of the kaleidoscope."
--Description of Elmer Ellsworth's Chicago Zouave Cadets performing in 1859
"Of the Class Denominated Princely": The Tremont House Hotel, by Stephen M. Davis
Rich surroundings, sumptuous feasts, and delightful entertainment gave the Tremont its reputation as one of Chicago's finest hotels.
Barry Byrne and John Lloyd Wright: Architecture and Design, by Ann Van Zanten
This exhibition is based on drawings and photographs of some 55 buildings and projects as well as furniture designed by Byrne, toys by Wright, and memorabilia of both men's careers.
The Arming of the Chicago Police in the Nineteenth Century, by Richard C. Marohn, M. D.
As in other American cities, the arming of the Chicago police took place informally rather than as the result of official local or national policy.
Chicagoans and Their Parks, by Larry Viskochil
From February 28 through April 24, 1982, the Society presented a major exhibition, American Photographers and the National Parks, featuring almost 200 magnificent images by thirty-five photographers from the 1860s to the present.
The Society, by Ellsworth H. Brown
The Society salutes Theodore Tieken, who recently retired from the presidency of the Board of Trustees, and his successor Steward S. Dixon.
Scandinavians in
Chicago: A Review Essay, by Rolf Erickson:
Swedish Exodus, by Lars Ljungmark, translated by Kermit B. Westerberg;
Norway to America: A History of Migration, by Ingrid Semmingsen, translated by Einar Haugen;
Norwegian-American Studies, Volume 28, edited by Kenneth O. Bjork;
Norwegian Influence on the Upper Midwest: Proceedings of an International Conference, University of Minnesota, Duluth, May 22-24, 1975, edited by Harald S. Naess;
Immigrant Executive Traveler: My Story, by Birger Swenson
Book Reviews::
Moralism and the Model Home: Domestic Architecture and Cultural Conflict in Chicago, 1873-1913, by Gwendolyn Wright [review by Henry C. Binford];
The Poorhouse: Subsidized Housing in Chicago, 1895-1976, by Devereaux Bowly, Jr. [review by Joan Draper];
The Separate Problem: Case Studies of Black Education in the North, 1900,-1930, by Judy Jolly Mohraz [review by Michael W. Homel];
Bosses, Machines and Urban Voters: An American Symbiosis, by John M. Allswang, and
Better City Government: Innovation in American Urban Politics, 1850-1937, by Kenneth Fox [reviews by Douglas Bukowski];
On the 8:02: An Informal History of Commuting by Rail in America, by Lawrence Grow, and
City and Suburb: The Political Fragmentation of Metropolitan America, 1850-1970, by Jon C. Teaford [reviews by Michael H. Ebner];
Built Like a Bear, by James Dowd [review by R. David Edmunds];
If All We Did Was to Weep at Home: A History of Working-Class Women in America, by Susan Estabrook Kennedy [review by Richard Schneirov];
Journalism's Unofficial Ambassador: A Biography of Edward Price Bell, 1869 - 1943, by James D. Startt [review by Chester J. Pach, Jr.]
New Guidebooks and Local Histories
Volume 10, number
4 (winter 1981-1982)
Introduction to Folk Art of Illinois, by Merle Glick
The Folk Arts of Illinois, by C. Kurt Dewhurst and Marsha MacDowell
"Folk art ... is not the uninspired or naive production of items that might have been done better had the artisan only been properly trained.... The folk artist is usually guided by a sense of community aesthetic which is often unspoken because it is functional, not intellectualized."
--Barre Toelken, in Webfoots and Bunchgrassers: Folk Art of the Oregon Country (1980)
Quilted Messages from the Midwest, by Susan Murphy
Each quilt contains several different levels of meaning and can be examined as an art object, a household necessity, a family tradition, and even as an important form of social interaction.
Ernst Damitz, by Esther Sparks
A farmer, a "healer," and a captivating story-teller, Ernst Damitz of Greenbush Township was also a painter of considerable power.
The Gallery: A Sampling of Objects and Paintings in the Exhibit
In the following pages we offer our readers the closest equivalent to a walk through the gallery.
Illinois Decoys, by Donna Tonelli
"Of all our folk arts, none is more strikingly American than the decoy. Indigenous to this country, popular in use, created out of native woods and natural formations--what could be more expressive of the people, their need, and their individuality?"
--From The Art of the Decoy by Adele Earnest (1965)
Coverlet Weavers, by Olivia Mahoney and Nancy Glick
Handwoven coverlets have brought beauty and comfort to many Illinois homes.
Illinois Pottery, by Robert W. Sherman
Rich deposits of clay in various regions of the state attracted many potters to Illinois in the nineteenth century. As many as seven hundred have been identified to date.
Olaf Krans, by Anna Wadsworth Murray
Although Olaf Krans had no formal training as an artist, his depictions of life at Bishop Hill and of many of the commune's residents evoke a strong sense of that community.
Ethnic Folk Art in Contemporary Chicago, by Bruce Hatton Boyer
In 1977, the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress undertook a massive survey of the ethnic arts in Chicago and found that folk art was alive and well in this great urban center.
Volume 10, number
3 (fall 1981)
To Be the Central City: Chicago, 1848-1857, by; William J. Cronon
"This history [of Chicago] will be the history of one of the most remarkable facts in the growth of communities, which our nation, perhaps the world, furnished."
--Chicago Magazine, March 1857
The Pursuit of Culture: Founding the Chicago Historical Society, 1856, by Byron York
For one founder, William Barry, the Historical Society was a way to preserve the fragile and ever-threatened present; for yet another, Isaac Arnold, it was an institution needed to improve a great city with a vast future.
The Collections:
Architectural Collection, by Frank Jewell
The Architectural Collection was established in 1976 in cooperation with the Chicago chapter of the American Institute of Architects to document the "built environment of the greater Chicago area and the work of Chicago-based architects, engineers, and builders both in and out of the Chicago area." Although carefully selected building fragments are included, the bulk of the collections comprises traditional records such as correspondence, drawings, renderings, photographs, and books.
Costume Collection, by Elizabeth Jachimowicz
The Costume Collection comprises some 14,000 items of clothing and accessories for men, women, and children as well as periodicals, illustrations, photographs, and other materials documenting the history of fashion as revealed in the clothing of Chicagoans.
Decorative Arts Collection, by Sharon S. Darling
The Decorative Arts Collection includes the Society's holdings of all the three-dimensional objects other than costumes, paintings, and sculpture. Of particular interest are the growing collections of metalwork, ceramics, glass, and furniture made in Chicago.
Graphics Collection, by Trudy Victoria Hansen
The Graphics Collection comprises approximately three-quarters of a million images, including photographs, negatives, prints, posters, films, and other types of images. These provide a visual commentary on Chicago from the beginning of its history to the present. The following focuses on one part of the collection, the Chicago posters given to the Society by the estate of Joseph T. Ryerson.
Paintings and Sculpture Collection, by Joseph B. Zywicki
The Paintings and Sculpture Collection comprises some 1,200 paintings and some 200 pieces of sculpture. Among the most interesting pieces are 80 paintings by an artist whose subjects ranged from King Louis Phillippe of France and Pope Pius IX to numerous prominent Chicagoans.
Manuscripts Collection, by
Linda Evans
The Manuscripts Room staff cares for all of the unpublished written holdings of the Chicago Historical Society, including letters, minutes, reports, account books, clippings and scrapbooks, as well as audio recordings.
Printed Collections, by Frank Jewell
William Barry pursued with vigor the charge in the Society's first Constitution for "The establishment of a library of books appropriate to such an institution...." Eventually, the Society came to concentrate more on another of the original "Objects of the Society," namely, "To collect and preserve in particular such historical materials as shall serve to illustrate the settlement and growth of the City of Chicago." Today, with the exception of exhibition objects, this is the main focus.
Special Collections, by Robert L. Brubaker
Special Collections carries out collecting projects which culminate in exhibits, publications, and public programs. It also gathers ephemeral materials such as theater and concert programs.
Washington's Farewell Address: An Eighteenth-Century
"Fireside Chat," by Garry Wills
In honor of the Society's 125th Anniversary, the Guild has pledged a rare first edition of Washington's Farewell Address to the Collections. There is much to be learned from a careful reading of "the most important statement made by the most important figure at our nation's founding."
Directions for American Historical Societies, by Richard Rabinowitz and Sam Bass Warner, Jr.
"The goal .... ought to be to help visitors move from their own store of personal experiences outward to some knowledge which would let them form human identifications with other parts of their community and with people remote from themselves in time as well as space."
Education and Public Programs, by Judy Weisman and Nancy lace
From the outset the Society presented a variety of programs, but in the early years these were for members and their guests only. In more recent times our programs have been directed at all who are interested in history.
Publications, by the Editors
A glance at the history of the Society's publications shows that, as with so many of our activities, the past provided clear and rich precedent for the present.
The Society: Preserving and Interpreting the Past, by Ellsworth H. Brown
A birthday is a good time to look back and see how far one has come and why.
Volume 10, number
2 (summer 1981)
Arthur Siegel: A Life in Photography, 1913-1978, by Larry A. Viskochil
"Photographs are made through work, thought, and technique, and the secrets are in the head and heart, not in the technical data."
--Arthur Siegel
Investigating the Eastland Accident, by Ann D. Gordon
"The Eastland was all ready to pull out, when suddenly she went over on her side, and then there were horrible things happening. I heard women screaming and shrieking and children crying out and everybody seemed mad. It seemed to take the big boat only a few seconds to turn over on its side."
--Survivor Mildred Anderson as quoted in the Chicago Daily News, July 25, 1915.
Chicago and the Bungalow Boom of the 1920s, by Daniel J. Prosser
"The bungalow age is here.... In very case its appearance bespeaks a blithesome geniality and an informal hospitality. There is nothing formal about it, and this very restfulness of appearance refreshes the city tired dweller who is the slave of conventionalities."
--From Radford's Artistic Bungalows, l908
Remember the Nurses: Michael Reese Hospital School of
Nursing, 1890-1981, by Elizabeth
Jachimowicz
"To improve furthermore the comforts of the suffering and ... open a new avenue of industry to intelligent and conscientious young ladies."
--From the second Annual Report of the United Hebrew Charities of Chicago, 1889-90
"Big Red in Bronzeville": Mayor Ed Kelly Reels in the Black Vote, by Roger Biles
"As long as I am mayor of the city of Chicago I intend to be mayor of all the people and not any particular group of people, and I expect to see to it that each and every person and every group of people have an equal opportunity...."
--Mayor Edward J. Kelly
Looking Backward: Off to Mackinac!, by Carl A. Norberg
Every year on a Saturday late in July a fleet of yachts fills Chicago's Monroe Street Harbor waiting to start in the world's longest freshwater boating contest--the race from Chicago to Mackinac Island. It all began in 1898.
The Society: An Inside-Outside View, by Ellsworth H. Brown
From April 25 to May 1, the Society's director-to-be was here to participate in a history conference and to join in the celebration which marked the beginning of our 125th year. These are his comments on the visit.
Book Reviews::
Keeping the Faith: A. Philip Randolph, Milton P. Webster, and the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, 1925-37, by William Harris [review by Greg Leroy];
The Paradox of Progressive Education: The Gary Plan and Urban Schooling, 1900-1940, by Ronald D. Cohen and Raymond A. Mohl [review by Joan K. Smith];
The Chicago Board of
Trade 1859-1905: The Dynamics of Self-Regulation [review by William G. Ferris];
Merchant Princes: An Intimate History of Jewish Families Who Built Great Department Stores, by Leon Harris [review by Harold F. Williamson];
The Game is Never Over: An Appreciative History of the Chicago Cubs, 1948-1980, by Jim Langford [review by David L. Porter];
Halas by Halas: The Autobiography of George Halas, by George Halas, and
The Chicago Bears: An Illustrated History, by Richard Whittingham [reviews by Louis P. Cain]
Notes: Index to Chicago History, Guide to Architectural Records, Music in Chicago
Volume 10, number
1 (spring 198l)
The Chicago Whales and the Federal League of American
Baseball, 1914-1915, by Richard Lindberg
"Many north side residents stepped over the police line. . . to shake hands with the young man who had the nerve to buck organized baseball."
--Chicago Daily News, March 4, 1914
Joy Morton and the Conduct of Modern Business Enterprise, by James D. Norris and James Livingston
Although many recognize Joy Morton as the founder of the Morton Salt Company and the Morton Arboretum, few realize the extent of his entrepreneurial activities or their place in American business history.
Upton Sinclair and the Writing of The Jungle, by Christine Scriabine
When Upton Sinclair's novel The Jungle, exposing working conditions in the stockyards, became a best seller, the Chicago Tribune labeled the book as "the product of a distempered imagination and credulous mind.''
Friends of American Writers: Encouraging Writing and Thoughtful Reading, by Dorothy Gwynn
"I was immensely impressed with what the FAW have done for Midwestern letters, and with the clairvoyant excellence of their choice of writers of promise who have become writers of fulfillment."
--Critic James Mason Brown in a letter to Mrs. Laird Wilson of FAW
Looking Backward: From "The Bush" to the Open Hearth, by Phillip F. Janik with Phyllis Janik
"Of two hundred million people in the United States, there might be forty thousand men who have the slightest idea of what goes on [in the Open Hearth shops] that produced the wealth of this country during the first half of the twentieth century. . . . Each year, death takes its toll . . . in another twenty years no more than a few hundred of us may be left."
--Lawrence Kuhn, in 33, December 1969
The Society: Welcome to Ellsworth H. Brown, by the Editors
On July 1, 1981, Ellsworth H. Brown will assume the directorship of the Chicago Historical Society. Mr. Brown, who received his Ph.D. from Michigan State University served as Director of the Dacotah Prairie Museum, South Dakota, from 1971 to 1976, and since then has been director of the Tennessee State Museum in Nashville, Tennessee. We asked Mr. Brown to introduce himself to our members.
Book Reviews::
A City and Its Universities: Public Policy in Chicago, 1892-1919, by Steven J. Diner, and
Decision-Making Chicago-Style: The Genesis of a University of Illinois Campus, by George Rosen [reviews by Frederick H. Jackson];
Chicago Interiors: Views of a Splendid World, by David Lowe [review by Gwendolyn Wright];
The Chicago World's Fair of 1893: A Photographic Record, by Stanley Appelbaum [review by Charles E. Gregersen];
Liberty and Union: The Crisis of Popular Government, 1830-1890, by David Herbert Donald [review by Roland L. Guyotte];
Small Town Chicago: The Comic Perspective of Finley Peter Dunne, George Ade, and Ring Lardner, by James DeMuth [review by Timothy Walch];
Ella Flagg Young: Portrait of a Leader, by Joan K. Smith [review by Robert L. McCaul];
The American Image: Photographs from the National Archives, 1860-1960, Exhibitions Staff, Office of Educational Programs, National Archives and Records Service, 1979 [review by Kathleen Culbert-Aguilar]
Notes: Archdiocesan History; Regional History Center, DeKalb
Volume 9, number 4
(winter 1980-1981)
Civil War Tintypes: The Common Soldier's "Instant" Memories, by Larry A. Viskochil
The more than a hundred tintypes in the collections of the Chicago Historical Society include several dozen portraits of soldiers, mostly unidentified, like those shown here.
"These Terrible Mementoes": Civil War Photography, by William F. Stapp
"Let him who wishes to know what war is look at this series of illustrations. . . . the sight of these pictures is a commentary on civilization such as a savage might well triumph to show to its missionaries."
--Oliver Wendell Holmes, "Doings of a Sunbeam"
The Thomas Wise Forgeries: The Case of the Wrenn Library, by Celia Hilliard
The confidence game of which Chicagoan John Wrenn became the unwitting victim linked his library on Astor Street to one of England's greatest literary scandals.
The Siting of the University of Illinois at Chicago Circle:
A Struggle of the 1950s and 1960s, by
George Rosen
In the post-World War II years the need for a major public university in the city became clear, but the attempt to find an acceptable site for the campus took almost two decades.
Three Talents: Robins, Nestor, and Anderson of the Chicago
Women's Trade Union League, by Sandra
Conn
Coming from widely differing backgrounds, Margaret Dreier Robins, Agnes Nestor, and Mary Anderson pooled their talents and energy to lead the fight to improve the working conditions of women throughout the nation.
The Society: Farewell to Harold K. Skramstad, Jr., by Fannia Weingartner
Review Essay:
Frank Lloyd Wright:
Traditions, Images, Assessments, by Albert M. Tannler, reviewer:
Frank Lloyd Wright: His Life and His Architecture, by Robert C. Twombly;
Apprentice to Genius: Years with Frank Lloyd Wright, by Edgar Tafel;
Building with Frank Lloyd Wright: An Illustrated Memoir, by Herbert Jacobs with Katherine Jacobs;
Frank Lloyd Wright: An Annotated Bibliography, by Robert L. Sweeney;
The Plan for Restoration and Adaptive Use of the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio, by the Restoration Committee of the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio Foundation;
The Prairie School Tradition: The Prairie Archives of the Milwaukee Art Center, edited by Brian A. Spencer
Book Reviews::
The Work Ethic in Industrial America 1850-1920, by Daniel T. Rodgers [review by Dominic A. Pacyga];
Eugene V. Debs: Spokesman for Labor and Socialism, by Bernard J. Brommel [review by Elizabeth Balanoff];
The American Railroad Passenger Car, by John H. White, Jr. [review by Gerald A. Danzer];
The Potawatomis: Keepers of the Fire, by R. David Edmunds [review by Donald Jackson]
Notes: Hyde Park Historical Society, Teacher Workshops
Looking Backward / inside back cover
Volume 9, number 3
(fall 1980)
Holabird & Roche and Holabird & Root: The First Two Generations, by Robert Bruegmann
If Chicago deserves its appellation of "America's most architectural city," then this firm deserves a large amount of the credit, for during the last 100 years it has designed a surprisingly large percentage of the city.
Exhibit / "The Great Autumnal Madness": Campaigning for the Presidency
From "The Great Autumnal Madness: Campaigning for the Presidency," an exhibit of banners, buttons, broadsides, clothing, and other objects on view at the Society through November 30, 1980.
The Battle against the Ballot: Illinois Woman Antisuffragists, by Catherine Cole Mambretti
The zeal and dedication of woman suffrage advocates were matched by the passion and determination of the women who opposed them.
America's First World Astronomy Meeting: Chicago 1893, by Donald E. Osterbrock
The aim of the World's Congress Auxiliary was no less than to "unite the enlightened people of the whole earth ... for the attainment of the great ends for which human society is organized."
Book Reviews::
Don't Touch That Dial! Radio Programming in American Life from 1920 to 1960, by J. Fred MacDonald [review by Mary Frances Rhymer];
The Great American Fair: The World's Colombian Exposition and American Culture, by R. Reid Badger [review by Dennis B. Downey];
We Don't Want Nobody Nobody Sent: An Oral History of the Daley Years, by Milton L. Rakove [review by Paul M. Green];
Building for the Centuries: Illinois, 1865-1898, by John H. Keiser [review by Michael H. Ebner];
Four Landmark Buildings in Chicago's Loop: A Study of Historic Conservation Options, by Harry Weese & Associates [review by Kathleen Mallon];
Chicago Tribune: The Rise of a Great American Newspaper, by Lloyd Wendt [review by Mary Lou M. Schultz];
The Great Chicago Fire in Eyewitness Accounts and 70 Contemporary Photographs and Illustrations, compiled and edited with an introduction by David Lowe [review by Nancy Lace];
Footsteps on the Tall Grass Prairie: A History of Lombard, Illinois, by Lillian Budd, and
Geneva, Illinois: A History of Its Times and Places, edited by Julia M. Ehresmann [reviews by Don Russell]
Looking Backward / inside back cover
Volume 9, number 2
(summer 1980)
James Thompson's Plat of Chicago: A 150-Year Perspective, by the Editors
The Launching of Chicago: The Situation and the Site, by Harold M. Mayer
"In due time we reached the Des Plaines river where, for the first time, I caught a view of Lake Michigan. Away in the distance I espied a little dot in the horizon, which proved to be the flag that floated over Fort Dearborn."
--James M. Bucklin, Chief Engineer, Illinois and Michigan Canal, on Chicago in 1830
The Military Frontier: Fort Dearborn, by Arthur H. Frazier
"I know of nothing that will check this murderous temper among the Indians, unless it be an active, exterminating war on our part--or the location of a large military force ... at Michilimackinac--at Green Bay & at Chicago."
--William Woodbridge, Acting Governor of Michigan Territory, to A. J. Dallas, Acting Secretary of War, May 10, 1815
Chicago, September 14, 1833: The Last Great Indian Treaty in
the Old Northwest, by James A. Clifton
Under the treaty protocols dramatized in speeches and debatings and beneath the apparently tawdry exchanges of the market place was an arrangement. All those who had worked to make Chicago an American place were being rewarded.
Goodbye, Madore Beaubien: The Americanization of Early
Chicago Society, by Jacqueline Peterson
Many of Chicago's first settlers were of mixed ancestry, having married or grown to maturity in households sharing at least two languages, two sets of kin, and a culture that combined elements of Indian and EuroAmerican societies.
The Rise and Fall of Hiram Pearson: Mobility on the Urban Frontier, by Craig Buettinger
"We have been celebrating the passage of the Canal Bill for the 3 days and 2 nights--Property is fast advancing."
--Hiram Pearson in a letter to Arthur Brownson, January 16, 1835
Renovating the Society's Fort Dearborn Exhibit, by Carole Krucoff
The Society: Acquisition of a First Printing of the
Northwest Ordinance, by Harold K.
Skramstad, Jr.
"I doubt whether one single law of any law-giver, ancient or modern, has produced effects of a more distinct, marked, and lasting character...."
--Daniel Webster
Manuscript Sources on Frontier Chicago, by Archie Motley
Volume 9, number 1
(spring 1980)
Chicago's Great Upheaval of 1877, by Richard Schneirov
Newspaper accounts called the crowds that milled through the city's streets in July 1877 everything from "hordes of ragamuffins, vagrants, saloon bummers" to "men in every sense of the word. . . brave and daring in the extreme."
Polish Churches along the Kennedy Expressway, by Marya Lilien and Malgorzata Pyrek-Ejsmont
Arriving from their native Poland in 1941 and 1976, respectively, architect Lilien and art historian Pyrek-Ejsmont were surprised and fascinated by the splendid Polish churches built by earlier generations of Polish Chicagoans. They joined forces to find out what they could about this legacy.
The Americanization of Chicago's Danish Community, 1850-1920, by Philip S. Friedman
No other nationality assimilates with the American more rapidly when it has got acquainted with the country and its language.... They act with the best class of the American people...
--Chicago Tribune, June 6, 1886
Looking Backward: The Fiftieth Anniversary of the John G.
Shedd Aquarium, by Nora Deans Hyma
The Society: Publications, by the Editors
Unbusinesslike people who are subject to all kinds of worries, absentmindedness, metaphysical prejudices, partisan feeling, sinking spells, and whims.
-- Edmund Wilson on editors
Lola Maverick Lloyd: "I Must Do Something for Peace!," by Janet Stevenson
"They sent us all to the east steps of the Capitol with bands on arms and across chests--"Keep out of War!" There we massed a few minutes but were pushed down by the police and driven back beyond the automobile line."
--April 12, 1917 entry in Lola Lloyd's Diary
Book Reviews::
The Plan of Chicago: 1909-1979, Art Institute of Chicago, 1979 [review by Victoria Irons Walch];
Sanitation Strategy
for a Lakefront Metropolis: The Case of Chicago, by Louis P. Cain [review by W. David Lewis]
"City of the Century": A History of Gary, Indiana, by James B. Lane [review by Newell G. Bringhurst];
Seven Days a Week: Women and Domestic Service in Industrializing America, by David M. Katzman [review by Helen C. Callahan];
How to Find Your Family Roots, by Timothy Field Beard with Denise Demong, and
The Genealogy Beginner's Manual, by Rick J. Ashton, Peggy Tuck Sinko, and Joseph C. Wolf [reviews by David Lowe];
Finley Peter Dunne and Mr. Dooley: The Chicago Years, by Charles Fanning [review by Jay P. Dolan];
The Social Order of a Frontier Community: Jacksonville, Illinois, 1825-1870, by Don Harrison Doyle [review by Barbara M. Posadas]
Notes: Chicago Furniture, Chicago Jewish Historical Society, Debs Papers Project, From the Costume Collection
Volume 8, number 4
(winter 1879-1980)
Chicago's Early Elevated Lines and the Construction of the Union Loop, by Brian J. Cudahy
Only two cities preceded Chicago in building an elevated system. Some local L promoters were responsible businessmen while others belonged to that unsavory fringe element that inevitably forms whenever private profit is earned in close proximity to the political arena.
Judge Edmund K. Jarecki: A Rather Regular Independent, by Douglas Bukowski
The Democrats had chosen Jarecki because he appeared to be a man with a good record in lower office who could look honest while still condoning vote fraud. What they got instead was a judge partial to pince-nez and bow ties who had no intention of being controlled by anyone.
Costume Exhibit: Women's Fashions from the 1920s, by Elizabeth Jachimowicz
The Society: On Historical Exhibits, by Harold K. Skramstad, Jr.
Chicago Ceramics & Glass Exhibits
Chicago's Colorful Terra Cotta Facades, by Eleanor Gordon and Jean Nerenberg
In 1925, writing in The American Architect about the use of architectural terra cotta, Edward H. Putnam predicted, "The final revival, one that has marked a steady development for nearly 80 years ... gives every assurance that the art will never lapse again." He was wrong, but he had every reason to be optimistic.
From Chromo-Civilization to TV Generation: A Perspective, by Trudy Victoria Hansen
The emotional content of any era is difficult for later generations to comprehend. It grows out of the course of daily life. When the tenor of the times changes, the older sentiments seem outmoded and fall to ridicule. Homely truths of one generation become the jokes of the next.
--Peter C. Marzio in The Democratic Art catalog
Walkout: The Chicago Men's Garment Workers' Strike, 1910-1911, by N. Sue Weiler
A lull in the struggle,
A truce in the fight,
The whirr of machines
And the dearly bought right,
Just to labor for bread,
Just to work and be fed.
For this we have marched
Through the snow-covered street,
Have borne our dead comrades
While muffled drums beat,
For this we have fought,
For this boon dearly-bought.
--"After the Strike," by Mary O'Reilly, reprinted from Life and Labor
Book Reviews::
Preservation Illinois: A Guide to State and Local Resources, edited by Ruth Eckdish Knack [review by Kathleen A. Roy];
The Drawings of Louis Henry Sullivan: A Catalogue of the Frank Lloyd Wright Collection at the Avery Architectural Library, by Paul E. Sprague [review by Rachel B. Heimovics];
The Building of Galena: An Architectural Legacy, by Carl H. Johnson, Jr., and
Rock County Historic Sites and Buildings, by Nancy Belle S. Douglas and Richard P. Hartung [reviews by John Zukowsky];
Guide to Chicago Murals: Yesterday and Today, edited by Victor A. Sorell, and
The Second Presbyterian Church: Art and Architecture, by Erne R. and Florence Frueh [reviews by Jethro M. Hurt III];
Immigrants and Religion in Urban America, edited by Randall M. Miller and Thomas D. Marzik [review by Dominic Candeloro];
Organizing Against Crime: Redeveloping the Neighborhood, by Anthony Sorrentino [review by Clyde C. Walker];
A Great and Glorious Romance: The Story of Carl Sandburg and Lilian Steichen, by Helga Sandburg [review by John P. Long];
Industrial Archeology: A New Look at the American Heritage, by Theodore Anton Sande [review by Kenneth D. Crews]
Notes: Why "ICHi"?, Chicago History on Radio, The Writer and the City
Looking Backward / inside back cover
Volume 8, number 3
(fall 1979)
Jacob M. Arvey, Kingmaker: The Nomination of Adlai E. Stevenson in 1952, by Roger Biles
[President Truman's] declaration that he would not run again was written in his own hand near the end of the prepared copy of his speech. When he made the announcement, silence fell for a moment. It was followed by what Arvey called "one of the most amazing things I have seen in my many years in politics."
A Robin's Egg Renaissance: Chicago Culture, 1893-1933, by Thomas J. Schlereth
"Out in Chicago, the only genuinely civilized city in the New World, they take the fine arts seriously and get into such frets and excitements about them as are raised nowhere else save by baseball, murder, political treachery, foreign wars and romantic lovers."
--H. L. Mencken as quoted to Alan J. Smith's Chicago's Left Bank (1953)
130 Years of Opera in Chicago, by Robert L. Brubaker
"We can no more afford to be without a major opera company than bereft of a major orchestra. With them, the sky's the limit. Without them, all flights are canceled."
--Claudia Cassidy in Lyric Opera of Chicago (1974)
Looking Backward: Confessions of an Opera Addict, by Norman Ross
Private Plans for Public Spaces: The Origins of Chicago's Park System, 1850-1875, by Glen E. Holt
"It is singular, that with all her characteristic business energy and forethought, [Chicago] has so far neglected to secure ample grounds for park purposes, but the time has now arrived when it becomes necessary to act...."
--Dr. John H. Bauch in Public Parks (1869)
The Society: On Relevance, by Harold K. Skramstad, Jr.
Book Reviews::
The Black Hawk War,
by Paul W. Gates, reviewer:
The Black Hawk War, 1831-1832, compiled and edited by Ellen M. Whitney;
Illinois Volunteers Vol. 1, and Letters and Papers Vol. 2 Parts 1, 2, & 3, collections of the Illinois State Historical Library;
Prelude to Disaster: The Course of Indian-White Relations which Led to the Black Hawk War of 1832, by Anthony F. C. Wallace.
Himself! The Life and Times of Mayor Richard J. Daley, by Eugene Kennedy [review by Robert Benne];
The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business, by Alfred D. Chandler, Jr. [review by Owen Gregory];
Hyde Park Houses: An Informal History 1856-1910, by Jean F. Block [review by Erne R. and Florence Frueh]
Notes: Teachers' Open House, Metro History Fair, Social Service History Project
Volume
8, number 2 (summer 1979)
"Rent Reasonable to Right Parties": Gold Coast Apartment Buildings 1906-1929, by Celia Hilliard
"In the beginning Father didn't much like it; he felt that, in spite of twelve rooms and five baths, it was a step down in the world to share a roof and front door with seven other families."
--Arthur Meeker, Jr., in Chicago, With Love
An Apology to Edward Mendel: The Original of Lincoln's Letter Found in Chicago, by Claire Mendel
"The Imagemakers: Portraits of Lincoln in the 1860 Campaign" by Harold Holzer, published in Chicago History (Winter 1978-1979), brought proof from members of the Mendel family that Abraham Lincoln did indeed write Edward Mendel on June 8, 1860.
James T. Farrell and Washington Park: The Novel as Social
History, by Charles Fanning and Ellen
Skerrett
James T. Farrell celebrates his seventy-fifth birthday this year. Perhaps the most fitting epigraph for his lifelong work--the recreation in fiction of the "common life" of Chicago's South Side Irish--is Danny O'Neill's comment in My Days of Anger (1943), "I didn't invent Chicago. I'm only trying to describe Chicago as I know it."
Carson Pirie Scott: 125 Years in Business, by John Vinci
The Creation of Chicago's Sanitary District and Construction of the Sanitary and Ship Canal, by Louis P. Cain
In an editorial hailing the opening of the Sanitary and Ship Canal, which had taken eight years to construct, the Chicago Tribune wrote: "though accomplished without any flourish of trumpets, it was one of the most important events in the history of Chicago."
--Chicago Tribune, January 18, 1900
Premiere at the Chicago Historical Society, by Marcia Beales
To Save a Kinsman: Ida B. Wells in the Case of Steve Green
Looking Backward: Commodore Barry Country Club in Twin
Lakes, Wisconsin, by Andrew M. Greeley
"One tremendous advantage [is its] close proximity to Chicago.... A short two-hour ride through the fertile valleys of the Prairie and Badger states brings you to the gateway of this majestic lodge where you may enjoy life in its entirety."
--Club Brochure
Burt Barnes Exhibit
The Society: Finders and Keepers, by Harold K. Skramstad, Jr.
Book Reviews::
The Slum and the Ghetto: Neighborhood Deterioration and Middle Class Reform, Chicago, 1880-1930, by Thomas Lee Philpott [review by Allen F. Davis];
Maxwell Street: Survival in a Bazaar, by Ira Berkow [review by Edward Herbert Mazur];
Something Wonderful Right Away: An Oral History of the Second City & the Compass Players, edited by Jeffrey Sweet [review by Don Rose];
The World of Earl Hines, by Stanley Dance, and
Oh, Didn't He Ramble: The Life Story of Lee Collins as Told to Mary Collins, edited by Frank J. Gillis and John W. Miner [reviews by Howard S. Becker];
The Federal Writers' Project: A Study in Government Patronage of the Arts, by Monty Penkower [review by Alex Ladenson]
Notes: New Publications, Wanted, Programs on Chicago Writers
Volume 8, number 1
(spring 1979)
The Art Institute of Chicago: The First Forty Years, by Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz
"I think you should have sympathetic admiration, nay, even affection, for the ideal Chicago which exists not only in the brain, but in the heart of some of her citizens."
--Charles Eliot Norton to Henry Blake Fuller
Frederic Clay Bartlett: Chicago Painter and Patron of the Arts, by Erne R. and Florence Frueh
The Gallery of paintings given to the Art Institute by Bartlett "became the first room of modern art in any American museum. It remains a monument to its generous collector, the rare example of a group of paintings gathered with deep knowledge, taste, and warm understanding."
--Daniel Catton Rich, Chicago Tribune, June 25, 1953
A Museum and a School: An Uneasy but Creative Union, by Peter C. Marzio
Physically connected by a bridge of buildings across the tracks, the museum and school have not gone separate ways. The challenge of today is to affirm the symbiotic relationship between apparently divergent parts.... To see [the Art Institute] simply as a trade school or an art school or a museum would be to miss its brilliance.
The Collections: Earlier Painting and Classical Art, European Decorative Arts, Textiles, Oriental Art, American Arts, 20th Century Painting and Sculpture, Prints and Drawings, Primitive Art, Photography
Looking Backward: Archibald J. Motley and The Art Institute
of Chicago: 1914-1930, by Elaine D.
Woodall
"Subject matter plays a most important part in my art. It is my earnest desire and ambition to express the American Negro honestly and sincerely, neither to add nor detract.... [I] believe Negro art is someday going to contribute to our culture, our civilization."
--Archibald J. Motley in J. Z. Jacobson's Art of Today (1933)
The Ryerson and Burnham Libraries, by Frank Jewell
Toward a History of The Art Institute of Chicago: A Survey of Sources, by Robert L. Brubaker
Volume 7, number 4
(winter 1978-1979)
The Imagemakers: Portraits of Lincoln in the 1860 Campaign, by Harold Holzer
As the 1860 election approached some of the party's money men demanded that a "good looking" likeness of the candidate be produced. As a result voters were offered a spate of "improved" images of Lincoln.
Young Man Gone West: George M. Pullman's Letters from the
Colorado Goldfields, by Liston E.
Leyendecker
Writing to his mother from the Colorado goldfields, the youthful future founder of the Pullman Palace Car Company drew a lively and vivid picture of his daily life and manifold business ventures there.
Minna Schmidt: Businesswoman, Feminist, and Fairy Godmother to Chicago, by Margaret Corwin
"From The inside it looks like a mixture of a doll's palace, King Tut's tomb, a bandana factory, and the ladies' dressing room in the Savoy Royal hotel of Bagdad during carnival week."
--Description of the Minna Schmidt workshop, Chicago Tribune, August 15, 1937
George Washington: "First in the Hearts of His Countrymen"
Fashions from the Wardrobe of Mrs. Robert Todd Lincoln
Looking Backward: The Iroquois Theatre Fire of 1903, by Julia Westerberg
The Society, by Harold K. Skramstad, Jr.
A Preview of the Chicago History Galleries: A Selection of Pre-Fire Views, by Gail Farr Casterline
Book Reviews::
The Ethnic Frontier: Essays in the History of Group Survival in Chicago and the Midwest, edited by Melvin G. Holli and Peter d'A. Jones [review by Dana F. White];
Hinky Dinks, Sundaes, and Blind Pigs: An Oral History of Evanston, collected and edited by Senior Seminar II, Evanston Township High School, 1977, and
Portage 1978, by J. Sterling Morton East High School, 1978 [reviews by Nancy Lace];
Rainey of Illinois: A Political Biography, 1903-34, by Robert A. Waller [review by Richard M. Fried];
The Story of Passavant Memorial Hospital 1865 to 1972, by Vernon K. Brown [review by Patrick McCallig];
The Old Northwest in the American Revolution: An Anthology, edited by David Curtis Skaggs [review by James A. Clifton];
Sears, Roebuck, U.S.A. The Great American Catalog Store and How It Grew, by Gordon L. Weil [review by Craig Buettinger];
Law on the Midway: The Founding of the University of Chicago Law School, by Frank L. Ellsworth [review by Michael W. Sedlak];
Out of the Sweatshop, edited by Leon Stein [review by John R. Sillito]
Notes
Volume 7, number 3
(fall 1978)
A Home in the Country: Suburbanization in Jefferson
Township, 1870-1889, by Barbara M.
Posadas
" . . . put your money where it will be safe and sure to increase, and buy yourself a residence where the pure air will prolong your lives and make your children strong."
--Chicago Tribune, August 29, 1880
Grant and Twain in Chicago: The 1879 Reunion of the Army of the Tennessee, by Charles H. Gold
"There wasn't a soldier on that stage who wasn't visibly affected, except the man who was being welcomed, Grant. No change of expression crossed his face."
--Mark Twain in his Autobiography
Henry Ralph Koopman II: The Life and Times of a Neighborhood
Photographer, by Paul W. Petraitis
"We photographers had to be weather prophets . . . we prepared all our own paper, chemicals, etc. and their keeping qualities were not good. Some of them were affected by the air in forty-eight hours."
--Calumet Index, May 23, 1913
Taking the Measure of the Land: Two Map Exhibits at the Society
Looking Backward: My Life in Radio, by Sarajane Wells
A former radio star reminisces about her experiences on "Jack Armstrong, The All-American Boy" and other serials.
The Society: Reinstallation of the American History Galleries
A Walk Through the Reinstalled American History Galleries
Reviews:
Jewish Americans in
the Midwest, by Melvin G. Holli, reviewer:
Jews on the Frontier: An Account of Jewish Pioneers and Settlers in Early America, by I. Harold Scharfman;
Rodfei Zedek: The First hundred Years, by Carole Krucoff;
Conflict and Child Care Policy in the Chicago Jewish Community 1893-1942, by Mitchell Alan Horwich.
The Age of Urban Reform: New Perspectives on the Progressive Era, edited by Michael H. Ebner and Eugene M. Tobin [review by Anthony R. Travis];
Mr. Dooley and the Chicago Irish: An Anthology, edited by Charles Fanning, and
Mr. Dooley's Chicago, by Barbara C. Schaaf [reviews by Timothy Walch];
Ships and Men of the Great Lakes, by Dwight Boyer,
Lake Carriers: The Saga of the Great Lakes Fleet, by Jacques LesStrang,
The Faces of the Great Lakes, by Jonathan Ela with photographs by B. A. King, and
The Shaping of America's Heartland: The Landscape of the Middle West, by Betty Flanders Thomson [reviews by Harold M. Mayer];
The Midland: A Venture in Literary Regionalism, by Milton M. Reigelman [review by Ellen Williams];
Collection, Use, and Care of Historical Photographs, by Robert A. Weinstein and Larry Booth [review by John S. Tris]
Notes
Volume 7, number 2
(summer 1978)
The Necessary Toy: The Telephone Comes to Chicago, by Robert H. Glauber
"It is not too much to say that the telephone makes modern society possible, that no substitution for it would suffice."
--Margaret Mead
Catholic Education in Chicago: The Formative Years 1840-1890, by Timothy Walch
"Idjacation is something that a man has to fight f'r an' pull out iv its hole be th' hair iv its head. That's th' reason it's so precious."
--Father Kelly as quoted by Mr. Dooley
A Heritage Forgotten: Chicago's First Cast Iron Front Buildings, by Margot Gayle
"That massive iron structure of architectural grandeur, which will defy the desolation of time, and the spoil of age."
--Contemporary description of the city's first cast iron front building.
William Dever and Prohibition: The Mayoral Elections of 1923 and 1927, by Douglas Bukowski
"Prohibition is needed as much in America as a fifth leg on a dog."
--From the newspaper Narod-Polski
Library Exhibit: From Our Collection, by John S. Tris
Looking Backward: Celebrating the Fourth of July
As recorded by newspapers in the collection of the Chicago Historical Society
Reviews:
Illinois: A History, by Richard J. Jensen [review by Louise C. Wade];
Pulling No Punches: Memoirs of a Woman in Politics, by India Edwards, and
Here I Am -- Take My Hand, by Marie Brookter with Jean Curtis [reviews by Linda J. Evans];
Ring: A Biography of Ring Lardner, by Jonathan Yardley [review by Harold E. Hutchings];
Union Maids, a film by Julia Reichert, James Klein, and Miles Mogulescu [review by J. Paul Carrico];
Neighborhood, by Andrew M. Greeley [review by Dominic A. Pacyga];
Illinois Voters Handbook, ed. by Elizabeth M. Garber [review by Sheldon Gardner];
Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald's, by Ray Kroc with Robert Anderson [review by Fred V. Carstensen];
Stateville: The Penitentiary in Mass Society, by James B. Jacobs [review by Edward H. Mazur];
Waiting for the 5:05: Terminal, Station, and Depot in America, compiled by Lawrence Grow [review by Tim Samuelson];
Chicago's Rapid Transit, Volume l, Rolling Stock, 1892-1947, Volume II, Rolling Stock, 1947-1976 [review by John B. Rae];
Interurban to Milwaukee, Bulletin 106 (2nd ed., 1974), and
Route of the Electroliners, Bulletin 107 (2nd ed., 1975) [reviews by John B. Rae]
The Society, by Harold K. Skramstad, Jr.
Notes: Kukla, Fran, and Ollie Festival; Chicago Public Library; From Our Readers
Volume 7, number 1
(spring 1978)
Fearsome Fiction and the Windy City: or, Chicago in the Dime Novel, by Carl S. Smith
"Nothing will be allowed in these stories that can give offense to the most refined minds ..."
"They render the imagination unclean, destroy domestic peace ...."
"The Day of Two Noons"--Achieving Standard Time, by Marjorie Iriz
"The Sun is no longer to boss the job.... The planets must, in future, make their circuits by such timetables as railroad magnates arrange."
--From the Indianapolis Sentinel, November 21, 1883
The Development of an Urban History Research Center: The Chicago Historical Society's Library, by Robert L. Brubaker
More than one hundred and twenty years after the founding the library continues to follow the exhortation of its first librarian, namely, to collect "the broad and teeming harvest of the present."
Salute to a Century of Progress, by Grant T. Dean
"All Else Passes--Art Alone Endures:" The Fine Arts Building 1918 to 1930, by Perry R. Duis
In spite of various vicissitudes the Fine Arts Building continued to attract diverse and creative tenants during the post-World War I years.
Eight Chicago Women of Fashion, by Elizabeth Jachimowicz
"[I] hope all your dresses will fit and bonnets will stay on your head."
--From a letter by Abby Louise Eddy to Frances Glessner on the eve of the latter's departure for Paris, 1890
Looking Backward: World War II. Recruiting for the Navy
The Baum Explosion: A Review Essay, by Russell P. MacFall
Reviews:
The Prairie People: Continuity and Change in Potawatomi Indian Culture 1665-1965, by James A. Clifton [review by Helen Hornbeck Tanner];
Sweet Home Chicago 2, edited by Tem Horwitz [review by Mary L. Dawson];
Cities on Stone: Nineteenth Century Lithograph Images of the Urban West; by John W, Reps, and
Edwin Whitefield: Nineteenth-Century North American Scenery, by Bettina A. Norton [reviews by Julia Westerberg];
An Autobiography, by Frank Lloyd Wright [review by John Vinci];
Black Genealogy, by Charles L. Blackson with Ron Fry [review by James R. Sanders];
A History of Early Carbondale, Illinois 1852-1905, by John W C. Wright, and
A Biographical History of Porter County, Indiana, edited by the Bicentennial Book Committee [reviews by Kurt E. Leichtle]
The Society: Our Educational Role, by Harold K. Skramstad, Jr.
Volume 6, number 4
(winter 1977-1978)
Upstairs-Downstairs in Chicago 1870-1907: The Glessner Household, by Helen C. Callahan
Few American historians have concerned themselves with the lives of domestic servants. What follows is an illuminating account of employer-employee relationships in a prominent Chicago household.
Stained Glass Windows at the Second Presbyterian Church, by Erne R. and Florence Frueh
The work of American master-craftsman Louis C. Tiffany, of Chicago's Louis J. Millet, of English Pre-Raphaelite painter Sir Edward Burne-Jones, and others await the visitor to this Chicago church.
Billy Caldwell 's Exile in Early Chicago, by James A. Clifton
The truth about Sauganash turns out to be even more interesting than the legends that collected around his name.
Cheating the Streets, by Cathlyn Schallhorn
"The essential of [the Club] was to help the boys and girls ., . . by bringing into play an interplay, the good and the noble and the ideal in their own natures...."
--Edwin Balmer, Stories of the Off-the-Street Club
Chicago and Lewis Hine, by Larry A. Viskochil
"Artists have always been the real purveyors of news for it is not the outward happening in itself which is new, but the kindling by it of emotion, perception and appreciation."
--John Dewey
Looking Backward: 100 Years Ago
As recorded by newspapers in the collection of the Chicago Historical Society
Reviews:
American Hunger, by Richard Wright [review by Sterling D. Plumpp];
Requiem: The Decline and Demise of Mayor Daley and His Era, by Len O'Connor [review by Milton Rakove];
With Malice Toward None: The Life of Abraham Lincoln, by Stephen B. Oates [review by Robert W. Johannsen];
Harriet Monroe: To Have Great Poets..., a Robert Orr Film written by Vincent Kling and Robert W. Orr [review by May Pietz];
The Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted Volume 1: The Formative Years 1822 to 1852, edited by Charles C. McLaughlin and Charles E. Beveridge [review by Peter Schmitt];
The Irish Diaspora in America, by Lawrence J. McCaffrey [review by Ellen Skerrett]
The Society: The Changing Face of Chicago History, by Harold K. Skramstad, Jr.
Volume 6, number 3
(fall 1977)
Historians at the Drawing Board--Organizing Chicago:
Creating New Traditions, by Gail Farr
Casterline
The quest for exhibit materials was like a treasure hunt, leading me into attics, basements, garages, antique stores, corporate headquarters, and into some of America's most distinguished repositories.
George S. Bowen and the American Dream, by Hugh S. De Santis
"The time is opportune... we want them all to come to the World's Fair in 1892. Let us make them our friends and customers by being their friends and allies."
--From the George S. Bowen Papers, CHS
"Will Chicago's Itinerant City Hall be Moved Once More?," by Glen E. Holt
The Chicago Sunday Tribune asked this troubling question on October 2, 1898. It was a question that had been asked before and would be asked again more than once in the years ahead.
Crisis and Community: The Back of the Yards 1921, by Dominic A. Pacyga
"We will win if the men stick. Things are looking better than they ever did."
--Union leader Dennis Lane
"There is no matter of dispute between the management and employees."
--Spokesman for Armour and Company
George Ferris' Wheel the Great Attraction of the Midway Plaisance, by Sisley Barnes
"Up, up, high, higher, highest, and we were two hundred and seventy-five feet in mid-air. Before us were the waters of Lake Michigan.... Fronting (us) were the countless marble-like buildings, and floating from domes and towers were ensigns of every country...."
--Mrs. Mark Stevens, Six Months at the World's Fair
Fifty Years Ago
As recorded by newspapers in the collection of the Chicago Historical Society
Reviews:
The Roads They Made: Women in Illinois History, by Adade Mitchell Wheeler with Marlene Stein Wortman [review by Susan Dye Lee];
Madonna Center: Pioneer Catholic Social Settlement, by Mary Agnes Amberg [review by Kathleen D. McCarthy];
The Idea of the University of Chicago: Selections from the Papers of the First Eight Chief Executives of the University of Chicago from 1891 to 1975, edited by D.J.R. Bruckner and William Michael Murphy [review by Thomas J. Schlereth];
Dreams in Stone, edited by D.J.R. Bruckner and Irene Macauley [review by Larry A. Viskochil];
The People of Chicago: Census Data on Foreign Born, Foreign Stock and Race 1837-1970, City of Chicago, Department of Development and Planning, 1976 [review by Paul W. Petraitis];
Chicago Surface Lines: An Illustrated History, by Alan R. Lind [review by Paul Barrett];
Done in a Day, edited by Dick Griffin and Rob Warden [review by Clifford Buzard];
Everywhere West: The Burlington Route, by Patrick C. Dorin [review by Perry R. Duis];
Antique Collecting in
the Midwest, by Sara Simonsgaard with Marguerite Bookstein [review by Sharon S. Darling]
Society Notes: Recent Accessions, Program Activities, Be Sure to Visit
Volume 6, number 2
(summer 1977)
"Where Is Athens Now?" The Fine Arts Building 1898 to 1918, by Perry R. Duis
"We have selected this building for illustration as a very good type of the best modern American business premises. . . . Here is a street frontage in which the maximum of light has been obtained with breadth of surface and dignified simplicity. We think it eminently satisfactory."
-From a review in The British Architect
Arts and Crafts Shops in the Fine Arts Building, by Sharon S. Darling
Renting space to dozens of small shops, studios, and galleries, the Fine Arts Building was a veritable Mecca for buyers and sellers of artistic merchandise for close to two decades.
Graceland: The Nineteenth-Century Garden Cemetery, by John Vinci
"The cemetery has become a garden, where Grace, Beauty, and Light render the less somber the solemn associations of the tomb. We lay the bodies of the beloved dead in the bosom of our mother Earth, and they become a part of her substance. They return to dust; and from thence spring, flower and leaf and waving grass."
Chicago's Magnificent Movie Palaces, by George D. Bushnell
For a small handful of change, Chicagoans could once watch a movie or a stage show in Lawndale, Uptown, or South Shore in surroundings suitable to an Arabian caliph or French Louis. Some of the opulent film palaces have remained, but most have been claimed by the wrecker's ball or renovation.
Opium Addiction in Chicago: "The Noblest and the Best Brought Low," by Dick Griffin
More drug addicts roamed the streets of Chicago during the late 1800s and early 1900s than at any time in the city's history. Unfortunately, many of them had acquired the habit either legally or innocently.
Fifty Years Ago
As recorded by newspapers in the collection of the Chicago Historical Society
Book Reviews::
Four on Crime, by
Jack McPhaul, reviewer:
The Crime Society: Organized Crime and Corruption in America, edited by Francis A. J. Ianni and Elizabeth Reuss-Ianni;
Mafioso: A history of the Mafia from Its Origins to the Present Day, by Gaia Servadio;
The Business of Crime: Italians and syndicate Crime in the United States, by Humbert S. Nelli;
The Don: The Life and Death of Sam Giancana, by William Brashler.
Brief Reports:
Northwestern University: A History 1880-1975, by Harold F. Williamson and Payson S. Wild [review by Merle Curti];
Wheat Flour Messiah: Eric Jansson of Bishop Hill, by Paul Elmen [review by Lawrence Foster];
Harriet Monroe and the Poetry Renaissance: The First Ten Years of Poetry, 1912-22, by Ellen Williams [review by Gail Farr Casterline];
Talking to Myself: A Memoir of My Times, by Studs Terkel [review by Victor Margolin];
W. W. Denslow, by
Douglas G. Greene and Michael Patrick Hearn [review by Julia Westerberg]
Society Notes: Exhibitions, Program Activities, New Publication, Recent Accessions
Volume 6, number 1
(spring 1977)
The Short, Unhappy Life of the Illinois Progressive Party, by Michael P. McCarthy
The Illinois Progressive Party expired shortly after its fourth birthday after few electoral successes. Many of its members, however, went on to serve in prominent government positions during the next thirty years.
Steamships After 1871, by A. A. Dornfeld
Steamships--particularly freighters--ruled the Great Lakes by the late nineteenth century. Their metal hulls, improved engines, and new deck designs turned the schooner into a recreation ship.
A Temple to Women's Genius: The Woman's Building of 1893, by Jeanne Madeline Weimann
The world, in a sense, discovered woman at the World's Columbian Exposition. The Woman's Building and the exhibits from more than thirty countries were a reality only because of the perseverance and hard work of the "ladies."
Mollie Netcher Newbury: The Merchant Princess, by Margret Corwin
The Boston Store, once one of the Loop's busiest department stores, was run for nearly half a century by the legendary Mollie Netcher Newbury. She went directly from managing her household to administering the multimillion-dollar business.
The Sweet, Sweet Scent of Soap, by Lester A. Weinrott
Trade cards, premiums, outlandish claims--even poetry--were used by early soap manufacturers to promote their products. If the soap didn't sell, there was always chewing gum.
Fifty Years Ago
As recorded by newspapers in the collection of the Chicago Historical Society
Book Reviews::
The American
Revolution Bicentennial and the Writing of Midwestern Community History, by
Kirk Jeffrey, reviewer:
Wilmette: A History, by George D. Bushnell;
How it All Began, by Joe Meads;
Reflections of St. Charles: A History from 1833-1976, by Ruth Seen Pearson;
A History of Plainfield: Then and Now, Plainfield Bicentennial Commission, 1976;
A History of the City of Cairo, Illinois, by John M. Lansden.
Brief Reports:
Culture & the City: Cultural Philanthropy in Chicago from the 1880s to 1917, by Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz [review by Perry Duis];
The Prairie State: A Documentary, edited by Robert P. Sutton [review by Grant T. Dean];
The Education of an Urban Minority: Catholics in Chicago, 1833-1965, by James W. Sanders [review by Ellen Skerrett];
Lucy Parsons: American Revolutionary, by Carolyn Ashbough, and
Haymarket Revisited, by William J. Adelman [reviews by Patrick M. Quinn];
George Rogers Clark and the War in the West, by Lowell H. Harrison [review by Miriam A. Blazowski];
City Families: Chicago and London, by Roslyn Banish [review by Larry A. Viskochil];
Ships of the Great Lakes: A Pictorial History, paintings by Karl Kuttruff, Introduction by Robert E. Lee, captions by David T. Glick [review by A. A. Dornfeld]
Society Notes: New Exhibitions, Recent Accessions
Letters:
Midwest Rivals, by Edith Freund
Army-Navy Game, by Milton Fairman
Captain Streeter, by Guy A. Hoch
An Old Friend, by Jack Crawford
Volume 5, number 4
(winter 1976-1977)
The Twenty-Eighth International Eucharistic Congress, by Milton Fairman
Chicago was the center of world Catholicism during the summer of 1926, when hundreds of thousands gathered for the International Eucharistic Congress. But sometimes the pomp, the pageantry, and the cult of personality seemed to overshadow the religious aspects of a spectacular week of worship.
Big Jim O'Leary: "Gambler Boss iv th' Yards," by Richard T. Griffin
Big Jim O'Leary, the "Gambler Boss iv th' Yards," once lost a bet when he said a man wouldn't hang in a state outlawing capital punishment, but he won a lot of others--maybe. The only thing that seemed to bother him was the story about his mother's cow.
Chicago's Early Fight to "Save Our Lake," by Frank J. Piehl
Chicagoans drew their pure water from Lake Michigan and dumped their garbage into the Chicago River. But the polluted river flowed right into the lake and poisoned the water, and cholera became rampant. The solution? "The Seventh Wonder of America."
The Lost City of the Depression, by Cathy and Richard Cahan
During the Great Depression, when A Century of Progress was being built, the roof of a building sometimes had to wait until the money for it came in. How the fair opened without the aid of public funds was almost as spectacular as the exhibits.
Chicago's City Series: Cubs Versus White Sox, by Arthur R. Ahrens
The 1906 World Series wasn't the only time the Cubs and White Sox met in post-season championship competition. After the first of Chicago's City Series, either the Cubs or the Sox emerged with a title--no matter how dismal their performance during the regular season.
Fifty Years Ago
As recorded by newspapers in the collection of the Chicago Historical Society
Book Reviews::
Yesterday's Chicago, by Herman Kogan and Rick Kogan [review by Victor Margolin];
Introductory Guide to Midwest Antiques, by Marlene Semple [review by Anita Gold];
Vic and Sade: The Best Plays of Paul Rhymer, edited by Mary Frances Rhymer [review by Lester A. Weinrott];
Children of Circumstance: A History of the First 125 Years (1849-1974) of Chicago Child Care Society, by Clare L. McCausland [review by Kathleen D. McCarthy];
Jewish Grandmothers, by Sydelle Kramer and Jenny Masur [review by Isabel S. Grossner];
The Germans of Chicago, by Rudolph A. Hofmeister [review by Virginia Neal Hinze];
A Checklist of l9th Century Illinois Gunsmiths: An Introduction to Illinois Gunsmithing, by Curtis L. Johnson [review by Herbert G. Houze];
Cooking Plain, by Helen Walker Linsenmeyer [review by I. S. G.];
School Politics, Chicago Style, by Paul E. Peterson [review by Frederick J. Nachman];
Illinois Country Canoe Trails: Des Plaines River, Illinois Country Outdoor Guides, 1976, and
Illinois Country Canoe Trails: Du Page River, Kankakee River, Aux Sable Creek, Des Plaines River, Illinois Country Outdoor Guides, 1975 [reviews by Victor Margolin];
Mobil Travel Guide, Great Lakes Area: Illinois, Indiana Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Rand McNally, 1976 [review by Grant T. Dean]
Society Notes: New Exhibitions, Program Activities, New Publication, Recent Accessions
Letters: A Suggestion, The City News Bureau, Harriet Monroe
Volume 5, Number 3
(fall 1976)
Bessie Louise Pierce: Symbol and Scholar, by Perry Duis
Contrary to myth, Bessie Louise Pierce, Chicago's foremost historian, was not one of the first women academicians or even the first woman professor at the University of Chicago.
Chicago's Midwest Rivals: Cincinnati, St. Louis, and Milwaukee, by Lawrence H. Larsen
Cincinnati had the Ohio River and St. Louis the Mississippi. Chicago didn't even have a harbor, yet it won the battle for economic domination of the Midwest.
Captain Streeter's District of Lake Michigan, by K. C. Tessendorf
When Captain Streeter's boat ran aground in Lake Michigan, he stayed put, arranged for the shoreline to surround him, and declared a separate republic. Now one of Chicago's poshest neighborhoods, it was for decades the scene of pitched battles.
In a Perfect Ferment: Chicago, the Know-Nothings, and the Riot for Lager Beer, by Richard Wilson Renner
Chicago's Know-Nothings, crusaders against popery, joined with temperance forces to sweep the municipal elections of 1855. When the chips were down, they had to rely on the Irish Catholics to save them from the respectable but lager-loving Germans.
Book Reviews::
More on the Work of
Frank Lloyd Wright, by John Vinci, reviewer:
Studies and Executed Buildings of Frank Lloyd Wright, Prairie School Press, 1975;
Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio, Oak Park, Illinois, by Donald G. Kalec and Thomas A. Heinz
Brief Reports:
Chicago's White City of 1893, by David F. Burg [review by Ira J. Bach];
Voices from the Great Black Baseball Leagues, by John Holway [review by Archie J. Motley];
Strategies for Change: How to Make the American Political Dream Work, by Dick Simpson and George Beam [review by Laurence Hall];
Field Days: The Life, Times, & Reputation of Eugene Field, by Robert Conrow [review by Isabel S. Grossner];
Just Mahalia, Baby, by Laurraine Goreau [review by Era Bell Thompson];
The Heartland: Pages from Illinois History, Ed. Robert M. Sutton [review by Sarajane Wells];
Laura: The Life of Laura Ingalls Wilder, by Donald Zochert [review by Bonnie Jolls]
Fifty Years Ago
As recorded by newspapers in the collection of the Chicago Historical Society
Letters: Saloons, South Shore Country Club, Aviation
Chicago Historical Society Annual Report 1975-76
Volume 5, number 2
(summer 1976)
Chicago's Exclusive Playground: The South Shore Country Club, by Aubrey O. Cookman
A privileged way of life disappeared when the South Shore Country Club closed its doors in 1974, leaving behind memories of stately elegance and plush country living on Chicago's South Side.
The City News Bureau, by A. A. Dornfeld
Now read all about it--Chicago's City News Bureau, fondly remembered by its employees as both a sweatshop and super-school, and certainly as a training ground for talent.
William Perkins Black: Haymarket Lawyer, by Herman Kogan
Long before the American Civil Liberties Union was formed, there were lawyers capable of sacrificing a lucrative career to defend an unpopular cause. You know of Clarence Darrow--now we give you William Perkins Black, attorney for the Haymarket anarchists.
Chicago's Bicentennial Photographer: Charles D. Mosher, by Larry A. Viskochil
C. D. Mosher promoted his city and himself without fear of a conflict of interests and left us with a marvelous hundred-year-old gallery of photographs of prominent Chicagoans.
Mr. Wrigley's Cubs, by Paul M. Angle
Don't think he's not interested--Philip K. Wrigley, an executive who has tried everything but night baseball-- is still in there pitching.
Fifty Years Ago
As recorded by newspapers in the collection of the Chicago Historical Society
Book Reviews::
Adlai E. Stevenson,
by Robert E, Kennedy, reviewer:
Adlai Stevenson of Illinois, by John Bartlow Martin;
The Papers of Adlai E. Stevenson: Toward a New America, 1955-1957, Volume VI, ed. Walter Johnson.
Brief Reports:
Big Mac: The Unauthorized Story of McDonald's, by Max Boas and Steve Chain [review by Isabel S. Grossner];
Settlement Houses and the Great Depression, by Judith Trolander [review by Perry Duis];
Letters from the Promised Land: Swedes in America, 1840-1914, edited by H. Arnold Barton [review by Paul Elmen];
City Dogs, by William Brashler [review by Anthony R. Grosch];
The Torture Doctor, by David Franke [review by Neal J. Ney];
Psychic City: Chicago, Doorway to Another Dimension, by Brad Steiger [review by Paul W. Petraitis];
The Long Thirst: Prohibition in America, 1920-1933, by Thomas M. Coffey [review by I. S. G.];
The Illinois and Indiana Indians, by Hiram W. Beckwith [review by James A. Clifton]
Society Notes: New Exhibitions, Program Activities, New Publication, Recent Accessions
Letters: Stone, Kimball, and The Chap-book; Golf; Oops!
Volume 5, number 1
(spring 1976)
Henry Whitehead, Circuit Rider, by Louise Christopher
State and Madison was just a swamp, a church could be floated across the Chicago River, settlers and Indians lived in an uneasy truce, and missionaries rode horseback over the prairie--in the time of carpenter, storekeeper, and preacher Henry Whitehead.
The International Aviation Meet, 1911, by George D. Bushnell
Did an airplane ever touch its wheels to the top of your car while you were driving down Michigan Avenue? Then you probably weren't around for the International Aviation Meet in 1911.
The World War II Battles of Montgomery Ward, by Frank M. Kleile
There was a war on the home front right here in Chicago in 1944, waged by a crusty old businessman--Sewell Avery of Montgomery Ward.
Chicago's Pier, by Bernard R. Kogan
Navy Pier may have a bright new future ahead but, as you will see, it will be hard to come up with any really new ideas for it.
How the Cubs Got Their Name, by Arthur R. Ahrens
We have been asked more than once how the Cubs got their name. Well, here is the answer--along with an explanation of how they got their other fifteen.
Bishop Hill: Utopia on the Prairie
Perfection, the residents of the utopian colony of Bishop Hill found out, was no easier to achieve in Illinois than it was in Sweden.
Fifty Years Ago
As recorded by newspapers in the collection of the Chicago Historical Society
Book Reviews:
Four Historical Views
of Chicago Architecture, by Richard E. Twiss, reviewer:
Architecture in Old Chicago, by Thomas Eddy Tallmadge;
Old Chicago Houses, by John Drury;
Chicago, the Rising City, by Thomas Knudtson;
Lost Chicago, by David Lowe
Brief Reports:
Don't Make No Waves -- Don't Back No Losers, by Milton L. Rakove [review by Archie J. Motley];
Carthage Conspiracy: The Trial of the Accused Assassins of Joseph Smith, by Dallin H. Oaks and Marvin S. Hill [review by Paul Elmen];
The Bulls and Chicago: A Stormy Affair, by Bob Logan [review by Frederick J. Nachman];
Superjock, by Larry Lujack with Daniel A. Jollicka [review by Nat Silverman];
Edgar Rice Burroughs: The Man Who Created Tarzan, by Irwin Porges [review by Francis J. Walsh];
Blues, by Robert Neff and Anthony Connor [review by Ralph Metcalfe, Jr.];
Polish American Politics in Chicago 1888-1940, by Edward R. Kantowicz [review by John Corrigan];
For God and Country: The Rise of Polish and Lithuanian Ethnic Consciousness in America, 1860-1910, by Victor Green [review by J. C.];
The American Poster Renaissance, by Victor Margolin [review by Julia Westerberg];
Potawatomi Indian Summer, by E. William Oldenburg [review by Edith Freund]
Letters: Who Out There is Reading our Reviews?
Society Notes: New Exhibitions, Program Activities
Volume 4, number 4
(winter 1975-1976)
Harriet Monroe and Poetry Magazine, by Ellen Williams
Art critic, writer, poet, world traveler, and mountain climber--but best known as an editor--Chicago's Harriet Monroe was quite a gal.
The Saloon in a Changing Chicago, by Perry Duis
For some, the old-time saloon was a gathering place, a home away from home, or a place to bring the family; for others, just a place to stop for a quick bracer; for still others, a den of vice. It was all of these things, and a free lunch to boot.
Jens Jensen and Columbus Park, by Malcolm Collier
The rise from street sweeper to superintendent of the West Parks was anything but smooth for this genius of a park designer because, although he fell in love with the prairie, he wouldn't go along with graft.
Chicago's Civilized World of Wild Animals, by Al Griffin
Do you feel more comfortable around wild animals if you are in the cage--or do you prefer to see them there? Chicagoans have their choice.
Golfing in and around Chicago, by Herbert Warren Wind
In its early days, Chicago golf was the story of one man--Charles Blair Macdonald. But he established the first 18-hole course in the country and won the first U. S. Amateur Championship. And did you know how the Village of Golf got its name?
Fifty Years Ago
As recorded by newspapers in the collection of the Chicago Historical Society
Book Reviews::
Yesterday's Communes,
by Paul Elmen, reviewer:
Amish in Illinois, by Clyde Browning;
Nauvoo: The City of Joseph, by David E. and Della S. Miller;
Sex and Marriage in Utopian Communities, by Raymond Lee Muncy;
Bishop Hill Colony: A Religious Communistic Settlement in Henry County, Illinois, by Michael Mikkelsen;
Eric Janson and the Bishop Hill Colony, by Sivert Erdahl;
Bishop Hill, Ill.: A Utopia on the Prairie, by Olov Isaksson and Soren Hallgren;
Chautauqua; A Center for Education, Religion, and the Arts in America, by Theodore Morrison;
An Icarian Communist in Nauvoo; Commentary by Emile Vallet, ed. H. Roger Grant.
Crime in Chicago, by
Isabel S. Grossner, reviewer:
The Legacy of Al Capone, by George Murray;
The Crime of the Century, by Hal Higdon;
The Death of the Detective, by Mark Smith.
Brief Reports:
Edgar Lee Masters: The Spoon River Poet and His Critics, by John T. Flanagan [review by Anthony R. Grosch];
The Middle Western Farm Novel in the Twentieth Century, by Roy W. Meyer [review by A. R. G.];
Political Animals: Memoirs of a Sentimental Cynic, by Walter Trohan [review by Frederick J. Nachman];
Illinois Handcrafts Directory, compiled by Joyce Sprague [review by Nancy Lace];
Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?, by John R. Powers [review by I. S. G.];
Philip K. Wrigley, by Paul M. Angle [review by I. S. G.];
Indians before Columbus, by Paul S. Martin, George I. Quimby, and Donald Collier, and
American Indian Almanac, by John Upton Terrill [reviews by Paul W. Petraitis];
Symbolic Communities: The Persistence and Change of Chicago's Local Communities, by Albert Hunter [review by Paul Friesema]
Letters: Amusement Parks, Oops!, I & M Canal
Volume 4, number 3
(fall 1975)
Our Forgotten Streetcar Tunnels, by Frank J. Piehl
When the subway plunges underground, have you ever wanted to sit near the motorman? It was a greater thrill--a half-century ago--when that subway was a mere streetcar.
Burnham & Root's Stockyards Connection, by Louise Carroll Wade
Marrying the client's daughter is a time-honored way to start at the top, but seldom does it leave a city with a heritage of landmark architecture.
Steamships: A Hundred Years Ago, by A. A. Dornfeld
Chicago's first great population explosion occurred immediately after its incorporation as a town. If you think that all those people got here by covered wagon, read on.
Greek Revival Architecture in Chicago, by David Lowe
Before the Great Fire of l871, was Chicago just a muddle of wooden buildings waiting to go up in flames? No, sir. It was "stunning in its architectural purity."
When Chicago was Wheel Crazy, by George D. Bushnell
Automobiles, buses, and trucks own our roads, and before them there was the horse. But in-between--during the short golden age of cycling--the scorcher reigned supreme.
Fifty Years Ago
As recorded by newspapers in the collection of the Chicago Historical Society
Book Reviews::
Four Chicago
Architects, by John Vinci, reviewer:
Mies van der Rohe at Work, by Peter Carter;
Daniel H. Burnham: Architect, Planner of Cities, by Charles Moore;
Burnham of Chicago: Architect and Planner, by Thomas S. Hines;
The Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright, by William Allen Storrer;
In the Cause of Architecture: Frank Lloyd Wright, ed. by Frederick Gutheim;
H. H. Richardson and His Office: Selected Drawings, by James F. O'Gorman
Chicago Historical Society Annual Report 1974-75
Volume 4, number 2
(summer 1975)
Social Issues in Early Chicago Novels, by Anthony R. Grosch
It's "a city of colossal vices and virtues," as Chicago's novelists discovered way back in 1895.
Play that Player Piano, by Lester A. Weinrott
Would you like to hear "Hearts and Flowers?" Or "The Stars and Stripes Forever?" No? How about music from The Sting? Just put another roll on the player piano, or another nickel in the slot.
Stone, Kimball and The Chap-Book, by Henry Regnery
When these young men from Harvard arrived in Chicago in 1894, literary publishing in the Midwest began to hum.
Social History Through the Mirror of Fashion, by Elizabeth Jachimowicz
Last year, the Chicago Historical Society mounted an exhibition entitled Chicagoans in Paris, which showed costumes acquired by Chicago women from French couturiers. It is not only the fabrics and workmanship of the outfits which fascinate, but also the extent to which a hundred years of changing styles reflect underlying social change.
Sculpture at the Columbian Exposition, by James L. Riedy
The aesthetic accomplishments of the World's Columbian Exposition are widely acknowledged, but let's take a closer look.
Television Town, by Joel Sternberg
When Chicago was Television Town, commercial programs were creative and not just more of the same. Anything could--and did-- happen, and it happened "live."
Fifty Years Ago
As recorded by newspapers in the collection of the Chicago Historical Society
Book Reviews::
Personalizing
Chicago's History, by Laurence Hall, reviewer:
Clout: Mayor Daley and His City, by Len O'Connor;
Chicago: A One-Party State, by Peter R. Knauss;
Up Against Daley: The new Politics in Illinois, by Joe Mathewson;
No Loaves, No Parables: Liberal Politics and the American Language, by Clifford Adelman.
Books for Regional
and Local Travelers, by Grant T. Dean, reviewer:
Land of the Inland Seas: The Historic and Beautiful Great Lakes Country, by William Donohue Ellis;
Fodor's Mid-West: Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Minnesota, Michigan, Iowa, eds. Eugene Fodor, Stephen Birnbaum, and Robert Fisher;
Doing the Dunes, by Jean Komaiko and Norma Schaeffer;
Illinois: A Descriptive and Historical Guide, New rev. ed., ed. Harry Hansen;
Land between the Rivers: The Southern Illinois Country, by William Horrell, Henry Dan Piper, and John W. Voight;
Growing Up in Goose Lake, by William S. Miller;
Evanston Architecture, Evanston Planning Department, 1974;
Chicago Landmark Structures: An Inventory, Loop Area, Landmarks Preservation Council and Service, 1974.
Brief Reports:
Season with Solti: A Year in the Life of the Chicago Symphony, by William Barry Furlong, and
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, by Thomas Willis [reviews by Polly Hutchins];
The Town of Pullman, Rev. ed., by Mrs. Duane Doty, and
A Summary of Information on the South Pullman District, Commission on Chicago Historic and Architectural Landmarks, 1972 [reviews by Mary Dawson];
Strange Adventures of the Great Lakes, by Dwight Boyer [review by A. A. Dornfeld];
Chicago's Spanish-Speaking Population: Selected Statistics, Department of Development and Planning, City of Chicago, 1973 [review by Louise A. Kerr];
In the City of Men: Another Story of Chicago, by Kenny J. Williams [review by Frederick J. Nachman];
Treasures of America and Where to Find Them, by the editors of the Reader's Digest [review by Grant T. Dean];
A Self Guided Loop Hiking Trail to the Chicago Portage National Historic Site, Illinois Country Hiking Guide, by Philip E. Vierling,
Illinois Country Canoe Trails, Illinois Country Outdoor Guides, by Philip E. Vierling, and
Starved Rock Trails: A Hiker's Guide to the Trails, Geology, and Botany of Starved Rock, Illinois Country Outdoor Guides, by Philip E. Vierling [reviews by Neal J. Ney]
Volume 4, number 1
(spring 1975)
George Rogers Clark: Illinois and the American Revolution, by Paul M. Angle
With the Bicentennial of the American Revolution fast approaching, Illinoisans would do well to recall the one tie that their state has to the War for Independence--the conquest of the Illinois Country by the redoubtable Virginian, George Rogers Clark.
The Ups and Downs of Riverview Park, by Al Griffin
For over sixty years, this great world leader in the amusement industry thrilled as many as two million patrons a year, through good times and bad.
The Freight Tunnel Under Chicago, by A. A. Dornfeld
Would you like to see all those trucks off the streets and under the ground? Well, that's where they once were.
The Mystery Occupant's Eyewitness Account of the Death of
Abraham Lincoln, with a note by Ralph G.
Newman
Mary Livermore and the Great Northwestern Fair, by J. Christopher Schnell
She couldn't sign a contract, but she could and did lead the Midwest's effort to aid the Union army.
Pullman: A Town Reborn, by Ira J. Bach
After ninety years and many vicissitudes, part of George Pullman's town comes into its own.
Fifty Years Ago
As recorded by newspapers in the collection of the Chicago Historical Society
Book Reviews::
Who Out There Is Reading Our Reviews?, by Isabel S. Grossner;
The American Working
Class, by William C. McCready, reviewer:
The Working Class Majority, by Andrew Levison;
Blue Collar Community, by William Kornblum;
False Promises: The Shaping of American Working Class Consciousness, by Stanley Aronowitz;
The Deadly Simple Mechanics of Society, by John Helmer;
Radicals in Urban Politics: The Alinsky Approach, by Robert Bailey, Jr.
Brief Reports:
Art, Crafts, and Architecture in Early Illinois, by Betty I. Madden [review by John Vinci];
No Cheering in the Press Box, recorded and ed. by Jerome Holtzman [review by Frederick J. Nachman];
"Step Right Up, Folks!," by Al Griffin [review by I. S. G.];
Henry B. Fuller of Chicago, by Bernard R. Bowron, Jr. [review by F. J. N.];
To Life, by Elmer Gertz [review by Ellen Skerrett];
Museums of Illinois, by Mary Jo Whittaker [review by Sarajane Wells];
Ships of the Great Lakes: 300 Years of Navigation, by James P. Barry [review by A. A. Dornfeld]
Volume 3, number 3
(winter 1974-1975)
Myra Bradwell: Crusader at Law, by Herman Kogan
Her "disability"--that she was a woman--kept her from the practice of law, yet she spent her life upgrading the legal profession in Illinois.
Why Save the Indiana Dunes?, by W. J. Beecher
A natural wonder and the birthplace of North-American ecology, the Indiana Dunes have been saved from the outreach of "civilization" only by tenacious, determined, and well-organized conservationists.
In Chicago: Cruelty and Kindness to Animals, by Gerald Carson
The stockyards are gone and the horses have almost disappeared, but the crusade for "rights for animals" lives on, engaged in righting wrongs undreamed of in the 19th century.
Dear Valentine, by Lester A. Weinrott
As an occasion for sentiment, an opportunity to make an impression by splurging, or a chance to mail an unsigned brickbat, St. Valentine's Day has grown into big business.
Early Days on the Illinois & Michigan Canal, by John M. Lamb
It took twelve years to build the Illinois & Michigan Canal, and that was only the beginning of its troubles.
The Iroquois Theatre Fire, by Ruth Thompson McGibeny
Fifty Years Ago
As recorded by newspapers in the collection of the Chicago Historical Society
Book Reviews::
Buildings and People,
by Thomas Philpott, reviewer:
Chicago, 1930-1970: Building, Planning and Urban Technology, by Carl W. Condit;
Architecture of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, 1963-1973, with commentaries by Axel Menges;
Black Power / White Control: The Struggle of The Woodlawn Organization in Chicago, by John Hall Fish;
Cities Destroyed for Cash: The FHA Scandal at HUD, by Brain D. Boyer;
Opening Up the Suburbs: An Urban Strategy for America, by Anthony Downs.
Where It's At:
Chicago Guidebooks, by Laura Green, reviewer:
The Chicago GuideBook, 2nd ed., by the editors of Chicago Guide;
Instant Chicago: How to Cope, by Jory Graham;
Leisureguide / Chicago, Leisureguides, Ind., 1973;
Where To Go and What To Do with the Kids in Chicago, by Andrea Baron and Dyann Rivkin;
Serendiptiy City, 3rd ed., ed. Morry Roth;
Chicago Women's Directory / Guia para las Mujeres de Chicago, by the Inforwomen Collective;
Chicago on Foot, 2nd ed., by Ira J. Bach and J. Philip O'Hara
Brief Reports, by the staff:
The Pullman Strike, by Rev. William H. Carwardine, New edition, Introduction by Virgil J. Vogel;
Folk Songs and Singing Games of the Illinois Ozarks, by David S. McIntosh;
Farm Boy, by Archie Lieberman;
Chicago Public Works: A History, edited by Daphne Christensen;
Chicago: A Chronological and Documentary History, 1784-1970, compiled and edited by Howard B. Furer;
The Fate of the Lakes, by James P. Barry;
Public Defender, by Gerald Getty and James Presley
Volume 3, number 2
(fall 1974)
The Scourge of Sinners: Arthur Burrage Farwell, by John Clayton
Crusading in good causes is no easy job. It requires boundless energy, complete dedication, deep religious conviction and, above all, the unflagging belief that one can and must win out over sin.
Chicago's Miraculous Patent Medicines, by George D. Bushnell
Consumption, malaria, catarrh, "women's troubles," or whatever--you could cure them all with a patent medicine--and, if you became an alcoholic in the process, your family could always slip the White Star Secret Liquor Cure into your food.
The Chicago Historical Society's Lincoln Dioramas, by Ed Eulenberg
Chicago's Ethnics and the Politics of Accommodation, by John D. Buenker
And now, let's hear it for the ethnics--the immigrant laborers who built Chicago into a great city, who often wanted a beer on Sunday, who often were not ashamed of their Old World ways and speech--for their children who occasionally made good in politics, and for the ward bosses who understood how to trade a favor for a vote.
A Literary Editor Reminisces: Henry Blackman Sell, by Virginia Gardner
Newspaper publishers still worry about how to make Book Reviews: pay, but in 1916 a brash young man, a preacher's son, showed the country that it could be done.
The "Viking" in Lincoln Pak, by A. A. Dornfeld
Reproductions of the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria were all on hand when the Viking hove into view for the Columbian Exposition, but the slim Viking made it the hard way--via the North Atlantic passage.
Fifty Years Ago
As recorded by newspapers in the collection of the Chicago Historical Society
Book Reviews::
Studs Terkel and Oral History, by Louis M. Starr, reviewer:
Books by Studs Terkel:
Division Street: America,
Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression in America, and
Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They feel About What They Do
Brief Reports, by the staff
FLO: A Biography of Frederick Law Olmsted, by Laura Wood Roper;
Urban Liberalism and Progressive Reform, by John D. Buenker;
The Seven Stairs, 2d edition, by Stuart Brent;
The First Century: The Chicago Bar Association 1874-1974, by Herman Kogan;
Hiking Trails in the Midwest, by Jerry Sullivan and Glenda Daniel;
The Ebony Handbook, by the Editors of Ebony;
The Illinois Law Courts in Three Centuries, by George Fiedler
Volume 3, number 1
(spring-summer 1974)
The Blues, Chicago Style, by Ralph Metcalfe, Jr.
Anywhere in the world you hear a Chicago bluesman play, it's a Chicago sound, born and bred.
Chicago Radio: The Glory Days, by Lester A. Weinrott
Comedy, melodrama, plays, dance orchestras, and variety shows--all were broadcast "live from Chicago" in the Glory Days of radio.
The Chicago Stock Exchange Building, by John Vinci
In the three years since the Chicago Stock Exchange Building shuddered under the wrecking ball, we have been made increasingly aware of what was lost. Only fragments and photographs remain.
The Explosion of a Dormant Art Form: Chicago's Murals, by Roger Eric Hoyt
One could view Chicago's murals as a series of beautifications projects, but there's more to them than meets the eye.
The Anna Pottery, by James K. Felts, Sr.
For almost forty years, in the small city of Anna, Illinois, there worked two master potters who rivaled Palissy.
Chicago: Center of the Silent Film Industry, by Charles A. Jahant
There was a time when Chicago was Hollywood--and the Wild West as well.
Fifty Years Ago
As recorded by newspapers in the collection of the Chicago Historical Society
Book Reviews::
Interesting Women, by
Mary Lynn McCree, reviewer:
Mother Jones, The Miners' Angel, by Dale Fetherling;
The Autobiography of Mother Jones, by Mary Harris Jones;
Jane Addams and the Liberal Tradition, by Daniel Levine;
American Heroine: The Life and Legend of Jane Addams, by Allen F. Davis;
Movers and Shakers, by June Sochen.
New Looks at
Chicago's Architecture, by Nory Miller, reviewer:
Chicago, 1910-1929: Building, Planning and Urban Technology, by Carl W. Condit;
The Architecture of John Wellborn Root, by Donald Hoffman;
Frank Lloyd Wright: An Interpretive Biography, by Robert C. Twombly;
American Architecture Comes of Age, by Leonard K. Eaton;
Chicago on Foot, by Ira J. Bach and J. Philip O'Hara;
Space Adrift: Landmark Preservation and the Marketplace, by John J. Costonis
Brief Reports, by the staff:
Chicago: 1860-1919, by Stephen Longstreet;
Chicago Negro Almanac and Reference Book, compiled and edited by Ernest R. Rather;
An American Verdict, by Michael J. Arlen;
Horace White: Nineteenth Century Liberal, by Joseph Logsdon;
"That Disgraceful Affair," the Black Hawk War, by Cecil Eby;
Eagle Forgotten, by Harry Barnard;
Vice Squad, by Robert H. Williams;
Chicago and North Western Power: Modern Steam and Diesel, 1900 to 1971, by Patrick C. Dorin;
Dateline Chicago: A Veteran Newsman Recalls Its Heyday, by William T. Moore.
Volume 2, number 4
( fall-winter 1973)
Shall We Gather at the River, by Frank J. Piehl
Chicagoans take their bridges for granted, but there was a time when they were cursed by river men and pedestrians alike.
The World's Most Beautiful Ballrooms, by Nancy Banks
Those were the days--when the plain people of Chicago danced in palatial ballrooms to the music of the big bands.
I Remember Clarence Darrow, by Matilda Fenberg
The son of a suffragette, Clarence Darrow had a lifelong interest in intellectual women.
"Something More Than Packers," by Louise Carroll Wade
Chicago's meat packers were strong men who drove not only their cattle, but themselves, their sons, and their employees. In the process, they created a great industry.
Chicago's Rowdy Firefighters, by George D. Bushnell
A mushrooming tinderbox of wooden houses, stores, and lofts packed with flammable materials--this was Chicago in the mid- l830s, when its first volunteer firemen battled the clock and each other to reach a fire quickly and shoot water on the flames.
Fifty Years Ago
As recorded by newspapers in the collection of the Chicago Historical Society
Book Reviews::
The Work of Lerone
Bennett, Jr., by Rose Jourdain Hayes, reviewer:
Books by Lerone Bennett, Jr.:
Before the Mayflower, 4th edition;
The Negro Mood;
What Manner of Man: A Biography of Martin Luther King, Jr. 1929-1968, revised edition;
Confrontation: Black and White;
Black Power U.S.A.: The Human Side of Reconstruction, 1867-1877;
Pioneers in Protest;
The Challenge of Blackness.
More on the First
Americans, by Dee Brown, reviewer:
This Country Was Ours, by Virgil J. Vogel;
Crimsoned Prairie, by S. L. A. Marshall;
Sitting Bull: An Epic of the Plains, by Alexander B. Adams;
Portraits from North American Indian Life, by Edward S. Curtis;
The Mystic Warriors of the Plains, by Thomas E. Mails;
The Indians, by the editors of Time-Life Books
Brief Reports, by the staff
Stephen A. Douglas, by Robert W. Johannsen;
The Fortnightly of Chicago, by Muriel Beadle and the Centennial History Committee;
The Last Catholic in America: A Fictionalized Memoir, by John R. Powers;
Reunion: Twenty-five Years Out of School, by Robert Douglas Mead;
A Continuing Marvel: The Story of the Museum of Science and Industry, by Herman Kogan
Index of volume 2
Volume 2, number 3
(spring -summer1973)
A Reconsideration of the 1909 Plan of Chicago, by Ira J. Bach
Boulevards, monumental museums, and a scenic lakefront that would set a standard for the City Beautiful--such was Daniel Burnham's dream for Chicago.
A. Montgomery Ward's Mail-Order Business, by Daniel J. Boorstin
Small-town merchants railed against "monopolists and city swindlers," but Ward's customers trusted him enough to write for advice in handling personal problems--and even for help in finding wives.
The Mysterious Great Chain, by Isabel S. Grossner
The great links that lie on the ground outside the Chicago Historical Society are a challenge to every child who tries to lift them. They are also a challenge to historians.
Chicago's Age of Sail, by A. A. Dornfeld
Brigantines and barkentines, barques, schooners and brigs--all unloaded cargo at Chicago's ports.
The Lost Illinois Prairie, by W. J. Beecher
Thanks to the steel plow, a local invention, the Prairie State has lost its prairies. But a few precious parcels remain, to remind us of the splendors that were here before us.
Heinrich Schliemann's Chicago Journal, by Donald Zochert
The man who located ancient Troy was first of all a hardboiled businessman. When he visited Chicago, he observed everything, from window blinds to slaughterhouses.
Fifty Years Ago
As recorded by newspapers in the collection of the Chicago Historical Society
Book Reviews::
Mary Todd Lincoln: Her Life and Letters, by Justin G. Turner and Linda Levitt Turner [review by E. B. Long];
A Community in Search of Itself, by Herman R. Lantz [review by Digby B. Whitman];
Illinois, by Robert P. Howard [review by Donald J. Berthrong]
Brief Reports, by the staff
Jean duSable: Father of Chicago, by Lawrence Cortesi;
The Small House Halfway Up in the Next Block, ed. Mary Frances Rhymer;
Lost America: From the Atlantic to the Mississippi, by Constance M. Greiff;
Stop-Action, by Dick Butkus and Robert W. Billings;
The Papers of Adlai E. Stevenson, Volume l: Beginnings of Education, 1900-1941, eds. Walter Johnson and Carol Evans;
Crusade for Justice: The Autobiography of Ida B. Wells, ed. Alfreda M. Duster;
That Most Distressful Nation: The Taming of the American Irish, by Andrew M. Greeley;
Motion Will Be Denied: A New Report on the Chicago Conspiracy Trial, by John Schultz;
The Chicago Schools: A
Social and Political History, by Mary J. Herrick
Volume 2, number 2
(fall 1972)
The Passavant Cotillion--and Others, by Eleanor Page
Chicago's most important daughters "come out" at the Passavant Cotillion, but it met with serious opposition when it began. There are now more than a dozen group "coming outs" in Chicagoland, for girls of various races, religions, and cultures, and did you know that the Polish girls preceded them all? It's all in a good cause.
The Expulsion of Chicago's "Blond Boss" from the United States Senate, by Joel A. Tarr
Only once in its history has the Senate expelled a member after first exonerating him. That "dubious distinction" was earned by a Chicagoan.
The Candy Man's Mixed Bag, by Clement M. Silvestro
Charles F. Gunther, confectioner and collector extraordinaire, tried to buy Independence Hall and bring it to Chicago. He didn't succeed, but it was one of the few things the Chicago Historical Society did not find in his collection when his widow sold it.
A Lincoln Park Legend, by John Clayton
How many skeletons are buried in Lincoln Park? More than one.
American Indian Peace Medals, by Francis Paul Prucha
An instrument of American policy toward the Indians until the early 19th century, the ever-changing peace medal has become one of the numismatist's most prized items. Many were buried with the chiefs upon whom they were bestowed.
North Avenue Vignettes: Joe the Barber, by Paul M. Angle
Another in a series of short articles on the changing neighborhood of which the Chicago Historical Society is a part.
Fifty Years Ago
As recorded by newspapers in the collection of the Chicago Historical Society
Book Reviews::
A Lifetime in the
Writing, by Hoke Norris, reviewer:
Many Lives -- One Love, by Fanny Butcher
All About Chicago's
Swedes, by Vilas Johnson, reviewer:
Swedes in Chicago: A Demographic and Social Study of the 1846-1880 Immigration, by Ulf Beijborn
Forever Free?, by Richard M. Bennett, reviewer:
Forever Open, Clear and Free, by Lois Willie
Volume 2, number l
(spring 1972)
The Years of Splendor: Chicago's Music and Theater, by Claudia Cassidy
Chicago can now congratulate itself on having by common agreement from Europe--"The world's best symphony orchestra," Such esteem should turn no heads, considering Chicago's musical past.
Painters at the Hall of Expositions: 1890, by Joseph W. Faulkner
Chicago's collections of French Impressionist paintings still surpass those of Paris. The reason goes back to 1890 when--in Chicago--one could have bought for less than a thousand dollars a Degas, or a Monet, or a Pissarro, or a Sisley, or a Renoir; not to mention an Innes, a Ryder, or a Childe Hassam.
A Half Century of the Culinary Arts in Chicago, by Morrison Wood
Perhaps only the native born and experienced Chicagoan knows that there have always been many superb restaurants and dining halls to be found in Chicago.
Mucha's Chicago Poster, by Katherine Wagner Seineke
Today's
highbrow nostalgia for the short-lived art
nouveau decorative style of 1900 has revived the reputation of its
Bohemian-French inventor, Alphonse Mucha. For a while he kept a studio in
Chicago, and here he found some of his staunchest encouragement.
"Our Own" Mary Garden, by Richard D. Fletcher
A drop-out from Hyde Park High School, Mary Garden soon became American's Queen of Opera, and one of the two or three most controversial singers of the first half of this century.
Mr. Dooley's Bridgeport Chronicle, by Charles F. Fanning, Jr.
North Avenue Vignettes: The Bookseller, by Paul M. Angle
Another in a series of short articles on the changing neighborhood of which the Chicago Historical Society is a part.
Fifty Years Ago
As recorded by newspapers in the collection of the Chicago Historical Society
Book Reviews:
Chicago Crime
Literature, by Ray Brennan, reviewer:
Capone: The Life and World of Al Capone, by John Kobler;
Johnny Torrio: First of the Gang Lords, by Jack McPhaul
Volume 1, number 4
(fall 1971)
Chicago Before the Fire: Some People, Places and Things, by David Lasswell
Personal Experiences During the Chicago Fire, by Frank J. Loesch
A Trained Observer Sees the Fire, by Theodore Mosher, Jr.
Of all the numerous accounts of the fire, the official report by Chicago's weatherman, Theodore Mosher, Jr., is the only one worthy of being called scientific. The following excerpt from Moshe's report dispassionately explains several puzzling phenomenon recorded in other accounts.
Chicago, October l0, 187l. A poem on the Fire by Bret Harte
"KATE! THE BARN IS AFIRE!." Words from Katie O'Leary
Mrs. O'Leary did not know until the next day that the fire that started in her barn had burned Chicago down, and by that time she was not going to admit anything. Nor was she exactly candid in November at the official fire department inquiry. These excerpts from her and her tenant's testimony are from the unpublished transcripts of the hearings, in the collection of the Chicago Historical Society.
"We Could Not Do Without the Fire," by Elisabeth Kimbell
So said Henry Ward Beecher when he saw the seeming miracle of the immediate international effort to relieve burned out Chicagoans. The real miracle, however, lay in the successful administration of the relief programs by the Chicago Relief and Aid Society.
A Mark of English Sympathy, by George M. Bishop, Jr.
Chicago Recognized English novelist Thomas Hughes, author of TOM BROWN'S SCHOOL DAYS, as the "Father of the Chicago Public Library" for the burned out city, but Chicago has neglected to pay one small debt that she still owes him.
Grander and Statelier than ever . . .", by Herman Kogan
Chicago's recovery from the Great Fire was as spectacular as the fire itself.
Fifty Years Ago
As recorded by newspapers in the collection of the Chicago Historical Society
Book Review:
Another Look at Mike
Royko's "Boss," by Andrew M. Greeley, reviewer:
Boss: Richard J. Daley of Chicago, by Mike Royko
Index of Volume 1
Volume 1, number 3
(spring 1971)
When Jazz Came to Chicago, by George D. Bushnell, Jr.
Between 1917 and 1929 jazz was a Chicago monopoly, and from Chicago, jazzmen and their phonograph records spread the new jazz craze around the world.
The Pullmans of Prairie Avenue: A Domestic Portrait from
Letters and Diaries, by Florence Lowden
Miller
North Avenue Vignettes: The Blue Danube, by Paul M. Angle
Another in the series of short articles on the changing neighborhood of which the Chicago Historical Society is a part.
Chicago Through a Camera Lens: An Essay on Photography as History, by Glen E. Holt
Glen E. Holt of Washington University, St. Louis, one of the joint authors of Chicago: Growth of a Metropolis, explains here how the evolution of photographic processes, the popular tastes of the times, and the particular preferences of the individual artists affected the usefulness of pictures as source materials for the historian. It is the story of the building of Chicago's photographic legacy, its limitations, and its inestimable value.
The Old New Left: Emma Goldman in Chicago, by David Lasswell
Edith Wyatt: The Jane Austen of Chicago?, by Clara M. and Rudolf Kirk
William Dean Howells ranked her above George Ade as the best of the "Chicago School" writers, but Miss Wyatt never gained recognition and remains unknown among Chicagoans today.
Fifty Years Ago
As recorded by newspapers in the collection of the Chicago Historical Society
Book Reviews:, by the Editors
Uptown, Poor Whites in Chicago, by Todd Gitlin and Nancy Hollander [review by David Lasswell];
An Illinois Reader, edited by Clyde C. Walton, and
The Illinois Fact Book
and Historical Almanac, compiled and written by John Clayton [reviews by Elisabeth Kimbell]
An Afternoon at the Fair
Volume 1, number 2
(fall 1970)
Tinker to Evers to Chance, by Will Leonard
These three Chicago Cubs became baseball's most famous double-play combination. Was it only because of that much quoted verse?
These are the saddest of possibly words:
"Tinker to Evers to Chance."
Trio of bear Cubs and fleeter than birds,
"Tinker to Evers to Chance."
Ruthlessly pricking our gonfalon bubble,
Making a Giant hit into double --
Words that are weighty with nothing but trouble:
"Tinker to Evers to Chance."
North Avenue and Clark Street, by Paul M. Angle
The first of a series of short articles on the changing Chicago neighborhood of which the Chicago Historical Society is a part.
Camp Douglas: "A Hellish Den"?, by E. B. Long
Neither Union nor Confederate prisoner of war camps have records for humane treatment of prisoners, but some prisons were worse than others, and better than some. Chicago's Camp Douglas is a case in point.
Before the Sunset Fades, by James Brown IV
The First Year of Hull-House, 1889-1890, in Letters by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr, by Mary Lynn McCree
The idea was to get idle society girls to go settle in the slums of Chicago and show poor immigrants how to better themselves and their neighborhood--within a year this audacious "scheme" was in operation.
The Dunleith-Dubuque Bridge and Andrew Carnegie
Fifty Years Ago
As recorded by newspapers in the collection of the Chicago Historical Society
Book Reviews::
A Chicago Book -- And
Two on Illinois, reviewed by Paul M. Angle and the
Editor:
Horner of Illinois, by Thomas B. Littlewood, and
Eighty Years at hull-House, edited by Allen F. Davis and May Lynn McCree [reviews by Paul M. Angle].
Illinois Guide and
Gazetteer, edited by Paul M. Angle [review
by David Lasswell]
Volume 1, number 1
(spring 1970)
Chicago was Theirs, by James A. Clifton
Today in northeast Kansas lives a group of Potawatomi Indians descended from those who lived in the Chicago region. Their history began long before the Fort Dearborn Massacre and continues today, 137 years after their removal from the Chicago area. Who are these Indians and how has this living remnant of Chicago's earliest times managed to survive?
Tarzan was Born in Chicago, John I. Tucker
The most popular fictional character of the twentieth century grew out of the combined talents of three Chicagoans.
How They Tinkered with a River, by John Clayton
The extensive reshaping of Chicago's waterways has not only made the inland city a major world port, but has led to the development of the most advanced of metropolitan waste disposal systems.
The Gripman Wore a Sheepskin Coat, by George T. Bryant
A memoir on local Chicago transportation at the turn of the century
Fifty Years Ago
As recorded by newspapers in the collection of the Chicago Historical Society
Book Reviews::
Three Chicago Books,
reviewed by Paul M. Angle:
Architecture in Chicago and Mid-America: A Photographic History, by Wayne Andrews;
Chicago on Foot: An Architectural Walking Tour, by Ira J. Bach;
Chicago: Growth of a Metropolis, by Harold M. Mayer
*****************************************************************
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Part 2 of the Guide
List of separately published indexes to the "new series" of the magazine. [Indexes that were published in the magazine are listed with the issue where they were published.]
Index to Chicago History : The Magazine of the Chicago Historical Society [for] Volumes 3 through 7, 1974-1979, compiled by Carol Spielman Lezak.
Index to Chicago History : The Magazine of the Chicago Historical Society [for] Volumes 8 through 16, Spring 1979 through Fall and Winter 1987-88, compiled by Roberta Casey.
Index to Chicago History : The Magazine of the Chicago Historical Society [for] Volumes 17 through 25, Spring/Summer 1988 through Fall 1996, compiled by Lesley A. Martin.
Index to Chicago History : The Magazine of the Chicago Historical Society [for]
Volumes 26 through 35, Fall 1997 through Spring 2008, compiled by Lesley A. Martin.
-------------------------
Part 3 of the Guide
Guide to Articles in Chicago History magazine, first series
by Marian Roth
This magazine was mostly written and edited Paul M. Angle, director of the Chicago Historical Society, for many years.
Volume 1, number 1
(fall 1945)
By Way of Introduction
Americans Land in Japan
Cartoons and Cartoonists
Fifty Years Ago
Through the Double Lens
Portrait with Malice
Pre-Fire Guide to Chicago
News of the Society
American History
As Another War Ended
Volume 1, number 2
(winter 1945-46)
Abraham Lincoln: Honorary Member
War as It Never Was
The Gilpin Library
One Pioneer, by Another
Wydra: Ship-Model Maker
Where Is It Now?
Fifty Years Ago
Admiral Mitscher's Cap
Around the World in Eighty Days
More Stereos
Why We Can't Take Everything
Caroline McIlvaine, 1868-1945
News of the Society
New Members Since October 15, 1945
Volume 1, number 3
(spring 1946)
The Chicago Historical Society: 1856-1946
The Great Fire and Years of Prostration
Revival
Another New Building
The Second Fifty Years
The Gunther Collection
In Lincoln Park
The Society Now
Volume 1, number 4 (summer 1946)
The Seaport of Chicago
A Rare Book
The Age of Innocence
When he West Was Wild
Powder Horns
Presidents: Their Portraits and Letters
Another Degree for Lincoln
New Jersey Room
Latter Day Saints, Stuyvesant Peabody, 1888-1946
News of the Society
Before Long
Museum Records and Storage
Volume 1, number 5
(fall, 1946
We commemorate a Fire
Margaret Fuller, with Pictures
"Reference Work"
How We Found the Other Mulligan
More Latter Day Saints
"Public Meeting of the Citizens of Quincy
Fifty Years Ago
The Proclamation of Emancipation
Soldiers' Letters
Relic of the Revolution
News of the Society
New Members Since July l, 1946
Volume 1, number 6 (winter 1946-47)
Down to Earth with History
The American City, 1850-1880
Fifty Years Ago
The Original Gerrymander
The Annan Library
Pride Goeth Before a Fall
Down Where the Wuerzberger Flowed
If You Don't Want Them. . .
Two Suits of John Adams
News of the Society
Volume 1, number 7 (spring 1947)
History on canvas
The National League in Chicago
The Illinois Room
Fifty Years Ago
Pour le Sport
Books Then and Now
New Orleans in 1803
A Cowpath--Or Was It?
The News of Lincoln's Death
News of the Society
New Members Since January 1, 1947
Volume 1, number 8
(summer, 1947)
The Mexican War
The River and Harbor Convention
Chicago's First Municipal Code
A Year After the Fire
Fifty Years Ago
Portrait Room Exhibit
Free Baths Along the Beach
Tad Lincoln as His Brother Knew Him
Nothing New Under the Sun
Birthplaces of the Presidents
Hints to Travelers
News of the Society
New Members Since May 1, 1947
Volume 1, number 9
(fall, 1947)
"We Did It Glory to God"
The Civil War Room
The Good Old Days
Fifty Years Ago
Early Chicago Printing
Frank Harris's Fairy Story
A British Prediction, 1863
News of the Society
Volume 1, number 10 (winter, 1947-48)
The War with Spain
Painting of Note
Historic Papers of Abraham Lincoln
Fifty Years Ago
The English Settlement in Edwards County, Illinois
"O Pioneers!"
Ephemera: We'd Like Some
New Members Since October 23, 1947
Volume 1, number 11 (spring, 1948)
Jevne and Almini
The Varin Aquatints
The Illinois and Michigan Canal Centennial
Fifty Years Ago
Songs and Music of the Sea
William Corkran and the Burning of the Chicago Historical Society
News of the Society
You Are Invited to Join . . .
Bibulous Note from Early Chicago
Volume 1, number 12 (summer, 1948)
Penn's Treaty With the Indians
Our History in he Making
Fifty Years Ago
George Flower: Diarist
Letterhead Art
Cabinet Making in 1861
Photographing for the Future
News of the Society
New Members Since June 1, 1848
Chicago History index Vol. l, nos. 1-12, Fall 1945-summer1948
Volume 2: Fall,
1948-Summer 195l:
Volume 2, number 1 (fall 1948)
Styles of Yesterday: The Story of a Museum Exhibit
Our New Marine Room
The Fergus Historical Series
Fifty Years Ago, pp. 14, 43, 75, 111, 140, 169, 205, 237, 260, 303, 329, 366
Chicagoana: From the Society's Library
Elegant Private Residences, 1866
Introducing Mr. McCagg
News of the Society, pp. 18, 60, 91, 124, 158, 187, 221252 285, 316, 350, 381
About Membership
New Members, since August 11, 1948 pp. 31, 62, 94, 127, 158, 189, 223, 254, 287, 329, 351, 383
Volume 2, number 2 (winter 1948-49)
The Gold Rush
Tad Lincoln's School Paper
Drummer Boy
The American Indian: A Pictorial Record
Murder and the Mormons
Wage Negotiations, 1886
More About Membership
New Members
Volume 2, number 3
(spring 1949)
The Lady's Book
Cartes-de-Visite
Commencements at the Chicago High School
Julian Kune and the Chicago Historical Society
Prairie Avenue
News of the Society
New Members
Volume 2, number 4
(summer 1949)
Fort Dearborn, The Earliest Picture of Chicago
As Two Frenchmen Saw Us
Railroad Prints
Front at Vicksburg
The Historical Photography Project
New Members
Volume 2, number 5
(fall 1949)
Two New Museum Rooms
Collector's Piece
The Gold Rush: Part Two
Pick and Shovel: Union Pacific
The Stranger in America
A. L. Van Den Berghen, Sc.
Correction
News of the Society
New Members
Volume 2, number 6 (winter 1949-50)
William Henry Brown, Silhouettist
Meserve's Historical Portraits
Lee Hall
What Lincoln Didn't Say--and What He Did
The Conquering Admiral
"Not Old or Dead"
Bargain in Real Estate
News of the Society
New Members
Volume 2, number 7 (spring 1950)
The Prince of Wales in Illinois
The Earliest Picture of Lincoln
Imprints, Newly Discovered
Advice to Collectors
News of the Society
New Members
Volume 2, number 8
(summer 1950)
Portrait of a Lady
G.& C. U. Lantern
"Four Score and Seven Years Ago..."
New Members
Volume 2, number 9 (fall 1950)
Nor Long Remember
New Members
Volume 2, number 10
(winter 1950-5l)
American Primitives, 19th Century
The Other Hubbard
Chicago 1850
On the Writing of History
News of the Society
New Members
Volume 2, number 11 (spring 1951)
Chicago's First Fine Arts Exhibition
The Chicago Dioramas
The Story of Chicago in Heroic Couplets
Books That Made History
Costumes: Wanted and Unwanted
New Members
Volume 2, number 12 (summer 1951)
Uncle Tom's Cabin, 100th Anniversary Exhibit
Frederick C. Hibbard, His Working Models
Repairing and Preserving Fine Historical Material
News of the Society
New Members
Chicago History Index, Vol. 2, nos. 1-12, fall 1948-summer 1951
Volume 3, number 1
(fall 1951)
Whitefield's Views of Chicago
A. Lincoln: Peacemaker
"There She Blows!"
It's Yours: Use It!
News of the Society
New Members since June 27, 1951
Volume 3, number 2 (winter 1951-52)
Healy's Ladies
Cheap and Popular Pictures
Reminders of a Graceful Age
John Jones and His Portrait
News of the Society
New Members since November 6, 1951
Volume 3, number 3 (spring 1952)
The Barrett Lincoln Sale
Extra Dispatch' Cynosure and Cesspool"
Fifty Years Ago
News of the Society
New Members since February 14, 1952
Volume 3, number 4
(summer 1952)
"Sold To Chicago"
Chicago at Work
The Wigwam--Wha" Hoppen?
Prince Henry of Prussia in Chicago
What They Want to Know
"Give the Lady What She Wants"
News of the Society
New Members since June 1, 1952
Volume 3, number 5
(fall 1952)
Politics: U. S. A.
Chicago: Author Unidentified
Fifty Years Ago
Robert Anderson and the Black Hawk War
News of the Society
New Members s
since August 25, 1952
Volume 3, number 6 (winter 1952-1953)
High Lights of Chicago History
Fifty Years Ago
News of the Society
New Members since November 1, 1952
Volume 3, number 7
(spring 1953)
The World's Columbian Exposition: A Nostalgic Exhibit
Fifty Years Ago
New Members since March 1, 1953
Volume 3, number 8
(summer 1953)
A. Lincoln: By Himself
Sesquicentennial
Fifty Years Ago
Making the News
News of the Society
New Members since May 1, 1953
Volume 3, number 9
(fall 1953)
The Louisiana Purchase: A Sesquicentennial Anniversary
Raising The Grade
Fifty Years Ago
Two Chicago Daguerreotypes
U. S. Grant: An Autobiographical Fragment
News of the Society
New Members
Volume 3, number 10
(winter 1953-1954)
Perry Open Japan to the World
Etiquette in Washington Fifty Years Ago
"Yr Sincere Friend"
A Briton Twists the Lion's Tail
News of the Society
New Members
Volume 3, number 11
(spring 1954)
The City Seal
Portraits
Fifty Years Ago
Merrimack and Monitor
Lincoln and Sandburg
News of the Society
New Members
Volume 3, number 12
(summer 1954)
Blacks in Blue
The Biggest Beer on Earth
Hair on the Face
Fifty Years Ago
Pictures on a Wall
News of the Society
Chicago History Index Vol. 3, nos. 1-12, fall 1948-summer 1951
Volume 4, number 1
(fall 1951-summer 1954)
American Photography
Fifty Years Ago
New Members
Volume 4, number 2 (winter 1954-55)
Songs of the Union
Fifty Years Ago
News of the Society
New Members
Volume 4, number 3 (spring 1955)
California Prints
Fifty Years Ago
The Grant-Lee Surrender Table
New Members
Volume 4, number 4
(summer 1955)
Striker up!
The Masons and the Water Works
Fifty Years Ago
Three D's: Dining, Dentistry, and drugs
News of the Society
New Members
Volume 4, number 5
(fall 1955)
Lincoln's Drive Through Richmond
Lewis Cass: Seer
Fifty years Ago
Passports
Charles Johnson, 1868-1955
News of the Society
Volume 4, number 6
(winter 1955-56)
The World of 1856
New Members
Volume 4, number 7
(spring 1956)
The United States of 1856
News of the Society
New Members
Volume 4, number 8
(summer 1956)
Illinois in 1856
New Members
Volume 4, number 9
(fall 1956)
Chicago in 1856 1957
News of the Society
New Members
Volume 4, number 10 (winter 1956-57)
The Gilpin Fund
A German Family in Chicago: 1856
News of the Society
New Members
Volume 4, number 11
(spring 1957)
One Hundred Twenty Years Ago
The End of Fort Dearborn
What Is It?
A History of Chicago, Volume 3: 1871-1893
Lincoln a Failure?
News of the Society
New Members
Volume 4, number 12 (summer 1957)
Mystery Solved
Photographs by Brady
Fifty Years Ago
Lowden of Illinois
New Members
Chicago history Index, nos. 1-12, fall 1954-summer 1957
Burton Holmes, a Traveler in Retrospect
Fire King No. l
Fifty Years Ago
One-Arm Bandits
News of the Society
New Members
Volume 5, number 2
(winter 1957-58)
The Lincoln-Douglas Debates: A Centennial
Last Chance to Avoid the Draft!
Fifty Years Ago
New Members
Volume 5, number3
(spring 1958)
Lincoln Park in Retrospect
Hesler's Lincoln
Fifty Years Ago
We'd Like to Have...
CHS: 1879
News of the Society
Volume 5, number 4
(summer 1958)
"A Splendid Little War"
Mr. Dooley's Troubles
The "Dandy First"
New Members
Volume 5, number 5
(fall 1958)
Broadsides Again
History in Perspective: James M. Barker Comments ...
Chicagoana
Good Men and True
A Tale of Two Books
News of the Society
New Members
Volume 5, number 6 (winter 1958-1959)
Lincoln and Chicago
Fifty Years Ago
News of the Society
New Members
Volume 5, number 7
(spring 1959)
The Spirit of the West
Direct to Europe
Boats of the Great Lakes
What! No Index?
News of the Society
New Members
Volume 5, number 8
(summer 1959)
Circus Posters--and Barnum
Galena in Its Prime
Fifty Years Ago
Ice Wagons
News of the Society
New Members
Volume 5, number 9
(fall 1959)
John Brown
Fifty Years Ago
Calumet Harbor: The Beginnings
News of the Society
Volume 5, number 10
(winter 1959-60
Potter Palmer's Chicago
The Start of a Career
A Lincoln Anniversary
New Members
Volume 5, number 11
(spring 1960)
The Republican Convention of 1860
Why Lincoln Won
Fifty Years Ago
New Members
Volume 5, number 12 (summer 1960)
A Year of Decision, 1860-1861
"Boy Lost"
The National Game
New Members
Chicago History Index, vol. 5, nos. 1-12, fall 1957-summer-1960
Volume 6, number 1
(fall 1960)
Number, Please
The Glorious Fourth ! ! !
Stalking the Presidency: A Backward Look
New Members
Volume 6, number 2
(winter 1960-61)
Chicago Daily News Photo
Lewis Cass: Patriot
1 Fifty Years Ago
The Semi-Centennial of the Civil War
News of the Society
Volume 6, number 3
(spring 1961)
1861: Chicago Goes to War
The Civil War, Anniversary Exhibits
New Members
Volume 6, number 4
(summer 1961)
The National League, a Baseball Anniversary
The Hudson River Port Folio
The Opinions of Otto C. Schneider
Fifty Years Ago
New Members
Volume 6, number 5
(fall 1961)
From the Ashes
What Survived the Fire?
Fifty Years Ago
The Memoirs of Gustave Koerner
Must It Be Hopped Up?
New Members
Volume 6, number 6
(winter 1961-62)
The French Regime in Illinois
News of the Society
Fifty Years Ago
Volume 6, number 7
(spring 1962)
Chicago: 125 Years Old
Fifty Years Ago
Civil Rights, 1866-1962
The Institution as Collector
New Members
Volume 6, number 8
(summer 1962)
Guns--And What They Have Meant
Gurdon S. Hubbard: Illinois Fur Trader
Fifty Years Ago
Courthouse Architecture
The Fort Dearborn Massacre, Kinzie vs. Quaife
New Members
Volume 6, number 9
(fall 1962)
Chicago and the Emancipation Proclamation
If Christ Came to Chicago
Mormon Rarities
New Members
Volume 6, number 10
(winter 1962-63)
An Album of Chicagoans
Fifty Years Ago
New Members
Volume 6, number 11
(spring 1963)
Nauvoo: Sweet Auburn of Illinois
Madison Y. Johnson: Copperhead?
Fifty Years Ago
History as an Enduring Human Need
New Members
Volume 6, number 12
(summer 1963)
The Armory Show in Chicago
Fifty Years Ago
A Japanese Lincoln
Only Moneygrubbers?
Decisive Battles of the Civil War
Chicago History Index, Vol. 6 Nos.1-12, fall 1960-summer 1963
Volume 7, number 1
(fall 1963)
War-Time Chicago, 1863
Fifty Years Ago
Archibald Clybourn: Pioneer Packer
Gettysburg: Decisive Battle
New Members
Volume 7, number 2
(winter 1963-1964)
From Portage to Metropolis
Two Biographies
Fifty Years Ago
American City Prints
News of the Society
New Members
Volume 7, number 3
(spring 1964)
The Wonderful World of the ‘Seventies
Fifty Years Ago
Corrections and Additions
New Members
Volume 7, number 4 (summer
1964)
Take Me Out to the Ball Game
Fifty Years Ago
Chesapeake and Shannon
News of the Society
New Members
Volume 7, number 5
(fall 1964)
Chicago and the First World War
Fifty Years Ago
The New Flag
New Members
Volume 7, number 6
(winter 1964-65)
Remember the Carrier Boy!
Coins, Coinage, and Currency
Fifty Years Ago
The Daniel Pope Cook Mystery
New Members
Volume 7, number 7
(spring 1965)
The End of the Civil War
A Day of Mourning
Fifty Years Ago
Currency: A Correction
Purely Personal
New Members
Volume 7, number 8
(summer 1965)
A Map of the City of Chicago, 1853
The Summer Vacation a Century Ago
Fifty Years Ago
The Last Years of the Shenandoah
George Merryweather's United States 1861-1862
New Members
Volume 7, number 9
(fall 1965)
The Burning City: 1871
Egypt in Illinois
Fifty Years Ago
St. Louis: Rival City
New Members
Volume 7, number 10
(winter 1965-66)
The Union Stockyards, December 25, 1865
Fifty Years Ago
The Chicago Bar, 1872
Combustible Chicago
New Members
Volume 7, number 11
(spring 1966)
The Inter-State Exposition Building 1873-1892
Fifty Years Ago
The Gay Nineties in Chicago. A French View
Volume 7, number 12
(summer 1966)
Robert Todd Lincoln and the Barnard Statue
A National Portrait Gallery 1837-1839
Fifty Years Ago
New Members
Chicago History Index, Vol. 8 Nos,1-12, fall, 1963-summer 1966
Volume 8, number1
(fall 1966)
The International Aviation Meet, Chicago, 1911
Illinois Imprints
Fifty Years Ago
Cornerstones
Wanted: Shaving mugs
New Members
Volume 8, number 2
(winter 1966--67)
Literature in Chicago, Beginnings and Renaissance
Fifty Years Ago
The Day of Small Things
New Members
Volume 8, number 3
(spring 1967)
The Illinois Black Laws
Dixon and Dresden in 1842
Fifty Years Ago
President Lincoln in Spain
News of the Society
New Members
Volume 8, number 4
(summer 1967)
The Golden Age of Cycling
Fifty Years Ago
This Busy World, 1896
Volume 8, number 5
(fall 1967)
Folk Art
Fifty Years Ago
Morris Birkbeck: Illustrious Illinoisan
Acquisitions
New Members
Volume 8, number 6
(winter 1967-68)
Illinois: 1818
Fifty Years Ago
New Members
Volume 8, number 7
(spring 1968)
An Album of Chicagoans
Fifty Years Ago
Volume 8, number 8
(summer 1968)
Conventions and Candidates
Fifty Years Ago
New Members
Volume 8, number 9
(fall 1968)
The Columbus Caravels
One War Ends
Fifty Years Ago
"Illinois Architecture" and "Prairie State"
News of the Society
New Members
Volume 8, number 10
(winter 1968-69)
The Great Repository of Chicago History
Fifty Years Ago
The Shawneetown--Chicago "Loan"
The New Chicago Guide
New Members
Volume 8, number 11
(spring 1969)
Michael Diversey and Beer in Chicago
Not Poetry--Not Fiction, but Literature Nevertheless
Fifty Years Ago
The Names of Chicago Baseball Teams
New Members
Volume 8, number 12
(summer 1969)
Chicago, A musical Accompaniment
New Members
Chicago History Index