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Today, in its weekly Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed series, the Comics Should Be Good site shares the sad story of Sidney Smith -- Trib cartoonist and creator of the incredibly successful but seldom remembered comic strip "The Gumps".
Between 1946 and 1948, Wayne Miller photographed residents of the "small town" of Chicago's black community. Buy the book here. [via]
On April 21, 1878 Chicago firefighter George Reid and his captain David Kenyon invented the firepole, which soon made their Engine Company 21 the first responder to Chicago fires and prompted the fire chief to order poles installed in all Chicago firehouses.
Let's take a look at Cook County.
The Modern Mechanix blog revisits the August 1931 issue, which announced the creation of the largest post office in the world. No mention is made of the building's suitability for condo conversion.
Watching family home movies can be duller than dirt, but there's something beautifully captivating about this slice of Chicago Americana—scenes from a wedding at St. Benedict's on Irving Park—from the 40s... in color no less. Man, people dressed so much better back then.
The Art Institute has an impressive collection of oral histories from Chicago architects. [via]
AREA Chicago's new 1968/2008 takes a new look at the cultural legacy of 1968 in Chicago: the Democratic National Convention, riots, Chicago 10, Daley's shoot to kill order, etc.
Following in our footsteps, Joe M500 recreated several more shots from the Charles W. Cushman Photograph Collection.
ClusterFlock casts a sideways look at the Chicago Sanitary & Ship Canal on this fine St. Paddy's Day.
We'd be living in the state of Assenisipia today!
It's the first Monday in March, and in Illinois that means Casimir Pulaski Day. If you're a Chicago Public School student, a garbage truck driver, a Chicago librarian, or a county court employee, you get the day off! Everyone else has to work.
Couldn't make it to the 1893 Columbian Exposition? Here's a Flickr collection of scenes from the big fair.
The University of Chicago Press published Vietnam Zippos: American Soldiers' Engravings and Stories, an amazing gallery of Vietnam era Zippo lighters engraved with the sort of images and sentiments you'd expect of American soldiers of the era.
If you're not up for a tour, Voice of America Radio reaches back to 1929 for a report on the enduring legacy of the Valentine's Day Massacre. Capone must not have appreciated the messages on the candy hearts the unlucky seven gave to him.
The March issue of Dwell shows a lot of Chicago love; first with a profile of Wilkinson Blender Architecture's gut-renovated, Gold-certified LEED-H home the Wis Tavern Building and secondly an interesting article about architect Bertrand Goldberg, best known for his landmark Marina City complex and the endangered cloverleaf-towered Prentice Women's Hospital.
Here's a set of extended videos about the Chicago Young Lords, a late-60s movement out of Lincoln Park.
Ladies and gentlemen! Today Dr. X provides us with vintage circus photos from the 1940s. Coulrophobia is apparently not a new development.
Margaret Truman Daniel, the only child of President Harry Truman, has passed away at the age of 83 in a Chicago assisted-care facility. A mystery novelist, Truman is best remembered for an incident regarding her former singing career. After critic Paul Hume panned her performance, Harry sent him a letter threatening "you'll need a new nose, a lot of beefsteak for black eyes, and perhaps a supporter down below. You are a guttersnipe!" Give those critics hell, Harry!
From Call Northside 777 to The Blues Brothers, the Trib reminds us of another reason to check out movies filmed in Chicago.
The Chicago Postcard Museum takes a look at the Museum of Science and Industry this month.
The Chicago Public Library offers answers to some FAQs in regards to Dr. King's time in Chicago. If you want a bit more, take a look at the Encyclopedia of Chicago History.
Efforts to create the Public Housing Museum on the West Side are gaining ground but still require more than $13 million.
The Chicago History Museum has acquired an archive of documents related to the 1919 Black Sox scandal. The collection was on auction in Burr Ridge and will eventually be available for viewing by the general public here and copies will be on display in Cooperstown.
Modern Mechanix blog reprinted a charming blurb from the September 1934 issue, showing how perpetual motion was soundly discredited at the Century of Progress International Exposition. Who owns the machine? No one does. That's right. No one.
Of course, the first brownie must have been made at the Palmer House.
Filmmaker Floyd Webb, at work on a documentary about rogue kung-fu instructor Count Dante, is being sued for alleged trademark infringement. Webb argues he's protected by Fair Use.
20 years ago tonight, Max Headroom the Video Pirate hijacked Chicago's Airwaves. He's never been caught. If anyone cares to confess please drop us an email.
In a move typical of urban landlord schools, the University of Chicago is dangling an organic carrot in front of the venerated Hyde Park Co-op, promising to forgive their back rent if they'll close down and make way for a chain. The co-op has been beset by organizational and management problems for several years. The move would certainly spell the death of the 75-year-old grocer, long viewed as a model cooperative enterprise.
A new site about the Marina City building complex just launched, including a great promotional film from 1965. (As you'd expect with any condo association, there were some disagreements about how it should be done, so two condo owners did it themselves.) [via]
Did you know that the founder of Selfridges, one of Britain's famed department stores, got his start in Chicago? (Thanks, Matt!)
Being Halloween week, it seems like a good time to link to the legend of Bachelor's Grove. Here are a couple videos. [via]
Up near Harvard, a family cemetery lost since the 1880s was recently discovered in the Alden Sedge Meadow nature preserve.
Found in the Library of Congress: The Public Dance Halls of Chicago, published by the Juvenile Protective Association in 1917. (Thanks, Erin!)
The Tallahatchie County Board of Supervisors of Mississippi signed a resolution to apologize to hate crime victim Emmet Till's family over the conduct of the trial of his murderers (both men were acquitted and later confessed to the crime in a 1956 magazine article). Till, whose death partially inspired the modern Civil Rights Movement, is buried in Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, IL.
Chicago Magazine's recent profile of Jeff McCourt is not only interesting for its discussion of the Windy City Times founder's life but for its Chicago gay and lesbian history. [Thanks, Matt!]
Chicago Daily News tells the story of Dead Man's Tree, and finds Taylor Street is largely free of mob influence.
The Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago has a video preview available for their new exhibit; Daily Life Ornamented: The Medieval Persian City of Rayy.
The Tribune takes a tour of the tunnels below the Green Mill and other businesses at the Broadway/Lawrence intersection; watch a video here.
We've linked to this site about the old freight tunnels under the Loop before, but I just came across a 1933 article in Time about them. "Bowels of Chicago," indeed! (You might also be interested in the Central Electric Railfans Association.)
In just a few hours, a walking tour of Haymarket history will take off from the Hull House, but yesterday former Chicagoan Josh MacPhee and a nearby Milwaukee art historian Nicolas Lampert spoke about that history on Berkeley's famous radio show Against the Grain Radio on KPFA. Their discussion deals primarily with the history of the monuments associated with Haymarket's contested history.
No, not the street artist -- the replica of the Gokstad Viking ship, which is weathering away in dry dock out in Geneva. It's on the Landmarks Illinois endangered list, and there's an international movement afoot for its preservation.
The Tribune has an interesting list of Chicago transit facts (with an inexplicably capitalized headline).
There are many places and opportunities to celebrate May Day (the worker holiday that most people in the world celebrate instead of the US's Labor Day) this year and GB's Slowdown calendar will keep you in the loop! On Friday you can get some history lessons with the folk's organizing a free conference on anarchism and a film festival at Loyola, the conference continues through the weekend but the downtown walking tour starts friday at 330. Then on May 1st you can join up with the immigrant rights demonstration that promises to be huge (especially after last night's raid's in Little Village) and on May 2 there is another walking tour and celebration at the Hull House.
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is taking great strides to expand its audience and influence, notably including a retooled nationally syndicated radio program and a performance and educational video series.
From the establishment of the Hull House Theater to the World's Columbian Exposition, the Sun Times lists their take on "The 50 Greatest Chicago Moments."
Now that Easter and Passover are almost here, the New York Times offers two features on Chiappetti Lamb and Veal. NOTE: The first link is a TimesSelect article, so if you aren't enrolled in the program, you can either sign up or start a free trial. If you are a student or faculty member with a .edu email address, you can get a full account for free right now.
The Map Room site (no relation to the bar of the same name), currently featured links to U of C Library pages featuring gorgeous old maps of the city that you can "zoomify." Zoomify? I do not think that word means what you think it means.
The Whitechapel Club is a strange bit of forgotten Chicago lore. A late 19th Century gathering of Chicago journalists who wet their whistles at a local tavern and named themselves after the London slum terrorized by Jack the Ripper, the group eventually held meetings in a room decorated with skulls, nooses, and other grisly artifacts. Guest speakers were invited to address the club, only to be insulted away from the podium, and the subject of death was routinely lampooned. Alas, it lasted only five years, but the Newberry Library holds the club's remaining papers.
If your city or county bank, library, public school or government office is closed today, it's in honor of Revolutionary War hero Casimir Pulaski. However, you will get mail and, sadly, you must feed the meter.
Chicago once had 481 miles of wood-paved streets; only two small stretches remain today. YoChicago has a video of one of them: Wooden Alley, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. [via]
Now that the locally produced General Social Survey completed its 26th run, the New York Times published a sneak peek of the 2006 results. Some interesting findings include a precipitous drop in the percentage of those who have a "great deal of confidence" in the military since 2004, as well as a 50% decline in daily newspaper readership since 1972.
It's 1961 and the communists have overthrown the government of the United States of America. Prepare yourself for the U.S.S.A.! What is the communists' first step? Move the government to Merchandise Mart! As J. Edgar Hoover says, read this comic now in order to "help us recognize and detect communists as they attempt to infiltrate the various segments of our society."
Now that Kenosha, Racine and Milwaukee are seriously considering feeding into Metra, a Milwaukee historian has summarized the interesting transportation history we have with our neighbors to the north.
What appeared to be the theft of an original Monadnock Building ornament turned out to be the theft of the only replica ornament in the building.
Interesting article on Augustine Tolton, the first black priest in America, who preached in Quincy and the South Side of Chicago in the late 1800s.
While I'm sure you've read several national tributes to President Ford, his local connections deserve a mention.
Evanston-based Pop Matters has a great story about the making of "A Charlie Brown Christmas."
There was a macabre item up for auction this week: the Cook County gallows, which was built in 1887 for hanging some of the men convicted for the Haymarket Square riot. The Chicago History Museum wanted to purchase the item for their collection, but they were beat out for the item by the San-Francisco-based Ripley's Believe It or Not! Museum. No word on where the gallows will be displayed, although a spokesperson for Ripley's promises the city's history will be a part of the ultimate display of the item.
Photographer Lee Balterman shot Chicago in the '50s and '60s, and unlike many of his street photography compatriots, he included people -- lots of people. [via]
How much do you know about bizarre Chicagoland murders? Take this short quiz and find out!
Dan Kelly and friends made a day of visiting South Side cemeteries recently, and they came across many graves of famous folk, from politicians to bluesmen.
Gadgetgirl reminds us that today is the 135th anniversary of the start of the Great Chicago Fire. It started at 8:30 PM (according to a newly found Chicago Fire Department log) and lasted for two days (see this interactive map of the fire's progression). The debris from the fire was pushed into Lake Michigan, forming the base for what would eventually become Grant Park. So if it hadn't been for Mrs. O'Leary's cow, there would be no Millennium Park group on Flickr.
The Chicago History Museum (formerly known as the Chicago Historical Society) reopens this this weekend after an extensive renovation, and it's celebrating with free admission, performances by dance troupes, the Jesse White Tumblers and other acts, and more. This will be your first chance to see the first El train car, and Federated and Target just donated Norman Rockwell's painting of the Marshall Field's Clock to the museum, so you can see that too. Big crowds are expected, so you might want to make a reservation.
Over at Metroblogging Chicago, contributor Artemis gives a thumbs up to Weird Chicago Tours, a 3-4 hour citywide tour of Chicago's most unusual locations, from the site of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre to Underpass Mary. The tours started this past weekend, and run Friday and Saturday nights through November, in case you need some weird inspiration in the Halloween season.
NPR's Present at the Creation provides unique insight to some Chicago-related icons. Our fair city pops up in some obvious place like Animal House, A Raisin in the Sun , and Nighthawks, but it's also there for Cracker Jacks!
Flickr geotaggers and those viewing one recent post may have noticed that Chicago's historic neighborhoods like Little Hell and Shantytown are alive on the Internet. Other interesting locations include the Berkeley Cottages and Packingtown.
The Historical Society of Oak Park and River Forest has an interesting tour for you mob aficianados: "Welcome to the Neighbor Hood," a trolley tour of gangster homes in the two suburbs. On Sept. 24 and Oct. 8, see the former homes of Sam Giancana, Tony "Joe Batters" Accardo and Paul "The Waiter" Ricca. Combine it with an "Untouchables" gangster tour and you've got yourself a day you can't refuse.
Do you remember the great cicada invasion of 1990? That was the last time 17-year cicadas came out of their underground burrows in Chicagoland, and the Lake County Forest Preserve is collecting stories about it in anticipation of next year's resurfacing. Eric Zorn reprints a column from '90 about the 1973 invasion in his blog.
On August 12, 1833, Chicago was incorporated. The population of the town at the time was about 350 people. According to the Chicago timeline from the Chicago Public Library website, the original boundaries of the city were "Kinzie, Desplaines, Madison, and State streets, which included an area of about three-eighths of a square mile." Happy 173rd Birthday, Chicago!
Sunday's Coastal Flood Statement predicts a seiche caused by severe thunderstorms. While not uncommon, they have caused considerable damage in Chicago. In 1954, an eight to ten foot reflective wave caused by a seiche drowned eight people (page 24) and swept dozens into the lake (page 67). But don't worry: today's seiche should be less than a foot tall.
Erik Larson's perennial best-seller, The Devil in the White City, has done much to resurrect interest in the 1893 World's Fair, but the event has fascinated the public ever since it came and went in a season. In today's paper, Sun-Times art & architecture critic Kevin Nance talks to Larson, author Chris Ware, historian Tim Samuelson and others about why it continues to capture our imagination. Relive the magic with an under-construction visual simulation model being developed at UCLA, and if you've not read Larson's creative non-fiction, the GB Book Club will be tackling it in September.
In 2002, BBC Radio 4's Thinking Allowed visited Chicago to do a five-part series about the city in the spirit of early Chicago School sociologists. With interviews from prominent Chicago academics, musicians, and public thinkers, the programs are surprisingly fresh four years later.
The city's Landmarks Division has prepared interactive Chicago Landmarks Maps that include photographs and important information about officially notable places. While you're on their website, check out their comprehensive Historic Resources Survey and other fascinating resources.
If the Field Museum's Tutankhamun exhibit piqued your interest, head to the Oriental Institute's dual exhibitions of artifacts from the Tut era and Harry Burton's photographs of the Tutankhamun expedition. If you have an mp3 player, don't forget to download the podcast ahead of time.
Did you know that July is Chicago Hip Hop Heritage Month? Lots to do.
Once upon a time, Milk Duds were produced in Chicago (they're now made downstate in Robinson). Daniel Pinkwater reminisces about the allure of working next door.
Almost exactly two months after opening the Freedom Museum, the Tribune is opening another museum: the McCormick Tribune Bridgehouse & Chicago River Museum, which will be housed in a bridge-tender tower on the southwest corner of the Michigan Avenue bridge. According to the Associated Press, the building has only 1600 square feet of floor space, and will only be able to accommodate 34 visitors at a time. The museum officially opens on Saturday, and admission will be a suggested donation of $3.
"The story of institutionalized racial discrimination and economic segregation in Chicago begins in 1931." So begins the second installment of BeyondChron's provocative three-part series, "Paradise Lost: A Recipe for Gentrification in Chicago, San Francisco, and Beyond." (The first ran yesterday; the last is forthcoming.)
Today marks the conclusion of the Sun-Times's three-part series on the continuing political influence of mobster Bruno Roti Sr., even fifty years after his death. Let's just say his family sounds pretty well-connected.
This week marks the 120th anniversary of the Haymarket Riot. Accordingly, All Things Considered interviewed James Green, author of the recently published Death in the Haymarket, about the events of May 4, 1886, and the NPR website offers additional commentary about the modern-day meaning of the affair, as well as an excerpt from Green's book.
In case you missed it, the Chicago Tribune has a fascinating cover story today on the local debate over which Chicago police officer should be remembered as the first to be killed in the line of duty. Was it Casper Lauer or James Quinn? Former DEA officer Rick Barrett claims it was Quinn, as he told NPR's Melissa Block this afternoon. Further coverage from the Trib here.
Cocktails and Pain reminds us that on this day 141 years ago, also a Good Friday, Abraham Lincoln was shot. The sixteenth president of the United States died the next morning.
The Week Behind digs up a 1982 video of legendary columnist Mike Royko hanging out at the Billy Goat Tavern, talking softball, his father's bar and more. (via)
As all of Naper-land gears up for Naperville's 175th birthday celebration this summer, the city is looking for help pulling it together. Take the brief survey and be a part of the gala. You can even buy a set of historic medallions as a keepsake.
The true story of the "Haymarket Affair" is one we'll probably never know, but Caleb Crain does a good job chronicling the apparent facts and fiction surrounding it in his review of the historical literature. Crain's impetus is James Green's Death in Haymarket, a book that bears the pithy but evocative subtitle "A Story of Chicago, the First Labor Movement, and the Bombing That Divided Gilded Age America."
Are you that creep who keeps locks of your ex's hair in an envelope? Do you have a "thing" for famous people? If so, or even if you're normal, you might enjoy an upcoming event by an auction house in Willowbrook. They're auctioning off the hair of celebrities like Mickey Mantle and Elizabeth Taylor.
Here's a wild tidbit from everyone's favorite Chicago meteorologist: fewer than 1% of all Chicago thunderstorms since 1970 have occurred in February.
The "Ask the Librarian" column on Gapers Block this week discusses Chicago's Second Great Fire of 1874. As an addendum to the column, check out this illustration of the damage from the 1874 fire. Thanks to The Newberry Library Genealogy News for tracking it down.
Eugene J. McCarthy, the Minnesota senator and presidential candidate who was a central figure in the 1968 Democratic Convention and riots in Chicago, died this weekend. (NewsBusters points out an interesting error in the Tribune's profile of the senator.)
Claire Zulkey interviews David Garrard Lowe, author of Lost Chicago, about the city's architecture and other related topics.
Pete Lit excerpts a couple of anecdotes from Herbert Asbury's Gangs of Chicago.
Test your knowledge of local history with this interactive quiz. You can even play against a friend. It's part of the detailed site for the PBS American Experience film, Chicago: City of the Century.
Coudal's Fresh Signals points to this amazing 1931 map of "Chicago's Gangland." That Encyclopedia is something else, huh?
Ever wonder why the Sox aren't the Socks? Wonder no more. Slate's "Explainer" takes a look at the early 20th century's rather strange linguistic priorities.
Today in Chicago history, on October 18, 1931, Al Capone was convicted on several counts of tax evasion. He was sentenced to 11 years in prison, fined $50,000, charged nearly $8,000 in court costs, and held responsible for more $200,000, plus interest, in back taxes. Capone spent time in the Cook County Jail while waiting for appeals, then was sent to the high security U.S. Penitentiary in Atlanta in May 1932. In 1934, Capone was transferred to Alcatraz, where he served until his release in 1939. For more on Al Capone, visit the History Files from the Chicago Historical Society and the Famous Cases page from the FBI.
Ever wondered what Chicagoans did for fun in 1913? Jazz Age Chicago is a highly detailed resource of information about leisure in Chicago in the first half of the 20th century. The site is chock full of historic information on the period's "bright light districts", department stores, theaters, dancehalls & cabarets, as well as essays about this new "modern life" of entertainment, leisure, and consumption.
In honor of its namesake's efforts at documenting the lives of everyday Americans, the Chicago Historical Society has announced plans for the Studs Terkel Center for Oral History [PDF]. CHS has about 5000 hours of Terkel radio programming, as well as recordings related to other projects like the recent Teen Chicago exhibit, and all future oral history efforts will bear the Center's imprimatur. Terkel was a huge influence on the StoryCorps project, which recently visited Chicago and was featured in Detour. (And, speaking of sound, GB audio content is now available via podcast; details here.)
Another municipal hiring scandal. (No worries for Daley, though -- this one took place in 1966.)
The Newberry Library, 60 W. Walton, hosts a panel on "Researching Chicago's Local History," featuring our favorite librarian, Alice Maggio. It's free, and it's at 6pm; more details in Slowdown.
A new DVD about the Columbian Exposition comes out tomorrow. EXPO: Magic of the White City tells the story of the 1893 World's Fair, narrated by Gene Wilder.
The Evanston Historical Society is seeking donations that represent the past 50 years of city history. The list of items of particular interest tells something of a story by itself, but if you have objects associated with the city's repeal of alcohol bans, post-1960s immigration to Evanston, or local political issues such as gun control, zoning, and school integration, and you're interested in contributing to an upcoming exhibit that traces the city's history to the present day, you're encouraged to contact the Society to arrange a donation appointment. Curatorial staff can be reached at 847/475-3410.
StoryCorps, a national project to record the stories and experiences of everyday Americans (stories that are heard occasionally on NPR's Morning Edition), is coming to the Field Museum in two weeks to add Chicago stories to its growing cache of interviews at the American Folklife Center. If you know someone who has a great story to tell, and want to record an interview for the project, keep an eye on the Chicago Public Radio site; they'll start accepting reservations this coming Friday, August 5th, for the recording of interviews.
Yale University's Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library features over 90,000 high resolution images of rare books and photographs, all of them readily accessible online. Tapping "Chicago" into the search field yields fascinating images of the Union Stockyards, grain elevators along the Chicago River (Anyone care for a Schlitz?), views of the lakefront as it once was, a letter from photographer Alfred Stieglitz and many more interesting documents. A Chicago history buff could lose a lot of sleep exploring it all . . .
The Washington Post marks a nearly-passed era with its profile of Chicago's last abattoir, Chiappetti Lamb and Veal. Even as Chiappetti stands as the final bastion of its industry, times continue to change. Because of ongoing gentrification of the stockyards area, the company will be moving its facilities within the next two years. Nevertheless, it has embraced the future: like any 21st Century survivor, Chiappetti's products are available online.
On July 13, 1995, the temperature in Chicago was recorded at 106 degrees, setting the high mark in a week-long heat wave that ultimately claimed over 700 heat-related deaths. Ten years after the Chicago heat wave, the city has since mobilized 17,000 people in the city to check up on the elderly, a group of people that was most affected by the 1995 heat. And as author Eric Klinenberg (Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago) notes, Chicago is still learning from the 1995 experience and trying to improve its response to hot weather. Meanwhile, the high today will be around 83 degrees, so check out the city's tips for dealing with hot weather.
Curious about why Chicago's north/south streets don't quite pass muster on the compass? Just enquire at Ask MetaFilter; no doubt the folks there will be happy to debate the answer. As for the grid system, Alice has that covered in an archived Ask the Librarian.
Do you love printed ephemera? Then you'll enjoy this digitized collection of "Pamphlets and Periodicals of the French Revolution of 1848," from a collaboration of the Center for Research Libraries, the University of Chicago Libraries and the ARTFL Project. The archive is comprised of more than 100 digitized materials from 1848 to 1851, including this published letter from Louis Napoleon.
Writing for the Chicago Daily News (which ran for nearly a century before folding in the mid 1970's) George Weller was the first reporter to arrive in Nagasaki after the August 1945 atomic bombing. His reports of ruin and a mysterious disease afflicting survivors were banned by order of General Douglas MacArthur. Decades later, Weller's son discovered carbon copies of the original articles. Today, they've been made publicly available for the first time.
You already knew that, back in February 1978, Chicago saw the birth of the world's first BBS. Well, the CBBS is back in the news with the recent release of BBS: The Documentary. The DVD set features eight episodes running five and a half hours, but, honestly, the promotional site is a history lesson in and of itself.
Just as the FBI exhumes the body of Emmett Till, the Chicago Historical Society gets ready to show an exhibition that "documents brutal acts of terror from America's past"; Without Sanctuary, a pictorial history of lynching in America, opens Saturday, June 4. The display will be supplemented with drawn renderings of the trial of Till's killers, and it will be accompanied by various lectures, including one discussing his death, "the murder that changed America."
As the latest entry in its Empire archive, Harper's Magazine has posted "The Massacre of Fort Dearborn at Chicago." Originally published in 1899, the piece was written by Simon Pokagon, former chief of the Pokagon band of Pattawapomie Indians and known in his day as the "Redskin Bard." In his essay, Pokagon gathers oral and written accounts of the original attack on Fort Dearborn, and he offers a remarkable picture of the sad and troubling contingencies of history.
Stephen Dubner, who co-authored Freakonomics with U of C economist Stephen Levitt, examines a bit of Chicago sports history in the Freakonomics Blog: did the 1919 White Sox get their nickname, the "Black Sox," due to their throwing of the World Series or for their notoriously dirty uniforms?
Dick "Two Ton" Baker was a local legend from the early days of broadcasting, but is largely forgotten by anyone younger than 40. This site catalogs a vast amount of information about Two Ton, including several mp3s of his humorous songs for kids and adults alike. [via MetaFilter]
An online version of the Encyclopedia of Chicago (published in book form last fall) goes live today. Over 1,400 entries, from the Chicago Fire to Millennium Park, plenty of maps, illustrations, glossaries and timelines of Chicago history. If your knowledge of city history is lacking, this is the place to go.
Here's an interesting collection of photographs taken by prisoners at Joliet Prison between 1890 and 1930. (For a bit of background, here's a curatorial statement from a 1996 exhbition that included the collection.) You might also be interested in this site from SuburbanChicagoNews.com about the prisons in Joliet.
"There was a house in New Orleans/they call the Rising Sun" and nobody knows where it was. Local scholar Shannon Dawdy, an assistant professor in the anthropology department at the University of Chicago, and several of her students have completed an excavation of a parking garage which just may have been the site of the famous brothel from 1808 to 1822, when it burned down. Hopefully her findings help her with that book she's writing on French colonial New Orleans.
Oh yeah, the Sun-times reminds us it's Pulaski Day. Amazing how quickly you forget the holiday when you're out of grade school...
The Chicago Historical Society is going to be closed for most of next year so they can expand and revitalize the center. They expect twice as much space to be alloted so the center can have more 3-D displays about Chicago history. They're not planning to whitewash Chicago's history, though. An audio display will permit visitors to hear a history of how their neighborhood has changed. President Lonnie Bunch said, "On the one hand, neighborhoods are places of celebration, but they're also places that keep people out."
Today in Chicago History: It seems like only yesterday to long-time fans, but today marks the fifth anniversary of the untimely and tragic death of popular WGN-AM radio personality, Bob Collins. He died when the small plane he piloted collided with another plane near the Waukegan Regional Airport. Over a million listeners tuned into his morning show every day.
After last week's PBS documentary "Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson," there have been several calls to Graceland Cemetery, where Johnson is buried, from visitors who want to see Johnson's grave. If you go, don't pay your respects at the big headstone labelled "Johnson;" although it was his intended headstone, Jack Johnson is actually buried in an unmarked grave next to that of his first wife Etta. And if you missed the documentary when it aired last week, it'll be rebroadcast on WTTW's digital cable station, starting today. See here for a schedule.
I grew up believing Chicago had been dubbed "The Windy City" because of our long-winded politicians. Later I learned that historians claimed Charles A. Dana of the New York Sun gave Chicago its famous nickname during the competition to hold the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. But a New York parking ticket judge says that story is untrue. And Chicago really received its nickname from -- Cincinnati?
The Chicago blog farkleberries reminds us that today is a solemn day in Chicago history: on December 2, 1942, at the University of Chicago, physicist Enrico Fermi and scientists from his laboratory achieved the first controlled nuclear fission chain reaction, which led to the creation of the atomic bomb and nuclear power plants. At the Library of Congress' Today In History page, they've got some related scanned documents and photographs, as well as a bunch of links guaranteed to help you kill the last hour of work.
Did you know Chicago has the home of the world's first BBS? In 1978, a couple of computer programmers developed CBBS in about two weeks. It took off, and the rest is history. The whole story and more is at Chinet.com.
On this day in Chicago history a judge directed the county clerk to produce the tally sheets, poll books and ballots of the Second Precinct, Eighteenth Ward, of the city in connection with allegations of tampering in the Leman (Republican) and Brand (Democrat) senatorial race. In March 1885, three men were convicted of falsifying returns to give Brand the edge over Leman. The race was closely scrutinized because the outcome determined which political party would have a majority in the state legislature.
The Weather Channel will feature Chicago in a holiday edition of its Storm Stories premiering this weekend. It's the story of the wreck of the Rouse Simmons, the "Christmas Tree ship" that brought trees across Lake Michigan to Chicago and was lost in a storm in 1912. (Incidentally, Storm Stories is produced in Chicago.) "The Christmas Tree Ship: A Holiday Storm Story" premieres Sunday at 8:00pm (CT).
The World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 inspired the building of some amazing structures, some of which were captured in this beautiful portfolio of lithographs. You may also be interested in IIT's Digital History Collection, one of the most comprehensive online resources on the fair.
Today in Chicago history 750 non-operating employees of the Chicago, North Shore & Milwaukee and the Chicago, Aurora & Elgin Electric Railroads were laid off following a week of strikes by 500 operating employees of the railroads. The workers went on strike to demand a wage increase of nine cents an hour -- four cents more than they were initially offered. Outraged commuters sent telegrams to the White House, pleading for President Roosevelt to intervene and end the strike.
Preserve Maxwell Street is a site chock full of content with the goal of bringing back the now mostly-condoized Maxwell Street. There's updated news, too, but I loved this series of photographs the most.
Here's a nifty site about the tunnels and rail operation that existed under the Loop until the 50s, and what a lot of the tunnels looked like in the 1980s. "Construction on Chicago's unique freight tunnel network began in 1899 in the basement of a tavern in the heart of the Loop near LaSalle and Madison Streets..."
One of my earliest memories was a visit to Dispensa's Kiddie Kingdom out in Oak Brook. I remembered very little, but this simple fan page jogged my memory. The scariest thing is that the site now holds the state's tallest building outside of Chicago - Oakbrook Terrace Tower.
In 1978 the National Socialist Party of America (Nazis) attempted to hold a march in the Village of Skokie. The suburb at that time was home to a large Jewish community, including many Holocaust survivors. The event received national attention and was even turned into a made-for-TV movie, Skokie, in 1981. Now, the Skokie Public Library brings us the Attempted Nazi March Collection Digitization Project, a comprehensive archive of materials relating to the incident. Download and read the original newspaper articles relating to the march, listen to real audio recordings from the 1977 and 1978 Village of Skokie Board of Trustees meetings, and watch a documentary film about the proposed march. Highly recommended.
Gothamist mentions an obscure slang term associated with the Flatiron Building (New York's, not the Wicker Park knock-off): "23 Skidoo," supposedly said by NYPD dispersing men hoping for a little upskirt action thanks to the breezes by that building. Turns out it may have originated in Chicago instead.
According to the North American Vexillological Association (vexillology = the study of flags - who knew?) Chicago's city flag is the second most attractive city flag in the nation. Right behind Washington DC and their ugly clone of Chicago's clean blue lines and red stars. What were those vexillologists thinking?
After years of research, the University of Chicago Press has published the authoritative history of Chicago with the monumental Encyclopedia of Chicago. The website has a wealth of information including some gorgeous sample pages. To celebrate, the Encyclopedia will be publicly unveiled at a pro-am city-wide trivia contest on Wednesday at the Harold Washington Library (see more in slowdown). So here's the plan: Buy the book, memorize, win!!! What could be simpler?
The Cook County Clerk of the Circuit Court has a little-known section of its site devoted to Famous Cases. Browse through documents relating to the trial of John Wayne Gacy (note the Detour feature over there), Louis Armstrong's divorce and the Black Sox scandal of 1919, among others.
Helen Kirkpatrick, Jane Meyer, Virginia Prewett and Sigrid Shultz are among the accredited female correspondants that worked for Chicago newspapers during World War II. Their stories and the profiles of eight other women are part of Women Come to the Front: Journalists, Photographers and Broadcasters During World War II, an online exhibition from the Library of Congress.
The Abraham Lincoln Historical Digitization Project, hosted by Northern Illinois University, "presents historical materials from Abraham Lincoln's Illinois years (1830-1861)." These materials include Lincoln's own writings and other primary texts, images, videos and interpretive materials. Lincoln/Net is a rich archive of literature concerning Abraham Lincoln and the early statehood of Illinois.
Everybody loves firefighters. Little girls and boys turn a cardboard box and a stuffed toy into a firetruck. Some big girls and boys have different steamy thoughts when they pass a firehouse. And because of the history of large-scale fires in Chicago they deserve our reverence. But they also deserve a monument. A group made up of mostly firefighters is set to break ground for the monument before the end of the month and they could use a little support. They're only $49,000 short and all donations are tax-deductible.
A neat little site about the history of the industrial Southeast of Chicago. Did you know the Ford Taurus was made here in our town?
No, not a new label. Illinois now requires insurance companies to disclose the records on any insurance policies they or predecessor companies issued to cover slaves. The records are being compiled online at this online registry, which went live yesterday. The Tribune has a report on the site's immediate effects.
Today's the 70th anniversary of John Dillinger being shot in front of Chicago's Biograph theater, and if you feel like celebrating the death of 1934's Public Enemy #1, then you'll want to head on over to the Red Lion Pub at 2446 N. Lincoln (across the street from the Biograph), for tonight's celebration of Dillinger Day. They'll be screening movies and newsreels on Dillinger at 8:00, Michael Flores of the Psychotronic Film Society will give a talk on Dillinger, and then at 10:00 a procession of bagpipes will retrace Dillinger's final steps from the Biograph to the nearby alley where he died.
...and she's hanging out by the docks at Montrose Harbor. But Saint Barbara's namesake isn't what you'd expect—she's a replica of a wooden fishing sailboat native to the west coast of Ireland, and the first-ever Galway Hooker to be built in the United States. Until she makes her historic journey to Eire next summer, you can see this gorgeous hand-crafted boat at Montrose Harbor (docked on the north wall) and at the Milwaukee Irish Fest, August 19-22.
It wasn't exactly the proudest moment in Chicago's history, but it sure got plenty of attention focused on Chicago DJ Steve Dahl. On July 12, 1979, in the middle of a White Sox-Tigers double header, Dahl held his infamous Disco Demolition, in which a number of disco records were blown up in the outfield of Comiskey Park. The event triggered a riot in the park, and caused the Sox to forfeit the second game. Considered the worst on-field event in baseball history, Disco Demolition is remembered with a mixture of fondness and horror by Chicago residents. Tonight at 8pm, Channel 11 will present a one-hour special commmemorating the event, with never-before-seen footage of the evening. WCKG is also hosting an anniversary celebration at Harry Caray's, 33 W. Kinzie, from 8pm to 10pm, where you can meet the disco demolition man himself!
The Chicago Historical Homicide Project began with the discovery a handwritten log of more than 11,000 homicides "maintained consistently and without interruption by the Chicago Police Department over the course of 60 years, from 1870 to 1930." Now these handwritten documents have been transformed into a searchable database providing a unique view into the history of Chicago during this period. The website also hightlights some of the most well-known crimes of the period including the trial of Leopold and Leob, the race riots of 1919, and the Haymarket Affair. This is really an incredible resource so go check it out.
The Chicago Tribune has a story today that leads you on a guided tour of some of the remains of the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 that took place right here in Chicago. Visit Jackson Park, see the replica of the Statue of the Republic, and find the location of the infamous hotel built by serial killer H.H. Holmes.
So I was surfing the pages to find out how to report a problem with water in the city. Answer: Call the (no-joke) Leak Desk (312-744-7038). While visiting, I found some neat facts about sewage, including this really neat presentation about the history of sewage in Chicago. Not as boring as it sounds.
Tune in tonight to WTTW Channel 11 to see "Breaking Ground: The Story of the Oriental Institute." The hour-long program airs at 9pm and provides an in-depth look at the history of this unique Chicago institution. Then, tomorrow night, the Chicago Stories program on PBS presents "Pioneer to the Past: The Life and Times of James Henry Breasted," the founder of the Oriental Institute. For more information on both of these programs, see the official press release.
Every time we drive down Touhy, my mother points out the grassy field near O'Hare Airport that marks the site of the crash of American Airlines Flight 191. Today marks the 25th anniversary of the tragedy that killed all 273 people aboard -- still the deadliest accident in U.S. aviation history.
Eighty years ago, Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb murdered 14-year-old Bobby Franks just to see if they could get away with it. They thought it would be a perfect crime, but instead were quickly arrested and tried. Their defense attorney was none other than Clarence Darrow, of Scopes Monkey Trial fame. Today the Chicago Historical Society opens an exhibit on the murder and trial; the show runs through September.
After you've read everything you want to know about Mike Brady in Ask the Librarian, go visit his grave in Skokie. You can search for other famous Chicago celebs like Al Capone or John Belushi at findagrave.com. Did you know that someone actually tried to steal John's remains, or that Clarence Darrow's grave is behind the Museum of Science and Industry?
Bohemian National is not a golf or tennis tournament. It's a huge graveyard at Foster and Pulaski and is worth a visit to check out some of Chicago's roots in Eastern Europe. A historian on the graveyard will be leading walking tours for $10 at 10am and 1:30pm. Plus, at 12:15, there will be a concert by the "Moravian Societies Singers" in folk constume. While Bohemian National doesn't have the celebrities that other graveyards do, it's still got some fascinating headstones, including pictures etched into metal of the people buried there.
A new exhibit opens tomorrow at the Chicago Historical Society tomorrow: Teen Chicago, a look at the influence of teenagers in Chicago's history. ABC 7 reports that the exhibit will include information from all though the 20th century (from child labor in the early 1900s to teens being drafted for Vietnam), as well as oral histories recorded by 15 teenagers.
The Chinatown Museum Foundation, created in 2002, has found a home, the Sun-Times reports. The foundation, created to showcase the richness of the culture in Chinatown, acquired a building on West 23rd Street, and hopes to have its grand opening by the end of the year. Its first exhibition, scheduled to open in the summer of 2005, will compare and contrast the role of Chinese culture in the world expositions of 1893 and 1933, both held in Chicago.
The Clarke House, the city's oldest house, dating back to 1836, is getting a rehab. The home will be restored to approximate the look it had in the 1850s, including era-appropriate roofline, trim and color. Work is expected to be completed this spring. Tours of the house, located at 1827 S. Indiana, are offered every Wednesday afternoon by the Glessner House Museum.
The Chicago Historical Society has launched a new website aimed at kids aged 6-12 that "uses the symbols and design of the Chicago flag to explore the city’s rich and diverse history." Although the site is designed for children, the rest of us can have fun here staving off boredom for a few minutes, too. My Chicago features several games including an interactive Chicago flag that lets you create your own flag and a Chicago Fire game in which you "match photographs of objects that were found after the fire and try to guess what the objects were before they were melted." You can also create your own poem about Chicago in the Chicago Refrigerator Poetry game. Yes!
Recently workers at the Board of Trade building made a very interesting discovery: dozens of old chalkboards which were used to display the changing stock prices to traders on the floor. Some of the boards date back to 1930, and still have chalk streaks on them. Obviously, they're of great historical interest, and the building's vice president, Kevin Lennon, says that some of them will end up over at the Chicago Historical Society.
Discovery.com re-states a claim made first in 1883 that the Chicago Fire may not have been started by Mrs. O'Leary's cow. The Great Chicago Fire claimed 300 lives and destroyed most of the downtown area in 1871. But does this cow deserve the blame? The Discovery Channel says no. Instead, Robert Wood, a retired physicist, claims it was a fragment from Biela's Comet which also induced blazes north of Chicago that burned millions of acres of farm and prairie lands. Wood speculates the main body of the comet crashed into Lake Michigan, with peripheral fragments causing the fires in Chicago, Wisconsin and Michigan.
Today is the 167th anniversary of Chicago being incorporated as a city. If you're not quite up on your city history, you can check out this timeline of events put together by the Chicago Public Library, as well as this Chicago-themed reading list put together for the WBEZ program "Eight Forty-Eight". For a more lively history lesson, try going over to Maxim's: the Nancy Goldberg International Center tonight at 6:00 for a discussion of Chicago and several of its more lively citizens, including Ann Landers and the Popeil family (yes, that Popeil family).
Riddle me this: what's five stories tall and 20 feet wide? The forthcoming Michigan Avenue Bridgehouse Museum, which is soon to open in a river bridgehouse near the corner of Michigan and Wacker. The Sun-Times reports on the museum, which will contain historical information about the Chicago River and its value to the area.
Black History Month has reached it's halfway point, and US Congressman Bobby Rush wants one defining moment of black history--the senseless murder of Chicagoan Emmett Till in Mississippi for allegdly whistling at a white woman--finally resolved by the US Justice Department. Congressman Rush wants the acquittals of the men who committed the murder--and later confessed to it--to be fully investigated. Till's murder is believed to be one of the sparks for the civil rights movement and it was certainly a mobilizing force for Chicago's South Side black community.
Still looking for a Valentine's Day gift for your sweetie? You could get him/her a brick from the garage that was the site of the Valentine's Day Massacre from 1929 (it's the 75th anniversary!). A mere $800 will get you a brick and a certificate of authenticity, stating that the brick is from the original garage building at 2122 N. Clark (the garage was torn down in 1967, and the bricks were bought by a forward-thinking fellow from Vancouver).
Cook County Hospital is one of the busiest healthcare centers in the country. The old building, vacant since the completion of John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital, is in danger of destruction. Preservationists want to keep this beautiful Beaux Arts building intact, but it's an uphill battle; the building came close to being razed, and isn't in the clear yet. Read about the building and the reuse plan (PDF) offered by the Landmarks Preservation Council.
The Salt Lake Tribune tells the colorful story of Chicago Charlie, a Greek immigrant known for tall tales, eccentric stunts and prolific correspondence with soldiers during World War II. Hundreds of his letters were recently found in a buried time capsule in Copperton, Utah.
The History Makers is a South Loop-based nonprofit "undertaking the largest African-American oral history project since WPA anthropologists collected narratives of former slaves in the 1930s." The Chicago Journal has an article on the project that includes a brief profile of Regina Baiocchi, an African-American opera composer whose work has been performed by the CSO.
Digital History is a collaborative effort between the University of Houston, the Chicago Historical Society and other institutions to support the teaching of American history in at the elementary, high school and college levels. This beautiful and well-designed site includes an online textbook, encyclopedia, an interactive timeline, online exhibitions, and much more. The site also features a searchable database of over 1,500 annotated links to additional American history resources, audio archives (Real audio), and an image archive. Really fantastic stuff.
Today the city dedicates a new plaque commemorating the Iroquois Theatre fire, which happened 100 years ago today. One of the worst disasters in city history, the fire claimed the lives of 600 men, women and children -- twice the number that died in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. The plaque will be located in the Loop's Oriental Theatre, a block from the Cook County Administration Building where six people died in a fire last October. [Trib. login: gapers/gapers]
Divers flock to the Great Lakes to explore shipwrecks, calling the Great Lakes one of the best places in the world to see them because the freshwater preserves wrecks better than saltwater. According to the story, "the Great Lakes hold an estimated 6,000 to 10,000 sunken ships. About 1,000 Great Lakes shipwrecks have been identified, and about 10 new ships are discovered annually."
A team of archaeologists from the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute recently discovered three new buildings in Abydos, "a rich and important archaeological site near Egypt’s last royal pyramid." Now a team being led by Egyptologist Stephen Harvey is returning to the area to begin excavation. Read more about the project in the U. of C. Chronicle.
The National Register of Historic Places has a listing of all the protected buildings, districts and other special places in Cook, DuPage, Lake, Kane, McHenry and Will counties. Plan your own tour!
You know that big pink building up at Bryn Mawr and Sheridan? It's called the Edgewater Beach Apartments. It looks like it's been there forever (and it has, sort of -- built in 1926) but it's actually a replica of one of two buildings that made up the 1,000 room Edgewater Beach Hotel. The hotel was extremely popular in the '20s, '30s and '40s, but began to fail after the construction of Lake Shore Drive. The original building was closed in 1967. Read the recollections of people connected to the Edgewater back in its hey-day.
A photography exhibit chronicling life in the African-American community of Bronzeville in the early 1940s opened yesterday at the DuSable Museum of African American History. The exhibit features more than 120 photographs of from one of the most vibrant eras of the neighborhood. Can't make it to the museum? Buy the book.
The National Museum of American History's "America on the Move" exhibit includes a chapter on the expansion of Chicago and its suburbs, including a hefty bit about Park Forest, one of the first planned communities. Very interesting read.
Apparently, quoting Abraham Lincoln is a popular pastime. So popular, in fact, that the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency put together a page of quotations attributed to Lincoln, letting you know whether he actually said such things as "To sin by silence, when they should protest, makes cowards of men" (he didn't). Also available: examples of facsimiles of Lincoln documents, so you can compare them to the copy of the Gettysbug Address that you've got lying in your junk drawer, to see if it's real or not.
Lester M. Gillis, aka "Baby Face Nelson," was one of Chicago's most famous gangsters. Few people realize, however, that he was killed not in the city but actually just outside Barrington, at what is now the intersection of Routes 14 and 22 in Fox River Grove.
Did you know Chicago's history goes back to 1673? The Chicago Public Library offers a Timeline that takes you from the "discovery" of the area by French missionaries all the way up to 1998's asian longhorn beetle invasion, with plenty of stops in between.
Timuel Black's upcoming book, "Bridges of Memory: Chicago's First Wave of Great Migration," narrates the history of African-Americans in the city from the 1920s to present. The Sun-Times has an interview and review of Black and the book.
Studs Terkel has a new volume of oral history, "Hope Dies Last." Here's a
