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Asian American Small Business Association Records

Dates: 1990-2001. Size: .75 linear feet in 2 boxes. Chicago Public Library, Sulzer Regional Library, Northside Neighborhood History Collection. Established by Charlie Soo in 1979, the Asian American Small Business Association encouraged economic development in the area near Argyle Street and Broadway. The bulk of the collection consists of news releases and flyers promoting events. It also includes newspaper articles about Argyle Street, letters from Soo, reports, newsletters, and ephemera. [Finding Aid]

Millennium Park, U.S. Equities Realty Collection

Dates: 1999-2005. Size: 80 linear feet in 99 boxes. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. U.S. Equities Realty was retained to act as owners’ representative for many of the enhancements to Millennium Park. These photographs document the development and construction of the major sites in Millennium Park. All of these photographs are digital and in color. Photographs from this collection are available in the Library’s Millennium Park Digital Collection. [Finding aid]

Neighborhoods

2011 Snowstorm Photographs

Date: 2011. Size: 2 linear feet in 2 boxes, includes 114 photographs. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. The 2011 snowstorm started Tuesday afternoon, February 1, 2011. Over 20 inches of snow would eventually descend upon the city with winds measuring up to 70 miles per hour. The Snowstorm Photograph Collection contains photographs of Chicago neighborhoods during or just after the 2011 blizzard. [Finding aid]

Albany Park Community Collection

Dates: 1919-2001. Size: 2.5 linear feet in 5 boxes plus 2 oversize folders. Chicago Public Library, Sulzer Regional Library, Northside Neighborhood History Collection. The Albany Park Community Area is located eight miles northwest of Chicago’s Loop. Community number fourteen of Chicago's seventy-seven official communities, Albany Park was annexed into Chicago in 1889. This collection documents life in Albany Park from 1919 to 2001. [Finding Aid]

Amundsen High School Collection

Dates: 1931-1987. Size: 2.5 linear feet in 4 boxes and 7 photographs, plus 1 oversize folder. Chicago Public Library, Sulzer Regional Library, Northside Neighborhood History Collection. Amundsen High School was constructed in 1930 on Damen Avenue at Foster Avenue in Winnemac Park on the North Side of Chicago. Originally a junior high school, it was converted to a four-year high school in 1933 and has continued to serve as a high school since that time. The collection contains yearbooks, clippings, programs, the school newspaper, and photographs Photographs from this collection are available in the Library's Northside High Schools Digital Collection. [Finding Aid]

Anderson, Goldwin E. Notebooks

Dates: 1937-1938. Size: 0.5 linear feet in 1 box. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection, part of the Austin Community Collections. This scrapbook collection documents Austin social organizations and prominent neighborhood residents. [Finding aid]

Asian American Small Business Association Records

Dates: 1990-2001. Size: .75 linear feet in 2 boxes. Chicago Public Library, Sulzer Regional Library, Northside Neighborhood History Collection. Established by Charlie Soo in 1979, the Asian American Small Business Association encouraged economic development in the area near Argyle Street and Broadway. The bulk of the collection consists of news releases and flyers promoting events. It also includes newspaper articles about Argyle Street, letters from Soo, reports, newsletters, and ephemera. [Finding Aid]

Associated Clubs of Woodlawn

Dates: 1920-1972. Size: 4 linear feet in 9 boxes including 1 photograph. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection, part of the Woodlawn Community Collections. The Associated Clubs of Woodlawn Records documents the organization’s work to promote business, civic, educational and social welfare in the Woodlawn community. The collection contains committee files, correspondence, meeting minutes, membership rosters, reports. [Finding aid]

Austin Community Collection

Dates: 1839-1981. Size: 14 linear feet in 19 boxes includes 300 photographs and 19 oversize folders. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection, part of the Austin Community Collections. The collection contains manuscript, print and photographic documentation on demographic, economic, cultural, social, political, and religious development of the Austin neighborhood. The collection contains biographical information on Austin residents, as well as information on businesses, religious institutions clubs and organizations, hospitals, municipal agencies, parks, residences, schools, streets, transportation, and wartime activities. [Finding aid]

Austin Daughters of the American Revolution Papers

Dates: 1930-1938. Size: 1 linear foot in 2 boxes, plus 8 photographs. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection, part of the Austin Community Collections. The Austin Daughters of the American Revolution (ADAR) - David Kennison Chapter was founded on December 12, 1921. The chapter’s namesake, David Kennison, claimed to be a Revolutionary War veteran. He died in 1852 and was buried in Lincoln Park, which was then a cemetery. Six scrapbooks compiled by ADAR members contain press clippings, photographs and yearbooks describing ADAR functions and members. [Finding aid]

Austin High School Records

Dates: 1881-1987. Size: 6.5 linear feet in 14 boxes, including 17 photographs. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection, part of the Austin Community Collections. This collection documents Austin High School from its earliest days in the 1870s through the federally mandated desegregation attempts of the 1960s and 1970s. The documentation includes histories, news clippings, photographs, programs, student publications and yearbooks. [Finding aid]

Austin Newspapers Collection

Dates: 1876-1997 (Bulk dates: 1970-1997). Size: 69 linear feet in 23 boxes plus 2 oversize folders. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection, part of the Austin Community Collections. The collection contains issues of community newspapers including The Austin Herald, The Austin News, The Austinite, The Austin Voice, The Austin Weekly News, and The Windy City Word. [Finding aid]

Austin Woman’s Club Records

Dates: 1912-1965. Size: 1 linear foot. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection, part of the Austin Community Collections. Clippings, yearbooks and scrapbooks that document the Club’s objectives which were “intellectual and social culture, general philanthropic work, a united effort toward self-improvement and the elevation of humanity.” [Finding aid]

Back of the Yards Community Collection

Dates: 1921-1983. Size: 1 linear foot in 1 box, plus 13 microfilm reels. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. The collection contains materials relating to the Back of the Yards community, including news clippings, historical sketches and microfilm reels of the Back of the Yards Journal and the Back of the Yards Neighborhood Council (BYNC) scrapbooks. [Finding aid]

Back of the Yards Newspaper Collection

Dates: 1940-2015. Size: 35 linear feet in 50 boxes including 970 photographs. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. The collection contains issues and clippings of Back of the Yards Journal, the paper that worked closely with the Back of the Yards Neighborhood Council (BYNC), along with Journal News, City NewsHound and a selection of corresponding photographs. Collectively, these newspapers served Chicago’s New City, Brighton Park, Archer Heights, McKinley Park, Bridgeport, Gage Park and Clearing neighborhoods and emphasized local stories not covered by Chicago’s larger publications. [Finding aid]

Barr, Norman B. Papers

Dates: 1896-1987, Bulk dates 1900-1940. Size: 7 Linear Feet in 12 boxes, plus 5 oversize folders. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. Norman B. Barr was minister of the Olivet Presbyterian Church in Chicago which undertook local missionary work, eventually operating a settlement house, library, medical dispensary, camp, supervised playground facilities, language classes, and even music lessons. The collection documents the tandem career of Barr and the fortunes of Olivet Institute. [Finding aid]

Barrett, Brenetta Howell Papers

Dates: 1942-2006. Size: 48 linear feet. Accession #2007/08. Chicago Public Library, Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature. A lifelong Chicagoan, Brenetta Howell Barrett was a leader and political activist in West Side community organizations. She served in the mayoral administrations of Harold Washington and Eugene Sawyer. Active in housing, environmental and civil liberties issues, she was also involved in community protests in the 1960s and 1970s. Her papers include correspondence, office files, programs, clippings, photographs and memorabilia. [Finding Aid, opens a new window]

Beaman Photograph Album

Dates: 1915-1918. Size: 0.25 linear feet in 1 box. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. A collection of photographs from a YMCA (Young Men’s Christian Association) camp in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. [Finding aid]

Belmont Cragin Community Collection

Dates: 1883-1946 (Bulk dates, 1913-1946). Size: 1 linear foot in 1 box, includes 13 photographs. Chicago Public Library, Sulzer Regional Library, Northside Neighborhood History Collection. This small collection contains clippings, programs, yearbooks, photographs, and biographical and historical sketches of the Belmont Cragin neighborhood in the late nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century. [Finding Aid]

Bethel New Life Records

Dates: 1870-2010. Size: 10.25 linear feet in 14 boxes, includes 354 photographs, 27 audiotapes, 17 videotapes, 6 oversize folders. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection, part of the Garfield Park Community Collections. Bethel New Life, Inc. is a non-profit community development corporation and social service organization. The organization received an Illinois Humanities Council grant in 1983 to “involve the Black community of Chicago’s West Side in recovering the recent history of the area.” The Looking Backward to Move Forward project from 1984 to1989 focused on the themes of migration, ownership patterns, the church, and community leadership. The historical explorations included a series of oral histories and also gathered a range of documents and photographs that were donated or copied for the archival record. [Finding aid]

Beverly-Morgan Park Collection

Dates: 1874-2010, undated. Size: 21 linear feet, includes 148 photographs, 4 oversize folders. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. The Beverly-Morgan Park Collection contains range of manuscript, printed and photographic materials on the development of these adjacent community areas in southwestern Chicago. The documentation includes information on businesses, clubs and organizations, municipal agencies, parks, religious institutions, residences, schools, transportation, and the Village of Morgan Park from its incorporation in 1892 until its annexation to the City of Chicago in 1914. [Finding aid]

Bowman, Louis Andrew Papers

Dates: 1876-1959. Size: .25 linear feet; 17 photographs. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. Personal papers related to Louis Bowman’s ministry including radio addresses, speeches, articles, pamphlets and his book The Life of Isaac E. Brown (1927). [Finding aid]

Brennan, George A. Papers

Dates: 1915-1958. Size: 0.5 linear feet in 1 box, plus 1 oversize folder. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection, part of the Calumet Region Community Collections. Collection reflects George Brennan’s personal interest in the local history of the Calumet region and the early Dutch community in Chicago. [Finding aid]

Brighton Park Community Collection

Dates: 1927-1992. Size: 1 linear foot in 2 boxes including 1 audiocassette, plus 4 oversize folders. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. The Brighton Park Community Collection contains information about neighborhood schools and religious institutions as well as a 100-page manuscript, “Gleanings of Archer Road” by local historian and reporter, Joseph Hamzik. [Finding aid]

Calumet Pioneer Historical Society Records

Dates: 1935-1967. Size: 2 linear feet in 3 boxes, including 37 photographic images. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection, part of the Calumet Region Community Collections. The Calumet Pioneer Historical Society was established in 1935 by the head of the Pullman Branch Library to help preserve the history of the area. The collection includes administrative records, executive committee and regular meeting minutes in addition to a selection of non-manuscript material and artifacts. [Finding aid]

Calumet Region Community Collection

Dates: 1850-2021, [Bulk dates, 1850-1975]. Size: 25 linear feet, including 546 photographs, 22 oversize folders. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection, part of the Calumet Region Community Collections. The Calumet Region Community Collection spans Chicago’s Roseland, Pullman, West Pullman, South Holland, Dolton, Fernwood, Gano, Kensington, Riverdale and Rosemoor neighborhoods. The collection includes biographical, business, church, community and school records in addition to photographs, scrapbooks, community histories and artifacts spanning more than one hundred years. [Finding aid]

Campbell, Lillian M. Memorial Collection

Dates: 1858-1940. Size: 14.5 linear feet, includes 355 photographs. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. Lillian May (Smith) Campbell and her husband, Frank R. Campbell amassed a collection of photographs of Chicago views that primarily depict streetcars, trolley buses and other modes of transportation as well as document opening ceremonies for bus and streetcar lines across the city in the 1930s. The collection is particularly strong in the neighborhoods of Roseland, South Shore, South Chicago, Woodlawn, Lake View, Rogers Park, Portage Park and Logan Square. [Finding aid]

Campbell, Sylvia Photograph Collection

Dates: 1968. Size: 1 linear foot. Accession #2008/04. Chicago Public Library, Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature. This small collection of photographs consists of snapshots taken by Sylvia Campbell’s husband on Chicago’s West Side during the April 1968 riot following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. [Finding aid]

cassens, gloria Collection

Dates: circa 2012-2015. Size: .5 linear feet, includes 908 photographs, 2 folders. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections. gloria cassens is a writer and a photographer. While her work covers several genres, including architectural photographs and shots of nature, but her main focus, and the content of this collection, is on individuals she encounters in her daily wandering in Chicago’s Loop and Near North Side. Her photographs graphically depict the human conditions that some people, young and old, men and women, experience. [Finding aid]

Chase, Horace G. Papers

Dates: 1843-1902. Size: 0.75 linear feet in 2 boxes. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collections. Collection consists of business (real estate) correspondence. [Finding aid]

Chatham-Grand Crossing Community Collection

Dates: 1852-1980. Size: .75 linear feet. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. The Chatham-Grand Crossing Community Collection contains a selection of items that fall into the following topical areas: biography, business, clubs and organizations, historical sketches, municipal agencies, religious institutions, schools, transportation and wartime activities. The materials include articles, correspondence, flyers, news clippings and reminisces. The bulk of the items are from the 1920s-1950s. [Finding aid]

Chicago African American and Latinx Newspapers Microfilm Collection

Dates: 1936-2004. Size: 7 microfilm reels. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections. The issues from 40 different newspapers chosen for this Illinois Newspaper Project (INP) derive from neighborhood and independent African American and Latinx papers in the Chicago area. The newspapers on these reels complement the runs of newspapers held by Chicago Public Library. The originals are held at Chicago History Museum. [Finding aid]

Chicago City-Wide Collection

Dates: 1807-2021, (Bulk dates: 1871-1970) Size: 43.25 linear feet in 147 boxes, including 152 oversize folders, 1816 photographs, 3 artifacts. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. The Chicago City-Wide Collection consists of a wide assortment of manuscript, printed and photographic materials on multiple topics. It includes biographical, business, cultural, educational, municipal, recreation, religious, social and transportation source materials. The collection is designed to gather together materials that relate to the city as a whole and to include materials from Chicago communities that fall outside of the Library’s existing neighborhood collection strengths. In addition, the collection covers the Loop and Downtown areas and contains a wide range of guide and souvenir viewbooks geared toward tourism; sketches and images from historical events, especially the Chicago Fire of 1871; a series of Chicago maps dating back to 1835; and several significant maps of Chicago parks, including several 19th century maps for West and South Park Commissions and 134 of 171 maps created as part of a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project in the 1930s. [Finding aid]

Chicago Collection of Cecilia Cooper

Dates: 1812-1996, bulk dates: 1868-1875. Size: 1.5 linear feet. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. The collection consists of Chicago ephemera, illustrations, newspapers, theater programs and stereoscopic view cards, also called stereographs, collected by Cecilia and Allen R. Cooper. The topics of interest include the Chicago Fire of 1871, pre-Fire theatre and Col. Wood’s Museum. [Finding aid]

Chicago Collection of Kenan and Carol Heise

Dates: 1812-circa 2005; bulk dates 1893-1980. Size: 33 linear feet, includes 3 oversize folders, 417 photographs, 14 contact sheets and negatives. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. The Chicago Collection of Kenan and Carol Heise includes a wide range of materials: advertisements, articles, catalogs, directories, event programs, flyers, guides, government publications, literary journals and chapbooks, maps, memorials and historical sketches, newsletters, pamphlets, photographs, reports, serials, souvenir publications and speeches. Most of these materials provide a snapshot of activities undertaken by Chicagoans or local organizations at various times and reflect Heise’s belief that “genuine creativity and authentic culture come not from the elite, but from the people.” [Finding aid]

Chicago Department of Urban Renewal Collection

Dates: 1891-1992 (Bulk dates, 1950-1980). Size: 41 Linear Feet in 127 boxes (including 3 audio cassettes, approximately 16,000 photographic negatives, 35 boxes of photographic images, and 3 boxes of video reels), plus 1 oversize folder. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. The records in this collection were created and collected by the Department of Urban Renewal, its predecessors and other Chicago city departments with duties related to planning and development. The majority of the collection is comprised of photographs, contact sheets, negatives and slides of Chicago neighborhoods considered and targeted for improvement, including images that show buildings and neighborhoods that were subsequently razed. There are also papers related to the administration of the Department's initiatives, publications related to planning and development, images of events related to various urban renewal and development projects and images of staff members of the Department of Urban Renewal, the Chicago Plan Commission and other related City entities. Photographs from this collection are available in the Library's Chicago Department of Urban Renewal Records: Photographic Negatives Digital Collection.  [Finding aid]

Chicago Department of Water Management

Dates: circa 1866-2011. Size: 118 linear feet in 70 boxes including 55 scrapbooks and one bound atlas. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections. Today, Chicago’s Department of Water Management delivers nearly 1 billion gallons of drinking water to residents of Chicago and 125 suburbs daily. The collection includes historic documentation of the Jardine Water Purification Plant (formerly Central District Filtration Plant), Eugene Sawyer Water Purification Plant (formerly South District Filtration Plant), the water cribs in Lake Michigan, and Chicago’s 12 pumping stations, including Chicago Water Tower (Chicago Avenue Pumping Station). Historic materials in this collection include articles, brochures, newsletters, pamphlets, photographs, press releases, reports, and scrapbooks. [Partially processed]

Chicago Loop Alliance Collection

Dates: 1895-2006. Size: 39 linear feet in 53 boxes and 7 oversize folders, includes 4,056 photographs, 2,480 slides, 795 4”x5” negatives, 60 videos, 6 audio cassettes, 2 artifacts. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. The Chicago Loop Alliance, formerly known as the State Street Council and the Greater State Street Council (GSSC), was founded in 1929 to promote the business interests of downtown State Street. This collection documents the activities of the organization through correspondence, marketing materials, meeting minutes, newsletters, photographs, press releases, studies, reports, and audiovisual resources. Among the projects was the closure of vehicular traffic on State Street and its transformation into a walking Mall between 1979 and 1996. [Finding aid]

Chicago Millennium Collection

Dates: 1997-2001. Size: 17 linear feet, includes 1 oversize folder, 177 photographs, 12 audio recordings. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. The Chicago Millennium Collection documents the events planned by the City of Chicago to mark the beginning of the third millennium. The Collection consists of the files generated primarily by the City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA). The three main projects undertaken by DCA are the Dance ‘til the Dawn of the New Millennium, the International Millennium Dinner, and the Year 2000 Themes. [Finding aid]

Chicago Outdoor Art League Collection

Dates: 1929-1996. Size: 4 linear feet, includes 48 photographs. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. The Chicago Outdoor Art League (COAL), founded in 1900, sponsored gardening programs; donated trees to local organizations, hospitals and schools; and offered art and music scholarships. The League worked frequently with schools in Chicago. It was affiliated with the Illinois Federation of Women's Clubs. [Finding aid]

Chicago Park District Records: Drawings

Dates: 1870-2010. Size: Approximately 100,000 drawings; Over 25,000 PDF access copies. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections. Chicago's earliest parks were created between the 1830s and 1860s. In 1869, three major organizations were formed for the creation, maintenance and governance of Chicago's parks: the Lincoln Park Commission, the West Chicago Park Commission and the South Park Commission. By 1934, 22 independent park commissions existed, and in that year, they consolidated into the Chicago Park District. From large, famous park to small, neighborhood playground, from Chicago’s boulevard system to its beaches, the Chicago Park District is represented in its entirety in this collection. The records of the Chicago Park District are comprised of a wide variety of landscape and architectural drawings of parks, park buildings and related green spaces. Researchers will view PDF versions of the drawing in the Special Collections Reading Room. [Finding aid]

Chicago Park District Records: Photographs

Dates: 1863 – 2005 (bulk, 1934-1995). Size: 100 linear feet in 182 boxes, including approximately 62,000 photographs. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections. Chicago's earliest parks were created between the 1830s and 1860s. In 1869, three major organizations were formed for the creation, maintenance and governance of Chicago's parks: the Lincoln Park Commission, the West Chicago Park Commission and the South Park Commission. By 1934, 22 independent park commissions existed, and in that year, they consolidated into the Chicago Park District. Representing over 500 parks from the late nineteenth century to the present, these photographs document site development, park facilities, features (such as gardens, fountains, playgrounds and sculptures), park staff, programmatic activities, special events, the lakeshore and shore protection efforts and road construction and re-development. Photographs of people engaged in activities and events also appear in great numbers. The photographs show how the demographics and populations served by the city’s parks have changed over time. They also document the history of and changes in American leisure activities and the use of public spaces. Selected photographs from this collection are available in the Library's Chicago Park District Records: Photographs Digital Collection. [Finding aid]

Chicago Postcard Collection

Dates: 1890s-1976; bulk: 1900-1950. Size: 2237 postcards, (2 linear foot). Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections. Spanning the 1890s to the 1970s, the Chicago Postcard Collection offers a wide range of views of the city and an insight into its culture and tourism over the 20th century. Views include aerials, skylines, buildings, businesses, hospitals, municipal structures, museums, parks, religious institutions, schools, sports, streets, transportation and World’s Fairs. [Finding aid]

Chicago Sewers Collection

Dates: 1855-2004. Size: 13.5 linear feet, includes 951 photographs, 121 glass plate slides. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. The Chicago Sewers Collection contains historical sketches, maps, photographs, plans and reports. The bulk of the materials are photographs that depict the construction and repair of Chicago’s sewers with views above and below ground. The sewer systems span neighborhood sites across the city and include several Works Progress Administration (WPA) projects. A selection of photographs from this collection are available in the Library’s  Chicago’s Sewers Digital Collection. [Finding aid]

Chicago Video Project Archives

Dates: 2003-2009. Size: 3 linear feet. Accession #2010/02. Chicago Public Library, Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature. The Chicago Video Project, a nonprofit, Chicago-based video production company, focused on projects concerning advocacy groups, community development organizations, labor unions, economic and social justice. These archives consist of more than 200 original, unedited videotapes filmed as part of the work on CVP’s documentary, Telling Our Story, on the Chicago Housing Authority’s 15-year Plan for Transition. The tapes include community meetings, protests and interviews with residents, CHA staff and activists. [Unprocessed]

Chicago: Passport to the World Videotape Collection

Dates: 1987-1994. Size: 6 Linear Feet (in 6 boxes, including 135 videotapes). Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. Videos produced by Talman Home Federal Savings and Loan Association of Chicago and seen on a Chicago-area cable network. Series presents Chicago’s diversity through interviews with individuals, organizations and groups. [Partially processed - Finding aid]

Christian Fellowship Church Collection

Dates: 1927-1990. Size: 1.5 linear feet. Chicago Public Library, Sulzer Regional Library, Northside Neighborhood History Collection. Conrad and Martha Wendtland founded the Christian Fellowship Church in their home in 1926. The activities of the church are documented in minutes from committee meetings, financial and membership ledgers, and photographs. Selected photographs from this collection are available in the Library's Northside Clubs and Organizations Digital Collection. [Finding Aid]

City of Chicago Graphics and Reproduction Center Photographs

Date: 1920s-2008, bulk 1960-2002. Size: 108 linear feet in 217 boxes, plus 1 oversize folder. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections. The City of Chicago Graphics and Reproduction Center Photographs document many aspects of City government and functions for most of the twentieth century. The photographers of this department were hired out by a variety of City agencies and departments to photograph events, facilities, people and equipment. The images cover a vast range of Chicago scenes including construction, clean up and transit projects; festivals, inaugurations, performances and other events; social programs like senior citizen picnics and Low Income Housing Trust Fund projects; photo opportunities with various mayors; and countless views of iconic Chicago buildings, venues, parks, museums and the lakefront. A small series of published reports, brochures and newsletters also appears. [Processed]

Clark, Stephen Bedell Papers

Dates: 1885-1985, bulk 1920-1965. Size: 1.25 linear feet in 2 boxes, including 93 photographs. Chicago Public Library, Sulzer Regional Library, Northside Neighborhood History Collection. Stephen Bedell Clark is the author of The Lake View Saga, a book he published about the history of Lake View Township. This collection includes his notes and photographs he used to write the book. [Finding Aid]

Coalition to Save the South Shore Country Club Archives

Dates: 1906-1993. Size: 18.5 linear feet. Accession #1997/09. Chicago Public Library, Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature. South Shore Country Club, originally a private club that barred African Americans, was scheduled for demolition in 1977. A grassroots coalition of community organizations organized to save, preserve and restore the historic site for all citizens. This collection contains blueprints and drawings of the renovation of South Shore Country Club, administrative records, statistical reports, newspaper clippings, photographs and memorabilia. [Finding Aid]

Constellation Lodge Records

Dates: 1916-1927 (Bulk dates, 1917-1919). Size: 2 linear feet. Chicago Public Library, Sulzer Regional Library, Northside Neighborhood History Collection. The majority of the collection consists of letters from lodge brothers serving in World War I, with updates on their lives and activities. It also contains a small amount of historical information about Lodge #892 of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. [Finding Aid]

Darrow, Clarence S. Papers

Dates: 1891-1956. Size: 1.75 linear feet in 3 boxes (including 1 photograph), plus 2 oversize folders. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection, part of the Woodlawn Community Collections. Collection consists of published works in pamphlet or journal form, and a small amount of correspondence and news clippings. [Finding aid]

Drury, John Collection

Dates: 1940-1959. Size: .5 linear feet in 1 box. Chicago Public Library, Sulzer Regional Library, Northside Neighborhood History Collection. This collection contains news clippings that John Drury wrote for his newspaper columns called “Historic Chicago Sites,” “North Side Notebook, and “Old Chicago Houses.” The articles provide biographical information, historical sketches and reminiscences that reflect his views about what life was like on the North Side of Chicago from the late 19th Century through the first half of the 20th Century. [Finding Aid]

East Garfield Park Community Collection

Dates: circa 1870-1964. Size: 21.5 linear feet in 25 boxes, including 344 photographs, 12 oversize folders. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection, part of the Garfield Park Community Collections. The East Garfield Park Collection contains manuscripts, printed material and photographs on businesses, clubs and organizations, religious institutions, residents, schools and street scenes in the community area, as well as Garfield Park itself. [Finding aid]

Edison Park Community Collection

Dates: 1919-1981 (Bulk dates, 1962-1976). Size: .75 linear feet. Chicago Public Library, Sulzer Regional Library, Northside Neighborhood History Collection. Edison Park, located on the far northwest side of the city, is one of Chicago's seventy-seven community areas. This collection mostly consists of news clippings documenting people and organizations in the Edison Park community. There is also a small amount of additional material such as programs, booklets, and correspondence. [Finding Aid]

Elder, Leland B. Jr., Papers

Dates: 1945-2016. Size: 9 linear feet Accession #: 2016/02.Chicago Public Library, Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature.  Leland B. Elder, Jr. worked as part of the Chicago Public Library’s Public Information Office (PIO) for over 30 years (1984-2016).  His responsibilities included editing and writing for the various incarnations of the library’s newsletters, marketing, press releases and promoting library programs and services. His papers, which include press releases, event flyers and programs, detail the growth and development of the PIO and the Marketing Department of the Chicago Public Library as well as the evolution of the ethnic heritage committees and the annual library programs. [Finding aid]

Englewood Community Collection

Dates: 1868-2012 (bulk dates: 1890-1945). Size: 13.5 linear feet in 16 boxes, includes 283 photographs and 16 oversize folders. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection, part of the Englewood Community Collections. The collection contains a range of articles, brochures, historical sketches, newsletters, photographs, programs and reports that focus on Englewood’s neighborhood events, persons and organizations, particularly during the late 19th century to the early 1960s. Of particular note are the neighborhood photographs and the series devoted to schools in Englewood. [Finding aid]

Englewood High School Records

Dates: 1874-1959. Size: 7.5 linear feet in 10 boxes including 66 photographs. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection, part of the Englewood Community Collections. The Englewood High School Records contains historical sketches, laboratory notebooks, photographs, programs, publications and yearbooks that chronicle school history and student activities [Finding aid]

Englewood Historical Association Papers

Dates: 1868-1951. Size: 1 linear foot in 2 boxes (including 10 photographic images), plus 2 oversize folders. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection, part of the Englewood Community Collections. Documents the organization which worked with the Kelly Branch Library to gather and preserve historical material of the Englewood district of Chicago. [Finding aid]

Englewood Newspaper Collection

Dates: 1878-1934. Size: .5 linear feet. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection, part of the Englewood Community Collections. A small collection of neighborhood newspapers from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. [Finding aid]

Englewood Woman’s Club Records

Dates: 1898-1932. Size: .75 linear feet. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection, part of the Englewood Community Collections. The Englewood Woman's Club was organized in 1896. Collection consists primarily of yearbooks dating from 1898 to 1931. [Finding aid]

Evans, T. Arthur Papers

Dates: 1902-2002, bulk dates: 1924-1926. Size: .5 linear feet. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. T. (Thomas) Arthur Evans (1878-1945) was the Chief Engineer for the creation of Chicago’s double-level Wacker Drive that opened in 1926. The collection includes a small selection of his professional documents including his resume, engineering licenses, correspondence, ephemera, news clippings along with 43 photographs, most of which are related to the construction of Chicago’s Wacker Drive. [Finding aid]

Fenger High School Records

Dates: 1925-1987. Size: 5 linear feet in 10 boxes (including 28 photographs), plus 1 oversize folder. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection, part of the Calumet Region Community Collections. Collection consists primarily of yearbooks dating from 1925 to 1965 (partial run). [Finding aid]

Fernwood Methodist Church Scrapbooks

Dates: 1953-1971. Size: 2 linear feet in 2 boxes. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection, part of the Calumet Region Community Collections. Scrapbooks compiled by Mr. and Mrs. William Fenstemacher. These scrapbooks contain photographs of members of the congregation at  religious and social events.  Also included are news clippings and programs relating to the activities of the church. [Finding aid]

Finlay, John J. Papers

Dates: 1933-1945. Size: 0.5 linear feet. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. This collection chronicles the early work of several social service organizations through the experience and leadership of board member John J. Finlay. It contains documents and letters that catalog the Chicago Area Project’s (CAP) work as well as the work done by other social service organizations in the 1930s and early 1940s. [Finding aid]

First Lutheran Church of the Trinity Records

Dates: circa 1890s-2014. Size: 13 linear feet in 7 boxes including 7 folio ledgers. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. First Lutheran Church of the Trinity was founded in 1865 as the first Lutheran church in Chicago’s Bridgeport community. The church started out as a German immigrant parish named “Ev. Luth. Dreieinigkeits” (Evangelical Lutheran Trinity) and supported an elementary school. The collection includes bulletins, marriage/baptism/birth ledgers, meeting minutes, photographs and programs. [Partially Processed]

Gads Hill Collection

Dates: 1914-circa 1940, undated. Size: 2.25 linear feet in 3 boxes, includes 357 photographs, 2 drawings. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. Established in 1898 as a settlement house to serve poor immigrant families in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago’s Lower West Side community area, Gads Hill Center offered education, job training, recreational activities and other social services. The photographs in this collection depict a range of activities and facilities in the early part of the twentieth century. [Finding aid]

Gage Family Collection

Dates: 1909-1926. Size: .25 linear feet in 1 box, 78 photographs. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. The collection contains 78 photographs of the Gage family who resided at 4236 S. Prairie Avenue in Chicago’s Grand Boulevard community in the early 20th century. [Finding aid]

Girl Scouts of America Troop #427 Records

Dates: 1941-1971. Size: .25 linear feet; 1 photographic scrapbook. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection, part of the Lawndale Community Collections. The records that comprise the Girl Scouts of America, Troop #427 Collection, reflect the involvement of the scouts in the Lawndale-Crawford community, through brochures, correspondence, minute books, play scripts and programs. Also included in the collection is a scrapbook containing approximately 300 photographs of the girls of troop #427 at events and programs during the years 1941-1966. [Finding aid]

Greater Rockwell Organization Records

Dates: 1979-2020. Size: .75 linear feet in 2 boxes. Chicago Public Library, Sulzer Regional Library, Northside Neighborhood History Collection. The Greater Rockwell neighborhood is located within Chicago’s Lincoln Square community area. This small collection contains administrative records and publications from the Greater Rockwell Organization, a local neighborhood group. It includes newsletters, correspondence, by-laws, event and program files, membership information, reports, and questionnaires. [Finding Aid]

Greek Star Newspaper Collection

Dates: 1948-1985. Size: 21 linear feet. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. The Greek Star newspaper was founded by Peter Lambros, a Chicago businessman, in 1904, and continued for over a century until 2015. This collection is comprised of an incomplete run of issues of the Greek Star, printed in Chicago for the city’s Greek population. [Finding aid]

Green, Henry D. Photograph Collection

Dates: 1944-1954. Size: 396 photographs, 232 negatives. Chicago Public Library, Sulzer Regional Library, Northside Neighborhood History Collection. Henry D. Green was a commercial photographer on Chicago’s North Side. Subjects in the collection include local businesses, community groups, celebrations in neighborhood parks and events at local schools. Many photographs reflect life on the North Side during World War II. Additional materials by Henry Delorval Green are held at the Chicago History Museum. Photographs from this collection are available in the Library's Henry D. Green Photograph Digital Collection. [Finding aid]

Gremp, David Photographs

Dates: 1978-1979, 2016. Size: 1.5 linear feet in 1 box, includes 69 photographs. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. As part of the CETA/Neighborhood Arts Program in Chicago, David Gremp was the artist-in-residence assigned to the Chicago Public Library. His photographs document the neighborhoods surrounding 13 library branch locations including Austin, Chatham, Chinatown, Garfield Park, Hyde Park, Lincoln Park, Lincoln Square, Little Village, Lower Westside, Pullman, Scottsdale, Uptown, and Washington Heights. [Finding aid]

Historical Society of Woodlawn Records

Dates: 1937-1965. Size: 1 linear foot; 10 photographs. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection, part of the Woodlawn Community Collections. The Records of the Historical Society of Woodlawn consist of financial records, minutes of meetings, membership rosters, printed materials and news clippings. [Finding aid]

Holmgren, Edward Papers

Dates: 1949-2003. Size: 6 linear feet. Accession #2009/02. Chicago Public Library, Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature. Edward Holmgren spent more than 40 years working in the area of public housing, housing integration and urban renewal, both in government and private sectors. He began his career with the Chicago Housing Authority and was executive director of the Leadership Council for Metropolitan Open Communities. His papers include correspondence, organizational records, conference proceedings and serials. [Finding Aid, opens a new window]

Humboldt Park Community Collection

Dates: 1892-1941. Size: .5 linear feet; 46 photographs. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. This small collection contains information about the neighborhood as well as issues of The Northwestown Booster newspaper from 1937-1940 and early photographs of Humboldt Park itself. [Finding aid]

Hyde Park Community Collection

Dates: 1830-1988. Size: 2.5 linear feet in 6 boxes plus 2 photographs and 10 oversize folders. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. The Hyde Park Community Collection contains a selection of items related to Hyde Park businesses, club and organizations, municipal agencies, residences and schools. The documents include a range of documents brochures, historical sketches, municipal reports, newsletters and publications, with a selection that predates the 1889 annexation of the Village of Hyde Park into the City. [Finding aid]

Italians in Chicago Project

Dates: 1979-1981. Size: 4 linear feet. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. Oral history transcripts from interviews with Italian Americans in Chicago; the project was based at the University of Illinois at Chicago. [Finding aid]

Jefferson Township Collection

Dates: 1874-2000. Size: .25 linear feet in 1 box. Chicago Public Library, Sulzer Regional Library, Northside Neighborhood History Collection. This small collection consists mostly of biographical and historical sketches, with a small amount of news clippings and reports. The following community areas are represented in this collection: Albany Park; Forest Glen; Irving Park; Jefferson Park; Logan Square; and North Park. [Finding Aid]

Juvenile Welfare Association Records

Dates: 1898-1980, Bulk dates: 1924-1950. Size: 9.5 linear feet in 19 boxes, including 7 photographs. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. The collection includes the records of the Juvenile Welfare Association and materials on founder Bertha Lyons’ Self-Development Course, including lessons, sheet music, recitations, or dramatic exercises. Documents also include scripts from the Adult Education Program created by Works Progress Administration (WPA) from 1938-1939. [Finding aid]

Kinnamon, George A. Poster Collection

Dates: 1958-1967, undated. Size: 4 linear feet, includes 127 posters. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. This collection of 106 unique posters, collected by George H. Kinnamon as he drove through Chicago for his work, offers a glimpse at posted outdoor advertisements of public entertainment and politics in Chicago and Illinois during the 1950s and 1960s. [Finding aid]

Kircher Family Papers

Dates: 1873-1958. Size: 2 linear feet in 4 boxes (including 57 photographs), plus 7 oversize folders. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. Johannes Kircher was the founding pastor of Bethlehem Evangelical Church. Collection includes materials relating to Kircher family history and the history of the church. [Finding aid]

Knowles Postcard Collection

Dates: circa 1890-1967. Size: 93 postcards; 3 postcard booklets. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. Postcards of Chicago. [Finding aid]

Krueger, Robert W. Photograph Collection

Dates: 1886-2003 (Bulk dates, 1984-2003). Size: 5 linear feet includes 1057 photographs, 271 negatives, 158 slides, and 1 painting. Chicago Public Library, Sulzer Regional Library, Northside Neighborhood History Collection. From 1984 to 2003, photographer Robert Krueger worked with Chicago Public Library to document the neighborhoods and people of the North Side. This collection contains the hundreds of photographs he produced, including images of street scenes, parks, businesses, houses, schools, cemeteries, religious institutions, and community events. Selected photographs from this collection are available in the Library's Robert W. Krueger Photograph Digital Collection.  [Finding Aid]

Lake View Council on Religious Action

Dates: 1966-1991. Size: 1.5 linear feet in 2 boxes and 89 photographs. Chicago Public Library, Sulzer Regional Library, Northside Neighborhood History Collection.The Lake View Council on Religious Action was organized in 1940 by representatives from local churches and synagogues and members of the Kiwanis Club of Lake View. The collection contains documents and photographs from their annual award luncheon as well as a small number of general historical files. [Finding Aid]

Lake View High School Collection

Dates: 1874-2002. Size: 12 linear feet in 23 boxes, includes 85 photographs, 9 oversize folders, and 1 volume. Chicago Public Library, Sulzer Regional Library, Northside Neighborhood History Collection. Lake View High School, located at the corner of Ashland Avenue and Irving Park Road, was the first high school in Lake View Township. The history of the school is documented in this collection, which includes early annual reports, newspaper clippings, and programs and ephemera from school events. The collection also includes a run of the school’s Red and White yearbook, Lake Re View newspaper, and photographs. Selected photographs from this collection are available in the Library's Northside High School Digital Collection.  [Finding Aid]

Lane Technical High School Collection

Dates: 1912-2007. Size: 6.75 linear feet. Chicago Public Library, Sulzer Regional Library, Northside Neighborhood History Collection. In 1934 Lane Technical High School moved from a building at Sedgwick and Division streets to its campus at Addison Street and Western Avenue. This small collection contains files about the school after it moved. [Finding aid]

Lanyon Family Papers

Dates: 1874-1940s. Size: 11 folders. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections. The Lanyon Family Papers consists of photographs and ephemera about members of the Lanyon family who settled in and started businesses in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood. [Finding aid]

Lawndale-Crawford Community Collection

Dates: circa 1850-1981. Size: 40.25 linear feet in 34 boxes including 755 photographs, 26 oversize folders, 95 glass plates images. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. Originally gathered by the Lawndale-Crawford Historical Association, the manuscripts, printed material and photographs in this collection focus upon the community areas that span North and South Lawndale and includes documentation of Bohemian immigrants who settled in the area around 1900. There is also information about neighborhood schools, businesses, residents, clubs, and the controversial name changing of Crawford Avenue to Pulaski Road. [Finding aid]

Lawndale-Crawford Historical Association Records

Dates: 1929-1984 (Bulk dates: 1934-1953). Size: 3 linear feet in 6 boxes, including 31 photographs. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. The collection includes organization files, local history materials, photographs and a scrapbook of news clippings gathered and created by the Lawndale-Crawford Historical Association. [Finding aid]

Leigh, Laurie M. Photographs

Dates: 1977-1991. Size: 1 linear foot. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. This collection contains nearly 90 photographs taken in neighborhoods around Chicago by photographer Laurie M. Leigh. While the majority of the photographs are of buildings and areas in the city, the collection also includes two portraits. [Finding aid]

Lerner, Michael S. Papers

Dates: 1953-1985. Size: 1 linear foot in 1 box and 7 photographs. Chicago Public Library, Sulzer Regional Library, Northside Neighborhood History Collection. This collection documents Michael S. Lerner and Leo A. Lerner’s involvement in local commemorative and historical groups on the north side of Chicago. It contains notes, fliers, correspondence, clippings, photographs, and related material. [Finding Aid]

Little, Mrs. Frank Ephemera Collection

Dates: 1874-1888. Size: Flat files. Chicago Public Library, Sulzer Regional Library, Northside Neighborhood History Collection. Mrs. Frank Little assembled a collection of broadsides, programs and flyers from local events in 19th century Ravenswood. [Unprocessed]

Lockett, Cherie Papers

Dates: 1953. Size: .25 linear foot. Accession #2007/12. Chicago Public Library, Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature. This collection consists of rare promotional and descriptive materials on the first years of Lake Meadows, a middle-class housing development in Bronzeville owned by New York Life Insurance Corporation. [Finding aid]

Logan Square Community Collection

Dates: 1887-1989 (Bulk dates, 1941-1955). Size: 1.5 linear feet in 1 box, 22 photographs, 28 slides, 18 negatives, and 11 oversize folders. Chicago Public Library, Sulzer Regional Library, Northside Neighborhood History Collection. This collection contains news clippings, historical sketches, photographs, and ephemera related to the Logan Square neighborhood, mostly from the first half of the twentieth century. There is also a small amount of material related to the Avondale neighborhood. [Finding aid]

Lower West Side Community Collection

Dates: 1891-2022. Size: 3.75 linear feet in 6 boxes and 1 oversize folder, includes 15 photographs. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection, part of the West Side Community Collections. The Lower West Side in Chicago has served as an entry point for several immigrant groups over the years including Bohemians, Germans, Poles and Mexicans. The bulk of the collection documents the Pilsen area and the predominately Mexican American residents in that community. The topics include arts and culture, schools, social organizations and religious organizations. The Gads Hill Center settlement house folders cover several of the earlier immigrant groups to this area. [Finding aid]

Milk Dealers’ Association Ledger and Minute Book

Dates: 1889-1895. Size: 1 linear foot in 1 box. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, part of the Calumet Region Community Collections. Account book from the Milk Dealers Association [which may also have been known as the "Milkman Association"] in the Roseland neighborhood. While most of the entries are minutes from the Association meetings, the value of the book is its documentation of a grass-roots union movement in Chicago. [Finding aid]

Millennium Park, Inc. Records

Dates: 1992-2006. Size: 60 linear feet in 28 boxes, includes 13 VHS videos, 746 photographs, 6 CDs, 105 oversize folders/items, 18 artifacts, 1.11 GB electronic files. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. Millennium Park, Inc. Archives contain information from the early planning stage of Chicago’s “Lakefront Millennium Project” in 1998 through the completion and opening of Millennium Park in 2004. The majority of the collection consists of presentation boards showing elevations, site plans, renderings and architectural sections of the various sites in the park. The sites represented in the collection include the Jay Pritzker Music Pavilion and the B.P. Pedestrian Bridge, designed by Frank Gehry; Cloud Gate, designed by Anish Kapoor; Crown Fountain, designed by Jaume Plensa; the Lurie Garden, designed by Gustafson, Guthrie, Nichol, Ltd.; Millennium Monument and Wrigley Square; the Joan W. and Irving B. Harris Theater for Music and Dance, designed by Thomas Beeby; the Exelon Pavilions, designed by Thomas Beeby and Renzo Piano; and the Boeing Galleries. There are a number of artifacts in the collection including a scale model of Cloud Gate, architectural models of the Lurie Garden by the three finalists in the international garden competition, models of the Crown Fountain and a model of the Millennium Monument, or Peristyle, in Wrigley Square. See also photographs from the Millennium Park, U.S. Equities Realty Collection in the Library’s Millennium Park Digital Collection. [Finding aid]

Millennium Park, U.S. Equities Realty Collection

Dates: 1999-2005. Size: 80 linear feet in 99 boxes. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. U.S. Equities Realty was retained to act as owners’ representative for many of the enhancements to Millennium Park. These photographs document the development and construction of the major sites in Millennium Park. All of these photographs are digital and in color. Photographs from this collection are available in the Library’s Millennium Park Digital Collection. [Finding aid]

North Center/Lincoln Square Neighborhood Association Collection

Dates: 1999-2001. Size: .5 linear feet in 1 box. Chicago Public Library, Sulzer Regional Library, Northside Neighborhood History Collection. The North Center/Lincoln Square Neighborhood Association Collection was founded in 2000 by longtime residents of the neighborhood in reaction to real estate developers who were tearing down buildings and replacing them with luxury condos and houses, driving out longtime residents. This collection contains newsletters, news clippings, flyers, and membership forms which outline the group's activities to fight for affordable housing and fight against chain stores moving into their neighborhood. [Finding aid]

North Lawndale Community Collection

Dates: 1872-1959 (Bulk Dates: 1935-1959). Size: 2.5 linear feet in 6 boxes including 118 photographs and 2 oversize folders. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. The collection contains a range of articles, brochures, historical sketches, newsletters, photographs, programs and reports that focus on neighborhood events, persons and organizations, particularly during the mid-20th century when Russian Jews were the dominant foreign-born group. [Finding aid]

North Mayfair Community Collection

Dates: 1869-2000. Size: 1 linear foot in 2 boxes (including 31 photographs). Chicago Public Library, Sulzer Regional Library, Northside Neighborhood History Collection. North Mayfair is a residential neighborhood near La Bagh Woods within the community area of Albany Park on the north side of Chicago. This collection contains news clippings, letters, and other material that document the history of local families, businesses, parks, organizations and other topics. It also contains historical sketches and reminiscences from former residents. [Finding Aid]

North Park Village Collection

Dates: 1915-2007. Size: 14 linear feet in 29 boxes (including photographs), includes 3 oversize folders. Chicago Public Library, Sulzer Regional Library, Northside Neighborhood History Collection. North Park Village is located on the grounds of what was once Chicago’s Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium, covering nearly 160 acres on the northwest side of the city. It includes a nature center, senior housing, a gymnasium, and other community resources. The collection contains meeting minutes, correspondence, planning documents, event fliers, news clippings, historical material, brochures, photographs, and other records that document the site’s transformation from a sanitarium to a village and nature center within Chicago. [Finding Aid]

North Town Woman's Club Records

Dates: 1930-1980. Size: 3 linear feet in 6 boxes. Chicago Public Library, Sulzer Regional Library, Northside Neighborhood History Collection. The North Town Woman’s Club was formed on December 17, 1930. It aimed to pursue civic, educational, and philanthropic purposes. This collection consists mostly of their meeting minutes and reports, with a small amount of additional material such as notes and correspondence.[Finding Aid]

Northside Postcard Collection

Dates: 1906-circa 1963, undated. Size: .5 linear feet in 1 box. Chicago Public Library, Sulzer Regional Library, Northside Neighborhood History Collection. The Northside Postcard Collection consists of about 200 color and black-and-white postcards of scenes from Chicago’s North Side dated between circa 1906 and circa 1963. Areas of focus include scenes of popular destinations for tourism and recreation on the North Side, such as the lakefront, hotels, monuments, and attractions at Lincoln Park. [Finding Aid]

Northwest Federation of Improvement Clubs Records

Dates: 1914-1954. Size: 2.5 linear feet in 5 boxes, plus 1 oversize folder. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection, part of the West Side Community Collections. Records of citizens’ associations formed to bring about community improvements. Covers an area of the Northwest Side from North Avenue (1600 N) north to the city limits and from Western Avenue (2400 W) west to the city limits. [Finding aid]

Norwood Park Community Collection

Dates: 1838-2012 (Bulk dates, 1943-1978). Size: 2 linear feet in 4 boxes (including photographs). Chicago Public Library, Sulzer Regional Library, Northside Neighborhood History Collection. Norwood Park, one of Chicago’s seventy-seven community areas, is located on the far northwest side of the city. This collection contains clippings, historical sketches, and a small amount of additional material such as publications, letters, and ephemera. It includes information on local businesses, residents, religious organizations, schools, residences, and other areas of the community. [Finding Aid]

O'Shea, John Scrapbook

Dates: 1901-1959. Size: 2 linear feet in 1 box, including 1 scrapbook. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections. John O'Shea was known as the "Father of River Park." This scrapbook documents O’Shea’s life, the development of the North Center area from farms and prairies to urban neighborhood, the development of the River Park District and its parks and the Irish Catholic community on Chicago’s northwest side in the 1930s and 1940s, especially the Queen of Angels Parish and its clergymen. [Finding aid]

O’Quinn Family Papers

Dates: circa 1937-circa 1987, undated. Size: 5.75 linear feet in 6 boxes, includes 112 photographs. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection, part of the Lawndale Community Collections. The O’Quinn Family Papers document their participation in Chicago’s Lawndale community that includes Boy Scouts of America, O’Quinn Royal Gladiators Drum and Bugle Corps and West Side Negro Women's League. [Finding aid]

Office of Civilian Defense Records

Dates: 1942-1945. Size: 1.5 linear feet; 24 photographs. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection, part of the West Side Community Collections. Collection includes community news items. The materials in this collection are the records of the District 4 office, which was bounded by Clinton Street on the east, the south branch of the Chicago River and the drainage canal on the south, the city limits on the west, and a crooked line formed by Kinzie, Kedzie and North Avenues on the north. Its headquarters were in the Gold Dome Building of Garfield Park. The collection documents many aspects of the office’s work during World War II. [Finding aid]

Open Space Section Records

Dates: 1894-2011 (Bulk dates 1991-2010). Size: 106 linear feet; 6 linear feet of photographs. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections. The Open Space Section is part of the City of Chicago’s Department of Planning and Development’s Sustainable Development Division. Growing out of the 1998 CitySpace plan, the Open Space Section works to increase the amount of publicly accessible open space in Chicago, in an effort to provide recreational green space to all residents. Some of its projects have included the Campus Park Program, the Calumet Open Space Reserve and projects to develop public pathways and trails along the Chicago River. The collection documents Open Space’s varied initiatives to increase the amount of and improve the access to green space for all Chicagoans. [Finding aid]

Orstrom, A.Z. Song Plugger Cards Collection

Dates: 1906-1928. Size: .5 linear feet in 1 box. Chicago Public Library, Sulzer Regional Library, Northside Neighborhood History Collection. The A.Z. Orstrom Song Plugger Cards Collection contains approximately 86 song plugger cards. Song plugger cards contained an advertisement for a dance or picnic on the front and lyrics from popular songs on the back. The cards are generally 2-3 inches tall and 4-5 inches wide, come in a variety of colors, and sometimes contain small illustrations. [Finding aid]

Pearson, Roy Sigfrid Papers

Dates: 1941-1962. Size: 4.25 linear feet in 2 oversize folders. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. Roy Sigfrid Pearson worked as an architectural designer for De Leuw, Cather & Company in Chicago, beginning in 1946. He worked on a number of buildings related to transportation and infrastructure. These drawings reflect his work on six different buildings in Chicago. [Finding aid]

People for Community Recovery Archives

Dates: 1983-2008. Size: 62 linear feet. Accession #2009/05. Chicago Public Library, Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature. People for Community Recovery (PCR) is a community organization located in the Chicago Housing Authority’s Altgeld Gardens project on Chicago’s far Southeast Side. Founded in 1979 by Altgeld Gardens resident Hazel Johnson, PCR demanded cleanup of toxic waste surrounding the community and pressed for repair work. The organization also coined the term “environmental racism.” The archives include correspondence, organization files, programs and newspaper clippings. [Finding aid]

People’s Gas Light & Coke Co. Photo Albums

Date: 1924-1929, 1944, undated. Size: 2 photo albums, 303 photographs. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections. The People’s Gas Light & Coke Company photo albums were created to document three natural gas pipeline projects in Chicago neighborhoods. The 1925 Northwest Side Project runs through the Old Irving Park and Mayfair communities and goes on to span the bridge at North Branch Chicago River near Forest Glen Avenue. The 95th Street Project runs through the Beverly, Longwood Manor and Rosalind communities. The 1944 project includes pipelines that extend to and from the Crawford Distribution Station, the Division Street Station and the 22nd Street Station. The albums contain views of equipment, natural gas pipes, iron fittings, work crews and street views of the surrounding neighborhoods. [Finding aid]

Perlman, David Map Collection

Dates: circa 1670-1901. Size: 2 linear feet in 1 box and 1 oversize folder, includes 21 maps, 5 illustrations. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections. The collection contains 21 maps and 5 illustrated views of the Chicago area that punctuate a timeline from the 17th century to the turn of the 20th century. Significant works include maps of the Great Lakes region by European cartographers that recorded the Native American name of “Checagou” or “Chicagou” for the site now known as Chicago, an 1834 real estate plat map and views of notable Chicago buildings and transportation routes were rendered in steel and wood engravings for a 1872 publication called, Picturesque America, or the Land We Live In. [Finding aid]

Pocius, Mike Photographs

Dates: 1971-2022. Size: 3 linear feet in 2 boxes, includes 63 photographs. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. Mike Pocius is a Chicago photographer and longtime resident of the Bridgeport neighborhood. His photographs capture a range of primarily Chicago community events, street scenes and artistic compositions from 1971 to 2011 and include scenes in Bridgeport, Little Village, Loop, Pilsen and other neighborhoods. [Finding Aid]

Portage Park Community Collection

Dates: 1859-circa 2000 (bulk, 1900-1940). Size: 1.5 linear feet in 3 boxes and 75 photographs. Chicago Public Library, Sulzer Regional Library, Northside Neighborhood History Collection. Portage Park is one of Chicago’s 77 community areas, located on the Northwest side of the city nine miles from the Loop. The Portage Park Community Collection contains programs, fliers, brochures, publications, and other material related to local businesses, schools, and community organizations; news clippings; a small amount of biographical information and historical sketches; and a scrapbook and scrapbook pages. It also contains a number of photographs, most of which date from the 1910s. Selected photographs from this collection are available in the Library's Northside Clubs and Organizations Digital Collection.  [Finding Aid]

Pullman Collection, Historic

Dates: 1872-2008, undated. Size: 19 linear feet, includes 97 photographs, 1 scrapbook, 11 oversize folders. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. The collection contains annual reports, brochures, bulletins, news clippings and photographs on the Pullman Company, the Pullman Free School of Manual Training, Pullman Town, and the 1894 strike. [Finding aid]

Ravenswood and Lake View Abstracts of Title Collection

Dates: 1853-2001 (Bulk dates, 1869-1921). Size: 1 linear foot. Chicago Public Library, Sulzer Regional Library, Northside Neighborhood History Collection.This collection consists of abstracts of titles, transfer documents such as trust deeds and quit claims, and building specification records for lots on Chicago’s north side in the Ravenswood, Ravenswood Manor, and Lake View communities. [Finding Aid]

Ravenswood Congregational Church Records

Dates: 1870-1969, undated. Size: 1.5 linear feet in 3 boxes, 43 photographs, and 22 slides. Chicago Public Library, Sulzer Regional Library, Northside Neighborhood History Collection. The Ravenswood Congregational Church was founded in the fall of 1869 by the Reverend William A. Lloyd when Ravenswood was a small village. The church closed its doors due to declining membership in 1969. This collection contains news clippings, historical sketches, parish directories, and publications that document the church’s activities such as bulletins, programs, newsletters, correspondence. There are also 4 cookbooks published by the Women’s Society.  The collection also contains 43 photographs which document the church building and some church activities. [Finding aid]

Ravenswood Gardens Homeowners Association Records

Dates: 1915-1994, undated. Size: 4 Linear Feet (in 7 boxes (including approximately 900 slides) and approximately 200 photographs, plus 3 oversize folders). Chicago Public Library, Sulzer Regional Library, Northside Neighborhood History Collection. Ravenswood Gardens is a neighborhood located in the southwest corner of the Lincoln Square community area, on the east bank of the North Branch of the Chicago River. The collection includes administrative and historical documents from the Ravenswood Gardens Homeowners Association and over 900 color slides and 200 photographs mostly taken by Ravenswood Gardens resident Emil Dasing. [Finding Aid]

Ravenswood L Coalition Collection

Dates: 1993-1995. Size: .5 linear feet in 1 box. Chicago Public Library, Sulzer Regional Library, Northside Neighborhood History Collection. The Ravenswood L Coalition formed in 1994 in response to a proposed construction and renovation project of the Chicago Transit Authority’s Brown Line. Their goal was to advocate for the interests of riders of the Brown Line’s Ravenswood branch and discourage station closures and service disruptions. This small collection contains meeting notes and agendas, correspondence, clippings, survey results, fliers, and brochures. [Finding Aid]

Ravenswood Manor Improvement Association Records

Dates: 1914-1987. Size: 5.5 linear feet; 84 photographs. Chicago Public Library, Sulzer Regional Library, Northside Neighborhood History Collection. Realtor William Harmon developed Ravenswood Manor in conjunction with Ravenswood Gardens. Ravenswood Manor is on the west bank of the North Branch of the Chicago River running from Montrose Avenue to Lawrence Avenue. The collection includes board minutes of this homeowners' association, newspaper clippings, newsletters, files about special events, maps and photographs. Selected photographs from this collection are available in the Library's Northside Clubs and Organizations Digital Collection. [Finding aid]

Ravenswood Woman’s Club Records

Dates: 1891-1976. Size: 2 linear feet in 4 boxes, plus 5 photographs. Chicago Public Library, Sulzer Regional Library, Northside Neighborhood History Collection. The collection consists of yearbooks which contain the club’s articles of incorporation, lists of officers and members, by-laws, news clippings, and program announcements and calendars and 5 photographs. [Finding Aid]

Ravenswood-Lake View Community Collection

Dates: 1848-2020. Size: 26 Linear Feet (in 38 boxes and approximately 1700 photographs, plus 35 oversize folders). Chicago Public Library, Sulzer Regional Library, Northside Neighborhood History Collection. The Ravenswood-Lake View Community Collection documents daily life on the North Side of Chicago from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. It mostly covers the areas of Chicago that were previously part of Lake View Township, such as Lake View, North Center, Lincoln Square (Ravenswood), Uptown, and Edgewater. It also contains small amounts of material related to other Northside communities. The collection includes photographs, news clippings, programs, certificates, letters, ephemera, maps, directories, newsletters, reminiscences, and biographical and historical sketches. Selected photographs from this collection are available in the Ravenswood-Lake View Community Digital Collection. [Finding Aid]

Residents’ Journal Records

Dates: 1996-2013. Size: 42 linear feet. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections. Residents’ Journal is a newspaper written by and for residents of Chicago public housing. Led by former Chicago Daily Defender journalist Ethan Michaeli and Mary C. Piemonte (née Johns), the publication began in 1996 with funding from the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA). When this funding ended in 1999, the staff opted to form the not-for-profit organization, We the People Media, to take over Residents’ Journal and the Urban Youth International Journalism Program. Together, the two programs trained thousands of adults and youths in all aspects of journalism and news production. The collection contains the editorial and production notes, newspapers, photographs and research files created to document life in Chicago’s public housing. [Partially Processed]

Rich, Faith Papers

Dates: 1821-1993, bulk 1940s-1980s Size: 21 linear feet, 41 boxes, 206 photographs. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. Faith Rich (1909-1990) was a white community activist, educator and volunteer with numerous organizations including the Chicago Westside Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), the Independent Voters of Illinois (IVI), the 15th Place Block Club, the Literacy Council of Chicago and local PTAs. She focused her organizing efforts on issues of civil rights, desegregation of schools and neighborhoods, equality in education, racism and the effect of urban renewal on local communities and especially, her own North Lawndale neighborhood in Chicago. Her collection contains her voluminous correspondence with family, friends and fellow activists along with meeting materials from social justice organizations and a sizable library of publications that document Chicago's urban renewal initiatives from the 1950s-1970s. [Finding aid]

Rogers Park/West Ridge Community Collection

Dates: circa 1845-2021. Size: 135 Linear Feet (in 166 boxes, 40 oversized folders, 2 maps, and 1 volume). Chicago Public Library, Sulzer Regional Library, Northside Neighborhood History Collection. Rogers Park and West Ridge, two of Chicago’s seventy-seven community areas, are located nine miles north of the Loop on the city’s far North Side. This collection documents life in Rogers Park and West Ridge from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. [Finding Aid]

Rupp School Book Collection

Dates: 1867-1914, undated (Bulk dates, 1904-1914). Size: 2.25 linear feet in 5 boxes. Chicago Public Library, Sulzer Regional Library, Northside Neighborhood History Collection. This collection contains school notebooks belonging to Clara, Elsie, and Walter Rupp, who studied at Blaine School and Lake View High School in the 1900s and 1910s. It also contains a few volumes of reference material, such as dictionaries and instructional guides, and a few novels. [Finding Aid]

Scottsdale Homeowners Association Records

Dates: 1916-2014. Size: 6 linear feet in 8 boxes, including 50 photographs. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. The Scottsdale Homeowners Association was established in 1952 by residents of Scottsdale, a newly formed neighborhood on the Southwest Side of Chicago. This collection documents association activities through newsletters, meeting minutes, programs, clippings and photographs. [Finding aid]

Slack Family Photograph Album

Dates: Circa 1870s-circa 1890s. Size: 1 linear foot in 1 box, including 56 photographs. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. Kathryn M. Slack spent the first few decades of her life in Chicago's Austin neighborhood before moving to Oak Park. It is presumed the album contains images of Kathryn M. Slack’s ancestors. The portraits include children, adults and older family members, and provide a view on the typical clothing and styles of a white family with the means to purchase photographic services in the late 1800s in Chicago. [Finding aid]

Smith, Frank W. Glass Plate Slide Collection

Dates: 1830-1933, undated. Size: 11 linear feet, includes 1058 glass plate slides. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. The glass photographic slides cover a broad spectrum of Chicago history including businesses, churches, clubs, organizations, municipal agencies, parks, residences, schools, street views and transportation, among other historical topics such as the Century of Progress and the World’s Columbian Exposition. [Finding aid]

South Chicago Community Collection

Dates: circa 1850s-circa 2000, undated. Size: 10.5 linear feet, including 209 photographs, 4 oversize folders. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection, part of the South Chicago Community Collections. The South Chicago Community Collection contains a range of ephemera, pamphlets, photographs and news clippings about the neighborhood’s residents, business establishments, religious institutions, clubs and organizations, hospitals, municipal agencies, residences, schools, streets, transportation, and wartime activities. [Finding aid]

South Chicago Newspapers Collection

Dates: 1883-1961. Size: 5.25 linear feet in 2 boxes. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection, part of the South Chicago Community Collections. This collection is comprised of three titles published in the South Chicago neighborhood: The Calumet Record, The Daily Calumet and The South Chicago Daily Independent.  While this collection contains no significant runs of any of the papers, many of the newspapers were saved because they specifically spoke to the history of the South Chicago neighborhood. [Finding aid]

South Lawndale Community Collection

Dates: circa 1902-1952 (Bulk dates: 1938-1947). Size: 2.5 linear feet in 5 boxes including 23 photographs and 3 oversize folders. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection, part of the Lawndale Community Collections. The collection contains a range of articles, brochures, historical sketches, newsletters, photographs, programs and yearbooks that focus on neighborhood events, persons and organizations in the South Lawndale community, particularly during the mid-20th century. [Finding aid]

South Shore Community Collection

Dates: 1839-1982. Size: 23.5 linear feet, includes 431 photographs, 87 glass plate slides, 26 oversize folders. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection, part of the South Shore Community Collections. The South Shore Community Collection contains manuscripts, printed material and photographs on businesses, clubs and organizations, religious institutions, residents, schools and street scenes in the community area. [Finding aid]

South Shore Historical Society Records

Dates: 1935-1979. Size: .5 linear feet. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection, part of the South Shore Community Collections. The collection contains documents related to the foundation and organization of the society itself, including society’s constitution, membership lists, reports, minutes and programs. A short history of the Society produced by one of its members describes the Society’s formation and sets forth its aims. Of particular interest are two notes from author and humorist Opie Read which can be found in the correspondence file. [Finding aid]

South Shore Newspapers Collection

Dates: 1894-1982. Size: 1.25 linear feet. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection, part of the South Shore Community Collections. The collection contains twelve partial runs of newspapers from the South Shore neighborhood, some of which are rare. The newspapers from the 1960s and 1970s illustrate the changing population of the South Shore neighborhood. [Finding aid]

Southeast Ravenswood Association Records

Dates: 1983-1995. Size: 0.5 linear feet in 1 box. Chicago Public Library, Sulzer Regional Library, Northside Neighborhood History Collection. The Southeast Ravenswood Association was organized in 1983 to serve residents of Chicago's North Side in the area from Irving Park Road to Montrose Avenue and Ashland Avenue to Ravenswood Avenue. This collection contains their administrative records and outreach material. [Finding Aid]

Streeterville Collection

Dates: 1845-1940 (Bulk: 1890-1931). Size: 0.5 linear feet in 1 box, plus 2 photographs, 4 oversize folders. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. Collection consists of land and legal records concerning Streeterville acreage. [Finding aid]

Suburbia Collection

Dates: 1856-1975. Size: 3 linear feet in 4 boxes, (including 13 photographs), plus 2 oversize folders. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. Ephemera, pamphlets and photographs about Chicago suburbs. [Finding aid]

Swift, Linda Erf Photographs

Dates: 2015. Size: 6 photographs. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections. From 2007 to 2015, Linda Erf Swift photographed students from three Chicago high schools in the Hyde Park and Kenwood neighborhoods. The goal of her Chalkboard Project was to generate dialog between students and awareness about their communities, schools and lives. This collection contains six color portraits, exhibit captions and a text panel from the 2015 exhibition at Harold Washington Library Center. [Finding aid]

Temple, Willietta Jones Papers

Dates: 1972-2002. Size: 2 linear feet. Accession #2007/03. Chicago Public Library, Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature. Willietta Jones Temple was a longtime member of Lilydale First Baptist Church and an activist in Lilydale community organizations. Her papers include church anniversary books, programs, correspondence, newsletters, funeral programs and photographs. Also included are materials from other churches and documentation of Lilydale community organizations’ work. [Finding aid]

Terriere, D.E. Diaries

Dates: 1870-1913. Size: .5 linear feet in 2 boxes, includes 38 diaries. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. D.E. (David Edward) Terriere was a longtime resident of the Englewood neighborhood of Chicago who worked as a banker at the Englewood Bank. His 37 handwritten diary entries, although brief, offer glimpses at his family life, household financial transactions and activities in the city. One of the diaries from 1900 was kept by Terriere’s mother-in-law, Anna Elizabeth Correll of Niles, Michigan. [Finding aid]

Ton Family Papers

Dates: 1865-1974. Size: 0.25 linear feet. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection, part of the Calumet Region Community Collections. The Ton family immigrated from Holland and settled in the area known today as Roseland. They were a large family and held annual reunions between 1896 and 1955. The collection contains programs from those reunions. [Finding aid]

Topel Family Photograph Album

Dates: Circa 1860s-circa 1930s, bulk circa 1917-circa 1925. Size: 0.5 linear feet in 1 box, includes 476 photographs. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections. The photographs in the Topel Family Photograph Album—the bulk of which date from circa 1917 to circa 1925—document the experiences of a Chicago-area family in the early twentieth century. Of particular significance are the photographs related to World War I and Chicago-area war efforts, including a substantial group of images taken at Camp Grant, a United States Army training facility in Rockford, Ill. [Finding Aid]

Trade Catalog Collection

Dates: 1864-1986. Size: 29 linear feet in 34 boxes, includes 88 bound volumes. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. The collection consists of catalogs and advertisements for goods and services produced or sold by Chicago’s manufacturers, retail stores, wholesale houses and other businesses. The product categories include agriculture, amusement, apparel, appliances, automotive, bicycles, construction, education, furniture, hardware, housewares, jewelry, machinery, medicine, music, printing, publishing, sporting goods and general merchandise. [Finding aid]

Tsuda, Akito Photographs

Dates: 1991-2021. Size: .5 linear feet in 1 box, includes 118 photographs. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. Japanese photographer Akito Tsuda enrolled in Columbia College in 1990. Between 1991 and 1994, his photographic explorations in the city led him to the Pilsen neighborhood and the city’s Lower West Side community where he forged intercultural bonds with the predominantly Latinx residents. [Finding Aid]

Turner, John B. Collection

Dates: 1852-1975. Size: 2 linear feet in 2 boxes and 4 photographs. Chicago Public Library, Sulzer Regional Library, Northside Neighborhood History Collection. John B. Turner was born in England in 1815. He came to Chicago in 1836 and started a successful livery business. His business was destroyed by the Chicago Fire in 1871. He owned land in North Center in Lake View Township. After the fire, he and his family moved to North Center where they farmed. The materials in this collection document the business activities of John B. Turner and include receipts, correspondence and a ledger. The collection contains some personal materials including family tree, news clippings about the family and a few photographs, including a portrait of John Turner and his family and their home in North Center. [Finding aid]

United Woodlawn, Inc. Records

Dates: 1949-1958. Size: 0.5 linear feet in 1 box. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection, part of the Woodlawn Community Collections. Collection documents efforts on behalf of neighborhood improvement projects. [Finding aid]

Uptown Chicago Commission Collection

Dates: 1956-2020, undated. Size: .75 linear feet in 2 boxes. Chicago Public Library, Sulzer Regional Library, Northside Neighborhood History Collection. The Uptown Chicago Commission was founded in 1955 by local business and property owners and renters in Uptown. Members worked together to enforce building codes and get dilapidated buildings torn down, and create a network of block clubs. The collection includes meeting agendas, flyers, membership lists, minutes, newsletters, publications and reports. [Finding aid]

Washington Heights Community Organization Archives

Dates: 1968-2003. Size: 1 linear foot. Accession #2003/01. Chicago Public Library, Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature. Washington Heights Community Organization, formed in 1966 for the upkeep and economic development and growth of the area, was initially composed of formal block clubs in the Washington Heights and Mount Vernon communities. The organization also campaigned to name a neighborhood elementary school after Marcus Garvey. The archive includes correspondence, board minutes, agendas, newspaper clippings and organizational files. [Finding aid]

Wesleyan Bible Class Records

Dates: 1903-1952. Size: 3.5 linear feet in 5 boxes (including 39 photographs), plus 2 oversize folders. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection, part of the Garfield Park Community Collections. Collection primarily consists of promotional materials for the class. See also the Frank L. Wood Scrapbooks. The Wesleyan Bible Class was organized in 1880, but is best known for the years (1896-1945) it was led by Frank L. Wood. Under his leadership, the class numbered some 900, with an average attendance of 626 per meeting in 1940. The focus of the class was on Bible study. It was interdenominational and designed to serve all churches on the West Side. The collection contains newsletters, programs, invitations and anniversary brochures. [Finding aid]

West [Near West] Side Community Collection

Dates: 1853-1994. Size: 27.5 linear feet in 35 boxes including 440 photographs, 16 oversize folders. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection, part of the West Side Community Collections. The West [Near West] Side Community Collection contains manuscripts, printed material and photographs that document Chicago’s Near West Side, an area bounded by 16th Street on the south, Kinzie Street on the north, the Chicago River on the east and Maplewood Avenue on the west. It was originally called the West Side Community Collection. The collection contains biographical information on residents, as well as information on businesses, religious institutions, clubs and organizations, municipal agencies, residences, schools, streets and transportation. [Finding aid]

West Chesterfield Community Association Archives

Dates: 2000-2019. Size: 4 linear feet in 9 boxes. Accession #2020/01. Chicago Public Library, Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature. The West Chesterfield Community Association was founded in 1956 to promote community awareness and development. It lies between the Chatham and Roseland communities on Chicago's south side. These papers include monthly board and community meeting notes, community-based projects, newsletters and financial records. [Finding aid]

West End Woman’s Club Records

Dates: 1894-1929. Size: .5 linear feet. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection, part of the Garfield Park Community Collections. The collection consists of  yearbooks which contain articles of incorporation, lists of officers and members, by-laws and program calendars. [Finding aid]

West Garfield Park Community Collection

Dates: 1831-1970. Size:21.5 linear feet, includes 355 photographs, 16 oversize folders. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection, part of the Garfield Park Community Collections. The collection contains correspondence, directories, historical narratives, meeting minutes, news clippings, newsletters and over 300 photographs related to businesses, clubs, organizations, religious organizations, persons, residences, schools and street scenes in the West Garfield Park community area. [Finding aid]

West Side Council of Parents and Teachers Records

Dates: 1923-1950 (Bulk dates, 1940-1949). Size: 3.5 linear feet in 6 boxes including 8 photographs. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. The West Side Council of Parents and Teachers formed on April 4, 1923, as an umbrella group to support PTA units in individual elementary schools on Chicago’s West Side. This collection documents the West Side Council from its beginning in 1923 up through its division into West Side Council North and West Side Council South in 1949. [Finding aid]

West Side Historical Society Records

Dates: 1930-1955. Size: 7.75 linear feet in 23 boxes including 21 photographs, 1 audiotape. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection, part of the West Side Community Collections. The West Side Historical Society worked with staff at Legler Regional Library to collect information about Chicago's West Side. The collection includes the organization’s annual meeting proceedings, by-laws, constitution, collection development policy, correspondence, meeting minutes, photographs, programming, publicity, research indexes and transcripts from a weekly radio quiz show featuring questions about Chicago’s West Side. [Finding aid]

West Side Newspaper Collection

Dates: 1880-1966. Size: 75 linear feet in 6 boxes, including 12 oversize folders, 70 bound volumes, and 6 microfilm reels. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection, part of the West Side Community Collections. The West Side Newspaper Collection consists of partial runs of West Side newspapers including The Austinite, Garfield News, Garfieldian and the West Town News, among others. [Finding aid]

West Town Community Collection

Dates: 1860-2007. Size: 4.5 linear feet, includes 3 oversize folders, 82 photographs. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection, part of the West Side Community Collections. The West Town Community Collection covers the history of Chicago's West Town neighborhood, its residents, and its institutions, including churches, businesses, organizations, settlement houses, schools and libraries. Of particular note are the photographs that document schools in the neighborhood. [Finding aid]

Wicker Park Collection of Mary Ann Johnson

Dates: 1879-2002. Size: 2 Linear Feet in 4 boxes plus 4 oversize folders. Chicago Public Library, Sulzer Regional Library, Northside Neighborhood History Collection. Wicker Park is a neighborhood in Chicago's West Town community area on the near northwest side of the city, about three miles from the Loop. This collection contains material gathered by Mary Ann Johnson as part of her research for the book Wicker Park: From 1673 thru 1929 and Walking Tour Guide. There is also a small amount of material from the 1970s-early 2000s. [Finding Aid]

Wood, Frank L. Scrapbooks

Dates: 1885-1941. Size: 10 scrapbooks. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. See also the Wesleyan Bible Class Collection. See also the Wesleyan Bible Class Collection. Frank L. Wood (1864-1945) lived on Chicago’s West Side. He practiced law and served as the editor of the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin from 1909 until his retirement in 1937. Wood was a member of the West Side Historical Society and the Wesleyan Bible Class. He was also a collector of Abraham Lincoln material. The Frank L. Wood Scrapbook Collection includes ten scrapbooks, nine of which hold correspondence, programs and news clippings concerning Wood’s numerous speaking engagements, and the tenth miscellaneous published poems by Wood. [Finding aid]

Woodlawn Block Club Council Records

Dates: 1958-1960. Size: 1 linear foot. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection, part of the Woodlawn Community Collections. The Woodlawn Block Club Council’s activities are chronicled in records containing its constitution and by-laws, correspondence, minutes of meetings, membership rosters and publicity materials dealing with its community betterment projects. [Finding aid]

Woodlawn Community Collection

Dates: 1857-1992. Size: 11 Linear Feet in 22 boxes (including 247 photographs), plus 15 oversize folders. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection, part of the Woodlawn Community Collections. The Woodlawn neighborhood is 8 miles south of the Loop. The neighborhood runs roughly from 60th Street south to 67th Street and from the Lake west to King Drive and in places to South Chicago Avenue. The area was annexed into Chicago in 1889. Woodlawn is number 42 of the 77 official communities that make up Chicago. Includes correspondence, biographical essays, memorabilia, newspaper clippings, advertisements, announcements, historical essays, printed materials, church publications, meeting minutes, membership rosters, school certificates and diplomas, scrapbooks, and photographs. [Finding aid]

Woodlawn Woman’s Club Records

Dates: 1913-1954. Size: 1 linear foot in 2 boxes, plus 2 photographs and 1 oversize folder. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection, part of the Woodlawn Community Collections. The Woodlawn Women’s Club Records (WWC), contain a bound volume by Louise J. Pearson titled, History of the Woodlawn Woman’s Club, meeting minutes and yearbooks that chronicle by-laws, membership and programs from 1913 to 1954. [Finding aid]

Wright, John S. Papers

Dates: 1848-1866. Size: .25 linear feet in 1 box plus 3 oversize folders. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. John Stephen Wright (1815-1874) moved to Chicago from Massachusetts with his father in 1832. In 1833, Wright took a census of Chicago and published a lithographed map of the town in 1834, the year he began a real estate business. This collection concerns his purchase of land in the city in 1848 and the subsequent history of that land over the next two decades. [Finding aid]

Zimmerman, Mary Scrapbook

Dates: 1895-1953. Size: 1.65 linear feet, includes 1 scrapbook. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection, part of the Garfield Park Community Collections. Mary Zimmerman’s scrapbook highlights her educational, professional and public achievements. Mary Zimmerman (1869-1953) was one of four original faculty members of John Marshall High School that opened in Chicago’s East Garfield Park neighborhood in 1895. She taught Latin for forty years until her retirement in 1935. Zimmerman was active with the American Friends of the Hebrew University and sought to raise funds for scholarships and programs for the Jerusalem institution that was founded in 1925. [Finding aid]

A-Z Collections Index