tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37065539502890128122024-02-07T01:49:35.427-08:00Housing History: Creating a Place for the History of Public HousingInterning at the National Public Housing Museum.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3706553950289012812.post-76843782440662430082012-08-02T09:33:00.001-07:002012-08-02T09:33:23.212-07:00GemsI have to admit that this project is starting to wear me down. Devoting five hours a day to studying racism and poverty starts to get to you after a while. In order to perk myself up, I've decided to share a few of the gems that I've found while plowing through my sources. Before I start, I should probably mention that I may be the only person who considers these to be gems. If you shell peanuts for a living, you will inevitably laugh louder at peanut shelling jokes than other people do.<br />
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Number One. I just finished reading the final report of the Chicago Citizens' Committee to Study Police-Community Relations, published in 1967. The Committee was created in the aftermath of the 1966 Fire Hydrant Riot to investigate police-community tension and propose possible solutions. Overall, I found the report to be relatively frank in tone and level-headed in its suggestions, if a bit overly supportive of Mayor Daley. At one point, the committee suggests that police-community relations would be helped if people could tag along with the police during an ordinary day's work. Not a bad idea, but they worded it weirdly:<br />
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It is the sense of the Committee that any normal citizen, whether he possesses a benign or recalcitrant temperament, would be stimulated and enormously educated by the opportunity of riding in a police squad car during a regular tour of duty.</blockquote>
Number Two. I recently became aware of the existence of the Chicago Commission on Human Relations, established in the mid-1940s to address discrimination in the city. During the troubled 1960s, the Commission operated "Rumor Central," a phone line that people could call in order to get the truth about rumors. I couldn't find very much information on the Commission, but I did find this bizarre pamphlet from 1960.<br />
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<i>Yes, it's an anti-white flight pamphlet. </i>It never occurred to me that something like this might exist, but I guess it makes sense. Twenty illustrated pages try to convince you to stay in and strengthen your neighborhood, rather than move away when "families of different race or religion or national origin" become your neighbors. According to the pamphlet, "Whether you are only mildly annoyed or whether you are deeply disturbed by the prospect of neighborhood change, your community is still your own and deserves your loyalty. Change need not be for the worse, but the cost of running away will certainly be high." I never realized that white flight was something that people actually <i>talked </i>about, but it's pretty cool that the Commission tried to convince people to live in harmony.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaUEs7WSbLJ6caR2zrdbKvf8z93AQ3kH5yVE7iBlcDA4IrpteJNybC5O2Lfi4dBVaL2ZFzt0LKZUS1rXrhyphenhyphenn35ngqA0JiuPDFKqET7K0Pto4ojKGv732r7pSDAZDPMR0mFv3bGJ674C1U/s1600/FDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaUEs7WSbLJ6caR2zrdbKvf8z93AQ3kH5yVE7iBlcDA4IrpteJNybC5O2Lfi4dBVaL2ZFzt0LKZUS1rXrhyphenhyphenn35ngqA0JiuPDFKqET7K0Pto4ojKGv732r7pSDAZDPMR0mFv3bGJ674C1U/s640/FDR.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Even <i>if</i> all the people look like FDR for some reason.</td></tr>
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Number Three. I spent some time reading mid-1960s issues of the <i>Chicago Police Star</i>, a publication for police officers. To get an idea of police culture at the time, you can read through these yourself at the <a href="http://chicagocop.com/">chicagocop.com</a> website (click on "Documents Archive" under the "History" tab). The most interesting fact I came across? In 1968, dentists and dentists-in-training were exempt from jury duty.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3706553950289012812.post-32406378518390349402012-07-13T15:56:00.000-07:002012-07-13T15:56:18.147-07:00Epilogue (Near West Side, 1960-1974)I apologize for not catching up sooner. For the last few months, the National Public Housing Museum has kept me on me as a temporary researcher. I've been working on the third segment of the project: an overview of life on the Near West Side from 1960-1974, when the Hatch Family resided in the Jane Addams Homes. To reiterate, the NPHM hopes to recreate the Hatch Family's apartment as a permanent exhibit when the museum opens. Matt and I are providing the background research to complement interviews with the family.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7bDAxxmdU1XWr4kC25S36i4XAURoYOTGZ4H0LIKjUwblj4SpNuW3XGJTQVJz87M6pd8qsVb4kxfhHI-TWg7T_5LnGg2VmIudxwhoupJC5SnWMz4fyUgxs8v4IZokYobsCv5_i2tw6_3c/s1600/100_3548.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7bDAxxmdU1XWr4kC25S36i4XAURoYOTGZ4H0LIKjUwblj4SpNuW3XGJTQVJz87M6pd8qsVb4kxfhHI-TWg7T_5LnGg2VmIudxwhoupJC5SnWMz4fyUgxs8v4IZokYobsCv5_i2tw6_3c/s400/100_3548.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A typical view of my office when I am away from my desk. Note that limited culinary proficiency reduces me to eating plain bread for lunch.</td></tr>
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As this is a considerably longer period (fourteen years instead of the three that I covered for the Inez Medor segment), we have divided the work up into different segments. Matt is focusing on Chicago Housing Authority policies, the demographic shift towards an African American majority, and major physical changes to the neighborhood, such as the construction of the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) campus. <br />
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For my part, I'm looking into community life. I've focused on the African and Italian American communities, for even though African Americans became the majority group in the area, people still referred to the neighborhood as "Little Italy." Despite the close physical proximity of the two communities, they basically lived in different worlds. They attended different churches, belonged to different organizations, read different newspapers, and played in different parks. <br />
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The most interesting aspect for me so far has been the unofficial segregation of pool facilities. There was only one pool on the Near West Side in the early 1960s, and it was located in a park that "belonged" to the Italian Americans. More pools were eventually built, but not until after the often-overlooked Near West Side riot of 1966 (not to be confused with the rioting on the south and west sides after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination in 1968).<br />
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During the hot summer days, kids in both African and Italian American communities would open up fire hydrants and play in the spray. This was technically illegal, but police generally turned a blind eye. On July 12, 1966, however, a few policemen attempted to enforce the law at a hydrant in the African American community. The resulting altercation--aided by suffocating heat and simmering racial tensions-- boiled over into a riot that swept the West Side for several days. Eventually the National Guard was called in to restore order. Below is footage of the Guard once the riot had mostly cooled off. As a young person, it's so bizarre to think that this is <i>my </i>city only a few decades ago.<br />
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It kind of puts the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2quc-iQ96R0">ending of "The Blue Brothers"</a> into a different perspective.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3706553950289012812.post-34157050834802671212012-04-27T11:51:00.000-07:002012-04-27T11:51:00.195-07:00Closing ThoughtsThis week marked my final week as a National Public Housing Museum intern through Loyola's history internship program. Of course, Matt and I are smack dab in the middle of the 1948-54 project, and have not yet begun on the 1962-77 project. I'm very interested in pursuing my work at the NPHM, and there is some talk of finding the money to take me on as a researcher. Needless to say, I'm excited about that possibility. I've gotten half-way into this project and I want to see it to the end.<br />
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Even though today does not really mark the end of my association with the NPHM, it's still a good time to reflect on what has happened over the past several months. I'd say that if studying abroad in Rome was the best experience I had last year, then interning at the NPHM was the best one this year. I've had the opportunity to check out four different physical archives, work with a great boss, and meet one of the luminaries of Chicago public housing history. I've been able to explore my passion for research, which I hope to pursue in a professional capacity some day (hopefully soon).<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNyE1Qg_Fbl70DcBK2L_FbD1Edp_bQgLMIpGUTAQda5-t6rbg6S8Pc7ub3VkkL3Whto4tIQMcNmllwATCXK1OMm3_-iaPefHyCbrko6QmMsHNHNChAEo1ksBR43xgrld0loIyJzu1PM1Q/s1600/578262_3755375483891_1261588405_33632895_428032256_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNyE1Qg_Fbl70DcBK2L_FbD1Edp_bQgLMIpGUTAQda5-t6rbg6S8Pc7ub3VkkL3Whto4tIQMcNmllwATCXK1OMm3_-iaPefHyCbrko6QmMsHNHNChAEo1ksBR43xgrld0loIyJzu1PM1Q/s400/578262_3755375483891_1261588405_33632895_428032256_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A little piece of Rome on UIC's campus</td></tr>
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If anyone reading this is considering doing an internship through Loyola's history department, I strongly recommend it. In my own experience, working at a museum challenged me and expanded my mental faculties in a way that an ordinary history elective course would not have. As much fun as such courses are (and if you're like me, you genuinely <i>do</i> think they're fun), there's something even more exciting about doing original research that may influence the public. Loyola offers the opportunity to get real world experience in the field, and I say take it! Of course, for us historians the chance to "get out of the classroom" usually just means heading to the library instead...Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3706553950289012812.post-60917287417559526872012-04-22T20:18:00.001-07:002012-04-22T20:18:02.512-07:00Midget BoxingResearch continues on the 1938-41 section of my project. Last week Matt and I checked out the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) archives. You might remember that the "Off the Street Club" featured prominently in my analysis of the Near West Side's social support network. The club provided (<a href="http://www.otsc.org/">and still provides</a>) kids with a safe place to learn some vocational skills, have fun, and generally stay out of trouble. It turns out that the UIC archives have a very large collection of OTSC material.<br />
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In the early 1940s the OTSC joined up with several other Chicago-area charitable organizations to produce their own radio show, broadcast on a variety of Chicago radio stations. The show, titled "The Story of Constance Worth," chronicled the adventures of a young social worker. In each episode she encountered one of the charitable organizations that sponsored the show. In this way, the organizations could advertise themselves and tell a human story about the societal ills they sought to combat. The OTSC participated in the "Constance Worth" program from at least 1939 to 1942. I haven't been able to find a recording yet, but I'm looking.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://img1.bdbphotos.com/images/orig/4/e/4e4xelkqnq1znq1e.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://img1.bdbphotos.com/images/orig/4/e/4e4xelkqnq1znq1e.jpg" width="306" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Australian movie actress Constance Worth (not at all related to the radio program, but it would be interesting if she were)</td></tr>
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A few years later in 1948 and '49, the OTSC moved into the television business with a show on WBKB called "Midget Boxing." The premise was simple: host Jim Ameche interviewed two kids from the club, then they boxed each other. The show ran for 15 minutes and was sponsored by the Reed Candy Co., makers of Paloops Suckers. Paloops were touted as being extra-safe, since they had a string handle instead of a stick. I'd love to find a copy of this show, but I doubt one still exists.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh22_DUzKfF2_1qKVpEqod-hU5asCLOilwOCZODARtz9RFzdqbq_Ap2iSxifqEb23FrvZegOGKdEsHaZfBUBwk2so5q2BATlt9n2KNRoHrMHl7J2DHb13LCDuhyleyePeup9q1Tgx8Xx_Y/s1600/MidgetBoxing.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh22_DUzKfF2_1qKVpEqod-hU5asCLOilwOCZODARtz9RFzdqbq_Ap2iSxifqEb23FrvZegOGKdEsHaZfBUBwk2so5q2BATlt9n2KNRoHrMHl7J2DHb13LCDuhyleyePeup9q1Tgx8Xx_Y/s1600/MidgetBoxing.bmp" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yeah, "Midget Boxing" was a real thing (image from <a href="http://www.jjonz.us/RadioLogs/pagesnfiles/logs_files_RH/1940s_RH/45-49/1949/49rh_05May/49-05-31-%28Tue%29_%5BCDT%5D.pdf.pdf">JJ's Radio Logs</a>)</td></tr>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3706553950289012812.post-39983212863058502022012-04-16T09:00:00.002-07:002012-04-16T09:00:47.322-07:00An Afternoon of Good TimesLast night I had the wonderful opportunity to attend the National Public Housing Museum's annual fundraiser, "An Afternoon of Good Times." This formal event took place at <a href="http://www.salvageone.com/home.php">Salvage One</a>, a very eclectic old warehouse filled with an array of odd furniture, mannequins, doorknobs, and gigantic letters. As history nerds, my boss Matt and I were freaking out about all the cool old junk lying around. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.salvageone.com/lib/Image/galleries/large/5289.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://www.salvageone.com/lib/Image/galleries/large/5289.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A gross under-representation of the weirdness.</td></tr>
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The space was the perfect setting for a museum fundraiser, but with its creaky wooden floors, gargoyles and old diving suits spread about, it would also be a great place to have a Halloween party. Of course, after I said that to Matt, the weather became dark and stormy for the remainder of the evening.<br />
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I really enjoyed the opportunity to spend time with the rest of the NPHM
staff outside of the office. I take it as a sign of the growing sense of family amongst us that they asked me to do heavy lifting for them. This is the role that I play in my extended biological family as well, since I'm not especially proficient at solving computer problems or making tapioca pudding.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://pinchmysalt.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/IMG_8887-Version-2-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://pinchmysalt.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/IMG_8887-Version-2-1.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Every family member makes their own contribution</td></tr>
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Since I was doing some behind-the-scenes work (and eating), I didn't watch <i>too </i>much of the ceremony, in which important individuals were honored for their contributions to the Museum. From what I saw, there were some very good speeches. When the video recording comes out, I'll post a link. <br />
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For me, the highlight of the event was meeting Dr. D. Bradford Hunt, a prominent historian of Chicago Public Housing, and the author of a few of the books I've used in my research. Dr. Hunt had read the piece I wrote about the Near West Side, 1938-41, and seemed very enthusiastic about it. I was awed just to meet the guy, let alone have him compliment my work. I'm looking forward to hearing his suggestions.<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3706553950289012812.post-39377611333617850162012-04-10T10:20:00.000-07:002012-04-10T10:20:04.339-07:00It Came From the Archives...This past week I had the great opportunity to visit not one, but two archives collections. My boss Matt and I paid a visit to the <a href="http://www.chicagohs.org/research">Chicago History Museum Archives</a> to take a look at a few of their collections. While I plowed through a mammoth folder of unhelpful articles about the Chicago Boys and Girls Club (finding <i>one</i> semi-helpful paragraph out of thousands of newspaper clippings), Matt made a beeline for the Mildred Mead photograph collection. Needless to say, this was the big find of the day.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://storage.lib.uchicago.edu/apf/apf2/images/derivatives/apf2-09171r.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="502" src="http://storage.lib.uchicago.edu/apf/apf2/images/derivatives/apf2-09171r.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Animal Sculptures at the Jane Addams Homes, 1950, photograph by Mildred Mead (<a href="http://photofiles.lib.uchicago.edu/db.xqy?one=apf2-09171.xml">Archival Photographic Files</a>, apf2-09171,
Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.)</td></tr>
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I've unfortunately come across very few photographs in all of my research, so they are a welcome addition to the project. It's one thing to find newspaper articles about Mayor Kennelly's calls to revitalize the slums of the Near West Side, quite another to actually see a picture.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://storage.lib.uchicago.edu/apf/apf2/images/derivatives/apf2-09541r.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="508" src="http://storage.lib.uchicago.edu/apf/apf2/images/derivatives/apf2-09541r.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Boys playing in the burned-out factory, Royal Continental Box Company,
1300 block of Cabrini. Jane Addams Homes is seen in the background," 1951, photograph by Mildred Mead (Archival Photographic Files, apf2-09541,
Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.)</td></tr>
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That's pretty amazing.<br />
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The other archives I visited, the <a href="http://www.luc.edu/archives/">Loyola University Archives and Special Collections</a>,
were a bit closer to home. That is, one floor below one of my
classes. The Holy Family Parish records are kept here, but most of the
material antedates my period of research. I found a list of acolytes
from 1946-51, and an invitation to the visit of St. Francis Xavier's arm
in 1949 ("It was the right arm which baptized close to a million souls
and which God used to work numerous miracles"). Other than that, my
mission was a scratch. On the plus side, I got to see one of the
"Swords of Loyola," given out annually to important people.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.lib.luc.edu/specialcollections/archive/files/dcdb8a85fa2f9b98affe7686b82ac47a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="267" src="http://www.lib.luc.edu/specialcollections/archive/files/dcdb8a85fa2f9b98affe7686b82ac47a.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div class="field-value" id="citation-value">
“Jim Henson, Sword of Loyola, 1982 ,” <em>Loyola University Chicago Digital Special Collections</em>, accessed April 10, 2012, http://www.lib.luc.edu/specialcollections/items/show/329.</div>
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It's a little-known fact that they pull the sword out of a sorting hat.<br /><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3706553950289012812.post-71229423730144386702012-03-30T12:29:00.002-07:002012-03-30T12:29:45.057-07:00P.J. Fitzgerald: 1948-54This week I started on my second project for the NPHM. I am researching the period from 1948-54, when Patricia Fitzgerald lived at the Jane Addams Homes. PJ came from an Irish background, but I'm not sure I will find much from that angle. You may remember that the Irish inhabited the Near West Side toward the middle of the nineteenth century. By the 1940's, however, their influence in the area was minimal (at least according to my preliminary research). Of course, Irish communities continued (and continue) to maintain a noticeable presence in other parts of the city, hosting various cultural events. In 1948 there was even a 20,000-strong Irish fete at Loyola's campus, boasting a centuries-old crown flown in from Dublin for the occasion!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.birthdaydirect.com/images/86482-medieval-knight-crown-hats.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://www.birthdaydirect.com/images/86482-medieval-knight-crown-hats.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Presumably it looked nicer than this one.</td></tr>
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Obviously I will keep an eye out for Irish elements on the Near West Side, but I think it will be more productive for me to focus on the Catholic element more broadly. I've been looking into Holy Family Church, one of the major Catholic institutions in the area. Holy Family hosted an annual police parade through the neighborhood that usually drew about 2,000 marchers. In 1949 Holy Family was visited by the right forearm of St. Francis Xavier, which was making a world tour at the time.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://imagecache6.allposters.com/LRG//37/3794/KEZIF00Z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://imagecache6.allposters.com/LRG//37/3794/KEZIF00Z.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I go to a Catholic university, and I still don't understand these kinds of things.</td></tr>
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I am also looking at the changing racial makeup of the Near West Side. When the CHA began operations in 1938, the Jane Addams Homes were the only integrated public housing development in the city. African Americans constituted 18.9% of the area population in 1940, more than doubling to 40.9% in 1950. I am curious to know how this demographic shift affected the neighborhood. I've found a few references to the Near West Side Inter-Racial Council, and I am looking further into that. I also found an interesting <i>Chicago Defender</i> article about a black Catholic protesting segregation in the parochial schools run by Holy Family. Or, as the <i>Defender</i> so wonderfully put it, "Catholic Takes School Jim Crow War to Pope."Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3706553950289012812.post-27170011848628515462012-03-25T19:53:00.000-07:002012-03-25T19:53:54.184-07:00Juvenile DelinquencyThis week I turned in my report on the Near West Side, 1938-41. You might remember that the original assignment was supposed to be five pages long, and that last week I was eleven pages into it. The final copy? Eighteen and a half pages. I think 100 footnotes might be a new personal record.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://thethesiswhisperer.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/pile-of-paper.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://thethesiswhisperer.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/pile-of-paper.jpg" width="250" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I feel a little bad for my boss, who has to read the thing.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
About 24 hours before submitting my report, a dark horse source popped up out of nowhere. I hadn't had much luck finding crime statistics for the area. I had collected newspaper stories of noteworthy crimes, but I'm always a little leery of trusting the news to provide an accurate depiction of the crime situation in any era. Fortunately, some searching led me to a study on<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggGFxcYWDffB4l7QfMnNg9CotwScgpA-eY2cUtTrdEyKsduxLJY4n81yCtAGM8XSFOjIF_DJQTML_XlKqtuEJzRx60So2vc3nG9OQRg78GyoRkaSB2IITUrt2w7Q-TONNecwgbIFv3H64/s1600/Delinquency.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggGFxcYWDffB4l7QfMnNg9CotwScgpA-eY2cUtTrdEyKsduxLJY4n81yCtAGM8XSFOjIF_DJQTML_XlKqtuEJzRx60So2vc3nG9OQRg78GyoRkaSB2IITUrt2w7Q-TONNecwgbIFv3H64/s320/Delinquency.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
This study was conducted<i> from 1938 to 1939</i> in five Chicago neighborhoods<u><b> </b></u><i><u><b>including </b><b>the Near West Side</b></u></i>. You can't get much closer to my area of interest. According to the study, 14% of Near West Side boys were officially delinquent, with as much as another 14% unofficially delinquent. That number seems very high to me. Less than 2% of girls were delinquent. The study also contains a wide array of information on the favorite activities of the children, organized by gender and delinquency status. Take a look at what Near West Side girls were doing from Winter to Summer, 1938-39:<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnc8-fZQzpt_duRDUWhizx6LQY-k57T5dK5UhMXxHrYyTjj7puHHg-RuvtlghIQ-kkJjCW4d7_LiI4TOcToYIW-QrJ8pBvHDQyXCRtAMxWWzSQQUXOoeLuX6opw3W0G99RMVeqTUQXrNY/s1600/Delinquency2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnc8-fZQzpt_duRDUWhizx6LQY-k57T5dK5UhMXxHrYyTjj7puHHg-RuvtlghIQ-kkJjCW4d7_LiI4TOcToYIW-QrJ8pBvHDQyXCRtAMxWWzSQQUXOoeLuX6opw3W0G99RMVeqTUQXrNY/s1600/Delinquency2.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Marbles were <i>really </i>unpopular</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The study even lists what radio programs kids listened to the most!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqYJp4qQnBmENuZUV7INm7d1fMzEcQaFV1t4S0oY5VPO9b0enZYLRFZmEU3-nRK5IecyCu6NHysAkfhDl9xw2rb1R6ejZfZOT5YIcPeHp5RPMSeJ2q2UwxW9uoc1pMVLESch4roE1H8Bg/s1600/Delinquency1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqYJp4qQnBmENuZUV7INm7d1fMzEcQaFV1t4S0oY5VPO9b0enZYLRFZmEU3-nRK5IecyCu6NHysAkfhDl9xw2rb1R6ejZfZOT5YIcPeHp5RPMSeJ2q2UwxW9uoc1pMVLESch4roE1H8Bg/s1600/Delinquency1.jpg" /></a></div>
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If you are interested in looking over the rest of the stats, you can <a href="http://archive.org/stream/recreationanddel00chicrich#page/156/mode/2up">read the study</a> for yourself at the Internet Archive.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3706553950289012812.post-73158782164748803302012-03-18T19:34:00.001-07:002012-03-18T19:34:22.924-07:00Trying to Wrap Things UpThe deadline for my report on life on Taylor Street, 1938-41, has been rather fluid so far. Since the research I am doing will not be needed for a while, I've been given quite a few extensions which have allowed me to pursue different aspects of my research further. Nevertheless, all things must come to an end, so over the past week I have attempted to consolidate my findings. There is quite a lot of information. When I was first given this assignment, my task was to produce a five-page report. As of tonight, the paper is hovering around eleven pages. Not bad.<br />
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An important lesson I've learned this week is that historians make arguments. That is our job. Like political analysts, we sift through the available information and use our expertise to draw conclusions. When it comes down to it, I'm not here to reprint articles from the <i>Chicago Tribune</i>, I am here to paint my audience a picture using those articles as pigments. This holds especially true for museum exhibits. The museum-going public is not interested in reading lengthy primary source documents. They could do that at home if they really wanted to, which they probably don't. Rather, a museum exhibit must present useful, interesting, and memorable information about the past in a relevant way.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://monty-python-and-the-holy-grail.com/images/cast/monty_python_holy_grail_a_famous_historian.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="216" src="http://monty-python-and-the-holy-grail.com/images/cast/monty_python_holy_grail_a_famous_historian.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The goal</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Let's take the example of the <i>Chicago Recreation Survey</i> <i>of 1937</i> I mentioned a few weeks ago. There are many ways of presenting the information it contains. I could suggest that the entire Survey be included in the exhibit, but this would hardly be the best use of resources, since few people would get anything meaningful out of it. Nor would it be sufficient for me to simply list the Near West Side's many organizations in my report. People <i>might </i>find it interesting to know that the area had 5 Cub Scout troops in 1937, but that fact says very little <i>by itself</i>. As a historian, I must take things a step further by synthesizing the data to draw meaningful conclusions, such as, "The proliferation of youth clubs in the 1930s, including 5 Cub Scout troops, ameliorated the juvenile delinquency problem that had plagued the Near West Side over the previous decades."<br />
<br />
... <br />
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Well, okay, I guess I would probably want to re-write that to make it sound more interesting.<br />
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So how did I reach these conclusions about the nature of the historian's craft? Going over the rough draft of my report, I realized that it was completely filled with data, but had no oomph to it. In compiling my research and writing the draft, I had consciously avoided drawing conclusions. I tried to find the most interesting passages from primary and secondary sources and pass them along intact. I thought that someone smarter than I am would then pick and choose the best pieces and form the museum exhibit from that (and no doubt this is what will eventually happen). What I failed to recognize, however, is that in doing all this research, I have become more familiar with the material than most people are. Therefore it falls to me to draw conclusions from what I have found. It's not enough to let block quotes speak for themselves; I need to trim them down and fit them inside a well-crafted argument. It's not enough to say <i>what happened</i>. The whole point of history is to figure out <i>why </i>what happened is important.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3706553950289012812.post-2458701679463749772012-03-03T10:05:00.001-08:002012-03-03T10:05:44.160-08:00Putting Things in ContextHaving run out of places to look for information on the Jewish community around Taylor Street in 1938-1941, I broadened my search. Good history writing offers context, so I did a bit of research on the neighborhood, pre-1938. I also tried to get a feel for the other ethnic and racial groups in the area.<br />
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My research shows that the Near West Side has always been a culturally mixed area. Irish, German, Czech and French immigrants rubbed shoulders there in the mid-nineteenth century. (The amount of rubbing increased precipitously after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 flooded the area with refugees.) We don't often hear much about French immigrants to Chicago, but they were indeed a force in the neighborhood. In 1887 they built the Notre Dame de Chicago church just a few blocks north of where the Jane Addams Homes would later be built. The church has adapted throughout the years to accommodate the area's different ethnic groups, and is still an active community institution.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/Notre_Dame_de_Chicago.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="365" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/Notre_Dame_de_Chicago.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Notre Dame de Chicago (Photo: Wikipedia)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Toward the end of the nineteenth century, the older immigrants began to move out to nicer areas of the city, while Italian, Greek and Jewish immigrants took their place. The Jews were mainly located south of Roosevelt Road, the Italians were north of it, and the Greeks settled in present-day Greek Town. Hull House opened in 1889 to aid these immigrants in their transition to American society. Unlike other settlement houses, Hull House made an effort to engage and encourage the immigrants' native cultures.<br />
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Up to this point in my research, I had been deliberately avoiding any mention of Hull House (try to imagine how you would feel after receiving your hundredth hit for "Jane Addams the woman" while searching for "Jane Addams the housing project)". Nevertheless, once I opened my mind, I discovered quite a bit of interesting information on the <a href="http://www.uic.edu/jaddams/hull/urbanexp/introduction/introduction.htm">Hull-House Museum website</a>. Though I find the website to be generally rather text-heavy and a bit intimidating, it does contain a section on Hull House's relationship with public housing. It even has <a href="http://tigger.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/urbanexp/main.cgi?file=viewer.ptt&mime=blank&doc=912&type=pdf">an illustration</a> of the Jane Addams Homes! Though Jane Addams died in 1935, Hull House continued to operate, and its relations with the nearby public housing projects bears further investigation.<br />
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Due to technical difficulties, I'm light on photographs and heavy on links this week. Nevertheless, I found some very neat maps of Chicago produced by the Sociology department of the University of Chicago in the 1930s. These present an interesting look at both the demographics of Chicago, and the interests of the researchers. I highly encourage you to check them out <a href="http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/su/maps/ssrc/">here</a>.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3706553950289012812.post-51790591570267827572012-02-26T21:02:00.001-08:002012-02-26T21:02:13.841-08:00Maxwell Street 1939The Maxwell Street Civic Improvement Project of 1939 is a forgotten footnote in the history of that great Chicago institution. I mean that quite literally; the only published mention of it that I could find was a footnote in a scholarly article. Nonetheless, I was able to uncover a little bit about the project from primary sources.<br />
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For those who are unfamiliar with the Maxwell Street Market, it was a large open-air market on the Near West Side, where nearly anything could be bought. The market was an entry point for many immigrants (particularly Eastern European Jews) in the early 20th century. A man might begin by hawking wares from a pushcart before working his way up to purchasing his own shop, and maybe later expanding out to a chain of stores. People would come from around the City to partake in the sights, smells and swindles of Maxwell Street, where it was said they would "cheat you fair."<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://cowdery.home.netcom.com/MS1927.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://cowdery.home.netcom.com/MS1927.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Maxwell Street in 1927 (Tribune archive photo)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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By 1938 many Jews had moved out of the area, though they still continued to operate their shops. Business, however, was bad. An October 9, 1939 article in the <i>Sunday Times</i> lamented,<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">The pushcarts lined at the curb are deserted, half-empty. A few straggling customers drift past the long lines of open stalls. Overnight, the spirit of the street has changed. </span></blockquote>
To liven things up again, the Maxwell Street Merchants Association (headed by Ira W. Wolfe) announced a Civic Improvement Project in 1939. The market would be cleaned up, the pushcarts standardized, and a new way of doing business instituted. The incident I mentioned in a previous post is emblematic of the shift: the changing of the phone book listing from "Ghetto Market" to "Maxwell Street Open Market." The Chicago press naturally had a field day with the project. Normally I would break up all this text with a photograph, but these excerpts paint a nice picture on their own. (Journalism was <i>weird </i>back in the day).<br />
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">"Maxwell Street to Have Face Lifted, Ears Scoured," </span><i style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Daily News</i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> 5-24-1939</span></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Its architectural ears will be scoured and its appearance and olfactory tempo vastly improved.</span></blockquote>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
"Ethics Rears Its Ugly Head on Maxwell Street: Old World Bazaar Faces Modernism's Threat," <i>Chicago Tribune</i>, 5-25-1939</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Gone will be the Maxwell Street that teems with humanity, vegetables, and cheap shoes. </span></blockquote>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
"Maxwell St. to Wash Ears Every Day--With Assistance," <i>Daily News</i>, 6-29-1939</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">The sounds of brooms and shovels, scooping up the stale tomato, the passe peach, the festive fish head and the cast off and generally avoided cheese rind will be heard from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.</span></blockquote>
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">
"The Old Order Changeth, Even on Maxwell Street: Pushcarts and Sidewalk Stalls Replaced," <i>Chicago Tribune</i>, 8-27-1939</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: #fce5cd; font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Smells? The modernizers look to a later day to begin the refining process on the Maxwellian potpourri. Later, too, they will essay revision of the street's cacophonous symphony of screeching wheels, barking dogs, wheedling voices, blaring radios and cackling, crowing and honking fowl. </span></blockquote>
Unfortunately the endeavor seems to have been a big flop. I haven't read a single oral history of the market that even mentions the revitalization attempt. The single footnote states that the project failed due to lack of merchant support. Despite this setback, the market carried on for decades, becoming a hotspot for Blues music. In 1994 the City moved the market to Canal Street (and later to Des Plaines Avenue) to accommodate the expansion of the UIC campus. Supposedly the market still operates on Sundays. Someday I will have to check it out.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3706553950289012812.post-81712332920821018382012-02-17T15:17:00.000-08:002012-03-18T17:18:35.700-07:00"$100,000 Robbery Gang Is Captured"This week I fleshed out the neighborhood a little with some interesting finds. My initial report to the NPHM is due a week from today, and in a month I get to meet Inez in person.<br />
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<b>Robbers</b> <br />
If you have been paying close attention to my <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=211925693733689648070.0004b7b437f4eed761c0c&msa=0&ll=41.870935,-87.647595&spn=0.012,0.018947&iwloc=0004b8de1042a38e2c79e">map</a>, you may have noticed the "Robbers' Hideout." In July 1938, police raided the "West Side Social and Athletic Club," which three ex-convicts had been using as their base. According to the <i>Chicago Tribune</i>, the men had stolen $100,000 in 7 months. (For a comparison, consider that the highest rent in the Jane Addams Homes at this time was $32 a month for a five-room apartment). I don't believe that any of the men lived in the Jane Addams, but they were all from the area, and as you can see, the club was not too far from Inez's home.<br />
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Apparently the gang carefully cased each of the joints that they knocked over, rehearsing the robberies in advance. Their last robbery took place out in Joliet, where they made off with about $10,000 in cash and checks. In other heists they used a stolen truck to grab steal suits and dresses which they later fenced in the neighborhood. The police raid of their hideout uncovered two shotguns, three pistols, and a Gene Autry toy gun. Fake pistols seem to have been quite the problem back then, as five young men were arrested in March 1939 for robberies committed with toy guns.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/90/Bally_Total_Fitness_gym_-_Cedar_Mill,_Oregon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="408" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/90/Bally_Total_Fitness_gym_-_Cedar_Mill,_Oregon.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kind of makes you wonder what's in <i>their </i>basement.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<b>Parks and Recreation</b><br />
Today I stumbled upon a great find: The <i>Chicago Recreation Survey</i> of 1937. All <a href="http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=chicago%20recreation%20survey%20AND%20collection%3Aamericana">five volumes</a> are available on the Internet Archive. Volume four offers a breakdown of recreation facilities by community, including parks, clubs, churches, settlement houses, libraries, and the like. Needless to say, this will help my map quite a bit. I now know that in 1937 there were 126 churches, 66 billiard halls, 16 movie theaters, 7 bowling alleys, and three libraries on the Near West Side. It will be useful to note that this list covers an area much larger than just the Taylor Street neighborhood. For irony's sake, I had hoped to find the robbers' "West Side Social and Athletic Club" listed under Organizations, but it's not there.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw13z8YEhlCCWmUI5t8M7ypIP7-Wg79UQBxeQK6TJWPLeHINdbiZNh4wb995hLQbZIqHMKUfPgLnX31fsUjb8Atx1AaL9alKEvADvzZ97rEl_kVWgqk0Qx5qdO_ktFtCccaxrqe7MmLCo/s1600/parks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw13z8YEhlCCWmUI5t8M7ypIP7-Wg79UQBxeQK6TJWPLeHINdbiZNh4wb995hLQbZIqHMKUfPgLnX31fsUjb8Atx1AaL9alKEvADvzZ97rEl_kVWgqk0Qx5qdO_ktFtCccaxrqe7MmLCo/s1600/parks.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A very colorful map. Inez lived at Loomis and Taylor, near the middle of the map (Check out <a href="http://www.archive.org/stream/chicagorecreatio04arth#page/n171/mode/2up">volume 4</a> for greater resolution)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3706553950289012812.post-42635523764825620912012-02-12T22:01:00.000-08:002012-02-12T22:02:48.383-08:00"Bevies of Adequately, Even Jauntily Dressed Children"This week I spent some quality time in the Special Collections Room of the Harold Washington Library Center in the Loop. Under the watchful eyes of Chicago's Civil War generals, I pored over folder after folder of original documents from the Near West Side Community Collection. In 1989 the Chicago Public Library inherited the holdings of the West Side Historical Society, (active from 1930 to the late 1950s). Unfortunately many of the documents were completely irrelevant (if interesting). For instance, one folder contained a series of reminiscences of the area. While technically histories of the Near West Side, these were written by people who were extremely old <i>in 1939</i>, so they naturally deal with the 1860s and '70s.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3QvambcZP_TVmE7sxl2mNbKT_4uiSHwHZXQh6atvx-qxJh-h71McpJdZ1LC_J4iY__tSL_O2EMoY2ugFDG5RCrl4kDOiYLiD5ofjO8sgq2q-2mpFDLxMkiNVrmOH6Nk3juU0iIX3ZdTA/s1600/generals.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3QvambcZP_TVmE7sxl2mNbKT_4uiSHwHZXQh6atvx-qxJh-h71McpJdZ1LC_J4iY__tSL_O2EMoY2ugFDG5RCrl4kDOiYLiD5ofjO8sgq2q-2mpFDLxMkiNVrmOH6Nk3juU0iIX3ZdTA/s640/generals.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Seriously, it's a lot of pressure (Photos: <a href="http://mountshang.blogspot.com/2010/11/lorado-taft-civil-war-generals.html">Chris Miller</a>) </td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
The most striking event that I came across in the archives was the 1939 Maxwell Street Civic Improvement Project, an attempt to modernize and standardize Maxwell Street. The drive was spearheaded by the Maxwell Street Merchants Association, which consisted of "76 landlord members, 173 store merchant owners, [and] 238 pushcart and stand merchant members," according to one of their fliers. In response to lagging sales and a deteriorating reputation, the merchants sought to revitalize the Market. Pushcarts were to be of a standard design, constructed of metal, and blue and orange in color. Vendors had to agree to a code of ethics (which I foolishly failed to copy down). Also among the new regulations was the prohibition of "pullers"--salesmen who would pull customers into shops, literally if necessary.<br />
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In addition, Ira Wolfe, manager of the Merchants Association, wrote to the Illinois Bell Telephone Company in June 1939 with a request. Bell complied, and from thence on, the phone book entry would read "Maxwell Street Open Market." <u>It had previously been listed as simply "<i>Ghetto Market.</i>"</u><br />
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<b>CHA 1940</b><br />
I hate to skip around, but I did promise to present my findings on the 1940 pamphlet "The Chicago Housing Authority: Manager and Builder of Low-Rent Communities." The CHA came into being in 1937, and by the 1940 publication of the pamphlet it was managing three housing projects: the Jane Addams Homes, the Julia C. Lathrop Homes, and the Trumbull Park Homes. Two more developments were on the way.<br />
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The pamphlet explains what the CHA does, how tenants are selected, and how the financial end of the operation works. It generally takes a chipper, "up-an'-at-'em" tone fitting for a brand new agency entering the fight against a severe housing shortage. (The fact that this week I also read a 1990 CHA pamphlet on the failure of the very same housing projects was only a little bit soul-crushing). The "let's get down to business" attitude of the early CHA can best be seen in the introduction:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: black;">
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">There is no effort here to dramatize the cause of public housing--no spicy photographs of rat-bitten slum children, of garbage-filled slum alleys, of communal toilets. It seems to us the time has passed for histrionics...[P]ublic housing has certainly passed from the zone of conversational hocuspocus [sic] into the region of practical building management. (1)</span></span></blockquote>
Later on in the pamphlet, the CHA seeks to humanize its tenants. I rather enjoy its cute description:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Visit a CHA community and you will see neat lawns, immaculate curtains at the windows, bevies of adequately, even jauntily dressed children. (25)</span></span></blockquote>
I was quite surprised to see an honest evaluation of the racism that permeated the housing market in Chicago. Corruption and racism resulted in the concentration of most African Americans in certain areas of the city, such as the Black Belt on the South Side. Considering that racism and political influence would come to play a large role in the selection of CHA housing project sites, I was surprised to see the CHA address the issue so frankly:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Negro housing conditions...as everybody knows, are the worst in the city. Areas available for Negro occupancy are walled in by deed restrictions...resulting in terrific overcrowding. (9)</span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Many of the areas of Negro occupancy, particularly those lying closest to the center of the city, are held by owners ...[who hope] that the buildings will collapse, the land be vacated and thus be available for white or industrial use... The Ida B. Wells community...is in part an answer to the housing need among the city's Negroes. (10)</span></span></blockquote>
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3706553950289012812.post-78004678842739563112012-02-03T12:36:00.000-08:002012-02-03T12:36:55.984-08:00Fish Hot DogsThis week I had the good fortune to come across the archives of <i>The Sentinel</i>, a Chicago Jewish newspaper that ran weekly from 1911-1996. All issues from 1911-1949 are <a href="http://hannah.spertus.edu:8881/R">available</a> on the Spertus website. This treasure trove is obviously helpful for recreating a picture of Jewish Chicago in 1938-1941, but I have to be careful nonetheless, as there are class issues at play. Large sections of <i>The Sentinel</i> cover fancy parties and elite social events, and many of the advertisements are for lavish vacations. Thus, while <i>The Sentinel</i> helps to paint a picture of Jewish Chicago, it is the picture of an established, well-off Jewish Chicago. Thus there are not many references to public housing or the Taylor Street area.<br />
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Nevertheless, I did find a 1941 article about Associated Talmud Torahs running a school on Loomis Street specifically for the Jewish kids in the Jane Addams Homes. This may be the same school that Inez Medor attended as a child; I will have to check with her. I also discovered that the Chicago Hebrew Institute, a major institution in the early life of the Taylor Street Jewish community, was originally located on the site that the Jane Addams Homes occupied in 1939.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBbDamSUYPt0XrITnppUl_S1JI6IukbUY4Je_q4U2ngHGOR1tgq-MvZD7hwb_wJkydAd2cPkkQaKJFA5efRNIFKRbghhq8tTNzO2wnd-7kofN8wzZnZ0TI039KKPaex18gnAQzrCT0Hz8/s1600/HighBall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBbDamSUYPt0XrITnppUl_S1JI6IukbUY4Je_q4U2ngHGOR1tgq-MvZD7hwb_wJkydAd2cPkkQaKJFA5efRNIFKRbghhq8tTNzO2wnd-7kofN8wzZnZ0TI039KKPaex18gnAQzrCT0Hz8/s1600/HighBall.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I also found this rather interesting advertisement (<i>Sentinel</i> April 6, 1939).</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I have to admit that flipping through <i>The Sentinel</i> was rather depressing, given the time frame. Chicago Jewry in the late '30s and early '40s was very much aware of the rapidly deteriorating conditions of Jewish life in Europe. The majority of the news section of any given issue is devoted to the plight of international Jewry, and it is hard to imagine what it would have been like to read the newspaper if you had family abroad. Reading <i>The Sentinel </i>made me curious about the amount of attention that more mainstream newspapers devoted to the Jewish situation in Europe. I'll try to look into that.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6ycvR5dhs7uhGf6FhoThh5cAxebzmxHE1YkMHHC4_pd1eKEp1iioyrSzMd0bGkM_BBjit6vVWrpXLGD_yUTSxjQXU6SjN8owQHLuv556e78Ba4wXLPQgQjlJEZYmDFeUrip0jWE8iqOY/s1600/Fish.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6ycvR5dhs7uhGf6FhoThh5cAxebzmxHE1YkMHHC4_pd1eKEp1iioyrSzMd0bGkM_BBjit6vVWrpXLGD_yUTSxjQXU6SjN8owQHLuv556e78Ba4wXLPQgQjlJEZYmDFeUrip0jWE8iqOY/s320/Fish.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">While a meat shortage is no laughing matter, this article begs the question: Why did Czech Jews need to eat hot dogs? (<i>Sentinel</i> July 6, 1939).</td></tr>
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If you remember the Wittenberg Matzoh Company from last week's post, you may enjoy the following advertisement I found in my search. Many local businesses included Jewish holiday messages in their advertisements, and Wittenberg was no exception. Incidentally, I have been adding to the <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=211925693733689648070.0004b7b437f4eed761c0c&msa=0&ll=41.87135,-87.649226&spn=0.026141,0.038581">map</a> I created last week.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuKVwqAwLqUFRA3ylkFq2IJ6oYmlhN7ZFwK6LwCZnhNc8FFcAbE_dSVtvd1l-nUS6biIgZ8chGukZOqOyPAKSJtpuE8Trv5QEV1c9TrbYKKLLoF19E30JjV0SXuQ93TX7GvWjktGlvoAw/s1600/Wittenberg3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuKVwqAwLqUFRA3ylkFq2IJ6oYmlhN7ZFwK6LwCZnhNc8FFcAbE_dSVtvd1l-nUS6biIgZ8chGukZOqOyPAKSJtpuE8Trv5QEV1c9TrbYKKLLoF19E30JjV0SXuQ93TX7GvWjktGlvoAw/s400/Wittenberg3.jpg" width="370" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wittenberg Matzoh Company (<i>Sentinel</i> March 11, 1937).</td></tr>
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I know I promised some interesting quotes from the 1940 Chicago Housing Authority pamphlet, but they will have to wait until next week.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3706553950289012812.post-62336207500925382592012-01-29T17:45:00.000-08:002012-01-29T17:57:17.785-08:00Jewish Chicago, 1938-1941This week I launched into some research on Jewish Chicago. The first exhibit to which I'm contributing will tell the story of Inez Medor, who lived in the Jane Addams Homes from 1938 to 1941. Someone else at the Museum is conducting interviews with Inez, and it is my job to look into the cultural milieu and community life of the Taylor Street area in that period. I'm still in the preliminary stages, so I haven't produced a great deal of specific research yet.<br />
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From what I have found so far, it seems that by the 1930's, the Jewish community centered around Maxwell Street had mostly moved three miles west to the Lawndale neighborhood. Maxwell Street had been a major entry point for the large numbers of Eastern European Jews that began immigrating to Chicago after the turn of the century. As they prospered through the retail business, many moved west to nicer digs in Lawndale. By the time Inez moved into the Jane Addams Homes, the Jewish influence in the Taylor area was probably reduced to the sphere of commerce. That is, many Jewish merchants continued to operate their stores or stalls on Maxwell Street, though most of the community life had shifted west.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://chicagoist.com/attachments/chicagoist_chuck/2008_08_01_maxwell_Street.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://chicagoist.com/attachments/chicagoist_chuck/2008_08_01_maxwell_Street.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Maxwell Street Market (<span class="photo_caption">DN-0068689, Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Chicago Historical Society).</span></td></tr>
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One of the aspects I am looking into is community institutions. For example, Al's Italian Beef (one of the places with a claim on the original invention of the Italian Beef) opened its first location in 1938, not too far from the Jane Addams. This is an example of the neighborhood's period of transition from Jewish to Italian (my sources suggest that the heyday of "Little Italy" was in the 1950's-1960's). However, I believe the Wittenberg Matzoh Company was also still in business at this point, about a block or so from Maxwell Street. I'm not entirely sure if Weisenfreund's Pavilion Theatre was still operating, but I do know that Chicago had a very vibrant Yiddish Theater community at this time.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFRNDwwd_UHi8SDb3uFnTX8C3cpm7iG8DqnnE0byfrnNu8zdqEl22_XziHNn8Zl6j98Ns-YvMTFT-d5oNANRmtsNDy_Icgu_jEQy43XeG9w0oR4e10wQvhrfkfAKGTHD12ZwuK68gBV7k/s1600/Map.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="420" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFRNDwwd_UHi8SDb3uFnTX8C3cpm7iG8DqnnE0byfrnNu8zdqEl22_XziHNn8Zl6j98Ns-YvMTFT-d5oNANRmtsNDy_Icgu_jEQy43XeG9w0oR4e10wQvhrfkfAKGTHD12ZwuK68gBV7k/s640/Map.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Taylor Street Area (Google Maps). <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=211925693733689648070.0004b7b437f4eed761c0c&msa=0&ll=41.873108,-87.650771&spn=0.025213,0.038581">Click here</a> for the interactive map.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Another avenue I'm pursuing is newspaper stories from 1938-1941. I haven't yet had a great deal of success in this regard, since the area I'm looking at is relatively small, and I haven't found archives for the local papers yet. There were a number of Yiddish newspapers in Chicago at this time, but I doubt my Yiddish is good enough to help me out very much with research. Nonetheless, I've found a few articles and am finding more. On a related side note, you might have fun poking around the<a href="http://news.google.com/newspapers"> newspaper archives</a> on Google News. They have quite the extensive collection of obscure newspapers. And if anyone's doing research on Chehalis, Lewis County, Washington, the archives have a pretty complete run of the <a href="http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=6E5OHDUOeTQC&dat=19380125&printsec=frontpage&hl=en">Chehalis Bee-Nugget</a>. I no longer want to be a journalist, since the world's best-named newspaper is now defunct.<br />
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Unfortunately I haven't found many books on the Taylor Street area from this period. The books about Jews mainly focus on Maxwell Street a few blocks south and a few decades earlier. I've been surprised at the lack of books on Little Italy. However, you can look forward to some interesting quotes from a 1940 Chicago Housing Authority publication next week.<br />
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This week's interesting library find: Morris Aaron Gutstein's "A Priceless Heritage: the Epic Growth of Nineteenth Century Chicago Jewry." I no longer want to be an author, since the world's best book title has already been taken.<span class="fn"></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3706553950289012812.post-16508476524541407562012-01-23T19:52:00.000-08:002012-01-23T20:02:51.491-08:00IntroductionsToday marks my first official day as an intern at the National Public Housing Museum (NPHM). For the past few weeks, I have been brushing up a little on the history of public housing in Chicago. Since I imagine most of my readers are too busy to take the same rewarding journey that I did through the books listed in the bibliography below<span class="h3color">, I am providing the link to a 1993 radio documentary put together by two insightful young residents of public housing, entitled "<a href="http://soundportraits.org/on-air/ghetto_life_101/">Ghetto Life 101</a>." The program is only about half an hour and provides an intriguing look at life in the Ida B. Wells housing project on the South Side in the early 1990's. Any study of a particular era, culture, or geographic location is greatly enhanced by the first-hand account of an insider, and LeAlan and Lloyd make excellent tour guides, so I encourage you to check it out when you have the chance.</span><br />
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<span class="h3color">The offices of the NPHM </span>are located on the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) east campus on the Near West Side, which is about an hour's commute for me (longer if the State Street subway has unexplained electrical problems and the Red Line is re-routed onto a different track, essentially becoming a Brown Line train but insistently proclaiming "THIS IS A RED LINE TRAIN TO NINETY-FIFTH, MAKING ALL NORMAL STOPS" every few seconds, as happened today). On the whole, I like the location in spite of the commute, since it offers me the opportunity to vicariously experience a different college campus. So far I've concluded that the buildings at UIC are far uglier, but the campus is not blighted with construction like Loyola's is. Both universities have exceptionally poor drainage. <br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://blogs.luc.edu/loyolaprogress/files/2012/01/ASC-015.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="http://blogs.luc.edu/loyolaprogress/files/2012/01/ASC-015.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The future home of Loyola's new Alumni Student Center. Currently home to a large pit. (Photo: <a href="http://blogs.luc.edu/loyolaprogress/2012/01/23/alumni-student-center-goes-vertical/">Bryan Goodwin</a>)</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://chicago.curbed.com/uploads/112911-UIC.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://chicago.curbed.com/uploads/112911-UIC.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">UIC Quad. This style of architecture is literally known as "Brutalism." The NPHM offices are located in the building at the top left. (Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamesbondsv/4129318893/#">Steven Vance</a>)</td></tr>
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<a name='more'></a> <!--more--> <!--more--> <!--more--> The NPHM first came into being about 5 years ago when a group of people came together to preserve the last remaining building of the Jane Addams Homes. Opened in 1938, the Jane Addams Homes (not to be confused with Hull House, the nearby organization founded by Jane Addams half a century earlier) were the first federal housing project in Chicago, and closed in 2002. The building, located about halfway between the two campuses at UIC, is not yet open to the public for visits, but I was fortunate enough to be given a tour (Don't tell anyone, but that's the real reason I signed up for this internship). The NPHM plans to open up the building as a place to tell the history of public housing later this year, and if you and I are both lucky, perhaps I'll give you a tour someday. For more information on the NPHM, visit <a href="http://www.publichousingmuseum.org/site/epage/47450_663.htm">their website</a>.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://mw2.google.com/mw-panoramio/photos/medium/52258481.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="425" src="http://mw2.google.com/mw-panoramio/photos/medium/52258481.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The building at 1322-24 West Taylor (Photo: <a href="http://www.panoramio.com/photo/52258481">Gierkec</a>)</td></tr>
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When it opens to the public, the museum will showcase four recreated apartments representing different groups that inhabited the Jane Addams Homes at
different time periods. My general assignment is to perform some of the research necessary for this exhibit. While another intern at the NPHM conducts interviews with former residents to capture their personal histories, I am researching the written history of the area to provide some background for the oral history. My first assignment is to get a feel for what the Taylor Street neighborhood might have looked like from a Jewish perspective around 1938-1941. I have only just gotten started on this task, so I don't have much to share yet. I will note, however, that while looking for books on Jewish Chicago at the UIC library, I stumbled upon a copy of <i>Fodor's Chicago</i>...<b><span style="color: red;">from</span></b> <b><span style="color: red;">1987</span></b>! The lesson: if you don't deaccession old travel books, they may eventually become useful historical guides.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: small;">Suggested Reading</span></b>:<br />
<ul>
<li><span class="h3color">LeAlan Jones and Lloyd Newman, <i>Our America: Life and Death on the South Side of Chicago</i>, 1998. The corollary to the audio program mentioned above.</span></li>
<li><span class="h3color"></span>Alex Kotlowitz, <i>There are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in the Other America</i>, 1992. A well-done journalistic look at the lives of two brothers.</li>
<li> <span class="h3color">Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh, <i>American Project: The Rise and Fall of a Modern Ghetto</i>, 2002. An academic history of the Robert Taylor Homes.</span></li>
</ul>
<span class="h3color"><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0