Chicago History | Spring 1978 by Chicago History Museum

Jnl. t.

Chicago Hi tory The Maga::,i11e ~f thf' Chicago llistorical Society SPI JNG 1978

VOLUME VII , NUMBER

1"annia Weingartner

CONTENTS

Gail Farr Cast ·rlinc

FEARSOME FICTION AND THE WINDY CITY; OR, CHICAGO IN THE DIME NOVEL/2

I•:ditor

Assistant Editor L. Augustu s l)esigner

by Car IS. S111itli

I l:11old

Walt ·r W . Krutz Paul W. Pctraitis

Plwtogrn/Jhy

" THE DAY OF TWO NOONS " ACHIEVING STANDARD TIME/12 li y Marjor i<· K111 THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN URBAN RESEARCH CENTER : THE CHICAGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY 'S LIBRARY/22 l> y llolH·1t I .. Bnili:ikt•r

SALUTE TO A CENTURY OF PROGRESS/37 b y Grant T . lk:111

" ALL ELSE PASSES- ART ALONE ENDURES": THE FINE ARTS BUILDING 1918 to 1930/40 I, y Pn r y R. Du i, EIGHT CHICAGO WOMEN OF FASHION/52 I, y 1-'.li,:dit"tll Ja<i1ir11owi(l

LOOKING BACKWARD: WORLD WAR II Recruiting for the Navy/55

Covor: Mrs. Cyrus Hall McCorm ick by George P. A. Healy, 1861 . Th is 11own will bo displayed In EIGHT CHICAGO WOM EN AND TH EIR FASHION S, 1860-1929, opening In

M11y. Seo pag e 52. CHS, gift of tho McCormick Estates . Ins /do Cover: Th o first of se veral mog azlnos of the sa me namo. Publi shed during 1857, It Is part of tho library's holdings. Soe pag o 22.

Copyright 1978 by the Chicago Historical Society Clark Street at North Avenue Chicago, Illinois 60614 Articles appearing in this journal are abstracted and indexed in Historical Abstracts and America : History and Life

THE BAUM EXPLOSION: A REVIEW ESSAY/59 l1 y R1",<·II I' . Ma< Fall REVIEWS/62 THE SOCIETY /67

Fearsome Fiction and the Windy City; or, Chicago in the Dime Novel BY CARL S. SM 1TH

(( Nothing will be allowed in these stories that can give offense to the most refined minds .... )) a They render the imagination unclean, destroy domestic peace .

WHEN WE SPEAK TODAY of novels about the Chicago of seventy or eighty years ago, what first comes to mind is the sober realism of a Theodore Dreiser, a Henry Blake Fuller, or one of their contemporaries. But a far more exciting literature set in the Second City was more readily available and considerably more popular. Many a reader with a nickel or a dime in his pocket eagerly feasted on plots like these: The Infanta Eulalia, representative of the Spanish throne to the Columbian Exposition, discovers to her horror that her precious crown and jewels have been filched . Luckily, Old Cap. Collier is in the "\l\'orld Fair City, and he gets on the case. While tracking the jewelnappers, Cap. is approached for help by Jack Treadwell, who seeks his beloved Agatha Percival, whose guard ian is the Duchess Annette D'Auxey. The dark and beautiful Duchess wants the fair-and therefore more beautiful- Agatha to marry her illegitimate son Jules Chatre, so that he can claim the fortune Agatha doesn't know she has. One night as Old Cap. sleeps, he is almost put to permanent rest by an Arab assassin, but the latter's deadly dirk pierces only pillow feathers. Ultimately Cap. cops the coronet for the infinitely indebted Infanta, tracing the theft to the Duchess and the Count, and Agatha marries her Jack. The Jnfanta Eu.lalia's Jewels; or, Old Cap. Collier Among the Crooks at the World's Fair, 1893.

Carl S. Smith is a member of the Engfoh Department and associate director of the Program in American Culture at Northwestern University. He is especially interested in turn-of-the-century Chicago writing.

Ch icago History

) )

Meritt Hardour is to be married to Adelia Woodson, ward of Hardour's uncle, Colonel Conway, who lives in a Wabash Avenue mansion. But Meritt is accused of robbing his uncle, who breaks the engagement. Aid seems to come in the form of Mary Foggs, who confesses to the crime. However, her story won ' t wash with Colonel Conway; he wants Adelia to marry Oscar Travers, a man she detests. Well she should, for Travers is in actual fact none other than the notorious no-good, Burt Scruggs. Never fear. Mary Foggs is really Belle Boyd, the Girl Detective. Ably assisted by Billy the Waif, Chicago street urchin (and, it turns out, Conway's long-lost son), she overcomes dynamite, trap doors, and an ogress named Red Mag and her deadly dog Death, and sets things right. Belle Boyd, Th e Girl Detective; A Story of Chicago and the W est, 1891.

At his dear mother's funeral, sixteen-year-old Jack Jessup is told by a stranger that money owed his late mother awaits him in a Chicago office, JOO miles from Jack's native Smithtown. Shortly after Jack pulls into the new Canal Street depot, he is abandoned by the stranger. Undaunted by this misfortune, which is compounded by the fact that the mercury hovers at 15 Â° below, Jack resourcefully finds a ruined factory in which to rest his weary orphan bones, but it is already tenanted by a masked gang plotting the arson-robbery of the home of a Mr. Honneywell. Jack is detected by the malefactors, who pitilessly pitch him out of a winCHS.

Prix: 25 Centimes.

Dime Novel

No. 498.

·:· :·

:: :

-.:1

5 Cms.

:··· : •....

...: i::. -...: \! t:. :.. ::::

dow into the unforgiving Chicago River. Jack survives this dastardly defenestration by landing on a grain schooner icebound in the floes. \!\Then the police won't believe his story, Jack goes direclly to millionaire Honneywell, but once again fails to get a hearing. Our hero subsequently saves a girl trapped in a runaway sleigh and she turns out to be Honneywell's granddaughter Mabel. BUL before he can reap his certain reward Jack is kidnapped by Gilbert Haven, Honneywell's corrupt confidential clerk, who is one of the arsonists. Haven knows that Jack is a lost heir whom Honneywell has been seeking. Denouemenl: crooks encaged, Jack and Mabel engaged. The Fire Bugs of Chicago, 1897.

C A._

olo.coP-(o\\ ie-=- r-,10NGTH~ CRool(s :::.---~I'. :~ - 'll e: Ai:i:l!U•J;J!•i-tiJI;\ :.) fa

77) 0 .... CA

lt flwr I')

:cq, HO\:r \-\',t.P!) 80 \:I' .• •. ... I h . . rT"'

CHS.

The barnstorming Yale baseball team has challenged the Chicago Colts, forebears of the Cubs. When the umpire shouts "Play ball," however, Bulldog captain Frank Merriwell is not to be seen . "Merry" is feared dead, the victim of foul doings . The Eli decide to play anyway because Frank "would want us to go right ahead and win the game." The outlook is less than brilliant for the New Haven nine when suddenly their hero appears, whiffs the hapless Coils he faces, and (wouldn't a Cub fan know it) steals the winning run in the ninth. Frank Merriwell's Speed; or, Breaking th e Chicago Colts, 1900.

LARCEST CIRCULATI O N

No. 456. ff

Ch icago History

PUBLISHED~

5 Ceoll

. ....

OLDSEARCH IN CHICAGO: Of!

''Piping" a

Wor l d's Fair Mystery. By Major A.. F. Grant..

As remarkably improbable as such chapters of Chicago life may seem, the most salient thing about them is how typical they are of a literary breed of thousands that flourished and then died between the Civil War and World \!\Tar I the dime novel. These four tales are noteworthy, however, as members of a subtype of the once astonishingly widely-read works. They are a few of the dozens of dime novels written about Chicago, beginning at least as early as 1870 with 4

OF ANY FIVE•Cl:NT LIBRARY

CHS.

Dime Novel

No . 45? ,

, â&#x20AC;˘ ,

V l, I

BELLE BOYD, THE GIRL DETECTIVE. A STORY OP CHICAGO AND THE WEST.

CHS.

!lW YIJI (.

sc,at..

THE PULLMAN PLOT:

O R . NICK C ARTE:--< S CH A NG!:.. CLEW.

CHS.

The Heart of Fire; or, Mother Versus Daughter. A Revelation of Chicago Life. These offspring of imaginations simultaneously lurid and sentimental tell us a great deal, not all of it nauering, about the popular mind and the new American urban culture thal made the dime novel possible. The history of the clime novel i a tale as improbable in its own way as many of the novels themselves. The first dime novel proper-that is, a complete and original swry offered at a very low cost as part of a regular series-was issued in 1860 by Beadle & Company, who for 250 dollars hired a popular writer and magazine editor, Mrs. Ann S. Stephen, to write Ma/aeslw, tlie Indian Wife of the White Hunter. Beadle's first blockbuster came a few monthÂˇ later with the carefully promoted Seth Jones; or, The CafJtives of the Frontier, by twentyyear-old New Jerseyan Edward S. Ellis, which reputedly sold some450,000 copies in six months and was translated into seven languages. By April of 1864, the highbrow North American Review reported, Beadle had between two and three million ten-cent novels in circulation. As cultural historian Henry Nash Smith observes, Erastus Beadle has a claim to be compared with other industrial giants of his day in meeting the demands of a whole new mass market for publishing Beadle's books were supposedly packed in bales and sent everywhere, even to the Civil \Var fronts, where Un ion and Confederate soldiers exchanged them during breaks in the fighting. ol surprisingly, Beadle's record encouraged competitors to try their hand, so that by 1890 there were five major dime novel houses and several minor ones, mosl situated in lower Manhattan "fiction factories" where the books were conceived, written, edited, and printed. The success of Beadle and its rivals depended on low costs and volume sales. The key factors in making both possible were the development of steam-driven presses that cou ld pr int hun dreds of thousands of copies rapidly and railChicago History

Dime Novel

road lines that sped issues from the point of publication to the rest of the country. The production of groundwood pulp paper, which generally dropped in price until 1889, and postage rates as low as a penny a pound also aided publishers who worked with the thinnest of profit margins. Costs were sufficiently reduced and the market large enough that by the 1880s most "dime" novels were actually issued at five cents. This was at a time when a conventional clothbound book cost between one and two dollars. The look of the dime novels reflected their price. The earliest books were approximately five by seven inches, 100 pages long, and offered for a dime. These were gradually replaced, beginning in the 1870s, with the more common eight-by-twelve inch, five-cent version, which ran generally sixteen or thirty-two double or triple column pages. If, as one observer has pointed out, these larger books could be less easily carried in one's pocket, they were all the more readily concealed in a geography textbook during class. The last major change came in the micl-I890s, when the firm of Street & Smith introduced colors to the enticing cover illustrations that characterized the half-dime novels. Even a clime novel cannot be judged entirely by its cover and format, however. What made these books successful was their content, which like their size and price shifted a bit over the years. As the full ti ties of M alaeska and Seth Jones reveal, the early books were mainly frontier stories that appealed to a nation already nostalgic for its fading Wild West, but publishers soon added to the likes of Buffalo Bill and .Jesse .James (who nobly helps out a woman in distress in Jesse James in Chicago; or, The Bandit King's Bold Play) other types of protagonists. Old Cap. Collier and Belle Boyd, Girl Detective, are but two of dozens of heroic sleuths who appeared, the most popular being Street & Smith's Nick Carter, who investigated over 1000 sticky situations, several in the Windy City. 6

Chicago History

Under hortatory series tides such as Frank Tousey's Work & Win, independent youths like Joe .Jessup and Billy the vVaif made their way from rags to riches with pluck and luck. A disgruntled Beadle hand named William Gilbert Patten moved over to Street & Smith in 1896, adopted the literary persona of Burt L. Standish (many writers had a quillful of pen names), and week after week for the next two decades chronicled hundreds of exploits by another kind of protagonist, All-American Boy Frank Merriwell, conqueror of the Chicago Colts. Although publishers were secretive about numbers, it has been estimated that "Merry" had over a million regular followers. Yet another popular vein mined by dime novelists was American history, particularly the Revolutionary and Civil wars. In Lincoln's Spy; or, The Loyal Detective, for example, our faithful ferret foils a Confederate plot to burn Chicago a decade before Mrs. O'Leary's cow finally got the job done. The desperate ingenuity behind the permutations of dime novel heroes, adventures, and locales leads us almost inevitably to a list-making which goes well beyond the absurd before it even begins to be exhaustive. We find in the more than eight hundred volumes of the Old Cap. Collier Library not only Old Cap., but also Old Broadbrim, Quaker Detective; Old Opium, Mongolian Detective; Dick Drama, Actor Detective; Overland Orve, Mountain Detective; Keen Trump, Little Joker Detective; Hugh Ratan, Pedagogue Detective; and Old Pitcher, Baseball Detective. There were also numerous "young" sleuths around (including one called Youth Sleuth), and the happy medium of duos such as Old and Young King Brady, as in The Bradys' Chicago Clew; or, Exposing the Board of Trade Crooks. These joined an endless alliterative list that extended from Bison Bill to Wizard Will. No topic was too fleeting for the opportunistic writer, and no setting too remote. Some books were keyed on political, social, and economic issues. By the early I 870s, for example, Ornum & Company hoped that

Dime Novel

The Landlord's Crime; or, The Oath of Vengeance and others in its series of Irish Novels would appeal to the large segment of the population fascinated with Irish nationalism. When the body of Chicago Irish nationalist leader Dr. Philip Cronin was found in a catch-basin in May of 1889, at least two dime novel renditions of the crime immediately appeared, complete with illustrations. If Chicagoans were shocked or flattered that Deadwood Dick, Jr., came to Chicago, they had to keep in mind that he also righted wrongs in Texas, "Gotham," Boston, Philadelphia, Denver, Detroit, Cincinnati, Buffalo, Durango, San Francisco, and even Coney Island. Not that the creators of these novels necessarily knew much about their subjects and settings. More important was that they paid attention to certain conventions established early in dime novel history. These include the engaging double title, outlandish villains, and a plot line that derived heavily from sentimental or Gothic romance (often both) and moved toward a resolution in which every evildoer was jailed or (preferably) dead, all mysteries untied and every likely (or sometimes unlikely) couple wedded. Another regular feature was hyperbole. Old eversleep, who is almost murdered in Graceland Cemetery by a Peruvian assassin with a blowgun, is "the keenest sleuth that ever struck a human trail, the most skillful mantracker that ever hunted down a rascal, and as brave a man as ever stood in shoe-leather," while Nick Carter is simply "the greatest sleuth who ever lived." Speech patterns in these books are often distinguished by the use of stilted elevated diction. Asked to reveal his true identity, the Black Mask contemptuously replies, "You must be very verdant to think I would willingly gratify your idle curiosity." But the only truly common denominator was action and surprise. Dime novels are generally short on description and long on escapes from certain death, last-second rescues, sensational bloodletting (no one is shot if he can be stabbed

or burned or crushed in a train wreck), and endless disguises and hidden identities. In a 1902 interview, Eugene T. Sawyer, author of several Nick Carters, explained, "The principle seems to be, first, that every chapter shall contain a sensation, then that these situationsensations shall be cumulative, growing harder and harder for the hero, until at last the knot is untied in the most unexpected way possible." Once the conventions were established, they seemed to write the book. An advertisement for back issues in the series that featured Fred Fearnot, who was directly modeled after Merriwell, was truer than it intended when it procla imed, "Read one and you will read them all." It is not hard to see why the conventions were so appealing. The dime novel was a cheap, quick, portable, and imaginative entertainment. Some cultural analysts such as Merle Curti have argued broadly for these books' importance as celebrations of national virtues and values-self-reliance, hunger for adventure, democratic egalitarianism, and patriotismwhile the New York Times once called them "authentic sagas," the literary descendants of the works of Homer, Aesop, and Sir Walter Scott. Several contemporary critics would have disagreed strongly with such valuations. Despite the fact that the dime novel audience included virtually every outstanding figure from Lincoln to Wilson, parents evidently were upset to find their children furtively purchasing these books and reading them behind the woodshed. In 1883 the legendary moral arbiter Anthony Comstock called dime novels "sure-ruin traps" for the young, breeders of "vulgarity, profanity, loose ideas of life, impurity of thought and deed. " He went on, "They render the imagination unclean, destroy domestic peace, desolate homes, cheapen woman's virtue, and make foulmouthed bullies, cheats, vagabonds, and libertines." Even the success tales were condemned by Comstock: "What young man will serve an apprenticeship, working early and late, if h is mind is filled with the idea that sudden wealth Ch icago History

Dime Novel

may be acquired by following the idea of the hero of the story?" Novelists and publishers often ignored such complaints, though even the most lurid dime book restored the moral unities by the last page. But in some cases they tried to head off criticism in various ways. The creators of the series featuring that unimpeachable stalwart Nick Carter, for example, felt compelled to point out in The Compact of Death; or, Nick Carter's Singed Hair Clew (during the course of which the Mafia sends ick his client's head in a trunk), "These are not tales of bloodshed, lust and crime-rather, they show how impossible it is for any man to transgress the law without being punished." In an age when Huckleberry Finn was kept off public library shelves because it glorified a shiftless boy who lied, smoked, played hookey, used improper English, and decided to go to hell , the back cover of Fred Fearnot in Chicago; or, The Abduction of Evelyn promised, "Nothing will be allowed in these stories that can give offense to the most refined minds, and we feel assured that the old as well as young will find both pleasure and profit in following the harmless adventures of this bright young man who always tries to do right, at the same time using every effort to keep on top." For extra good measure, in Fred Fearnot and the White Masks; or, Chasing the Chicago Stranglers, our hero sings a temperance song that brings tears to the eyes of his listeners. The dime novels that are set in Chicago have a special interest because, as examples of such a popular form, they are an important indicator of the image of the new city in particular and of general expectations concerning urban life in a country that was just recognizing that it was becoming a nation of such cities. These books are an excellent key to common beliefs, hopes, and concerns because their audience's desires and fears ultimately shaped the novels. As Henry Nash Smith says concerning the western novels, dime novel authors seemed not so much to be independently creative artists as participants in a mass dream. 8

Chicago History

Chicago was an excellent ready-made locale for many writers because it already had a colorful reputation in the public mind. This public extended even overseas, where one of many translated dime novels was a twenty-five centime Nick Carter (Le Grand Detective Americain) number titled La Cite du Lac Michigan; au, Le Crime de Chicago. Chicago, after all, witnessed several major events that were uniquely its own and to which could easily be connected the most fanciful of plots. The 1893 World's Columbian Exposition brought not only Old Cap. Collier to town to find the Infanta's jewels, but also Bob Brooks (in Caught in Chicago; or, Bob Broohs among the World's Fair Crooks), Chicago Charlie (Chicago Charlie's Diamond Haul; or, Trapping the Tunnel Thieves. A Story of the White City), and Old Search (Old Search in Chicago; or, "Piping" a World's Fair Mystery). Chicago Charlie was also known as the Columbian Detective, and his runin, during another ad\'enture, with the Hawks of the Lakeside League involves Buffalo Bill's Âˇw ild vVest Show, a fight on the Ferris Wheel, and some exciting action in the Midway's Streets of Cairo. In Th e Pullman Plot; or, Nick Carter's Cha nee Clew, the famed strike of 1894 affects Nick's pursuit of Black Bart and his commonlaw wife Lady Louise, while the Haymarket Affair of 1886 is the inspiration for The R ed Flag; or, The Anarchists of Chicago. (The general preoccupation with potentially dangerous political groups also produced an improbable amalgam of a character called the Boy Student Nihilist.) Th e Fire-Fiends; or, H ercules the Hun chback, one of the most incomprehensibly complex and sadistically violent of dime novels, contains a purple description of the Chicago Fire. Incidentally, Ornum & Company, cashing in on the public's interest in the destruction of Chicago, brought out a "non-fiction" account of the conflagration and a Burning of Chicago Songster to accompany the staple production of dime novels. In addition, unlike many other cities, Chicago had certain landmarks that even writers who

Dime Novel

...

.....

' .... ' ..·~·1..-1::.:.!1. . •. ";', :.::..t.:. ...

,,ce111

... -

THE THUGS OF CHICAGO: Old Fiiich on. the Trail_

had never seen the city could refer to and expect their audiences to recognize. These included Lake Michigan, the new skyscrapers, and the Board of Trade. Other local color features found their way into these books. The heroes commonly stay in the new Auditorium Hotel or the plush Palmer House, the bad guys hang out on South Clark Street, and the wealthy businessmen whose granddaughters are constantly riding in careering sleighs usually live on South Michigan. Above all, as one of America's very few large cities of international stature, Chicago had a fast-growing mixed population of sufficient size so that no person or event could be absolutely excluded from possibility. Indeed, a number of clime novels immediately define Chicago as distinctive on the basis of its size and ambition. On the train into the city in Frank Merriwell in Chicago; or, Meshed by Mysteries, Easterner Frank is told by a stranger, "Chicago's got hustle, bustle, rush, go, snap, vim, and other things too numerous to mention. It is destined to be the metropolis of the new world." When he gets to town (as a fugitive, for Merriwell is mistaken for a criminal and only escapes the law because the train crashes), he realizes that though he had seen some tall buildings in ew York, "when it came to 'skyscrapers,' Tew York could not hold a candle to Chicago." And at the encl of Th e Compact of Death, the grateful Chicago Police Chief tells Nick Carter that the great sleuth is wasting himself in his native New York: "Come to Chicago and get in with the world's people. Don't stagnate in a one-horse burg like the cluster of shanties on Manhattan Island. Come here, where we scrape the sky and drink water from the clouds." One can argue that these Chicago novels, in and of themselves and as representatives of the urban clime novel in general, reveal a widespread excitement with and optimism about the city. It is not surprising that virtually all Chicago-based dime novels are detective or ragsto-riches stories, sometimes both, since there

•1,,Y

... Lue•

r, •

• ltOUCHTOJI, .,, I

,.,,. Ir ~M 1•

i;.•n..-, .... _...... ___ .,.. ______ _..._~,-fta,Q ..... ..,.,, ..

... - .................

CHS.

were enough plush mansions and abandoned factories to support and house all the thieving gangs that one could hope for, and enough real-life country boys who struck it rich on LaSalle Street to legitimize even the wildest dreams of success. These kinds of stories reveal a basic faith in urban individualism and moral heroism, and even a strong belief in the social system. The Old Cap. Colliers, Nick Carters, and Belle Boycls demonstrate that there is no evil force so strong that wit and courage in the service of good cannot defeat it, while Frank Merriwell and Joe .Jessup teach us that any individual whose heart is pure can be successful. That so many novels end with villains defeated, true heirs found, and couples united showsComstock notwithstanding-how conservative these books are in implying that society as constituted works quite well. There are some disturbing elements, however, in thi very social conservatism. For one thing, while most of the Chicago clime novels give unlimited scope for individual action and would have us believe that anyone can be a hero, they are in some ways oddly undemocratic. This is partly because, as some have noted, the individualism displayed is so extreme. The detectives work independently of, sometimes even in Chicago History

Dime Novel

oppos1t10n to, the exasperated and plodding Chicago police, who frequently turn the case over lo one person who saves the day, or who chase the wrong suspect. The clime novel would have us believe that Chicago and, by extension, modern civilization are unable to help themselves without the aid of superheroes like the urban detectives or insufferably good and able lads like i\1erriwell and Jessup. A major sign of this helplessness is the sheer quantity of evil which freely abounds in Chicago and other urban centers in these books. The Chicago dime novels accept it as a given that the city is an exciting but also a nasty place where violence in word and deed are the norm. An acceptable level of discourse is, "One move and I'll paint the walls with your brains," and kidnappings, eye-gougings, poisonings, and blood feuds carried out by murderous secret societies are ord inary events. If the dime novel were the only written record we had of nineteenth and early twentieth century Chicago, we would think that the citizenry had time for little besides worrying about Peruvians with blowguns, and that the bulk of the Aud itorium Hotel's trade was detectives to whose rooms were regularly delivered the detached heads of their clients. In Jesse James in Chicago, for example, we learn of Chicago of the nearly 1870s: "In proportion to her population she may be safely put clown as the wickedest city on the continent-a modern Sodom." The droves of detectives noted above who arrive for the Columbian Exposition come not lo be awed by the Court of Honor or to gape at Little Egypt, but because they know, as the author of Old Search in Chicago tells us, that "during the great exposition the vVestern city would swarm with the reelhanded riff-raff of Europe." The Police Chief tells Bob Brooks that there is a veritable Midway of mayhem running loose in the White City: "We have English garroters, French stranglers, Vienese [sic] poisoners, and burglars, safe-blowers, and pickpockets from all the world over." 10

Chicago History

As these passages show, another alarming aspect of these books, one which deepens their undemocratic tone, is a particularly ugly xenophobia and racism. As a conveyor of popular values and beliefs, the clime novel in this respect reflects the upsurge in nativist nationalism at the turn of the century. Foreigners served a double-duty for authors: they provided a touch of the intriguing unknown and they were readymade villains since it was assumed they they were capable of atrocities that no native American would perpetrate. There's an extra fillip of thrill in the fact that not only is the assassin who tries lo ventilate Old Cap. Collier an Arab, but that the handle of his knife bears a "cabalistic sign" that carries Allah-only-knows what horrid meaning. One Chicago shoesh ine boy is driven out of his trade by "the diny Italian bootblacks." He informs us: "Ther's a reg'lar batch o' them nasty furriners on the street, that no sound American won't 'sociate with!" The creator of All-American Frank Merriwell was not above referring to a .Jew as a Sheeny and an Italian as a Dago, and looking on both as the enemy. So much for the melting pot. Commonly the evil or cowardice of a particular villain is directly linked to his ever-so-subtly darker complexion, or the Tegro blood that flows in his veins. Finally, when we witness an anarchist meeting in The Red Flag; or, The Anarchists of Chicago, we are informed, "The men in the audience were unkempt and wild-looking," and then assured that "there was not a native American among them." But there is some clanger in taking these clime novels too seriously. They were, as we have seen, loyal to their conventions above any fealty to truth, and they were the indirect result, not the cause, of patterns of behavior in everyday life. One of their attractions was that they were for the most part not like life, but an entertaining escape from it. These books were, as Smith states, the stuff of dreams, which is why they finally tell us more about their general audience than they do about Chicago or any other subject

Dime Novel

5ECRfJ SERVICE

OLD ANDYOUNG KING 8RADY,0tTECTlvt5. 1-4 ........ ...

?Co. 281,

Nl:W YORK. Jrst: Jo. llltM.

lit[ BRADYS' CltlCAGO CLfWi DR.EXPOSING THE 8DARDDFlRADE CROOKS. ,f/JlfW-)'!7~ :/7E~fÂŁ'77JIE.

or setti11g. We learn from their success that a large segment of the populace, living in an age of change that involved increasingly pervasive social organization, wanted certain kinds of outlets. The level of violence in dime novels is probably as much a response to the amount of external social control felt by Chicagoans and other Americans as it is of any legitimate disorder. The prevalence of single-handed feats of daring heroism are testimony to the strong attraction of the idea of the efficacy of human action in a time when the individual felt himself at the mercy of things beyond his grasp, be they his employers, the streetcar company, or an economy he did not understand . In their own way, tales of horrifying criminals who must be overcome seemed to make an otherwise routine existence in country or town significant because they reminded the reader of the value of wit, courage, and daring. Street boys who rose to the top by rescuing the boss from arsonists kept one aware that somewhere above the dirt and noise of the streets was a wonderful abstraction called Success, the muse of the Gilded Age. For a handful of pennies anyone could buy a scaleddown epic adventure that told him that in American cities like Chicago life was dangerous and unpredictable, and for that very reason all the more exciting and worth living. The dime novel as a popular form began to decline with the turn of the century. Some of the pioneers of the industry passed away or sold out, while increasing competition and expenses made the business more precarious, especially in a troubled economy. According to historian of American publishing John Tebbe!, the real beginning of the end came in 1901 when Congress declared subscription libraries third-class rather than second-class mail, multiplying postage rates eight-fold. The clime novel did not simply die, however, but was replaced by and reincarnated in other popular phenomena, such as the more lurid and sensational pulp magazines, the newly-invented movies, and the adventures of the likes of Tom Swift and the

CHS.

Rover Boys. Just as the dime novel was heir to early nineteenth century romance, so it is an ancestor of several related forms we are fam iliar with today. Though these cheaply printed books decay in special collections of libraries and crumble in the hands of anyone who tries to read them, their formulas and heroes live on, as anyone who has browsed through the books in an airport or drugstore newsstand, or who has seen Star Wars or Charlie's Angels-those Belle Boycls of the seventies-can read ily attest. Selected Sources 1 he substantial co llection o( dime novels in the library of the Chicago Historica l Society was the major source for this essay. The author is very grateful for the help of the library staff. Useful discussions of dime novels include :

Bishop W. H. "Story-Paper Literature." Atlantic Morithly, 44 ( iÂ°879). Burgess, Gclelt. "The Confessions of a Dime-Novelist. An Interv iew." The Bookman, 15 (1902). Cawe!Li, John G. Adventure, 1\l ystery , and Romance: Formula Stories as Art and Popular Culture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, I 976. Curti, Merle. " Dime Novels and the American Tradition ." Yale R eview, 26 (1937). [Everett, William]. " Beadle's Dime Books." North American Review, 99 (1864). J oha nnsen. Albert. The Hou se of Beadle and Adams and Its Dime and Nickel Novels. 3 \'Ols. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1950-1962. ~foll , Frank Luther. Golden Multitudes: The Story of Best Sellers in the United States. New York: Macmillian Company, 1947. Nye, Russel. The Unem barrassed Muse: Th e PoPllla r Arts in America . New York: Dial Press, 1970. Smith, Henry Nash. Virgin Land: The American West as Symbol and M yth. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1950. Tebbe!, J o hn. A History of Book PlLblishi11g in the United States. Vol. II: The Expan sio n of a,i fodtL stry, 1865-1919. New York: R. R. Bowker, 1975.

Chicago History

"The Day of Two Noons"Achieving Standard Time BY MARJORIE KRIZ

The Sun is no longer to boss the job .... The planets must) in future) make their circuits by such timetables as railroad magnates arrange.)) <<

From the Indianapolis Sentinel, November 21, 1883

"IT ALL HAPPENED here in Chicago" can be said about a good many important events, but surely none has been so overlooked as the General Time Convention of 1883 when representatives of the nation's railroads met in the old Grand Pacific Hotel, at Jackson and LaSalle, and, on November 18 voted to establish standard time zones. This was of considerable consequence to the railroads, which then spread from coast to coast and consisted of many small lines rather than the consolidated and nationalized companies of today. The expanding railroad industry required timetables, but these were most difficult to compile because there were as many as 100 different "official" times throughout the U .S. While individual communities could establish their own times to suit the local populace, the railroads stretching across the continent, both in the U .S. and Canada, needed a standard time system to make things mesh. The two countries stretched much farther east to west than any in Europe, with a five hour span from coast to coast, while countries such as Italy, mostly lying north to south, could use the same time everywhere without confusion. Thus the problem was more acute in North America than elsewhere.

Marjorie Kriz is a former journalist with a great interest in Chicago history. She is now a member of the Federal Aviation Administration staff in Chicago. 12

Chicago History

Before the General Time Convention passed its standard time resolution, each major community used "sun time," determining noon by the minute the sun crossed the meridian. This, of course, varied according to the latitude. It takes the sun approximately one minute to travel 13 miles, or one second for every 1, 13 I feet at this latitude.â&#x20AC;˘ Around the mid-nineteenth century, local time was far from adequate for railroad schedules. While you might know that the Chicago and North Western was scheduled to leave Chicago for Pierre, South Dakota, at noon, you might have difficulty in knowing when noon was, particularly if you lived outside Chicago. Smaller communities most often followed the time pattern set by their larger neighbors, which made for fewer variances. But even so, when the General Time Convention of 1883 took place, the Chicago Tribun e reported that there were 27 different local times in Illinois, 23 in Indiana, 38 in Wisconsin , and 27 in Michigan. The nation's business, and indeed that of the world, ran on whatever time the local communities decreed. The exact hour and minULe of the day was of little consequence to most people. If Chicago 100 years ago had been as large as it is today, the time at Meigs Field on the lakefront would have been more than a full minute ahead of that at O'Hare International Airport on the far west side.

"In a manner of speaking, as of course it is the earth that moves around the sun.

Two Noons

Ther~ was confusion among Lhe railroads as well as among Lheir passengers. In the East, the Pennsylvania Railroad used Philadelphia time, which was five minutes slower Lhan New York time and five minutes fasLer Lhan Baltimore time. Baltimore time was used by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad for trains originating in that city, but Columbus Lime was used for iLs trains in Ohio; Vincennes, Indiana, time for trains traveling west of Cincinnati; and New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago times for other trains. MosL railroads opcraLing west and south of Chicago used Chicago time, but those running west from St. Louis used Lhe lauer's time. Both the New York Central and Pennsylvania railroads used Columbus, Ohio, time in the Chicago district, so that their Lrains at Chicago arrived or deparLed, if on Lime, 19 minutes fasLer Lhan local Chicago Lime. In 1828, because of Lime confusion worldwide, Greenwich mean Lime was esLablished for England, ScoLland, and Wales, with noon deLermined as Lhe moment at which the sun passed over Lhe Greenwich Royal Observatory on midsummer day. That was fine for the British but it did noLhing for Lhe U.S. and Canada and their growing east-west railroads. Railroad superintendents in the U.S., with some from Canada, meL annually to iron out the timetable difficulties caused by non-standard times. The many small lines had to meet each oLher's arrival and departure times so that Lravelers could Lransfer from one to another without waiting overnight for the next train to Podunk. By May 1872, when the superintendents met at the General Time Convention in St. Louis to arrange summer passenger schedules, it was a major undertaking to sort out the at least 68 different Limes used by the various railroads. This was an improvement over the l 00 separate times used a few years earlier, but still far from desirable. The first person credited with suggesting a standard time system for general usage by the

railroads was Charles F. Dowel, principal of Temple Grove Ladies' Seminary at Saratoga Springs, New York. In 1870 Dowd decided that a line passing through Greenwich, England, should be established as zero degrees longitude and with Lime zones changing every 15° east and west of that line. Fifteen degrees would divide the world into 24 equal zones, with one hour change in time for each 15 °. But, because Dowel could not conceive that his system of time could be imposed on a countrywide basis, he confined his proposal to the railroads. For the rest of the country he set up an elaborate system of pluses and minuses which would enable the populace to adjust local time to railroad time. He prepared a cities' index indicating the number of minutes to be added or subtracted from local time to arrive at the railroad standard. As there were too many communities for all to be listed, smaller cities and towns were to use the pluses and minuses assigned to the nearest large city. And woe to the traveler who subtracted minutes when he should have added them. Tra ins even then didn't wait for latecomers. By keeping strictly to the 15° of longitude scheme, however, a small portion of Maine found itself allied with eastern Canada, rather Lhan with the rest of the east coast of the U.S. And a narrow strip of Florida's west coast found itself separated from the rest of the state. It was still all just too confusing. At the General Time conventions, railroad superin tendenLs had tried to dev ise a sys tem of their own for several years, but with l ittle success. Then, in 1881, it was decided that William Frederick Allen should have the sole voice in determining a standard system of time. As a railroad engineer and managing editor of the Official Guide of the Railways and Steam Navigation Lines, Allen probably was more aware of the problems than anyone else. He undoubtedly also was aware of how difficult it would be to come up with a solution that would be suitable for the railroads and Ch icago History

During the heyday of rail travel pandemonium often preceded the departure of a train since passengers had no sure way to determine when their next connection left. From a supplement to Appleton's Journal, 1870. CHS, gift of Mariette Howe Purinton.

acceptable to everyone else. Allen consulted other railroad men, as well as scientists and astronomers. He also studied Dowd's system to devise the best solution. He finally decided that flexibility was essential in setting up time boundaries because lines of longitude alone would not take into consideration physical and political demarcations which either could not or were unlikely to change. He went back to Dowel's idea of determining time from a prime meridian, that imaginary line of longitude passing through Greenwich. Like Dowd, he agreed with the British. It was a start. Zero had to be somewhere. Sixty degrees west of zero longitude was to be the beginning of time zones for the Western Hemisphere. This line of longitude would include Canada's eastern provinces but would artificially zig and zag a bit to exclude Maine, which would fall into the next time zone. Allen termed this the Intercolonial time zone, now called Atlantic time. It would, though, include Bermuda and Puerto Rico, if they agreed with his premise. The next 15 ° would be the Eastern time zone, falling between 60° and 75° west lati14

Chicago History

tude. Then would come the Central, Mountain, and Pacific standard times. Allen's divisions were illustrated by a map prepared by Rand, McNally and Company and published in the Chicago Daily Tribune on Sunday, November 18, 1883. It showed the 75° line, which passes near Philadelphia, as the center of the Eastern time zone. The 90° line, running through St. Louis, became the center of the Central time zone; the 105° line, running through Denver, became more or less the center of the Mountain time zone; and the 120° line, running along Nevada's western border, was the center of the Pacific time zone. The degree lines, however, are the only straight ones on the map for the borders of the zone waver considerably. This map, for the first time, showed a reasonable system of time zones, flexible where necessary, but neat and clean with only four time zones for the continental U.S. instead of the 100 or more separate times of previous years. ,vithin each of the zones the time would be the same, and between each zone the time would differ by one hour. Exactly. When the General Time Convention convened in Chicago on Thursday, October 11,

Lobby of the Grand Pacific Hotel at Jackson and LaSalle where the General Time Convention of 1883 was held. From Two Years After the Fire. Chicago Illustrated, Chicago, 1873. CHS.

1883 at the elegant Grand Pacific Hotel, delegates from 35 railroads voted to ratify the resolution. This vote committed 27,781 miles of railroad represented by convention members and 51,260 miles not represented at all to the new system. Convention members opposing the resolution governed a mere 1,714 miles of railroads. At this time, railroad mileage totaled 113,000 with owners of 100,000 miles of roads agreeing to adopt the new time standard. "The remaining 13,000 miles of railroads soon followed," a footnote to the convention's published report stated. The Chicago Tribune o[ October 12 outlined the entire plan in a lengthy story, carefully listing the 35 railroads represented. The delegates were encouraged to undertake other cooperative ventures to set standards, for the article concluded:

A report of the Committee on Uniform Signals was read by the Chairman, l\fr. James McCrea, of the Pittsburg [sic], Cincinnati & St. Louis. The report considers the subject of adopting a uniform system of signals by hand-lamp, bell-cord, whistles, lamps on trains, and torpedoes. The report was accepted and ordered to be printed and submitted to the members for their consideration.

Between Thursday, October 11, when the General Time Convention approved the new standard time system and Sunday, November 18, the date when it was put into effect, the railroads prepared diligently for the change. Station masters and ticket agents were sent reams of instructions. New timetables had to be printed. The country had to be notified. But publicity turned out to be no problem as newspapers and other periodicals gave widespread coverage to the plan. It quickly became a major topic of discussion and dissent. l\Iany wondered Chicag o History

Despite the adoption of standard time in 1883 confusion persisted , as the clocks on this 1885 calendar indicate. CHS.

who would decide when the hour mark would be. "Several of the Boston roads hesitated to adopt a standard time varying sixteen minutes from local time," John S. Allen, vice president of the National R ailway Publication Company, later reported in his booklet, Standard Time in America (1951). "It was finally agreed by the railroads involved that they ,rnuld adopt Standard Time provided the Cambridge Observatory Time Ball would be dropped on this new time." As Carlton J. Corliss explained in The Day of Two Noons, published in 1952 by the Asso16

Chicago History

ciation of American Railroads (which had evolved from the General Time Convention): These time balls, now almost forgotten, were a great institution in their time. Each day at noon at a particular location, a large ball, sometimes three or four feet in diameter, so as LO be visible for several miles, was dropped from a lofty mast. As the ball fell, the people-watching from many vantage points-ad justed their timepieces to noon, and thus everyone in the city was provided with uniform time. In the larger cities, thousands of persons watched the time balls daily. Scientists wrote learned papers about them, argued about the best diameter or weight and height of the mast, and whether the ball should start falling at noon or reach the bottom at noon.

Many were pleased that the railroads were trying to introduce more systematic methods of time-telling and offered practical assistance to bring them into common use. On October 9, Rear Admiral R. W. Shufeldt, superintendent of the U .S. Naval Observatory in Washington, wrote to W. F. Allen: We will gladly change the time of dropping the New York ball to mean time of the 75th meridian. Further tl1an this, we will, unless there be some un expected opposition, try to secure the immediate adoption of the same time as the local time for the whole section in which it is to be used by the railroads. As this Observatory is furnished with automatic apparatus for sending time by telegraph, and does so send it each day over the lines of the Western Union Company, we shall be glad to furnish the time of the 75th and 90th meridians to the railroads, provided they will make the necessary arrangements with the telegraph companies. We will also furnish the time, free of charge, to any other telegraph company that will bring a wire to the Observatory.

Other government officials, however, were not as cooperative as the admiral and, instead of helping establish the new system, tried to ignore or even to stop it. U.S. Attorney General Benjamin A. Brewster warned: "No government department will be allowed to use standard time without an act of Congress." Brewster reportedly missed his train to Philadelphia by about eight minutes shortly after the changeover. evertheless, even though Congress made no commitments, the District of Columbia approved standard time several months later. And so, Sunday, November 18, 1883 became the "clay of two noons." As the Chicago Tribune reported this singular event the following day: Shortly before the new time was to be put into effect, a Tribune representative called at the office of the Train Dispatchers of the Pennsylvania, Burlington, Panhandle, and Alton railroads at the West Side Union Depot. The Division Superintendents, Train Dispatchers, Depot-master and Telegraph Operators were all at their desks. All looked

.. ........ .. . . .. .;.,::.;."!.·~· .-!,11·~·•' ,,.....

• ... *V.•

William F. Allen (1864-1915), secretary of the General Time Convention and of the American Railway Association, planned the division of the country into four standard time zones. Association of American Railroads.

unusually solemn, and their faces showed that something of an extraordinary nature was about to happen. At about a quarter of 12 o'clock, Chicago time, the cone! uctors, engineers and other trainmen dropped in one by one, each having his timepiece in his hand and watching closely the hands of the dials. Depot Master Cropsey had his chronometer under a powerful magnifying glass to be sure that he made no mistake. v\lhen the clock on the wall in the office, by which the running of the trains in the depot is regulated, stood at 12, it was stopped. The telegraph instruments were then connected with the pendulum of the clock in the observatory at Allegheny, Pa . .. . . Each move was faithfully repeated on the telegraph instruments, and at precisely 9 minutes 32 seconds after 12, Chicago time, the movement of the pendulum stopped, indicating that it was exactly 12 noon by 90th meridian time. The fact successfully accomplished, a general murmur of satisfaction ran through the room.

The Tribune also reported that the Chicago Board of Trade, most of the important businesses, and the U.S. post office would begin using the new time. Chicago Hi story

Two Noons

Despite the comparative ease with which the railroads made the big change, there were many who found fault with the new time system and some who found it difficult to remember that the railroads now had their own time. The Indianapolis Sentinel of November 21 , 1883 offered some interesting comments. The Sun is no longer to boss the job. People55,000,000 of them-must eat, sleep and work as well as travel by railroad time. It is a revolt, a rebellion. The Sun will be requested to rise and set by railroad time. The planets must, in the future, make their circuits by such timetables as railroad magnates arrange. People will have to marry by railroad time, and die by railroad time. Ministers will be required to preach by railroad time-banks will open and close by railroad time-in fact, the Railroad Convention has taken charge of the time business and the people may as well set about adjusting their affairs in accordance with its decree . . . . We presume the sun, moon, and stars will make an attempt LO ignore the orders of the Railroad Convention, but they, too, will have to give in at last.

The New Yorh H erald, in another humorous article, predicted, "The man who goes to church in New York today will hug himself with delight to find that the noon service has been curtailed to the extent of nearly four minutes, and every old maid on Beacon Hill, in Boston, will rejoice tonight to discover that she is younger by almost 16 minutes." Some leveled the peevish accusation that the new system was an attempt to change "God's Time," others that there was a conspiracy between the railroads and the watchmakers, and others still that people were being robbed of daylight so they would burn more gas for illumination. And there were even some who said the whole thing was a lie. Indeed the time change had some unusual legal repercussions. Corliss recounts: An interesting case, reported from Iowa, involved the question of whether a fire insurance policy which expired on a certain day shouid be governed by solar or Standard Time. If sun-time governed, the policy was in force when the fire 18

Chicago History

broke out; but it Standard Time governed, then the policy ceased to be in force 2Â˝ minutes before the fire started. The Supreme Court held that the presumption was that the parties to the contract intended sun-time and decided in favor of the policy holder.

Despite this and other complications the railroads' standard time system came into general usage throughout the country. In October 1884 standard time was approved at the International Meridian Conference, held in Washington, D.C. The same 15 Â° of separation for each time zone was established internationally, just as it had been introduced by the North American railroads. Changes were made in zone borders from time to time, to suit business interests, but the principle of standard time spread throughout the world, so that, with minor exceptions, the hour fell at the same time everywhere. "It is an interesting fact," notes Corliss, "that the method of reckoning time instituted by the railroads in I 883, although adopted and used by the Federal Government and states, cities and towns throughout the country, was put into effect without federal legislation of any sort. It was not until thirty-five years lateron March 19, 1918, during the first World \Var- that Congress passed what is known as the Standard Time Act." Undoubtedly, the Congress had to recognize standard time officially in order to decree daylight saving time for energy conservation purposes. This "act to save daylight and to provide standard time for the United States" divided the country into five zones, much as had the railroads, but also decreed that each zone should be advanced one hour for seven months of each year between the last Sunday in March and the last Sunday in October to save energy for the war effort. The Interstate Commerce Commission was empowered to define the boundaries of the time zones and to make such changes as would prove necessary and convenient.

OF.PIOE OP SBOB.BTABY, .46 BOND STREET,

DP.a1· Sir: .Y ou will see by the enclosed list that the ,nanaging" officers of-·---···-U.·~ ···. . ·............. . .companies, operatin_g rJ1Jout--2t.ff.,--~ the

-----·-- milf!,S of road,

voted in favor of

on of the proposed systern of Sfan,dard Time as

illustra.t ed hy the pamphlet and 1nap recently. sent you. re:;ponse

not yet been received.

If it has not

been f oru,a.rded on receipt of this comniunica,#on, u,,il{ you . kindly give the matter your early attention, a.nd oblige

Yours Truly,

r,). &cg~~-~ -~

~-_

..~ ~·-~

.. · ~

s,cretary.

-· , ' ······- ·

-- ~

--.~ ~ · · t .

William F. A llen actively sol icited rail road officia ls to support hi s plan for time standardization. A mo nth after t his circ ular was mailed , 35 companies voted their approval in Chicago. CH S.

. . .. t'

, · \.~- I t

Two Noons

BEFORE AND AFTER the adoption of STANDARD TIME November 18, 1883

COlO.

10.08.

N.M.

â&#x20AC;˘10.01

Local "sun time by wh tth the trains of one or more railroads were operated before Standard Time was adopted. Figures indicate local time when it Wal 12,00 o'clock noon in Washington, D. C. Standard Time zone boundaries adopted by railroads Nov. 18, 1883. Present Standard Time zone boundaries.

On November 18, 1883-" the day of two noons " -some fifty local sun times were adjusted to the regional standards delineated on this map. Interstate Commerce Commission .

Chicago History

Two Noons

Daylight saving time proved unpopular in many quarters and was officially ended in 1919. But a number of states and municipalities found daylight saving time an advantage during the summer months ancl individually passed laws to establish it. New York City and l\Iassachusetts were the first to opt for daylight saving in 1920, followed by Chicago in 1921. By 1923 the practice had spread throughout the East and Middle West. World \,Var JI brought a new nationwide daylight saving-on February 9, 1942- but this time it applied year around. At the suggestion of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, it was called "war time." On September 30, 1945 "war time" was repealed and the nation went back to local daylight saving during the summer, with continued confusion and constant requests for the ICC to make further changes in standard time boundaries. Since passage of the 1918 Act, special provisions have had to be made to bring Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and U.S. possessions into the standard time system. As recent Iy as 196465, committees of the 88th Congress studied 14 separate time bills, but none passed. However, the 89th Congress enacted the Uniform Time Act of 1966, establishing eight time zones and requiring states to observe "advanced time " from the last Sunday in ,\pril to the last Sunday in October. The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), which administers time standards under the Act, continues to receive requests for boundary changes and special rulings. Oddly, while most of DOT runs on "standard" standard time, its largest entity, the Federal Aviation Administration (along with the world's airlines) runs on Greenwich l\Iean Time, alternately called "Z' ' time, "Zulu " time, or "zebra" time, ancl uses the 2-1-hour clock which was suggested as a possibility back in 1883. The Bureau o[ Standards, which operates se\'eral ~hort-wave radio stations o,·er which "exact" time is broadcast, calls it "coordinated

universal time" and uses the 2..J-hour system. \ Vhile there is no genera I effort LO change to the 24-hour system, many transportation companies, such as the Chicago Transit Authority and the Regional Transit Authority in the Chicago area, run their schedules on the 2·1-hour basis and print their timetables in this fashion. Some modern watchmakers show the numbers 13-24 abo\'e the usual 1-12 digits on their dials. It is not too difficult to purchase a watch or clock with a 24-hour dial, and many digital timepiece manufacturers, perhaps looking to the future, use the 24-hour system. On the Jackson Boulevard corner of the Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Company of Chicago, which occupies the old site of the Grand Pacific Hotel where the General Time Convention was held, there is an historical marker noting the importance of the railroads' decision of 1883. And in ·washington's Union Station there is a large bronze plaque to William Frederick Allen, the man who made it all happen, "erected in memory of his life and services by the American Railway Guild of which he was a founder."

Selected Sources Allen, John S. Standard Time i1I America. New York: n.p., 1951. Biographical sketches of William F. Allen in Dictionary of A merica11 Biography and The National Cyclopedia of American Biography. Corliss , Carlton J. The Day of Two Noons. Washington, D.C. : Association of American Railroads, 1948. " The Day of Two Noons." lllinois Cwtral JHagazine, February 1960. Hood, Peter. How Time is Measured. London: Geoffery Cumberlege, Oxford University Press, 1955. "Running to Daylight: Uniform Time Act." Time, May 12, 1967. U.S. Department of Transportation, Office of the Assistant General Counsel for Regulation. Standard Time in the United States. Washington, D.C.: l:J.S. Government Printing Office, 1970. Wolfe, Louis. "How W. F. Allen Put America on Standard Time." The American Legion Magazine, November 1975.

Chicago History

The Development of an Urban History Research Center: The Chicago Historical Society's Library BY ROBERT L. BRUBAKER

More than one hundred and twenry years after its founding the library continues to follow the exhortation of its first librarian) namely) to collect (( the broad and teeming harvest of the present.))

The library before 1874 research library, which now provides comprehensive documentation on the development of the Chicago area, had its origins in the energetic efforts of a former Unitarian minister from Massachusetts, William Barry, in the 1850s. When a group of twelve men organized the Chicago Historical Society at a meeting called by Barry on April 24, 1856, there were few libraries in Chicago. The Chicago Lyceum had set one up as early as 1834 and other small libraries had been established by the Young Men's Association (1841), the Mechanics' Institute (1842), and about twelve other organizations. Most of these were short-lived and none survives today. Other present-day libraries in Chicago were organized much later: the Chicago Public Library, for instance, in 1872 and the Newberry Library in 1887. The impetus for the new society came from the increasing recognition during the nineteenth century of the importance of preserving historical sources before they perished. Barry and other founders were well aware of the activities of the Massachusetts Historical Society, organized in 1791, and similar societies elsewhere. They probably knew about the aggressive collecting of Lyman Copeland Draper

THE CHICAGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY'S

Robert L. Brubaker has been the Society's chief librarian since 1972. Trained both as an historian and a librarian, he has contributed articles to such journals as Advances in Librarianship and American Archivist. 22

Chicago History

for the State Historical Society of ,visconsin, founded in 1849 but relatively inactive until Draper became corresponding secretary in 1854. In Illinois, the Antiquarian and Historical Society founded in Vandalia in 1827 and the Illinois Literary and Historical Society founded in Upper Alton in 1843 had survived for only a few years. Elsewhere in the Old Northwest, the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio (now the Cincinnati Historical Society) had been founded in 1831, and historical societies had been organized in Indiana in 1830 and in Minnesota in 1849. The purposes of the Chicago Historical Society as stated by its founders in the constitution adopted in 1856 were very broad: "to institute and encourage historical inquiry, to collect and preserve the materials of history, and to spread historical information, especially concerning the 1orthwestern States." Accordingly, a large proportion of the materials collected during the early years concerned general American history as well as the history of other localities. Barry, who had come to Chicago in 1853 after serving as minister at Unitarian churches in Lowell and Framingham, Massachusetts (his history of Framingham was published in 1847), was elected the first secretary and librarian, a position he held until his resignation in 1866. He immediately began corresponding with friends and officials to request donations of public documents, pamphlets, newspapers, letters, artifacts and other materials. By October 1856 he was making collecting trips to Vandalia, Alton, and elsewhere. His first annual report solicited contributions of materials re-

An architectural drawing of the Chicago Historical Society's first separate building , located at the corner of Dearborn and Ontario , dedicated on November 19, 1868, and destroyed by fire three years later. CHS .

lating LO the histo1 y of western sctllcmcnts and stated that the Society panicularly wanted to obtain "the manuscripts, letters and papers left by the pioneers of Western seul ment, and especially by individuals who held a conspicu ous station in public life, or had favorable opportunities of acquiring information relating to hiwll ical events." Consciom of the imponancc of obtaining recent materials, Barry C1itici1ed some historical societies for being interested primarily in "olden relics" ;i ml cm phasi,cd the nelessit y of gathering "Ll1e broad ancl teeming harvest of the present." During the Civil \!Var, for in stance, he made arrangements with a colonel on General athanicl Banks' sta[ to collect and forward maps, pamphlets, and other materials; and he arranged with the U.S. consul at Bristol to purchase British publications concerning the conflict. He was also aware that much importanl information about earlier times was available only in the memories of early settlers and sought to obtain their reminiscences.

Hy 1868 the Society had amassed holdings of over fifteen thousand bound volumes, sevemytwo thousand pamphlets, and numerous manuscripts and other materials. Some were of liLLlc value, at lcaM in the estimation of William Corkran, librarian (rom I 8G8 LO 1871, who complained about the numerous school book,, hymn and prayer books, and sermon . Hut minutes record the acquisition of many irreplaceable wllections that would be of great value if available today. In 18G I, for instance, the Society received the wrrcsponden<e of John Russell, a prolific Illinois author and editor o( The Br1rlnvoodsmr111, wiLh John l\lason Peck and others- thou~ands o( let tcrs rnnce1 ning Illinois poliLics and related matters. Among manuscripts acquired at other times were documents concerning French explorers, John Kinzie's account of Indians residing in the vicinity of Chicago, papers dealing with the arrival of the first sailing vessel in Chicago in 1803, lumdrecls of letters from Un ion and rebel soldiers, and an autograph copy o( Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. Chicago History

The Society's home from 1896 to 1932 still stands at the corner of Dearborn and Ontario. CHS.

T he Society's collecLions were housed in rented rooms during its first twelve years o[ existence: at first in the Exchange Building at Clark and Lake streels, Lhen in the Rumsey Building on LaSalle Street (1856-1858) and the Newberry Building at '"'ells and Kinzie streets (1858-1868). By February 1858 Barry was urging the library committee Lo conslruct a separate building for the SocieLy. "Already it is in possession of historical materials whose loss would be irrecoverable," he stated, "and, with the guaranty of safety, in a building fully protected from casualty, accessions would be increased of Mss, and works of rare and enduring value." In 1864 a building committee was appoimed and fund raising commenced. The Society's first building, located at the corner of Dearborn and Ontario streets, was completed 24

Chicago History

and opened in the fall of 1868. The first floor contained offices and a lecture room, and the library was localed on the second floor. During the early stages o[ planning Lhe building, a committee had discussed a proposal to cheapen construction by specifying wooden floors, but commiuee members had voted unanimously against this and in favor of "making every detail of the building solid substantial and fireproof." Nevertheless, the building and its contents vanished on October 9, 187 l, in the fire that swept through Chicago. " ' illiam Barry sadly wrote to a friend in Massachusetts a few clays later that " though art had sought to make it proof against all ventures" the building was a smoking ruin. "What that loss to myself is, you, surely can well weigh. The best labors of my best years and thought were given to it."

Ill

\II\}-}{\ 1...,F\H'- 1 ....

Medical Register \'\JI

DIRECTORY, CO:\TAI:\l'.'d, ·"

D~Rll"'TIO~ OJ.' Tlf8 M l!U ICAL C oLU:.<,Ft,, H o PITA,IJ, 1:-flK\l\lo:lt.~ A ~VLt' MS, AND CHARIT.\811! J ,!iT1Tl'Tln~,c:, T(l(;F'.TIIV.~ ,, !TH THI: M1rn1c.,1. Al\"0 OTH11:k SctP:,Tl~IC A'o:\OCI~• TIOsc: OP' THK E ~nRE STA"tl!:OF lu.1 sn1s.

l'.111TF.O A!-in f' l'BJ.ISltJ,:O II\"

l3ELLE\'UE PLACE, Private Institution for the care and 'frea, n1ent of Insane Females. AIH>RE;~

T . 0,IV!~ FITC!l , M.D.. "'" XOR)I.\N BK11J1;E, \Ill . REVl~J.:O B\ THa: P•ur DRr.TS OF THB Rl!C\.'L,\1t '1 1!:DKI\I. Cc11.1,&c1f!I A.SD Sonf''n!OP CHI CA.CO, AND OP THK 11.L. S TATE M i!DICAI

l;,nc l Ei\'

P.-\TTERSO;-;" , ~I.)),, )

BATA\"IA. 11.L.

--------

-vv. ~- :eux..x...oo~, Optician_ M.icro&oopes and Apparatus made to Order.

IJr

REFERE:--CES. H •.\ . JOH~~O'S', Pr~f. in Chic:\i.::n. ~lcd_ic:ll Colle~<"•

r r:) l~~·,t~~:\~;/rt~i:~r ~}"~I., ,t,t,~J1t:~~}nllcgc. 178 WEST MADIBO~ STREET,

CHICAGO: liA7,t .lT1 & REED, PRl'\=T[Rs, 139 A:-.n I.p \10;\IWJ, ,TKP •· 1

1872 .

The library has comprehensive holdings of city, telephone, and other specialized directories of this kind for Chicago . CHS.

Immediately after the fire other historical societies and libraries began to donate boxes of their publications and duplicates. These were housed in rooms in the Inter-Ocean Building at Michigan and Congress. On July 14, 1874, this building and most of its contents were also lost in another major fire that destroyed the southeast portion of the central business district. Only two items survived both fires: a charred hymnal and the manuscript of George Flower's "History of the English Settlement in Edwards County," borrowed by a member in violation of the rules and taken to his home outside the burned area a few clays before the 1871 fire.

Buildings since 1874 Despite difficulties in raising funds, the Society managed to construct a temporary one-story brick structure on its lot at Dearborn and Ontario. In January 1878 a circular announced that the Society was again in operation in a building of its own "which we hope may prove a safe one." The collections were housed here until 1892 when they were stored in a

warehouse and the structure was torn clown to make way for the construction of a more permanent building. The 1896 building at Dearborn and Ontario was made possible partly through the generosity of Henry Dilworth Gilpin, a Philadelphia lawyer with extensive real estate holdings in Chicago. His will, drawn up in 1860 before the Society's first building was erected, included a bequest to the Chicago Historical Society stipulating that accumulated interest was to be used for construction and operation of a "fireproof Library building." Although the bequest was void in Pennsylvania because the will was dated less than a month before Gilpin's death, Mrs. Gilpin was determined that her husband's wishes should be carried out, and long negotiations between the heirs and three institutions named in the will resulted in the first distribution of funds to the Society in 1874. Additional funds were obtained in a bequest from John Crerar and in a subscription drive, and the massive Romanesque building designed by Henry Ives Cobb and W. L. B. Jenney was opened on December 15, 1896. Chicago History

Society's Library

The Gilpin Library, located on the first and second floors at the west end of the building, was shut off from other areas by sliding iron doors, and books were stored in iron cases with movable stone shelves. Determined to prevent any more losses, the executive committee had resolved that the building was to be made "absolutely fireproof." Also located on the first floor was a reading room containing reference works, current periodicals, and some newspaper files. A manuscript room on the second floor was used primarily for exhibiting important items. The third floor contained room for government documents, other newspapers, and family papers. Elsewhere in the building were a lecture hall and rooms for museum exhibits. By 1906 both the original and the temporary shelving were filled to capacity. Although additional steel stacks were obtained, librarian Caroline Mcllvaine reported early in 1918 that the Society was handicapped by a lack of storage space. This necessitated the refusal of some valuable gifts. It also meant that the exhibits had become so overcrowded that their effectiveness was diminished. Suggestions by trustees in 1918 that the Chicago Plan Commission might include a site for the Society in the city plan and hopes that the huge collection of Americana accumulated by Chicago candy manufacturer Charles Gunther might someday be obtained prompted Mcllvaine to write an article in which she commented that "with a larger building more conveniently located the Chicago Historical Society might become the greatest historical museum in this country." Soon after Gunther's death in 1920, the Society decided to purchase his collection. A building committee was appointed and told to try to obtain a free building site from the Lincoln Park Commissioners. Eight years later the Illinois General Assembly passed enabling legislation and the commissioners provided a site in Lincoln Park at Clark Street and North Avenue. The Georgian building designed by Graham, Anderson, Probst, and White, the 26

Chicago History

Society"s present home, was formally opened on November 12, 1932. Early plans called for two buildings connected by a passageway: a large three-story building for museum exhibits (similar to the building actually constructed) and a smaller three-story building for the library on the Clark Street side of the site with provision for future expansion. The second building was never constructed. Instead, when the library reopened in 1932, it occupied slightly less than half .of the top floor of the Society's premises. By the early 1960s the museum and library once again were short of space. A three-story addition, designed by Alfred Shaw and Associates and completed in 1972, now houses museum galleries and offices on the site earlier planned for a library building. Space on the lop floor of the 1932 building previously occupied by museum galleries was remodeled for the library, doubling the space available for this purpose.

Growth of the collections Since 1874 the library's holdings have grown uninterrupted by further calamity. Within a decade after its reopening after the fires, the library comained more than fifteen thousand bound volumes, forty thousand unbound books and pamphlets, and modest holdings of maps, manuscripts, and other materials. An inventory completed in 1941, nine years after the move to the present building, reported that the library contained approximately forty thousand bound volumes (including about five thousand volumes of newspapers and periodicals), forty thousand pamphlets, and various other materials, some not counted. Today the library contains more than one hundred and twenty thousand volumes of books and pamphlets, twentyfour thousand volumes of newspapers and periodicals plus unbound issues, ten thousand maps and atlases, thiny-five thousand pieces of

A group visits the library in 1911 in the building on Dearborn Avenue at Ontario Street. CHS.

printed ephemera such as theater and concert programs, fourteen thousand broadsides and posters, fifty thousand prints, four hundred and fifty thousand photographs, four million manuscripts, and eight thousand reels of microfilm. Through the years the Society's policy has come to place increasing emphasis on Chicago as the predominant, though not the exclusive, subject for collecting. During the 1870s the collecting policy was extremely broad. A circular soliciting contributions in 1878 stated that "we wish to collect and preserve in its library every thing that relates to the history of this country, and more especially of Chicago, Illinois, and the north-west." The circular went on to state that "we also desire, as far as possible, to preserve for future generations the history of the world to-day." Later statements dropped references to world history, but continued to emphasize the library's

broad interest in American history. "Contrary to popular belief the Library does not consist mainly of works relating to Chicago," stated a 1906 handbook by Caroline l\Icllvaine, who commented in a paper on "Libraries as Local History Centers" that "the Constitution of the Society admits of no such limitation ." A 1934 handbook stated that "the province of the Library is the entire field of American history, with particular emphasis upon the history of Chicago, Illinois, and the Old Northwest." This attitude began to change soon after Paul Angle became director. "I think we should acquire no general American historical material except that which is necessary for reference purposes," he told the trustees at a meeting on October 19, 1945. In response the trustees adopted a resolution that " in the future the Library stress the history ot Chicago, Illinois, and the Old Northwest, in that order." At a Chicago History

Society's Library /

lS .\. rG l_,THATl OX XI O HT.

J:HlMHl rt M.. JMJ £lP !}Lil.• Tlw n-n,)wned :i1nd th•)l'(}ughly 11<'.tr11trd lT.,1.14y Ot>ERA. COMPA.'-1'

,,r

the ~c.!W

York .\l•adrrny or >IU11ic

D::tRECTOR~...-

i!; ,.

OD..A.U'lt& .r

d~,,,~7111nt,~" C r7t1 <c!.Flro->,h'l; C''l/'ul 1

A1. -'Clu;ht o•d(K;h, 11r1•(·\10i.'ly. \\l,c-u•'llt, ,,r.,..,p,;t,,il\'er.li'sf>11nc,111~"'11-'~1f'Oi'IIIIIIClµtn,,Jn-l•f"I..

, ~~ "

~.IllO"T' .£'.~OI&JE i.

.II,

~i\~i~~j1 ,... ;H~,;::::i!i::::1Jrirt;~t1X:..A• .:,. ". ;_~~r\J1:r:: n:1m,,uo ........... I"~• t'ol~nl 1'U _ •. . •,"' ,.!''1,:nor" Za.1,v,,cl t'llt!!T\llr,-~.Y

• •.••••• , . ,lltrr)luJl•t

AERI.

~n,..i,1;t1--'c•,l.a.lle•,ja 1 1ir.

OON'DUCTOR AND MUSICAL DllEOTOI. • • HUB OJ.Ill, 1-dff, · · Kr. H~lU'f Ari;tJ 8t•r lfa~•gtr, • Sir,..A.Ju,tl n-, ,..,

o"tiJo',·l11<lr.

To-lllS

·~•n•

·ru-:ffORH0\1", .. RID.\, •., .. il •NC'rlptlo •. &JI I• ·,ultC l!l!H Ct\n.\ 1.,,l.l:<t: K•·i1.11:JO, 1: ,..., I"' ..·nkd tk·111J,·ltr,1 t!uV1P."••ep,r••.l<>•..-u,ut

•b• •

LINDA DI CHAMOUNIX!

:!a';;-tt~;;.•1•,r"•.~ ~.'.,. 1.n ~~:•~:~;:~ n;!\~.i)' •• ....•.. ..... :,..;,;fir 1t1t!11 f :~~~it1:~! ':?. ~~~t;\·~r~ ~.: =~•:

~~r<t'.t'tn•fr: ... ,'.',

~~-=-I~=

"••urd•> At1~rnoou •~ t, 6•<!1ork. Grand G•I• ::W: \Tl'.\RB.

1,,..,,.

1• )f,111;...,. ror,,.., H•11.-..,.,

\\l,..n lho, 1;,-0.,,.l t •f 11, TRO\"\Tllfll'! •DI '-l"O'llf«"I. T1--1oi:,t•f<l'I' •J• ,:111r,• io•ll 1,.r1oor lb, t.oow, tL :,." i-rt1u -.Ult.rt«r••~

Tb'nl llf"'rt, ~ljlht, O<!nluUI• "t,-,1,r 111-.,-.

IL POLIUTO, The MARTYRS!

...;.h~rl~~-~;, ~;( :r~t'.!r \l; Ft::!:;~,l~~;~~~;\~h..!~l~~n In

?fr• \'1>rk,

•1-4

The l'l,"''" 11-I It !h• 01..-r11. 11,i,u .. , 1,.,, to-,1 ... k...-tN f,- lh ,·d.-hra•fd f••lory nf l lU<'lot . . . .t. ~iJfll, ,,...or,, lur11bhf-<I (rota ll•"('<l·1 Tfl"l'lt .,.r )luMI', NCJt,. !:h MIid

llfl,.,1o11,1i

:-tr"f'<"t,

•1111 Q nt.rt..,,.,. Bu._,...,

\:~~~/f::~:.~i ::ttn>~·~:;:t~rii1 :: rr:,Zi~",_• •1,• •' Iba tk-.!ol'tofhu. ~r,,ltn tbfl ••l'ftln,Jl"I lb<' O;f!,_ Uo:iiw,

Or•~~

,·1,l!ON ....... ~llf"lt•d, Jurl.btolr o•n lnh•~•t t•id Mtl~L.<'\,O •• (tt,I to l•lltf"b~._ booIi:" ~I ff''l'h<"'-

Program for the first performance in Crosby's Opera House, originally scheduled for April 17 but postponed until April 20, 1865, due to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. The library has thousands of programs for other Chicago theaters and concert halls. CHS.

subsequent meeting on October 29, 1947, the trustees authorized the library to dispose of materials "outside of these fields and of no collateral or reference importance" by exchange or sale and to place the proceeds in a special fund to be used only for purchases of materials in the fields specified. Although acquisition of general American history materials was reduced during the next two decades, it remained substantial partly because of varying interpretations of how much was "necessary for reference purposes" and partly because many general monographs contain considerable material concerning Chicago. Director Clement Silvestro's report for 1965-66 referred to a "very strong United States history collection" and stated that in purchases of new printed materials more was being acquired for general United States history than for local. "One very good reason for this," he explained, "is that the Chicago community plays such an important role in national events, in politics, labor, housing, finance, and transportation." 28

Chicago History

In the mid-1970s the trustees again turned their attention to a collecting policy for the Society. By that time most acquisitions by the library concerned Chicago, and library staff had become increasingly selective in obtaining materials for other subjects. The museum, because of its American history galleries, remained much broader in its collecting, especially in fields such as decorative arts, and consequently library collecting of materials likely lo be used in exhibits, such as prints, tended to be broader in scope than for other types of materials. Some materials, however, were clearly out-of-scope and the recent experiences of other museums suggested the wisdom of adopting deaccessioning procedures to provide adequate safeguards. The current collecting and deaccessioning policy, adopted by the trustees on October 12, 1977, provides the same guidelines for both library and museum. Today the library seeks to obtain records of every type concerning the history and development of Chicago from earliest times to the present. This includes materials on all aspects of life in the city, from government and politics, industry and labor, social welfare and education, to sports, music, and the theater. A major urban area such as Chicago produces enormous quantities of documentation; there are not only publications of various kinds, but also correspondence, minutes, and other unpublished records of organizations and individuals, ephemera such as theater programs, and such material as photographs and tapes of radio and television programs. A library that collects these materials in depth must commit substantial storage space to them as well as staff to acquire and process materials and prepare adequate finding aids. As a convenience to Chicagoans who do not have ready access to the Illinois State Historical Library in Springfield, the library continues to build a reference collection for students and others who are beginning research in Illinois history. The coJiection includes the basic print-

Society's Library

ed sources: general histories of the state, counties, and towns; travel and description; accounts o( important organizat ions and agencies; atlases and selected maps; and similar materials. The library no longer collects manuscript records of Illinois organizations outside of Chicago or personal papers of non-Chicagoans- unless they contain substantial amounts of information concerning Chicago-or non-Chicago newspapers, periodicals, city directories, and other bulky records. The library also no longer collects materials concerning other states in the Old Northwest or the Upper Mississippi Valley, and little is collected for general American history. Other historical societies and Ii braries collect these materials, and it seems wiser for the Chicago Historical Society to concentrate on collecting in depth for the important metropolitan area in which it is located. The library does acquire, on an extremely selective basis, some materials concerning the Civil War and Abraham Lincoln. The library's holdings of books, pamphlets, newspapers, and periodicals accumulated through the years provide rich resources for research both for the period before 1874 and for subsequent years. Many, perhaps most, of the pre-fire publications concerning Chicago survived outside the city and have been replaced. And the library has continued William Barry's effort to collect the present while the materials are still available. There are many accounts of travel and description. Among the earliest are a first edition o( Martin Waldseemi.iller's Cosmographiae Introductio (St. Die, 1507), which suggested the name America for the New World, and Melchisedech Thevenot's R ecuil de Voyages (Paris, 1681), a collection in which Marquette's account of his voyage down the Iississippi River was first printed. Most of the nineteenth century guides for those migrating to the Âˇw est and similar accounts that include passages concerning Illinois arc available. Among these are such works as

The Northwestern Railway Polka, published in Chicago in 1859, is one of more than 5,000 pieces of sheet music in the library. CHS.

Morris Birkbeck's Notes on a Journey in America, from the Coast of Virginia to the Territory of Illinois, with Proposals for the Establishment of a Colony of English (Philadelphia, 1817) and John Mason Peck's A Guide for Emigrants, Containing Sketches of Illinois, Missouri, and the Adjacent Parts (Boston, 183 l ). Holdings are especially comprehensive for works that include descriptions of Chicago, such as Sarah Fuller's Summer on the Lakes, in 1843 (Boston and New York, 1844), Johann Kohl's Reisen im N ordwesten der V ereinigten Staaten (New York, 1857), and Auguste Laugel's Les Etats-Unis Pendant la Guerre (Paris, 1866). Files of Chicago newspapers are very extensive, although there are still many gaps that we hope to fill someday. The library has Chicago's first newspaper, the Chicago Democrat, from the first issue in 1833 until it ceased publication in 1861 (we lack some issues); and its second newspaper, the American, a Âˇwhig organ published from 1835 to 1842. Nearly complete files o( major newspapers currently being published are available: the Chicago Tribune since 1849 (no files are extant for 1847-1848), Chicago History

Society's Library

the Chicago Daily News since 1875, and the Chicago Sun-Times since 1941. Many other newspapers are available, such as the Gem of the Prairie for 1844-1852, the Chicago Evening Journal for 1844-1929, and the Chicago Socialist for 1899-1907. The library also has such newspapers as L' Italia for 18861918, the Broad Ax (a black newspaper published in Salt Lake City for about five years before local hostility forced its removal to Chicago) for 1895-1927, and the Chicago Defender for 1909 to the present. It hopes to obtain more Chicago ethnic and foreign language newspaper files. A related collection is the clipping file, consisting of approximately fifty thousand clippings taken from major Chicago newspapers by the reference staff since the 1930s. These are now photocopied onto acid-free paper and arranged by subject for easy retrieval. Among the periodicals are three of the earliest literary magazines in the Midwest: the Western Monthly Review, edited by Timothy Flint in Cincinnati from 1827 through 1830; the Illinois Monthly Magazine, edited by James Hall from 1830 to 1832, first in Vandalia and later in Cincinnati; and its successor, the Western Monthly Magazine, edited by Hall in Cincinnati from 1833 through 1836. These contain not only fiction and poetry but also discussions on the emergence of culture in the Midwest. Early Chicago periodicals include the first literary magazine published in the city, the Western Magazine, which appeared from October 1845 to September 1846; and we have the five 1857 issues, all that were published, of Chicago Magazine, the first of several magazines with this or a similar title. Also available are such periodicals as the Chicago Legal News (1868-1925), the Chicago Commercial Bulletin (1878-1890), the Chicago Banker (1899- 1941), the Chicago Schools Journal (1918-1965), and the Chicago Woman's Club Bulletin (1917-1 968). The library does not acquire general periodicals or specialized 30

Ch icago Hist ory

journals of national organizations published in Chicago, but many articles that do concern Chicago in such periodicals are retained and cataloged separately. Other publications concerning Chicago are available in great variety. There is a complete file of Chicago directories beginning with J. W . Norris' General Directory and Business Advertiser for I 844 (and a directory for 1839 compiled and published much later), and many other directories for business and industry, social service agencies, physicians, lawyers, and other groups. There are newsletters, yearbooks, and histories issued by organizations, institutions, and firms. There are extensive files of the trade catalogs issued by Montgomery Ward & Co. since 1872, by Sears, Roebuck and Co. since 1894, and by other manufacturers or distributors of merchandise. There are programs for the McVicker's Theater from 1857 to 1972, Crosby's Opera House from opening night on April 20, 1865 to mid-1871, and about one hundred other theaters in Chicago. There is a large collection of sheet music including songs with words or pictorial covers referring to Chicago and Civil War songs by George F. Root. The substantial collection of fiction and poetry with a Chicago locale includes a first edition of Carl Sandburg's first book, Chicago Poems (New York, 1916), as well as efforts by more obscure authors. There are trade and advertising cards, menus for many hotels and restaurants, programs for sports events, and a great variety of other ephemeral publications. The library's extensive holdings of manuscripts constitute one of its most valuable research resources. These collections consist of the correspondence, memoranda, internal reports, and other unpublished files accumulated through the years by many Chicago organizations, institutions, and firms plus similar records kept by individuals. Because manuscript collections provide the inside story in much more detail than most publications, they are in great demand by serious researchers.

Society's Library

From 1874 to 1960 the library received many important manuscript collections, the majority elating from the nineteenth century, together with many individual letters and documents. Among these were: documents elated as early as 1518 concerning French explorations and settlements near the Great Lakes and concerning Indians in the Chicago area; papers of Ninian Edwards, territorial governor of Illinois, and of William B. Ogden, Chicago's first mayor; records of the Illinois and Michigan Canal and the early Galena and Chicago Union Railroad; and many letters by U.S. presidents, political leaders in Illinois and other states, and other individuals of national importance. With the Gunther Collection (described in Clement Silvestro, "The Candy Man's Mixed Bag," Chicago History, Fall 1972) came such items as the first patent issued in the United States and the last note written by abolitionist John Brown before he ascended the scaffold. When our holdings were described in Philip Hamer's Guide to Archives and Manuscripts in the United States (New Haven, 1961), the limanuscripts, equivalent to about 300,000 letters and documents. Four years later, in 1965, the Society began a more aggressive manuscript collecting program. It called for increased field work to locate collections as well as a commitment to acquire relatively bulky organizational files for the twentieth century. This was a momentous decision, because one such collection often requires more than a hundred feet of shelf space and a great deal of staff time is required to arrange and describe collections and make them accessible to researchers. Because these materials are of crucial importance in serious research, however, the Society proceeded. During J966-67 the library received a first installment of former U.S. Senator Paul Douglas' papers (over five hundred linear feet, with more to come later), the papers of Raymond Hilliard covering his work as director of the Cook County Department of Public Aid, records of the United Charities of Chicago and the Incle-

pendent Voters of Illinois, and other important collections. Manuscript holdings have grown from the three hundred linear feet available in 1961 to nearly four thousand linear feet ava ilable today. Among these are records of such organizations as the League of Women Voters of Illinois, Welfare Council of Metropolitan Chicago, Catholic Interracial Council of Chicago, Jewish Community Centers of Chicago, Afro-American Patrolmen's League, Polish-American Democratic Organization, Chicago Division of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, and Chicago Teachers Union. Also included are the correspondence and other papers of Chicagoans from a variety of professions: Len O'Connor, radio and television newsman; Leon M. Despres, alderman from Chicago's fifth ward; Ernest De Maio, president of District Council I I of the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America; Sterling Morton, chairman of the board of the Morton Salt Company; Claude A. Barnett, founder and director of the Associated Negro Press and others. Another resource of great importance is the graphics collection, which includes photographs, prints such as engravings and lithographs, and broadsides. Historians have become increasingly aware of how much information otherwise unobtainable can be secured through a careful study of photographs and other pictorial materials. There is a heavy demand for illustrations from authors and publishers and from producers of documentary films and television programs. The value of photographs was recognized quite early at the Chicago Historical Society. In a talk before the Illinois Library Association in 1905, Caroline Mcllvaine quoted with approval the librarian of the public library in Worcester, England, who had asked, "Could not local photographic clubs be formed to undertake local work with a definite object such as a survey of the district surrounding its headquarters, which would form an accurate reco'rcl of the scenery, monuments, life, natural history, and historic Chicago History

Society's Library

sites as they now exist?" Although some years were to elapse before this happened in Chicago, Mcllvaine reported in 1906 that a long deferred task had been accomplished: classifying and filing of the library's "extensive collections" of early photographs, stereoscopic views, and prints. "That this collection in reality constitutes one of the most Yaluable assets of the Society," she wrote, "is shown by its being in almost daily requisition by publishers of books, newspapers and magazines of the highest class." The early photographs in the library now include over three hundred daguerreotypes. This first widely known photographic process was used in Chicago by 1845 and perhaps even earlier. Our daguerreotypes include a view of the Cook County Court House taken by Alexander Hesler on July 4, 1855, portraits of Chicagoans such as John " 'entworth and George M. Pullman, and portraits of such eminent national figures as Daniel Âˇw ebster, Salmon P. Chase, Jefferson Davis, John C. Fremont, Sam Houston, and Lucretia l\Iott. There are over four hundred ambrotypes and tintypes. The ambrotypes-case photographs similar to daguerreotypes except that the image is on glass against a black surface rather than on silverplated copper-were popular during the late 1850s; and tintypes-with the image formed on black japanned iron-were popular during the l 860s. Early paper-print photographs made from collodion-plated glass negatives include photographs taken in 1856 by Alexander Hesler shm,,Âˇing Fort Dearborn (torn clown the following year) and the Marine Bank Building, and his famous sequence of eleven photographs taken from the top of the Court House in 1858. Also available are large numbers of the small carte-de-visite portraits taken with a multiplelensed camera and popular for exchange among acquaintances during the early 1860s, the larger cabinet card photographs which became popular in the late l 860s, and stereographic views that were produced from the late 1860s until the early 1930s. A massive collection in terms of both quan32

Ch icago Hist ory

tity and usefulness was obtained in 1960 when Marshall Field donated approximately ten tons of glass negatives (about ninety thousand images) taken by Chicago Daily News photographers from 1902 to 1934. Subsequently another installment of approximately 165,000 film negatives for the period from 1935 to 1965 was received, and more are expected in the future. A continuing photographic record of the Chicago metropolitan area has also been provided since the late 1940s through a project now cosponsored by the Chicago Historical Society and the Chicago Area Camera Clubs Association. It began in 1947 as the "Chicago Project for Historical Photography" after Paul Angle, then director, worked out an agreement with the Chicago chapter of the Photographic Society of America. Subsequently the CACCA became the cosponsor, and in 1951-52 the undertaking was renamed the "Chicagoland-inPictures" project. l\Iembers of the photographic clubs included in the CACCA submit blackand-white documentary photographs for review and appraisal at monthly meetings held at the Society. From these, the library selects photographs that are appropriate for retention in the permanent files. By January 1978 over twenty-three thousand photographs had been received through the project. Photographs come from many other sources. Nearly three thousand aerial photographs received from the Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission in 1973 were added to nearly two thousand previously available. fany photographs arrived with manuscript collections; approximately eight hundred were included with the records of the Infant Welfare Society and more than one thousand came with the Claude Barnett (Associated Negro Press) Papers. Others come from the files of professional photographers, such as the five thousand glass and film negatives showing views of residential and commercial buildings taken by Raymond Trowbridge from 1923 to 1932 and donated by Edward and Kenneth Hedrich in 1961. The prints, posters, and broadsides are espe-

Society's Library

cially desirable for exhibits because of their size and because many are in color. They are also useful for the information they can provide, although prints are a Jess accurate record than photographs, of course, because changes may be introduced by the artist. Prints had been long administered as part of the museum collections (as were photographs) but were shifted to the library when the collection was moved into remodeled quarters in 1971. Among the prints are many early views of Chicago and depictions of buildings and street scenes. Especially important are the color lithographs published in the 1860s by Otto Jevne and Peter Almini, a similar series by artist Edwin Whitefield, color aquatints of early scenes executed later by Raoul Varin, prints depicting Chicago during and after the 1871 fire, and a large collection of color prints depicting the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893. There is a collection of over one thousand prints showing American cities from colonial times to about 1900, nearly a thousand Currier and Ives lithographs, and prints concerning American statesmen, the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and other wars. There are many nineteenth century political caricatures and a large collection of original drawings and reproductions by Chicago Tribune cartoonists John T. McCutcheon and Carey Orr produced in the first half of the twentieth century. There are strong holdings of broadsides and posters for political campaigns, transportation, advertisements for periodicals, books, and a great variety of products distributed in Chicago, as well as for other subjects mentioned above. Approximately forty percent o( the library's collection of over ten thousand maps are for Chicago. The Chicago maps begin with Fort Dearborn and the Indian villages, the first surveyor's plat of Chicago made by James Thompon in 1830, and the 1834 map by Joshua Hathaway, believed to be the first published map of Chicago. Maps are availab~e for early explorations and settlements in Illinois and elsewhere in the Old orthwest beginning

in the seventeenth century. The Society also has substantial holdings of general maps of the Americas from the sixteenth century to 1850, and general maps of the United States (or the period to 1900. There are many atlases for Chicago and Illinois. Among the most important are many of the fire insurance atlases issued by Rascher, Sanborn, and other firms since the 1860s which provide great detail, including color-coded symbols to indicate the materials used in construction. We hope to obtain the volumes we still lack.

Library use Through the years many important books have been based on the library's holdings. A. T. Andreas combed through the newspapers and other materials for his three-volume History of Chicago (Chicago, A. T. Andreas, 18841886). Bessie Louise Pierce and her graduate assistants at the University of Chicago made heavy use of the collections for her scholarly A History of Chicago (three volumes covering the period from 1673 to 1893 were published by Alfred A. Knopf between 1937 and l 957). The Society provided financial assistance by making a grant to the University of Chicago in 1927 during the early stages of the project and by making Pierce a research associate from 1953 to 1957. In Fabulous Chicago, Emmett Dedmon acknowledged that "without the resources of The Chicago Historical Society this book could not have been written; without the cheerful co-operation of the Society's staff its writing would have required twice the time." Chicago: Growth of a M etropolis by Harold M. Mayer and Richard C. Wade with the assistance of Glen E. Holt drew heavily on our graphics collection and other holdings. Currently, another extensively illustrated reinterpretation of Chicago, tentatively titled The People of Chicago, is being written by Glenn Holt of Washington University and Perry Duis of the University of Illinois at Chicago Circle, with Chicago History

Society's Library

financial support from the Society ancl the National Endowment for the Humanities. Other works based on the library's holdings include hundreds of books and doctoral dissertations, thousands of articles in magaLines and newspapers, ancl countless masters' theses and college and high school papers. Hundreds of documentary films and television productions have made extensive use of the graphics collection. l\fany researchers focus on some aspect of Chicago history. Others focus on some broader urban development affecting a number of cities, and find that the richness of the library's holdings make it worthwhile to include Chicago as one of the case studies. Another large group of users, not engaged in formal research, comes to the library in search of information on family history, or the buildings they live in, or the Chicago manufacturers of their antiques. Or they are interested in some other aspect of Chicago and simply want to read something about it. And, of course, the library is widely and constantly used by all those connected with the exhibition, educational, and publications programs of the Society. CHICAGO: CREATING NEW TRADITIONS, for example, made extensive use of library materials, as will the new exhibits planned for the major renovation and expansion of the Chicago galleries during the coming year. When A. T. Andreas was beginning the research for his history, he asked the Society to publish the volumes under its auspices, offering to do the work and bear the expense if the Society would extend full use of its library and cooperate in other ways. The trustees responded in 1881 with a resolution drafted by John \Ventworth that "this Society welcomes to a free use of its library all writers and publishers of history and all persons in any way interested in historical pursuits; but it deems it inexpedient to lend its influence to one person in preference to another, or to become in any way responsible for the use of facts in its possession to which all persons are equally welcome." 34

Chicago History

Though the Society subsequently decided to take a greater role in supporting some research projects, it has continued to permit both nonmembers and members to have access to the library. Any high school student or adult who needs to use the special holdings of the library is welcome to do so without charge. Rules for use are intended to ensure that our holdings will continue to be available to researchers in the future as well as today. All materials must be used within the library, since many items are rare and others would be difficult or impossible to replace. Use of the library has greatly increased during recent years and has more than doubled since 1968. There are now about seven thousand admissions to the library each year. A survey during a six-month period in 1976 indicated that faculty and students from most colleges and universities in the Chicago area and from many other Illinois institutions of higher education use our facilities. inety-two researchers, for instance, came from the University of Illinois at Chicago Circle, forty-three from orthwestern University, and thirty-four from the University of Chicago. During this same period one hundred and twenty-six researchers came from colleges and universities outside the state. Overall, fifty-four percent of the library's users came from Chicago, thirty percent from elsewhere in Illinois, and sixteen percent from other states or foreign countries. The library, thus, is a resource that is extensively used not only by Chicagoans but also by other researchers from throughout the nation.

The Future The great increase in use by researchers and the genera l public during recent years underscores the importance of the library's continuing effort to build its holdings o[ research materials on the Chicago area and to make them accessible. Consequently, during coming years the Society must face some important challenges.

A collection arrives at the Society: the Paul Douglas Papers in 1967 before processing. They have since been arranged and are housed in acid-free archival boxes in modern mobile stacks. CHS.

One of these is the need for an extensive conservation program. Unfortunately, the paper used by many publishers from the mid-nineteenth century to the present- not only (or newspapers but also for other publications such as books, maps, and prints- has a slight acid content that causes it to become brittle and eventually to disintegrate. Such a publication can be used only at the risk of permanent loss of the text, for pages often crumble as they are turned . And in many cases, the library has the only surviving cop;. Similar conditions imperil many manuscripts and photographs. A microfilming program is needed (or materials such as newspapers and scrapbooks. For other materials, deacidification and repair arc urgent-

ly needed if the library is not to lose much of the important holdings built up through the years. Increases in holdings and use pose other challenges to the staff. l\Iost materials are cataloged or arranged so that they are accessible, but it is increasingly difficult to keep up with all of the field work, processing, arranging, and cataloging that are essential. It is especially difficult, (or instance, to keep pace with processing the many important manuscript collections that we receiYe. Escalating demands from publishers for photographic copies have impeded efforts by the graphics staff to complete reorganization of the collections so that items can be located more easily. A catalog for maps is sorely needed, and Chicago History

Society 's Library

,,.

·,

•

TK:C ~

•

·~Jtif-i&~NJJu fEDnJJCllfF'X{JJ J/l[®JrIEJL •

·~ 8611P.

PI1ijl.

l:HHUKD. H!krr-. o: ~:a~k Beer. '1iflld Tu:-k.!!'Y LIii of ;.1;;\:.n"..ain Sheep. J-Jut!al.: '!'ongue, "h:.110J!. To:-:au•.

lltlJl~'f. .2'1.1!.e :.! ].'!yJ.~•.a.:.n Sh~PL~ Of »~:t-T • n Deer. Lot:i c! ~u~:11.10. !..'!f o: E:Jt. 31.:11'.t~ or Ar.'.f-~. ::OCn. O;c.-.;.m. .:a~); Rabbit, :.o l n o: '.' t n~ocn.

•:: :.:.:: ':':..r~e}·.

P'..n.-Tu: ::.r-c-;:.a

Ri:.:!:ta. Qro:..•-

•:::-s:n!!. :'\tr~r1,g!. :.cl:!tn PlC\"er. A~Olll;, i . · ; ~ ~ .!:i:..:..!.r.l: Plcnr. .6a~-H::: ":'!l.n~ WLle:l:i sncpe. Q\nae.1. CiOC119. ?~al.la~ .Ou;k. P::-:--:11.,: 0-.:.~. Gl..:!wa;; .Du:k. ,;n-.~r: ~ :-. ·:::~~::-:. ~:-.:e-'.".'lnge1 Teal. ~:-cen-'.',':nge! Tea: S?'l:\·~er c .. :-k.. \·:m R~:!,Hefld Du::t. ',V :,:,.:h-:!::k.

Di;.::k. S~aui:; !:•-:;::k. Ri.:.:10)' ::'u:k. Ctnvu-Ba:k Ou:-k.

the print catalog is inadequate and incomplete. Although the staff is much larger than in the past, the workload has in creased even more. Projects in critical areas must be carried out. The Society expects to obtain the financial support essential for continued growth and faces the future with confidence and optimism sufficient to begin major collecting programs in two important areas. With the encouragement of the Chicago chapter of the American Institute of Architects, the Society recently established the Chicago Architectural Archive within the library. This will include architectural drawings and other docu mentation for buildings that have won design awards from the AIA as well as other important buildings in Chicago, together with complete files of some major architects. The Society also has plans for a greatly expanded program to collect documentary film and television newsfilm concerning the Chicago area. William Barry would surely have approved of thi s "harvest of the present."

Cc:rmoni.n•. tu~k. Brant.. ;ua:1, R'.r.g-~•:?>i:e! I:' \Dk,

Red-DU: Z.!&rt,.:uertu~k . HOGOe.:! l!'?rg&nber 0\1.$1:.

HUNTER'S ROME ON THE RANCH.

Menu for the annual game dinner at the Grand Pacific Hotel on November 16, 1878. The library has many menus for other hotels, restaurants, and special occasions. CHS .

Chicago History

Selected Sources Chicago Historical Society. Archives , 1856-1977, especially General Papers, and unpublished Minutes and Reports. - -. Proceedings, 1888-1902; Annual Report, 1903-1919, 1935194~. 1965-1974, 1976-1977 (see Chicago Histo,..y for reports for 19H-1976); Report to Members, 1946-1965. --. Chicago Historical Society Library, 1856-/906, A Handbook, by Caroline M. Mcilvaine. Chicago, 1906. --. A Brief History of the Chicago Historical Society. Chicago: Fergus Printing Compa n y, 1881. William Barry Papers , l 778-1826. CHS. Angle, Paul !\I. The Chicago Historical Society, 1856-1956: An Unconuentional Chronicle. C h icago: R and McNally & Company, 1956. --. "The Chicago Historical Society, 1856-1946," Chicago Histor)', l (Spring 1946).

Salute to A Century of Progress BY GRANT T. DEAN

THIS SP~ING WILL mark the forty-fifth anniversary of the opening of this exposition in Chicago. Planned during -the prosperous years of the late 1920s, the exposition opened on May 27, 1933, a low point of the Great Depression. Actually, the first exhibit to be completed, a model of Fort Dearborn, had opened its doors on May 16, 1931, and as other exhibits and buildings were finished they too were opened to the public. The exposition was located along the lakefront and Northerly Island, stretching from Achsah Bond Drive to 35th Street. The Avenue of Flags at the north end of the grounds provided a dramatic entrance. Millions came to marvel at the latest examples of scientific and technological progress. These photographs from the Chicago Historical Society's collections suggest some of the visual excitement created by the art deco bas-reliefs by artist Alfonso Iannelli

which decorated the Hall of Social Science and such complexes as the United States Government Building and the Hall of States. Restaurants, rides, alligator wrestling, and other carnival entertainments added a light touch to the fair. When the exposition closed on October 31, 1934, hundreds of Chicagoans watched wistfully as the grand spectacle that had brightened the city's life came to an end. A selection of water colors commissioned by Reuben H. Donnelly Corporation for its Official View Book in 1933 will go on exhibit at the Chicago Historical Society on April 29, 1978. Executed by several artists these renditions give a fine sense of how colorful the exposition was.

Grant T. Dean is acquisitions librarian and bibliographer at the Chicago Historical Society.

Visitors entered the fairgrounds along the Avenue of Flags. CHS, photo by Kaufman & Fabry.

Bas-reliefs of aluminum and white paint on black vitrolite by A lfonso Iannelli on the Hall of Social Science attracted much attention . CHS, photo by Charles R. Childs. This construction view of the United States Government Building shows the three pylons meant to symbolize the executive , legislative, and judicial branches of government. A portion of the Hall of States can be seen to the far right. CHS , gift of Marshall Field.

Ch icago History

Elephant power was used to plant fifty-year old linden trees near the Administration Building during the landscaping of the fair. CHS, Chicago Daily News photo, gift of Field Enterprises. The latest mechanical power was used to bring down the east tower of the Sky Ride at the end of the fair. CHS, gift of Marshall Field.

"All Else Passes-Art Alone Endures": The Fine Arts Building 1918 to 1930 BY PERRY R. DUIS

In spite of various vicissitudes the Fine Arts Building continued to attract diverse and creative tenants during the post-World War I years.

of a building is much more than a description of stone, steel, and glass and how it ages. It is also an account of the development and evolution of a personality. The architect gives the structure its basic form. The builder follows the plan and creates the physical form. But it is the tenants-the users of the building's space-who ultimately endow it with character. Âˇw hat they do there and how they interact with each other gives it Ii fe. So it is with the Fine Arts Building. During its first two decades it housed many of the city's most important creative talents. The activities of its tenants reflected the newest ideas in art, music, publishing, and the crafts. \!\Then Chicago was in its prime, the Fine Arts Building was in its prime. But even in the years after World \Var I, when Chicago's reputation for rebellious innovation faded, the work of the tenants at 410 South Michigan Avenue continued to mirror contemporary trends in the arts. During the 1920s the Fine Arts Building remained the property of the heirs of the late Charles A. Chapin, who hacl made a fortune in iron ore properties before his death in 1913. His wife, Emily, was active in Chicago philanthropies and was a talented amateur artist. With her sons, Homer, Henry, and Lowell, she had purchased the building from the Studebakers in 1915. The sons also dabbled in the arts and maintained an office in the Fine Arts Building, though they devoted most of their

THE LIFE STORY

An earlier article on the Fine Arts Building by Perry R. Duis appeared in our Summer 1977 issue. An urban historian at the University of Illinois at Chicago Circle, Mr. Duis is working on a social history of Chicago under the sponsorship of the Chicago Historical Society. 40

Chicago History

time to managing a company engaged in the manufacture of brass storefronts. But the guiding spirit of the building remained Charles C. Curtiss who had suggested its transformation into an arts complex in the first place and who then managed it from 1898 until his death in 1929.

World \!\Tar I brought new activities to the Fine Arts Building. For many years assorted foreign language classes, lectures, art galleries, and imported plays had made the building a center for devotees of European-especially French-culture. During wartime those concerns shifted to relief for battle-tom nations, as charities took over space in a number of studios. The French Red Cross Committee of the Alliance Fran~aise sponsored dramatic performances to raise money and planted newspaper stories about the need for funds and supplies. Another group attempted to aid wartime orphans in France by selling Christmas cards and distributing posters depiCLing pathetic urchins. The Salon de Bibelots sold handicrafts to benefit a Chicago-sponsored hospital to be built in post-war Paris. Finally, the Chicago Woman's Club opened its quarters in the building to volunteers making bandages, to workers in the food conservation effort, and to fundraising for ambulances to be sent to France and Russia. The offices of this club were also used to coordinate the operation of the military canteens it operated at the Public Library and near the Great Lakes Naval Training Center. One of the more unusual crusades on behalf of patriotic American culture was also organized in the Fine Arts Building by the \i\Toman's Club. The efforts to homogenize and Americanize immigrants had become very aggressive by I 918, with such prestigious organizations as the

Fine Arts Building

Chicago Community Trust supporting programs to erase ethnicity. The Woman's Club decided to extend such efforts to purify American culture in new directions. It established an American Speech Committee-housed in Room 925-whose purpose it was to eliminate slang phrases from the speech of Chicago's youth. Working through Sunday schools, the P.T.A., and the public school system, the American Speech Committee used special plays, tableaux vivants, and parades to arouse interest among the youth. It also commissioned local artists to create anti-slang posters. Hazel Frazee's contributions included one piece that showed the world, tied up with slang, balanced on the shoulders of a man who had to endure a sly elf shouting "Beat It, Kid." Other posters carried such slogans as "S.O.S.! Stop our Slang!," "Don't Get the Gimmies," and "Speak the Language of the Flag." The Woman's Club set the tone for other patriotic activities in the building by helping to sell nearly a million dollars' worth of bonds in the Fourth Liberty Loan drive. Other tenants followed its lead. The Cordon Club listened intently to such speakers as Karleton Hackett, music critic of the Evening Post, who lectured on music in the war and his impressions of American and French soldiers. Glen Dillard Gunn's American Symphony Orchestra, which frequently used the Studebaker, arranged special solos for members about to depart for the service. Meanwhile, Oliver Dennett Grover supervised the Midwest section of the Bureau of Pictorial Publicity. Using ideas submitted by citizens, Grover's artists turned out dozens of patriotic posters. Patriotism was a prime concern in Chicago, as in the country at large. Frederick Stock, for instance, was temporarily forced from the directorship of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra because he had forgotten to complete his naturalization. Âˇw hen he returned to the podium, he severely reduced the Germanic content of his music. To conserve fuel, President Wil-

Charles Curtiss under whose management the Fine Arts Building became a thriving cultural center. CHS.

son asked Americans to refrain from burning coal in their home furnaces each Monday. Theaters and movie houses were asked to present special matinees on those days to accommodate those seeking a warm place for a few hours. To mark the first "Coal Holiday," however, the govermllent asked citizens to stay home and theaters to close. When the Shuberts, who operated the Studebaker, defied this request and put on an unauthorized matinee, they were severely reprimanded by the press. An even more serious controversy surrounded the opening of As Once in May in January 1918. Originally written as Wie Einst im Mai by Sigmund Romberg in 1913, it had been "transmogrified within and without from something 100 per cent Teutonic into something 100 per cent American" by an American librettist. Despite stellar performances by John Charles Thomas and Carolyn Young, the press was upset over this production of "enemy culture" in the midst of war. Even favorable critics questioned the propriety of staging productions whose authors would be denied royalties because they were behind enemy lines. As Once in May enjoyed only a short run, while The Man Who Stayed Home, a pedestrian piece about evil German spies, was a hit in the theater on the other side of the same building. Patriotism paid. Chicago History

Fine Arts Building

Andrew Rebori (left), who renovated the Studebaker Theatre and later designed the Fine Arts Annex, and John W. Root prepare for the Architects' Ball of 1932. CHS.

When the war ended, members of Chicago's creative community anxiously discussed what permanent changes the conflict would leave in its wake. The Chapin family, which had owned the Fine Arts Building since 1915, proved to be among the overly optimistic. Shortly before America entered the conflict, they had invested $25,000 in remodeling the small Fine Arts Theater. Renamed The Playhouse, it received a larger stage, greater seating capacity, and a new manager, Guy Hardy, formerly the business manager of the Auditorium. Maurice Browne, whose Little Theater remained in operation on the fourth floor until December I 917, was reportedly engaged to assist with the "regular theater" productions. But although the war years saw a revival of theater, thanks to such productions as The Man Who Stayed Home, the crowds quickly disappeared after the Armistice. Not even artistic films, let alone plays, could fill the seats. The Playhouse suffered further embarrassment in July 1920, when its manager was arrested for failure to pay federal amusement taxes. He claimed that he could not meet expenses because the pro42

Chicago History

jectionists' union had forced him to hire unneeded operators. A month later, the Goldwyn Film Company took over and installed more popular fare . The Studebaker met a sim il ar fate. Architect Andrew Rebori's renovation in 1917 had produced a dignified, yet light and "Italianate" interior of travertine marble. The original proscenium, an arch decorated with an Oliver Dennett Grover mural, had been replaced by a squared frame of black Belgian marble with large jardeniers at its base. For years the meaning of the inscriptions on the urns puzzled theatergoers. Then, in 1957, a Tribune columnist deciphered all but one of the symbols. The S ANNO DOMINI MCMXVII on the urn on the left stood for Studebaker and the year of the remodeling. As architect Rebori explained it, the inscription on the urn on the right,

s AREZ HHLCC DSIBGH stood for the following: S for Studebaker; A R for Andrew Rebori; E Z for Emil Zettler (sculptor for the remodeling); H H L for Henry, Homer, and Lowell (the christian names of the owners of the building); C C for Charles Curtiss (manager); D S for Dahl Stedman (contractors), and the final initials G H for Guy Hardy (theater manager). The mystery that remained unsolved was the significance of the middle two initials of the last line, namely, I B. No amount of effort by the Tribune reporter yielded an answer. As he sadly noted, "The I B stumped even Mr. Rebori. He undoubtedly has the name in his records someplace, but not in easy reach." But the Chapins' expectations of a revival of legitimate theater were disappointed. A succession of popular plays and visiting musical acts kept the lights burning through the first half of the 1920s. The house became the showcase for

Fine Arts Building

whatever the Shuberts sent from New York. Charles Curtiss, the manager of the building, tried to exercise a veto over acts he considered objectionable. There were some popular plays which made money. The Marx Brothers' I'll Say She Is was a hit, and Abie's Irish Rose, which opened late in 1923, ran for fifty-eight weeks, a Chicago record. Nevertheless, the Studebaker soon found itself swept up in a giant combine of the Shubert, Erlanger, Woods, Selwyn, Harris, and Brady interests. Both the Studebaker and The Playhouse became part of a chain of seventeen theaters in Chicago and over five hundred across the country. During the summer of 1926 speculation about the future of the Studebaker could be found in the gossip columns of the newspapers. Finally the city learned that one of its most successful entrepreneurs had become the new tenant of the Studebaker, namely the Englishborn utilities magnate Samuel Insull. At one time Thomas Edison's secretary, Insull had gained control of Chicago's electrical companies twenty years earlier. He had used that investment to build the interurban railroad system in the Chicago area and to acquire control of utilities in eight Midwestern states. People either loved or hated Insull, but by the mid-1920s they were beginning to hear more about his wife, the former Gladys Wallis. Once an actress on the New York stage, she had married Insull in 1899 and thereafter devoted her time to raising their son, Samuel Jr. In 1925, at the age of fifty-six, she staged a benefit play, and the acclaim was so great that she decided to make a comeback. Her husband, who objected to a traveling company, agreed to finance the establishment of the Repertoire Theater Company as a resident company. To house the group, Insull took out a six-year lease on the Studebaker. The Insulls' press announcement of August 1, 1926 delineated the company's lofty goal, merely to be "on the same level as New York's best." It would not attempt to "uplift" or edu-

cate its audience, as the Little Theater had tried and failed to do. Rather, it would present new plays by American authors, interspersed with occasional reviva ls of well-known works. Tickets would remain at popular prices. During the off-season, selected musical performances and New York road shows, along with a few movies, would occupy the Studebaker. The Chapin estate, acting through Charles Curtiss, inserted a clause in the lease giving them the right to approve every event in the theater. The company premiered in November 1926 with Gretchen Damrosch's The Runaway Road. Gladys Insull insisted on staging a trial run in South Bend, Indiana, which ironica lly was the home of the Studebaker family. Friends and critics from both New York and Chicago descended on the Indiana city for opening night. The reviews of the "strictly up-to-date comedy" set in rural Maine were highly favorable, as were the critiques published after it opened at the Studebaker. Claudia Cassidy, writing in the Chicago Journal of Commerce, said that the acting was "worthy of the material" and noted, "The Repertoire Theater Company has given us something worth seeinglong may it flourish!" The production continued for its scheduled four weeks. By the time that the second play in the series opened, however, the company was clearly in trouble. Mrs. Insull had miscast herself as a "hanger-on" in a cheap tavern during vVorld War I, but she hardly fit the part of a young gamin. The critics jumped on that flaw and attacked the quality of the rest of the cast. These unfavorable comments, along with the fact that it was no longer a novelty to see Samuel Insull's wife on stage, left many seats unfilled. With losses reportedly exceeding a thousand dollars a clay, the producer-star was ready to admit defeat-at least for now. There was a terse announcement that the season would end after only two productions. The official cause: the illness of. the star. Everyone knew the real reason. Chi cago History

Ralph Clarkson painting a portrait of Samuel lnsull in 1924, two years before the utilities magnate leased the Studebaker Theatre for his wife 's Repertoire Theater Company . CHS , Chicago Daily News photo , gift of Field Enterprises.

Ch icago History

Fine Arts Building

But Gladys ·w allis Jnsu ll refused to give up. She arra·ngecl for the New York Theater Guild and its stars, Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontannc, LO use the Studebaker for their October visit. That company had not been in Chicago for several years, and its six plays were greeted by rave reviews and full houses. Mrs. Jnsu ll hoped that the New Yorkers would help generate interest in her company; instead, it made her defeat all the more bitter. I Ier prod uCLion of George Bernard Shaw's Jfrart/neak House followed by A. A. i\filne's Mr. l'im were critical and finan cial disasters . In mid-December, the expected announcement came. "1 have relu ctant ly reached the belief that my ambition was misdirected, my money wasted." On January 7, 1928, the Repertoire Theater Company officially folded . ·w hen Samuel lnwll built the Civic Opera I louse in I !>29 to help another of his wife's cultural vemures, he refused to rent space to anyone in the ans in hi s '15-story building. While Mrs. Jnsull failed to interest Chicagoans in new American plays and the Studebaker returned to its previous fare of visiting shows, The Playhouse settled into a routine o[ more bohemian vemurcs. One was Trial Divorce, a play by Chicago Judge Joseph Sabath. It was the ta lc of a judge who asks a couple to wait a yea, before separating. They do, and discover a deeper lmc. The premier of the play induded a curtain speed1 on the subject of modern morality by the author. But The Playhouse also hosted an increasing number of films, most of them foreign and out of the mainstream of popular entcnainment. D1iring the fall of 1927, while the Repc1toi1 e Theater Compan y was suffering through its last weeks at the Studebaker, a small group of entrepreneurs decided to organize one of the more unusual businesses in the city, The Little Cinema, to be housed in The Playhouse. The initiators of this venture were determined to move away not only from the programming current in the "popcorn palaces•· springing up in other parts of the city but also from the

co nventions that had bcrnme associated with them. The Little Cinema served coffee instead of pop and attired its usherettes in casual dress rather than in the military-like uniforms to be fo1md elsewhere in the city's cinemas. There were no rules about where patrons could put their feet and th ey were urged to smokcindecd , free cigarettes were provided for them . There was no orchestra or vaudeville between shows and the films shown tended to be serious. A box in the lobby where patrons could deposit suggestions for fuwre pi ograms was kept well filled . In addition, The Little Cinema, dubbed The J-1Tate-Movies Club by one newspaper, created the Chic,igo Fi lm Guild as an advisory body. Board members of the guild incluclcd such diverse personalities as Edith Rockefeller McCormick, film reviewer Carl Sandburg, sculptor Lorado Taft, poetry editor Harriet Monroe, and wcial reformer .Jane Addams, among others. The first film shown was Potem kin by the Soviet film-maker Eisenstein, ancl most of the films that followed were also imports. The Little Cinema seldom advertised, relying instead on movie review and a mai ling I ist Lo fi II the small house.

If The Little Cinema represented a revolt against popular culture, the activities in the studio portions of the Fine ,\ns Building reflected both continuity and d1angc in other aspects of Chicago culture. Many fami liar face · remained from earlier years. Painter Ralph Clarkson stayed as a tenant until his death in l D'12, and arti ·uc designer- printer Ra lph Fletcher Seymour labored on there until the mid-19G0s. Likewise, such groups as the Public School Art Society, The Chicago Literary Club, The Cordon, and the Chicago " 'oman's Club continued to stay on through the 1920s. Even The Little Room, its members slowed by age, survived. But those who had been in their prime when Chicago was at the height of its creative surge at the turn of the century were slowly disappearing. Novelist Henry Blake Fu llChicago Hi story

Fine Arts Building

er and architect Allen Pond both died in 1929, while writer I. K. Friedman died suddenly two years later. Writer George Ade moved away to his Indiana farm, and cartoonist John T. McCutcheon transferred his swdio to the Tribune Tower midway through the 1920s. For two of the larger clubs in the Fine Arts Building, departure for other quarters involved long debate. Both The Fortnightly of Chicago and the Chicago Woman's Club reacted strongly to substantial rent increases demanded soon after the Chapin estate purchased the building. The Fortnightly, more vulnerable financially, remained in the building through the war years because of its investment in the decorations and the difficulty of securing quarters on short notice. Finally, in 1920, The Fortnightly departed, and the large Tiffany stained-glass panels which had coYered the skylight in their headquarters ended up in a junk shop. The group moved first to the foyer of Orchestra Hall and later to the former Bryan Lathrop mansion on the Near North Side. The departure of the \Voman's Club took nearly another decade. In April 1916 the group had announced the purchase of a site on Eleventh Street, between Michigan and Wabash, and had indicated that the Pond brothers had designed a new building for it. A large structure, it would have complete athletic facilities, dining and meeting rooms, and theaters. The Woman's Club announced that several other groups were interested in renting space in what would become a central headquarters building for women's clubs of all types. The war delayed construction and the long lease demanded by the Chapins postponed the departure decision until 1926. By then, however, the Eleventh Street site was less desirable, and the group leased it to a filling station. The debate continued for two more years until some members decided to proceed with the original plans. A wave of resignations greeted the move, but on April 10, 1929 the Woman's Club held its last meeting in the Fine Arts 46

Chicago History

Building. The members traded stories about the woman's suffrage movement and about the famous people, including Susan B. Anthony, Ellen Terry, Ethel Barrymore, and Booker T. Âˇwashington, who had been their guests. Events in the Fine Arts Building also reflected trends in Chicago's professional art world. Back in 1910 the building's tenants had provided the leadership for the formation of the Artists' Guild, an organization Lo promote the sale of the members' ans and crafts. The Guild successfully operated a sales gallery in the north annex. In 1916 its members helped found The Arts Club of Chicago, which also rented quarters in the annex. The new group was organized in part as a protest against wba L i Ls members viewed as the stodginess of the Art Institute and the latter's annual exhibition of Chicago artists. But besides sponsoring, among other events, an exhibit of George Bellows, Robert Henri, John Sloan, and other "artistic anarchists," the Arts Club was also meant to provide a common meeting ground for the working artist and the wealthy patrons who paid $5,000 to join. As Lena McCauley, art columnist in the Post noted, ""' hile one partner is using brains and time and native gifts in the stud io Lo create, the second partner should be out inviting business and calling on friends to buy." The arrangement worked well for more than a decade. The Chapin family also tried to encourage the arts through the creation of the Fine Arts Building Prize. Each year they donated a prize of $500 to the creator of what the Artists' Guild jury considered the most outstanding artwork. Besides rewarding talent the prize also served to sustain the reputation of the building in the face of rapidly changing trends which carried Chicago artists LO new localities in the city. By the time America had become involved in World War I, the more bohemian members of Chicago's creative community had already begun to form two major clusters outside of the

Mrs. Samuel lnsull appeared with Frederick Lewis in the Studebaker Theatre product ion of Dice of God, which ran from December 1926 through January 1927. CHS.

Chicago History

Fine Arts Building

Loop. One was on Fifty-seventh Street, in a row of abandoned storefronts originally built for the Columbian Exposition tourist trade. That group included writer Floyd Dell and several former tenants of the Fine Arts Building, among them artist Oliver Dennett Grover. The other primary colony was on the Near North Side, extending from the Lambert Tree Studios on the south to the Newberry Library. Since 1903, when the Fine Arts Building had housed no fewer than thirty-one artists, there had been a considerable decline- to twenty-four in 1917 and clown to seventeen in 1927. But although artists were moving out, they continued to bring their work to the Artists' Guild showrooms for display and sale, so that the building continued to reap some benefit from their work. The Chapin family also had to contend with changes i n the fie ld of music education. Âˇw hile the Fine Arts Bui lding remained the cornerstone of the South Loop musical district-a collection of music schools, piano dealers, and studio bu il dings on South Michigan and v\Tabash, as well as the sidestreets- many music teachers were moving to outlying neighborhoods and suburbs by the 1920s. The decline was dramatic. There were ninety vocal and instrumenta l teachers in the building in 1903 and eighty-three in 1917. But by 1927 there were on ly forty-four. Only the Sherwood Music School managed to have the best of both worlds : whi le its parent institution remained in the Fine Arts Building, it also maintained thirty-five branches across the metropol itan area . Each satelli te school had a registrar who advertised the merits of the school in his or her community. Thus, although the Sherwood's J unior Orchestra practised and performed in the Fine Arts B uild ing, the music school was actually scattered throughout the neighborhoods. Despite the numerical decl ine of the traditional arts in the bui lding, it continued to turn a profi t as the Chapin family and Charles C. Cu rtiss continued to find new tenants to keep 48

Chicago History

THE PLAYSHOP'S PHILISTINE THEATRE ON THB VBNETIAN COUR.T

Wh en t he Chicago Little Theater was disbanded in December 1917, ot her co mpanies, including the short-lived Philisti ne Theatre, used t he quarters it vacated . CHS.

Fine Arts Building

the studios filled. Such institutions as the Chicago School of Expression and Dramatic Art and the Civic Music Association moved into the rooms of those who had left. Grace Hickox took over the rooms vacated by The Fortnightly and tried to operate a Chicago version of the famous Moscow Art Theater. The management's open-mindedness allowed a wide variety of opinions among its tenants. In 1923, for instance, the Artists' Fraternity held its first "annual hearing" in the building. Sponsored by the Church Federation and a group of wealthy backers, it was designed to act as a non-profit booking agency for musicians and dramatic artists. Five years -later, when musicians formed the Chicago Artists' Union and applied for an A.F.L. charter, the Fine Arts welcomed this group too. The addition of radio to the list of arts in the building reflected an adjustment to cultural trends. The wireless represented enormous possibilities for disseminating culture to mass audiences. This was not mere entertainment, but an enriching experience. The first radio broadcast in the city had originated from Mary Garden's Chicago Opera Association in l 920 and had provided an inspiration to others. In April 1924, KYW, the city's first important station, broadcast a live performance of Abie's Irish Rose from the Studebaker. KY\V's management was so impressed by the acoustics in the building that in January 1926 they moved their entire studio from the Edison Building to the fifth floor of the Fine Arts Building. The care that had gone imo making the studios soundproof so many years earlier had made them perfect for radio. Although KYW expanded so fast that it ran out of space and left the Fine Arts a few years later, several of the later productions in the Studebaker were broadcast to eager audiences. That same flexibility was demonstrated in the Chapins' attitude toward non-a rtistic tenants. Although the general character of the building was maintained, some of the vacant

space was rented to businesses considered compatible with the tone of the building. The idea was actually not new. Back in 1903 l wen Ly publications had editorial or branch offices in the building, while Browne's Bookstore was a commercial concern as well. The activities of metalsmiths, lampshade makers, and other craftsmen blended well with those of the other tenants. For years the shops engaged in joint Christmas advertising. In 1904 one advertisement had noted that the Fine Arts Building "has become a very important shopping center to the best public of Chicago-the public which discriminates .... As a shopp ing center, therefore, it is self-contained, renting its space in proper proportions Lo both buyers and sellers of artistic merchandise." That idea remained functional in the 1920s, as the Chapins continued to rent to linen importers, jewelers, photographers, tobacconists, confectionary shops, optometrists, and book dealers. On occasion these supplemental tenants reflected new fashions in the more popular arts. When Chicagoans joined other Americans in the rush to go abroad, a long list of language schools appeared in the building almost overnight. The prosperity of the postwar era and the desire of newly well-to-do families to furnish their homes and apartments in the approved taste, generated a whole new profession: interior decorating. There had been no decorators in the building in 1917 and only four in 1922, but by the end of the decade there were seven. F inally, the popu larity of ballroom dancing and the growth of advertising brought those who provided these services to the building. The character of the tenants also reflected the most recent currents in popular though t. One was the "discovery" of childhood and the promotion of its study among the general populace by psychologists. Beginning shortly before the war years, newspapers and magazines featured articles on the yo"uthful psyche, on learning patterns, and on the importa nce of Ch icago History

Fine Arts Building

encouraging self-expression. The idea was not all that new, and the Fine Arts Building had been housing the offices of the groups laboring in this field long before it became faddish. The Chicago Froebe! Association, Kindergarten Magazine, and the Public School Art Society had been in the vanguard of this interest in childhood. But in 1917 the Chicago Kindergarten Institute, responding to countless requests from parents, opened the Children's Book Store. It was one of the first in the country whose entire stock was devoted to juvenile literature. The war years also saw an attempt to stage theatrical productions for children. The fourth floor space vacated by Maurice Browne, and later by the Philistine Theater, a short-lived little theater, became the Story Book Playroom. Child actors performed plays written especially for children-often written by children. The idea was innovative, but the limited schedule o[ weekend and holiday performances kept this venture in financial peril for nearly all of its short Ii fe. The addition of the Picadilly Tearoom in 1924 demonstrated the gentle way in which commercial en terprise5 blended with the arts. For years the space at the bottom of the light shaft had been virtually unused, except for a small fOLmtain. The precedent of The Little Theater, which had a tiny coffee shop in a corner of its quarters, provided the proper inspiration for the Chapins. The floor of the shaft became a charming outdoor garden, while French doors made the interior an extension o[ the garden. The fare consisted of foreign foods, mainly light lunches, cakes, and exotic coffees and teas. Almost immediately the Picadilly became a favorite place for musicians and artists to gather. It attracted trade not only from the tenants and customers in the craft shops, but also from the Auditorium, Orchestra Hall, the Art Institute, and nearby music studios and stores on South \'\!abash. For many years, until its demise in the late 1950s, the Picadilly was an instituti on in itself. 50

Chicago History

The ease with which the Chapins could rent studio space prompted them to undertake the construction of a second annex in 1925. A small piece of property, only twenty feet wide, had become available on Wabash, immediately across the alley from the Fine Arts. The family once again called upon Andrew Rebori. His six-~tory, $250,000 structure made remarkable use of the space. In the annex's delicate fa~ade, marble and terra cotta framed the wide windows and intricate false balconies. The structure bore a vague resemblance to Richard Schmidt's Chapin and Gore building, a simple Prairie School edifice, yet the effect was more picturesque, almost as if it had been plucked from an Italian village. In the cornice was a terra cotta block bearing the initials C. C. hooked together, a tribute to the owners' father, Charles Chapin. Rebori's plan successfully integrated the annex into the main building. The lower floor was rented for retail commercial space and the upper floors provided additional studios. A fourth-floor sky bridge across the alley linked it to the main structure and the north annex. The most significant engineering feature, however, was a large furnace which gave the complex its own supply of heat and hot water. No longer would the Fine Arts Building have to depend on the Auditorium Annex (now the Pick-Congress Hotel) for those essential services. Like so many institutions which had basked in the prosperity of the 1920s, the Fine Arts Building suffered a rapid financial decline after the onset of the Great Depression. The death of Charles Curtiss in 1929, moreover, removed the animating spirit of cultural entrepreneurship from the scene. Mrs. Chapin had died in 1925 and her sons were preoccupied with other business concerns. \'\That's more, the genera l economic distress had sharply reduced demand for the kinds of goods and services offered by tenants of the Fine Arts Building. The financial crisis came to a head for the owners of the

The artistry and craftsmanship expended on ornamentation such as this balustrade finial continue to give a unique grace to the interior of the Fine Arts Building. CHS, photo by Paul Petraitis.

building in 1937, when bankruptcy proceedings were instituted. But the gallant Fine Arts Building would surmount this catastrophe too. Today it is still home for a wide variety of tenants who offer manifold cultural services. l\Iusic students, art students, those in need of designers' services, and members of various religious organizations make their way past the fine old murals that decorate the tenth floor. And the Studebaker resounds once more to the clapping of appreciative audiences come to see and hear dramatic performances. In the eighty years since the Swdebaker carriage factory was trans-

formed into the Fine Arts Building, the bui lding's vitality as a center of creativity has demonstrated that, in the words of the inscriptions above the archways in the foyer, All Else Passes-Art Alone Endures.

Selected Sources Gilbert , Paul and Charles Lee Bryson. Chicago and Its Makers. Chicago: F. ~lendelsohn , 1929. Krueger , August C. , compiler. Scrapbooks of programs, newspapers, reviews, etc., dealing with activit~cs in the Fine Arts Building. 73 ,â&#x20AC;˘ols. 33 wallets (CHS). ~tcDonald , Forrest. lnsull. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962.

Chicago History

Eight Chicago Women of Fashion BY ELIZABETH JACHIMOWICZ

(TI] hope all your dresses will fit and bonnets will stay on your head.)) From a letter by Abby Louise Eddy to Frances Glessn er on the eve of the latter's departure for Paris, 1890

years three major gifts and a long-Lerm loan have greatly enhanced the holdings of historic costumes at the Chicago Historical Society. These acquisilions gave us the impeLUs to embark on the planning of a major costume exhibition. CloLhing and accessories which had belonged to the Pullman family were presented to us by Mrs. C. Phillip M iller. These included several highly ornate gowns which had been made for her grandmother, Mrs. George M. Pullman. From Mrs. Charles F. Batchelder, Lhe collection received various items from the wardrobe of her grandmother, Mrs. John J. Glessner, including the latter's 1870 wedding gown. Albert J. Beveridge Ill donated a collection of nineteenth and early twentieth century Parisian gowns which had belonged to his greatgrandmother, Mrs. Augustus Newland Eddy. These gifts were nicely complemented by a long-term loan from the Art Instilute, including several gowns made for Mrs. Potter Palmer. These extraordinary and diverse additions to our holdings prompted us to consider how they, together with items already in our collections m ight be presented to the public within an interpretive framework. A preliminary search of our library-including manuscript and graphics holdings-and museum collections suggested several possibilities. This assessment of memorabilia, costumes and accessories, furnishings, and graphic materials available to us, persuaded us to focus our exhibition on a selected number of women whose lives and clothes would give a strong flavor of the burgeoning life of IN THE PAST THREE

Elizabeth Jachimowicz is curator of costumes at the Chicago Historical Society. 52

Ch icago History

Chicago in the late nineteenth and early twenLieth cenluries. Since all of the women whose costumes were being considered for display were the wives and daughters of great Chicago entrepreneurs about whom much has been written, a look at the lives of the distaff side promised a different perspective on an already familiar subject. Our nexl step was to get in touch with the families of the ladies we were considering in the hope of finding additional material. And what treasures we found! More wonderful costumes, photographs, jewelry, and accessories. We were especially pleased that so much of what we would be able to show had not been exhibited before. Since a good display of costume requires considerable space, we decided to narrow the number of ladies down to eight. Spanning the period from 1860 to 1929, their lives suggest Lhat even before the feminist movement gathered force, some women en joyed considerable freedom to exercise power and choice. Mrs. Cyrus Hall l\lcCormick was not merely the wife of a highly successful entrepreneur, she became a businesswoman and philanthropist in her own right. Mrs. George M. Pullman was acLive in organizations whose principal focus was the welfare of women and children. Mrs. Potter Palmer was not only a social arbiter and patron of the arts, but represented her government abroad. And so the list goes on, including Mrs. Augustus Newland Eddy, an ardent supporter of the city's musical life, and Mrs. John J. Glessner, an intellectual and cultural leader and a fine silversmith besides. Mrs. Benjamin Carpenter was a pioneer in women's rights; Mrs. Frederick D. Countiss a delicate beauty who became a major general

Elizabeth Jachimowicz and Virgil C. Johnson, designer for EIGHT CHICAGO WOM EN AND THEIR FASH IONS, with a gown Mrs. Potter Palmer commissioned from Worth ca. 1900. CH S.

during vVorld War I. And there was l\Irs. James l\.I. Hopkins, an active benefactress of the Goodman Theatre as well as of other important causes. To provide an interpretive framework for the exhibition as well as for the publication which will accompany it, we spent a year of research into the period and into the lives of the women chosen. This yielded the information which enables us to offer an insight into the manner of dress worn. By combining available photographs of the ladies with the clothes that have survived from their wardrobes we can show how their clothes looked and how they were worn. Next we began working on the exhibition itself. Apart from the gallery design, the building of the platforms and cases, and the matting ol photographs and other graphics, there are

the costumes and accessories themselves. Despite the fact that we have narrowed the number of ladies to just eight, we have still had to make a selection of their clothes and accessories as we cannot show everything we have. vVe selected what will best tell our story. Âˇwhen the final choice of dresses was made, we examined each gown carefully and made repairs where necessary. Beads and buttons were secured or replaced, tears mended, and holes patched where needed. Everything was done to restore the dresses as close as possible to their original condition. Careful vacuuming with a low power vacuum through a plastic screen removed surface dirt from the costumes-no cleaning fluids are ever used and care must be taken that as little pressure as possible is applied to the fabrics made delicate by age: The final stage is the dressing of the man iCh icago History

Elizabeth Krause, assistant curator of costumes, prepares a gown for display by steaming its fibers back to life. CHS .

kins .. These have been specially made to emulate the corset shapes fashionable during the periods in question. For this exhibition we are dealing with six different body shapes. Since it was the corset that gave the ladies their elegant silhouettes, it is essential to duplicate this shape for each dress to make it look as it did when worn. Whatever alterations are needed are always made to the manikins, never to the garments. To select, repair, and ready a dress for exhibition takes from fifteen to twenty hours. The largest part of this time is devoted to steaming. The natural fibers of which all of these gowns 54

Chicago History

are made-silk, wool, cotton, and linen-regain much of their original luster and form from the moisture produced by the steam. As soon as the costumes are ready they are photographed for the publication that will accompany the exhibition. By the time the exhibition opens on May 19, 1978, every member of the Chicago Historical Society-librarians, curators, publications staff, photographers, preparators, and administration staff-will have become involved. The opening of an exhibition is a grand event, but much of the excitement and most of the hard work come well before that triumphant moment.

Looking Backward

37 Years Ago

In 1977 the Chicago Historical Society receivecl two scrapbooks from Davicl N. Colclenson (Annapolis '25) Commander USN (rel.), containing newspaper clippings which cletailecl Chicago's role as a navy recruitment center between April 1941 and January 1943. Subsequently Commancler Coldenson and one of his chief assistants, Norman C. Lindquist, formerly Chief Petty Officer USNR, taped an account of their experiences which is now in our collections. The following are highlights from the scrapbooks.

As early as April 16, 19-11, eight months before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the Chicago Daily 1 ews ran a story ancl photograph under the headline SEEK NAVAL RESERVE RECRUITS. Following the opening of this drive, the navy recruiters managecl to get a story or at least a tantalizing photograph into one of the city's newspapers almost clail)'Âˇ The Ch icago Daily News, April 17, notecl:

SHORT 6 POUNDS, 6-FOOTER EATS WAY INTO NAVY Paul Fritz, 22 years old, actually ate his way into the Navy today. When told by Lt. David Goldenson, recruiting officer, that he was six pounds under the required 156 pounds for his height, Fritz was downcast, but no more so than Lt. Goldenson because the 6-foot 2-inch Fritz had passed all other requirements with flying colors and the Navy needs men like him . That was at 11 a. m. Fritz pondered his plight for 10 minutes, beamed with an idea and vanished. Lt. Goldenson was astonished an hour later when Fritz returned hopefully and said: "Try me now." He tipped the scales at exactly 156 pounds. How did he do it? By consuming six bananas, a pound o[ beef steak, six slices of bread, several large potatoes, a couple of desserts and a gallon of water.

A rti st George Petty offe rs the services of his famo us Petty girl to Lie ut. David N. Goldenson .

The Chicago Daily News, June 4, 1941 clescribecl induction proceedings:

30 JOIN NAVYSPURN CHANCE TO BACK OUT Youths' T raining Outlined; Sworn In, Recruits Go to Great Lakes. Thirty young Chicagoans filed into the office of Lt. David N. Goldenson on the seventh floor of the United States Courthouse where he began recruiting for the Navy in this district a short time ago. A chief petty officer lined the recruits in three rows, then turned to his commanding officer busy at a desk. "All here and ready to be sworn in, captain," he said, leaving the room closing the door behind him. It was the first large group to face the new skipper. Lt. Goldenson rose and surveyed those before him. There were some 17 years old who could only take a so-called "kid's cruise" o[ four years, while the others were signing for the full six years. All had passed their physical and mental tests. Most were in their early 20's, while a few had to get parental consent because they had not reached their majority. Chicago History

Looking Backward

Movie stars Janet Gaynor (left) and Myrna Loy lent the navy a helping hand as Chicago launched an all out drive for recruits in 1942.

The lieutenant talked to them as a :\'a,·) man to ci,·ilians at first , outlined the importance of their step, the life-long mark of a desertion and kindred subjects . He told them he would gi,·e them a short time to consider their step, that any one of them could walk out the door and nothing would ever be said of it. Then he paused and toyed for a short time with something on his desk. The CCC boy, still in his uniform, looked straight ahead from his place in the first row, so did the well-groomed youth wearing the perfect-fitting white suit in the second-row. A few did not know what to do with their hands or shifted from one foot to the other. There was a cough or two but none left the room. Finally the lieutenant looked up and they all raised their right hands and repeated the oath after him. Then, after congratulating them, he addres,ed them as an experienced Navy man to green ones. He dismissed them and in an hour they were speeding toward the training station at Great Lakes. 56

Chicago History

The Chicago Daily Tribune, Jun e 26, 1911, ran the following story:

ARMED SERVICES GIVE SPECIALISTS THEIR OWN WORK Even Professional Santa Can Find a Niche. £\·en a professional Santa Claus probably would find at least one clay's work a yea r in the United States armed services. The demand [or specialists is so great that specialist ratings now include almost every occupation of civil life, authorities said yesterday. i\fechanization and rapid expansion of all branches are responsible for this demand. The navy recruit may see the world as a stenographer, barber, jeweler, soda fountain operator, tailor, color photographer, or as a worker in whate,·er line he followed in civil life.

Ticket Agents Welcomed. The army welcomes pigeon breeders, artificial limb makers, animated cartoon artists, ticket agents, sewing machine operators, and just about any one who does anyth ing. Marines may find themselves in one of 17 vocational schools, or may take courses at the Marine Corps institute in almost any known subject, in clud ing dressmaking and tearoom management. .. .

The need to make news in order to attract attention to the opportunities offered by enlistment in the navy disappeared overnight fallowing the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor . The Chicago Daily News of December 8, 1941 carried the headline:

VOLUNTEERS JAM NAVY OFFICE FOR RECRUITS HERE Young and Old Clamor to Join up; Army, Marine, Centers Also Packed. Chicago's youth responded today to Japan's attack on American bases in the Pacific by appearing for enlistment in numbers unprecedented in the current cris is. The greatest surge of volunteers was at the naval recruiting offices on the 7th floor in the United States Courthouse. The men lined up there made it pla in they chose to try first for the Navy because that service promises the best chances for action aga inst Japan. The offices were closed for examinations yesterday, but telephone queries poured into the office in such numbers that Lt. David N. Goldenson ordered a fu ll staff of clerks to man the office's te lephones through the ni ght. Calls, he said, averaged one every other m inute through the hours until 7 a. m. today, when he ordered his examining staff to report for duty. Ma n, 67, Wants to Join. "l\Iost earnest of the callers," said Lt. Goldenson, "was a man who said he was 67 years old, but argued that his past years of service in the Navy should fit him to take his place. When our clerk told him he was too old, the man cried." John Stanley Novak, 17 years o ld, of 351 West 37th street, was the first applicant in the line of

In 1943 t he navy presented a musical program, The Recruite rs, on expe rimental TV station WBKB. Its message was that radar training would prepare men for a postwar career in TV. Chicago had about 350 receive rs then.

volunteers which greeted the recruiting officer when he opened his office today. Lt. Goldenson's staff-of about 50 men-let the recruits wait, however, unti l they had first made mass application to their chief for transfers to sea and active duty. U rges Men to Stay at Posts. Lt. Goldenson told his men the curren t situation was such that they probably would be deemed more important now at their posts here, although there was a strong chance that the jobs of many could be filled by women. J\Iany of the men in the office have years of service in their records and would be of great value in active duty. Indicative of the upward surge in recruiting was the count that showed 55 men appea red at the Navy office in the first hour this morning. Before today the average had been 30 for an entire day .... Chicago surged to the top of the nation in successful recruitment for the navy. But by spring 19-12 some of the impetus began to fall off. Lieut. Goldenson spoke before a meeting of civic leaders called by Mayor Kelly . As the Chicago Daily Tribu n e of May 21 reported the event (in part):

CHICAGO VOWS TO REGAIN LEAD ON NAVY ROLLS A challenge to Chicago to resume its place as the nation's leader in recruiting me n for the navy was given and rapidly and enthusiastically accepted yesterday. The gauntlet was thrown down by Lieut. David N . Goldenson, navy recru iting officer for the area, speaking at a meeting called by l\ layor Kelly in the city hall council chambers. It was picked up by the mayor and the more than Âˇso civic and busi n ess leaders present. Chicago History

This replica of a batteship deck surmounted by a thermometer measuring recruitment was set up in Congress Plaza. A swearing-in ceremony is in progress. U.S.N., photo by E. Smith.

Full Cooperation Pledged. Those aLtending includ ed n ewspap er and radi o executi 1Âˇes, officials of industry, churchmen, labor leaders, and representatives of patriotic and community organizations. They pledged complete cooperation in urging young men to join the navy ... . i\Jayor .Kelly said that Chicago is the mo,t patri otic of ciLies and will respond to the plea . "I now proclaim June as Navy month for Chicago," he declared, "and we will flood the city with campaign material to boost enlistments. I am calling on newspaper publishers for editorials, pictures . and stories, on radio men for time on the air, on outdoor advert ising men to put up recruiting billboards. \Ve will have a thermometer in the Congress street plaza to record the enlistments. We will have a patriotic festival on Jul y 4, when recruits will be sworn in at soldier's field (s ic.). The newspaper stories of mbsequent weeks built suspense with stories and pictures. R ecruits were shown being sworn in u11der the thermometer which topp ed the replica of a battleshifJ deck erected on Co11gress Plaza. On Jun e 25 th e Chicago Sun report ed 689 enlistments in one day, bringing the total to 7,582. 58

Chicago History

The 10,000t h recruit was sworn in on July 1 in Grant Parli. Th e next day the Chicago Herald American noted: Tingling with patriotism, an allAmerican crowd of l 00,000 Chicagoans gathered in Grant Park last nigllL to sec l\[artin W. Nolan inductee\ inLO the na,y. He was the 10,000th Lo enli,t in Jun e. ,\Jarion Claire, ide11tif,ed as a IV-G-X star by th e Tribune, sang accompanied by the Chicago OjJ era Orchestrn. It was the first of the season's free concerts s/Jonsored by th e Chicago Parli District and the Chicago Federation of Musicians.

In ;Vovember 19-12 th e navy came under the umbrella of Selective Service and the heady clays of recrniting by the navy were over. The f ernor of that campaign, howeve r, comes through very clearly in the newspaper accounts that fill the scrapbooks and th e accompanying photographs. FANNIA \\'EINGARTNER

Reviews

The Baum Explosion the author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz could not have been as immortal as his story. L. Frank Baum, an actor at heart with all of an actor's avid ity for the center stage, would have been delighted by the homage and app lause that this decade is giving him and his work. Like the four pilgrims in his fantasy, Baum followed a rough Yellow Brick Road to success as an author beloved by children. Along the way to the Emerald City, his Tin Woodman, Scarecrow, and Cowardly Lion discovered within themselves the qualities of heart, mind, and courage that they WHAT A PITY THAT

L. Frank Baum, ca. 1908. Baum staged several dramatizations of his Oz stories in Chicago long before The Wizard of Oz was produced in Hollywood in 1939. CHS.

were seeking there. Baum found his Emerald City in Chicago, where he developed his latent literary gifts and wrote the first Oz book and many more. Happily, Ch icago is now playing an important role in the current revival of interest in Baum's work. Local publishers have taken the lead in reissuing many of the titles in his long history of the magical kingdom of Oz. Lyman Frank Baum and his family moved to Chicago in 1891. Born near Syracme, New York, in 1856, Baum had already acted the lead in a melodrama he had written and had failed success ively in the family oi l bw,iness, as proprietor of a variety store, and as publisher of a weekly newspaper in Aberdeen, Dakota Territory. In Chicago he found work as a trave ling sa lesman for a chinaware manufacturer. Bored with lonely evenings on the road in ,mall town hotels, Baum began to write light verse and put on paper some of the stories with which he had entertained his sons and their playmates. Determined to make a living as a writer, he put crockery behind him and started a magazine, The Show Window. In 1897 Way & Williams of Chicago gave him a start on his new career by bringing out a handsome volume, Mother Goose in ProSf. It was a lso the first book illustrated by Maxfield Parrish. Baum then collaborated with anot her Chicago illustrator, William Wallace Denslow, who was a lready firmly establ ished in his swdio in the Fine Arts Building. Together they produced a volume of verse, Father Goose: His Book, printed by a Chicago book jobber, the George M . Hill Company. The Baum jingles a nd the delightful posterlike comic drawings by Den low were just what the Chicago public was looking for as a Christmas gift in 1899. Baum and Denslow had produced a best seller.

The Annotated Wizard of Oz, with an intrcxluction, notes, and bibliography, by Michael Patrick Hearn, Clarkson N. Potter, I 973, 15.00; Bi/Jtiographin Ozia11a, by Peter E . Hanff an<l Douglas G. Greene, l11ternalio11al Wizard of Oz Club [Box 368, Demorest, GA 30535], 1976, 7.50; The Oz Scrapbook, by David L. Greene and Dick Martin, Random House, 1977, $10.00; Wonderful Wizard Marvelous La11d, by Ra ylyn Moore, Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1974, $9.95 cloth, 4.50 paper; Down th e Yellow Brick Road : The Making of the Wizard of Oz, by Doug McClelland, Pyramid Books, 1976, $4.95 paper; The ,Malting of the Wizard of Oz, by Aljean Harm etz, Alfred A. Knopf, 1977, $12.95.

Chicago History

Reviews

Encouraged by success, they labored over another book based on some of the stories that Baum had told his children. In 1900 the Hill Company published Baum's story about Dorothy and her motley crew. The book was an instant success and set the precedent for a new Oz book every Christmas. In 1902 Dorothy and company made their debut on the stage at Chicago's Grand Opera House. Fred Stone and David i\Iontgomery were the Scarecrow and Tin Âˇwoodman in an Oz filled with plump chorus girls in tights. This burlesque, staged for another decade, became as popular as the book. Riding the crest of success, Baum followed up the book and play with Th e Marvelous Land of Oz (I 904), published by a new Chicago company, Reilly & Britton (later Reilly & Lee) , which remained the source of the chronicles of Oz until 1963. Another popular artist, John R. Neill, replaced Denslow as the collaborator for this and subsequent Oz books. i\Ieanwhile Baum wrote a number of other children 's books, some of them under feminine pseudonyms. Then, in I 909, he developed an ingenious movie-lecture and magic lantern show, Fairylogue and Radio Ploys, which dramatized episodes from his books. The sl10w went on the road and Baum, clad in a white frock coat, delighted his young audiences with his narration . But he had invested so much in the production that he soon went bankrupt. In 1911 the Baums moved to Hollywood, California. One more musical show, Th e Tik-Tok Mon of Oz, was a moderate success, but further attempts to translate Oz to the movie screen proved disastrous. For the next few years Baum busied himseH witl1 a new hobby, gardening, and continued to write an annual Oz book until 1917, when an operation left him an invalid. He completed one and perhaps two more books before his death in 1919. During his sixty-three years, he had met with the greatest success in Chicago, where most of his 82 books were published. The annual Oz fantasies by Baum and his successors, including Ruth Plumly Thompson and John Neill, remained popular for several generations. Changing tastes and a weary publisher eventually threatened to end the series, but in l 939 the i\ [Gi\l movie, The Wizard of Oz, created a new public for Baum's message of courage, hope, and love. That public has grown in response to repeated showing of the movie on television at the holiday season. In the 1950s, when Oz was being kept alive more by the screen than by the bookstores, Chicago became a happy hunting ground for the first collectors of Baum books and memorabilia. But when I began to work on a biography of Baum, I ran into unexpected obstacles. The Baum family itself had few documents or manuscripts to help the biographer. Many l ibrarians had long since discarded their worn out Oz books and refused to 60

Chicago Hist ory

replace them, arguing that a child hooked on a long series of fantasies develops a warped taste in literature, like one allowed to gorge on ice cream. So I haunted Chicago's second hand bookstores and in one of them made a wonderful discovery: a closet filled to the ceiling with Oz books in all stages of disrepair. The dealer was happy to be rid of them, and the purchaser was elated to get many old editions that became the nucleus of an Oz library. Later, at a house sale in Highland Park, I stumbled upon a framed sketch of HumptyDumpty which proved to be the original drawing by i\faxfield Parrish for Mother Goose in Prose. For less than $1.00 it became the prized centerpiece of my collection. These materials arc now preserved at Syracuse University. Other collectors in those happy clays could tell similar tales of finding such treasures as an immaculate copy of the rare and perishable WaggleBug Book on an outdoor book counter for 25 cents, pamphlets that used Oz as their advertising lure, and even comic strip pages forgotten for haH a century in Chicago attics. i\ faterial of this sort is available at the Chicago Historical Society. In the 1960s three Chicago area residents-Dick i\fartin, Harry Neal Baum (L. Frank Baum 's son), and I-joined with Fred i\Ieyer of Kinderhook, Illinois, to incorporate the International Wizard of Oz Club. Three times a year the club publishes The Baum Bugle, a magazine devoted to Oz bibliography, anecdote, history, and nostalgia. Harry Baum served as president o[ the club for many years and hosted meetings at his summer residence in Knox, Indiana, each June. Now these are held in Castle Park and Escanaba, Michigan, as well as in New Jersey and California. Growth of the club to about l,500 members has been accompanied by an outpouring o[ books and articles and the recovery of early editions, pamphlets, clippings, photographs, and drawings illustrating a literary phenomenon rich in visual appeal. Children were certainly the first to recognize the place o[ Oz in the literature of wonder and imagination. Oz next captured the attention of the academic world as well, with Roland Baughman, Russel B. Nye, Martin Gardner, and Edward Wagenknecht prominent among the discerning scholars. The appearance in 1961 of my book, To Please a Child, helped focus attention on Baum himself. Strange to tell, by then Baum was so little known that when one of his publishers was approached for information, the man admitted that he knew very little about the writer, adding gratuitously, "Who would want to read a biography of him anyway?" Prominent among the large variety of books relating to Baum's work that have appeared in this decade is an oblong, three-pound volume, The Annotated Wizard of Oz, by i\Iichael Patrick Hearn, appropriately bound to match the Yellow

Reviews

Brick Road. As is obvious from the title the book reproduces full size and in full color the pages of the first edition of The Wond erful Wizard of Oz. Only a few fortunate collectors have had the privilege of beholding the full glory of that edition as it appeared with Denslow's 24 color plates and two-ton~ decorative text pages. Hearn's facsimile edition restores to the present generation some of the delight offered children at the turn of the century when they opened the squarish green book . Over the years, as some five million copies were sold, the word "wonderful" disappeared from the title and Baum's masterpiece became as drab as Dorothy's Kansas when publishers sacrificed color and illustrations. In his introduction Hearn, a student of the Oz books since he was nine years old, expertly summarizes and evaluates Baum's career and major works. Notes alongside the text add further information gleaned from extensive research. Some of the most useful material Hearn unearthed illuminates Baum's relations with his publishers and the climate of publishing in the first decade of the century. Hearn has also made use of the abundance of material offered in The Bnum Bugle. In 1976 Douglas G. Greene, a history professor at Old Dominion University, and Peter E. Hanff of the Bancroft Library at the University of California in Berkeley, published a much -needed comprehensive checklist, Bibliographia Oziana, based on the lists that have appeared for several years in The Baum Bugle. They have amplified this material through a study of the Oz books and supplemented it with illustrations of book covers and edition points. Covers of first editions of all books having Oz in their titles, including those by Ruth Thompson and others, are illustrated, and fine points and variants of early titles are explained in detail. David L. Greene and Dick Martin have clone elegant work in assembling The Oz Scrapbook, which may be briefly described as what most readers have wanted to know about Oz but didn't know where to find. David Greene, the brother of Douglas, is chairman of the English department at Piedmont College in Georgia; Martin is an artist and collector who illustrated several Oz books wheu they were republished. The authors systematically treat Baum's personal and professional life; the other creators of the Oz canon; the illustrators; productions of Oz on the stage and screen from the 1902 play to The Wiz; foreign editions; and the games, dolls, and peanut butter glasses that clutter up the Oz landscape like a trailer camp. The 250 pictures, many in color, are particularly strong in interpretations by foreign artists. The authors have valuable information on the 1908 Radio-Plays and the l 925 movie of The Wizard of Oz, which starred Oliver Hardy, Larry Semon, and Dorothy Dwan. A print of that film, which made a travesty of Baum's

plot, still survives . The Oz Scrapbook is a significant contribution to Oz literature. It provides the general reader with a clear, concise, auractive overview of Baum and his accompli hments along with well chosen illustrations presented in an attractive format. The Wizard of Oz is a simple and enjoyable story for most of us but, like the Bible, it has come to mran many things to many people. Raylyn Moore's Wonderful Wizard Marvelous Land, a clever title made up of the titles of Baum's first two Oz books, proposes "to examine some of the sources of Oz and environs, and to see how they have shaped Baum's work." To this task the author brings a remarkably detailed acquaintance with Baum's many books and with children's literature in general. l\Ioore, reflecting the concerns of American youth in the 1960s, spends many pages explaining Oz as a Utopia of "the youth subculture," a place of agrarian communal living, a society without family discipline where academic values are caricatured in the person of the Woggle-Bug. Young people, she argues, read the Oz books because in them peace and non-violence are triumphant and the Shaggy Man's remark, "All I want is to have people love me," is gospel. The author is concerned with the psychological implications of the supremacy of women in Baum's writing. She appears to read too much into Baum's health problems and ventures a totally unsupported hint that alcohol contributed to them. Moore is at her best in her comments on Baum as a literary craftsman. Among all the books mentioned in this review, hers is the only one that mentions Baum's stylistic faults, such as his dangling participial phrases and his baby-talk word contractions. She detects progressive sentimentality in the Oz books which changed Dorothy from a courageous, resourceful child into a coy young woman. Baum, she suspects, wearied of a lifetime association with Oz forced upon him by his readers and his publishers. She finds that the later books ref! ect th is. Appropriately, two books about the making of the 1939 movie have taken their place on the Oz bookshelf: Aljean Harmetz's The Making of the Wizard of Oz and Doug McClelland's Down the Yellow Brick Road. Both splash their pages with a flood of pictures, some of them recording informal moments when the cameras were not turning on the sets. Photos of Judy Garland in a blond wig with assorted Iunchkins; of Toto, her Ca irn terrier in the movie, posed with a gargantuan St. Bernard from The Call of the Wild; and of an on-set rehearsal of l\Iargaret Hamilton as the Wicked Witch trying out her broomstick, give some idea of the extraordinary effort that went in to making the scenes that roll soÂˇ smoothly across the television screen these days. These are some of the Chi cago History

Reviews

115 illustrations appearing in Harmetz's history. l\fcClelland has fewer such surprises, but a large format enabled him to spread good scenes from the set and film across full pages and eve n facing pages. Moreover, his account covers the I 902 stage play, the 1925 screen burlesque, the 1950 Radio Theater presentation, and The Wiz. Harmetz concentrates on the genesis, birth pangs, domestic quarrels, and growth which culmin ated in the seemingly immortal maturity of the 1939 movie. Interviews with almost everyone still living who had a part in the production result in a virtual history of Hollywood between I 935 and l 94 5. Studio politics and Hollywood romances are extensively treated. So are the remarkable achievements of the craftsmen and cameramen who created the film's splendid special effects, built 60 or more sets, and made I ,000 costumes. The reader empathizes with Jud y Garland's discomfort as a corset slimmed her to girlish proportions ; with Bert Lahr baking under studio lights in his lion skin costume; with Jack Haley forced to lean on a board when he rested; with Ray Bolger's agonies in his mask; and with all three of Judy's companions grimly lunching through a straw. For the reader seeking an inviting, well-written insight into the dramatic history of Oz, l\fcClelland's book can be highly recommended. For the reader who wishes to go into the subject in depth, Harmetz has perhaps spoken the last word on a great moment in film mak ing. Both books have their place and audience. While such exploration of the environs and hinterlands of Oz goes on at a great pace, publishers have not forgotten that Oz exists primarily to please children. Boolis in Print lists fifty or more reprints of Baum's Oz stories and other children's books currently available from a score of companies. Among these Chicago continues to hold its place: Contemporary Books has fourteen titles in print. Th e Wonderful Wizard of Oz itself is available in a dozen editions from as many pubfohers. J\fan y are in paperback , attractively produced at a price not too far above the 1.50 at which the wizard first appeared. There is no more appropriate conclusion to be drawn from all this activity over a book threequarters of a century old than to recall the reference to Baum's masterpiece in the dedication of the l\IGl\I movie: "Time has been powerless to put its kindly philosophy out of fashion." RUSSE LL P. MACFALL

Russell P. MacFall, recently retired as metropolitan editor of the Chicago Tribune, is the author of To Please a Child (Chicago: Reilly & Lee, 1961), the first fulllength biography of L. Frank Baum. He is a former president of the International Wizard of Oz Club and the Midland Authors Society of Chicago. 62

Chicago History

Note:

Inquiries about the International Wizard of Oz Club may be directed to Fred M. Meyer, Secretary, 220 North 11th Street, Escanaba, MI 49829.

The Prairie People: Continuity and Change in Potawatomi Indian Culture 1665-1965

by Jam es A. Clifton Lawrence: The Regents Press of Kansas, 1977. $22.50. "pra irie people" are a group of Potawatomi Indians, originally from the Chicago hinterland, who were forced to move first in the late 1830s to a reservation in western Iowa, then in 1847 to a permanent location in Kansas where they acquired their distinctive name. Among present day Potawatomi scattered from southwestern Ontario to Oklahoma , the m embers of the prairie group remain the most conservative and traditional in their outlook. For this reason Clifton finds them worthy of special attention. Clifton's history of the Potawatom i begins in the early seventeenth century, when a dozen or so villages in southwestern Michigan with an estimated total population of about two thousand five hundred composed the tribal entity. Threatened by raiding New York Iroquois, the Potawatomi fled westward to the Green Bay area during the midseventeenth century but had for the most part returned to lower l\Iichigan by the early eighteenth century. The Potawatomi expanded steadily in population and tribal territory until 1830, when their population of about nine thousand lived in a region that extended westward around lower Lake Michigan from Detroit to the Door Peninsula of Wisconsin and stretched southward to the Wabash River in Indiana and to the Kankakee and upper Illinois river districts in Illinois. Compared in length and breadth with other recently published tribal histories, Cli[ton's new volume with its several introductory chapters of background information and a comprehensive bibliography is massive. The book actually combines a general history of the Indi ans northwest of the Ohio River, two centuries of British and French colonial rivalry on this frontier, the history of the American Revolution and War of 1812 in this theater, and a reservation history demonstrating successive phases of federal Indian policy. This large scale approach is perfectly valid; a broad canvas is required to present an Indian group in proper perspective. In intertribal affairs the Potawatomi were dealing with at least fifteen other JAMES CLIFTON'S

Reviews

Indian nations. Their association with the French involved travel on trad and militaty missiom to Quebec, Lake Champlain, and western Pcnrn.yl vania. Long before Great Britain conquered Canada in 1761 they journeyed to British trading posts on Lake Ontario. They were in contact with Spanish. authorities in St. Louis who exerted a pro-American inf111cn c during the Revolutionary War, a usu ,illy neglected aspect of frontier history. Because their "tribal estate," estimated by Clifton at 18 million acres in 1795, Jay athwart main routes for American westward expansion , the Potawatomi were approached repeatedly to sign treaties surrendering portions to American seulcrs in return for annual subsidies and small reservations. The last large block of Potawatomi land , including the Lake Michigan shoreline from Wilmeuc north to Milwaukee, was rcl11ctantly ceded to the federal government by the Treaty of Chicago in 1833 amidst sensational undercover activity and payoff arrangements. This land cession included the last portion of the homeland of the fulllrc "prairie people," whose diverse villages included descendants of French, Scotch, and Jrish traders as well as Ouawa and Chippewa from northwestern Michigan . Beginning in 1833 and accelerating in 1837 Potawatomi villages were dispersed by successive waves of government-ordered removal and independent flights, including the migration of twenty -five hundred Potawatomi to Canada . The separate identity of the "prairie people"' was forged during thei1· ten years of isolation on a reservation in western Iowa, two hundred miles from the nearest American settlement. Focusing on these federally administered Potawatomi for the later chapters of !tis book, Clifton skillfully portrays the Potawatomi reaction and resistance LO the frustrations of reservation life. Two additional treaties brought about a second removal in 1847 to a diminisltccl reservation in Kan\as and in 1867 transferred their missionizccl hretht en to Oklahoma as tit · Citi,cn Band of Potawatomi. The Potawatomi's land and cash annuities were preyed upon by traders, missionaries, and govern ment Indian agents whose appointments were lucrat ivc rewards of the spoils system. Conservative leaders o( the Prairie Band in Kansas steadfastly fought government efforts to break up their tribal reserve. Tlte most active opponents served jail sentences after individual allotments were higlt handcdly assigned under federal direction. Tltc bitterness oE repeated forced concessions left a legacy oE deep-seated suspicion that has turned to a perpetual negativism on the part of some factions. Fluctuating economic and political trends caused the band to dwindle in numbers from about twenty-five hundred to a low point in 1900 o[ less than five hundred. But their numbers have increased in the twentieth cenwry. Despite many vicissitudes, Prairie Potawatomi

society ltas survived . The clan srtcm continues Lo he the basis of so ial cohesion in tltc twentieth century. Older religiom and newct rituab n :main a vital part of life, along with the [1ccp1cnt pow-wow. Th stubborn resistance to change c.harac.tc1 i,tic of tltc Potawatomi presages that they never will he ;issimilatcd. As Clifton himself observes with good humor, " .. . they made perfectly ckar to me the great melting pot was a place to cook fried bread , not to lose one's identity." Clifton's book is not flawless, hut errors and con troversial points arc generally minor and peripheral to the mainstream of his Potawatomi history. Lin guistically in lined readers may not accept his bold conclusion that l'otawatomi leaders named '"Winamek" (variously spelled, but always meaning "Cat fish"), as well as the French trader "Ouilmctte," for whom the Chicago suburb Wilmette is named, were all linked to a New England rc[ugcc Indian leader with a name sometimes sp lied "Ouioulamet." Clifton's distinctive original contributions to ctltnoltistory arc his careful research into the post1833 dispcn.al of 1.hc Potawatomi and !tis insigltl into the reservation experience o( the Prairie Band. These special studies set against the general background history in The Prnirie Peof1le illuminate the entire field of Indian -white relations. IIELEN IIORNIH: CK TANNER

Sweet Home Chicago 2 edited by Tem /Jorw itz Chicago Review Press, 1977. $4.95.

AN UNA11AS11E0LY sunJH:-1wE guide to Chicago wriuen from a countcrcultural perspective, Sweet Ilome C!ticngo 2 is designed to help longtime residents as well as newcomers and visitors take advantage of the city's varied cultural, spiritual. educational, and political offerings. Unusual guidebook fare includes chapters on "Body Awareness," ''Reading and Writing in Chicago," and "The rovcmcnt." There is also a brief history of and guide to Chicago's avantgarde theater groups. Comributors arc, for the most part, active participants in the culture or lifestyle about which they write. There arc some deficiencies. Jn 1.hc chapter on touring the city's architecture, for example, the Chicago School o[ Architect urc Foundation and ArchiCcntcr arc not mentioned. Also, some of the material is by nature outdated as soon as it is published because few of the groups and places listed arc static entities. But this book is the most comprehensive and current available for much of what it does cover. Sweet Home Chicago 2 complements the more establishment-oriented guides and, as they page through, most readers will find at least a few items to add to their list oE things · to do. MARYL. DAWSON

Chica go History

Reviews

Cities on Stone: Nineteenth Century Lithograph Images of the Urban West

An Autobiography

by John Tl '. R eps

l',e"路 York: Horizon Press, 1977. Third edition. $17 .50.

Fort \\'orth , Texas: Amon Carter l\Iuseum of \\'estcrn Art, 19j6. $14 .95 cloth, $9 .95 paper.

Edwin Whitefield: Nineteenth-Century North American Scenery

by Bettina A. Norton Barre, Mass.: Barre Publishing, 19n. $19.95.

THESE TWO BOOKS will appeal to appreciators of American city prints or urban history. "Cities on Stone: l'\ineteenth Century Lithograph Images of the Urban 'iVest," a tra\'eling exhibition of the Amon Carter ;\luseum of "\Vestern Art, is not scheduled to come to Chicago, but the catalog is meritorious. \Vhile the exhibit of about 140 lithographs concentrates on post-Ci\'il \Var bird's-eye or panoramic \'iews of cities west of the i\lississippi River, the catalog is an excellent reference for knowledge of the nineteenth century American city print industry. Reps, professor of city and regional planning at Cornell University, estimates that 2,000 to 3,000 lithographic urban views were published between 1825 and 1900. Although the text comprises only 38 pages, accompanied by 50 color plates and exhibition checklist, it is concise and most informati\'e about the artists and publishers and about the methods by which the \'iews were composed, printed, and sold. 路with the aid of the substantive footnotes and bibliography, the reader can delve deeper into this subject. One of the artists discussed in the Reps catalog is Edwin Whitefield ( 1816-1892), the subject of Bettina Norton's book. Whitefield, renowned for his approximately one hundred correct and lovely lithographic views of North American cities, was the artist and publisher of se,路en Chicago views printed between 1860 and 1863. He lived in Chicago during this time, but not much information is giYen about this period. A significant error appears on page 52: regarding the Chicago , 路iew of the lllinois and i\lichigan Central Depot, ::\'orton mentions the basis of this view might be a photograph taken in 1858 by "A. Helsey." The photographer actually was the eminent Alexander Hesler. Using the ,vhitefield arch ives of diaries, correspondence, and scrapbooks at the Boston Public Library, Norton has compiled what is essentially a catalogue raisonne preceded by a short and phlegmatic biography. The book is well illustrated with oYer 60 full page black and white plates. JULIA WESTERBERG

Chicago History

by Frank Lloyd Wright

FRANK LLOYD WRIGIIT's An Autobiography acquaints us with the life of the only American architect whose name is a household word and whose writings and buildings have left an indelible stamp on all of our lives. The autobiography is episodic and sometimes abstract. For those unaccustomed to architectural concepts, his writings may be difficult to grasp; but anyone with the patience to continue will find vivid descriptions of Wright's youth in "\Visconsin and the architectural scene in Chicago in the 1880s. There are moving passages about personal tragedies, persecutions, and rejections by a society which failed to appreciate him as an artist and human being. The first and second editions of this work have been out of print for years and are now collectors' items. The first edition, published in 1932, consists of three sections: Fellowship, From Generation to Generation, and Freedom. Each section begins with graphic illustrations, delineated in ,vright's distinctive style that serve as visual metaphors for the opening paragraphs of the text. It has an appendix of photographs selected by Wright. The volume ends with the rebu ilding of Taliesin for the third time. The second edition reorganizes the first into four sections-Family, Fellowship, Work, Freedom and adds a fifth-Form. Published in 1943 and designed by Wright in a new square format, this edition lacks photographs but retains the architectural graphics, which are richly printed with silver lines on brown ink backgrounds with touches of vermilion. \Vright had much to add to this edition , and one senses an arrogance that was missing before. The years after the depression brought renewed recognition , major commissions, and the formation of the Taliesin Fellowship in "\Visconsin and in Arizona. International recognition brought invitations to visit and lecture in England, Brazil, and Russia. The last section ends with a promise of a sixth section about Broadacres, the city of the future. Now, nineteen years after Wright's death, Horizon Press has printed the third edition including a section entitled Broadacre City and Wright's revisions of the earlier sections. i\fost of the photos of the first edition have been put back with some up-to-elate additions, but the graphics are omitted. Compared with the earlier editions, the differences in this new edition are of minor importance. ,vright dropped the conjunction "and" from the beginning of sentences, changed punctuation , added and revised titles, and elaborated on a few points. One revision is worth noting. In 1956 Wright presented the citizens of Chicago with The Illinois,

Reviews

a design for a mile-high skyscraper. He originally advanced th is concept in his 1932 autobiography as a half-mile high skyscraper, a possibility for the 1933 A Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago. The proposal is the same in the second edition. Why, then, d id he doub le its height? In A Testament ( 1957) he attributes this possibility to advanced technolo'gy and atomic power. I wish he had taken the opportunity in this edition to expand upon h is reasons. W r ight apologizes for his sudden ex it fr om the dinner of the American Institute of Architects in 1938 at which he was to introduce Mies van der Rohe, the new head of Illinois Institute of Technology's departmen t of architecture. Feeling that the A.I.A. had ignored his contributions to modern architecture and angered by the earlier speeches, Wright presented Mies with a curt introduction adding, "But for me there would have been no l\Iies .. . ." Now, in the th ird ed ition, he explains, "Sickened by the giveaway, I stepped clown and walked ou t of the room." Broadacre City, the sixth section, is disappointing as a b luepri nt fo r action. Although the volume includes a sketch of a fut uristic, decentra lized metropolis-complete with do mes, satellites, helicopters, and huge antennae-the text amounts to a philosophical essay on what is morall y necessary for the rej uve nation of our cities. v\Te are told that only "Democracy relaxed, resilient, safe, fundamenta lly a free structural FOR M" will allow us to ach ieve " the one great free City so founded in uncommon sense as to make h uman life ... beautiful. " We can only be insp ired by his words; but the means by wh ich we are to con nect the real and the ideal remai n vague. My professor, Alfred Caldwell, knew Wright and spoke of him as "a tower ing figure of our time." As an architect, he certainly was. v\Te owe v\Tright our thanks for leaving us this remarkable written legacy as well.

could have been a boring academic account ol how to do histo1 y is further enlivened by the author's wit. Finding a white ancestor, we arc told, ''is certainly nothing to be ashamed of-it happens in some of the best families ." Unfortunately, the last two chapters of the book are swffed with too many generalities about African society and history. Intended to impress the reader with Africa's past greatness, they have little lo do with the work of the genealogist. The attempt to build pride in an African heritage m ight have been replaced by a more realistic appraisal of the chances of actually finding one's African connections. As it is the author makes the process sound too simple, and his reduction of the ordeal to the three steps outlined on page 128 is likely to give the reader an unfounded optimism. 'i\Tith respect to the third step he writes that it is "relat ively easy to reestablish ... one's family tree on African soil" because of "the high regard Africans place in kinsh ip." This simplification confuses the high regard that Africans place on kinship with the less sure l ikelihood that the researcher will be able to find the particular vi ll age h is ancestor came from an d , even less likely, to find someone in it who is ab le to remember names of re latives who were taken as slaves as far back, perhaps, as the eighteenth century. I have worked recently in a number of Ghanaian villages, and I th ink it is inadvisable to place so much fa ith in the African memory. Finally, in the D irectory of R esearch Sources at the encl of the book foreign institutions shou ld have been separated from domest ic ones; the Ch icago Historical Society, wh ich holds the Claude Barn ett Papers, shou ld have been included in the list; and th e vVest Afr ican H istorical Muse um in Cap e Coast, Ghana, might have bee n omitted since the records formerly kept in the Castle were long ago moved to the Cape Coast branch of the Gha na 1ational Arch ives. J AMES R. SANDE RS

JOHN VINCI

A History of Early Carbondale, Illinois Black Genealogy

by Charles L. Blackson with Ron Fry Englewood ClifEs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1977. $8.95. TIIROUGII CHAPTER 7 Black Genealogy is an interesting, competent, and sensitive guide for the beginning genealogist. The author describes major documentary sources likely to be used in the search for ancestors and explains how to collect oral tradition. The list of sources provided by Blockson is thorough and the discussion of them is enhanced by the occasional photographic facs im il es enabli ng the researcher to recogn ize what he is look ing for. What

1852- 1905 by John W.D. Wright Carbondale, Ill. : Southern Illinois Un iYersity Press, 1977. S17.50 Published for the J ackson County Historical Society.

A Biograph ical History of Porter County, Indiana edited b)' the Bicentennial Book Commillee Porter County, Indiana: American Revolution Bicentennia l Committee of Porter Coun ty, l nc., 1976. S20. Avai lab le by writ ing John Schnurlcin , 101 East Lin coln way, \ 'a lparaiso, Indiana 46383 . Chicago History

Reviews

AS AN EXPERIENCED amateur local historian, Mr. , ,v right attempts to capture the character of Carbondale, Illinois. However, the quarry eludes the net. The book was prepared to honor the town's founders during the Bicentennial and, unfortunately, the founders get in the way of the town's story. In the effort to mention all the important people and their backgrounds, the general flow of history is Jost. From Wright's introduction the reader expects an analysis of Carbondale's early growth with emphasis on the contributions of notable citizens. ,,Vhat follows is an unanalytic narrative broken by biographical and genealogical digressions about the notables. There is almost no mention of politics. A major theme, according to the author, is the impact of the railroad on the economy oE the town; yet this theme is not systematically developed except for the obvious hypothesis that a location on the Illinois Central Railroad should stimulate the economy. For all its flaws the book offers the modern historian and genealogist a wealth of data on individuals in southern Illinois. It folJows the pattern oE many late nineteenth-century county histories: the narrative is followed by a long section of capsule b iographies on Carbondale citizens. This data will be useful to anyone researching an individual or do ing quantitative history. The biographies reveal the depth oE Wright's research and make the lack of analysis more regrettable.

A Biographical History of Porter County, Indiana takes its pattern from another common late nineteenth-century type of book, the community "mug books." These contained pictures and short biographies of the leading citizens oE the community or industry under study. They often had a short background section to set the scene. The Porter County history is a common man's history. The bulk oE the book is made up of short autobiographies, material gathered from answers to a newspaper article placed by the Bicentennial committee. While the book lacks polish and sophistication, its grassroots origin will prove useful to future researchers. KURT E. LEICHTLE

The Reviewers -Mary L. Dawson is with the public relations department of Loyola University -Kurt E. Leichtle is a doctoral candidate in American history at the University of Illinois at Chicago Circle - James R. Sanders is a doctoral candidate in the African Studies Program at Nonhwestern University -Helen Hornbeck Tanner is project director for the Atlas of Great Lakes Indian History currently being prepared at The Newberry Library. -John Vinci teaches architectural history at Illinois Institute of Technology -Julia Westerberg is assistant curator of graphics, CHS.

A A Story of the Streets and Town

GF.ORGf

.fDE

JOHS T Ml"Cl:l'CHEOh

CHICAGO HERBERT S. STONE. !> CO. 1~â&#x20AC;˘~6

CHS.

Chicago History

The Society

Our Educational Role IN JANUARY OF TH I S YEAR I LesLilied in supporl of a While House Conference on Lhe HumaniLies al hearings held in Chicago before the SelecL Commiuee on EducaLion chaired by UniLed SLaLes RepresentaLivc John Brademas. PreparaLion of my tesLimony forced me to Lhink about the challenges faced by humanistic insLitutions like the Chicago HisLorical Society. One of the most import;int of these challenges is th e necessity to define our cducaLional role and in so doing to focus on what we can do that oth er education al instituLions cannot. This is more difficult than one might think because the cducaLional potentia l of museums and historical socieLies has only reccnLly begun to be appreciaLed. For Lhe mo t part, many of Lhe e socieLics have been relaLively passive institutions, enormous unLappecl resources. This is changing very rapidly. The number of visitors LO museums and historical socieLies has been growing exponentially. Just as signilicanL is the increasing range of museum goers; they include casual visitors, families, school children, college students, scholars, special interest groups, clubs, and tourisLs. They range from the occasional museum goer looking for a few hours of pleasant diversion to the serious re earcher pursuing a speciali1.ed interest. The diver ity of our visitors illuminates for us the variety o( experiences we have to offer to our publics. Museums and historical societies arc the mot access ible of al l educationa l institutions. They do not impo Âˇe any geographic, educational, or age barrier; they al low the v isitor to pursue his or her own interest and inclination at his or her own pace; and they offer an ever-changing curriculum unbounded by the limits of any particular teacher. In short, they are learning centers limited only by the imagination of the learner.

Our experience in recent years has shown that the ranks of potential learners arc growing. Higher levels of education, increases in leisure time, and rising living standards have encouraged the development of wider and deeper interests among larger portions of our population. The media have played an important role in this development. On the one hand they have helped ;irouse public interest and curimity by bringing aspects of the museum experience into millions of homes. On the other hand Lhey have increa ingly availed themselves of resources from our coll ection- artifacts, photographs, paintings, manuscripts, newspaper files, and books- to enrich their offerings. Acceptance of our educationa l role h as certain implicaLions. Fir t, our learn ing env ironment must be of the highest quality. Th is can only be achieved by continual aLLention to the collection, conservation, and interpretation of Lhe materials o( history. It means maintaining a highly qualified stafI of our own as well as collaborating with specialists and scholars in a variety or fields so that we can arra nge a meeting or ideas and people on an informal and continuing basis. Second, we must continu ally assert the value of what we have to ofier. We shou ld not merely wait for potential learners to seek us out-we must seek them out. J( we really believe in the importance of our role, we must engage an ever growing number of citi,ens in o ur activities. To undertake these tasks is LO fulfill the essential mission of our inst ituti o n in the spirit of its founders but in the manner appropriate to our time.

Director

Chicago History

THE CHICAGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY Clark Street at North Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60614 Telephone: Michigan 2-4600

OFFICERS

Harold K. Skramstad, Jr.

The Chicago Historical Society is a privately endowed institution devoted to collecting, preserving, and interpreting the history of the city of Chicago, the state of Illinois, and selected areas of American history. It must look to its members and friends for continuing financial support. Contributions to the Society are tax-deductible and appropriate recognition is accorded major gifts. The Society encourages potential contributors to phone or write the director's office to discuss the Society's needs.

TRUSTEES

MEMBERSHIP

Theodore Tieken, President Stewart S. Dixon, rst Vice-President James R. Getz, 2nd Vice-President Gardner H . Stern, Treasurer Bryan S. Reid, Jr., Secretary DIRECTOR

Bowen Blair Philip D. Block III Cyrus Colter Emmett Dedmon Stewart S. Dixon James R. Getz Philip W. Hummer Mrs. Frank D. Mayer

Andrew McNally III Arthur E. Osborne, Jr. Bryan S. Reid, Jr. Gilbert H. Scribner, Jr. Harold Byron Smith, Jr. Gardner H. Stern Theodore Tieken i\frs. Edgar J. Uihlein

LIFE TRUSTEES

Willard L. King J\1rs. C. Phillip Miller Hermon Dunlap Smith HONORARY TRUSTEES

Michael A. Bilandic, Mayor, City of Chicago Patrick L. O'Malley, President, Chicago Park District

Membership is open to anyone interested in the Society's activities and objectives. Classes of membership and dues are as follows: Annual, $20 a year; Governing Annual, $100 a year; Life, $500; and Patron, $1000 or more. Members receive the Society's quarterly magazine, Chicago History; a quarterly Calendar of Events, listing Society programs; invitations to special programs; free admission to the building at all times; reserved seats at movies and concerts in our auditorium; and a 10% discount on books and other merchandise purchased in the Museum Store. HOURS

Exhibition galleries are open daily from 9:30 to 4:30; Sunday, from 12:00 to 5:00. Library and museum research collections are open Tuesday through Saturday from 9:30 to 4:30 except for July and August when they are open Monday through Friday. The Society is closed on Christmas, New Year's, and Thanksgiving. THE EDUCATION OFFICE

offers guided tours, assemblies, slide talks, gallery talks, craft demonstrations, and a variety of special programs for all ages, from pre-school through senior citizen. ADMISSION FEES FOR NON-MEMBERS

Adults $1; Children (6-17), 50Â˘; Senior Citizens, 25Â˘. Admission is free on Mondays. Single copies of Chicago History, published quarterly, are $2.25 by mail; $2 at newsstands, bookshops, and the Museum Store.

One of the hair-raising covers of dime novels set in Chicago . CHS.

!:11 t;re, l 11,.Mr,f11•!1 to . l .., ,.,. l'ou,, r,·.• ... "' ,;,, 1·. U l "!o"I.'), ,,,, ,·,.,~,-,.,,

No. 192.

I 00.11 l ' L b:T ~;. 1

,,f

11,,. I',af

,u t .V,i-,' rnr;;.F. Y. Ill,,.~

flfi-·•. ,,, ·"""

}ml.·, N.

r .. OIi

fl,'lk,

..,,,.,.,,,,

-========-=__::_==:..:== -------

u/ hf Lf1,r,1. 1•111 ..1,;u,,,,,.--.

,11

1'l,u., 1(,,1(,r,

F'llA XR. TOOSET . r fJ 8U$ U&, 34 & 36 NOKTO MOOH K ::,TH.!arr. ~- Y. S is w

\l)l~i.'.

,\.n~.7.Jb~ti.

1:-~lHI ~.\ JUST :"-\Tl"JW,Y.

Vol. I ---_-_-_-_-_-