History
Chicago’s history is a tale of monumental struggle and achievement. Think of the Great Fire of 1871 (and Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow); the completion of the nation’s first skyscraper in 1885; the World Columbian Exposition of 1893; and the Sears Tower that today remains the tallest building in America; the many famous novelists, musicians, artists, and activists who emerged from here, and the development of the modern study of social sciences and social work, originating at the University of Chicago.
The Windy City, known for its blow-hard politicians, remarkable ethnic diversity, stunning architectural beauty, and formidable financial prowess, is the subject of many books, both fiction and non-fiction. Here are a few to get you started:
Basic Reference
- Grossman, James R. Encyclopedia of Chicago – online version
- City of Chicago: History and Facts
- Miller, Donald. Chicago: City of the Century. link is to website for companion PBS series; also in Web Resources below.
- The Civic Knowledge Project’s Our Southside: You Are Here Online Encyclopedia
Online Resources
- Encyclopedia of Chicago – including a highly interactive timeline
- Chicago: City of the Century – website for PBS Series including a timeline
- University of Chicago Library’s Map Collection – includes many historical maps of the city, as well as GIS and maps based on census data.
Full List of Online Resources »
- Encyclopedia of Chicago – including a highly interactive timeline
- Chicago History Museum
- A View on Cities: Chicago History
- Chicago History Info
- Chicago: City of the Century – website for PBS Series including a timeline
- Chicago History Resource – at the Chicago Public Library including a timeline
- The Labor Trail - This on-line history resource builds on “The Labor Trail: Chicago's History of Working-Class Life and Struggle,” a map of 140 significant locations in the history of labor, migration, and working-class culture in Chicago and Illinois.
- A History of the Chicago River
- Urban Experience in Chicago: Hull House and its Neighborhoods, 1889 – 1963
- Early Chicago – based on the book “A Compendium of the Early History of Chicago to the Year 1835, when the Indians left.”
- Chicago History Blog by Sharon Williams, an amateur historian
- World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 – provides access to thousands of illustrations and full-text images of the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893 for purposes of teaching and research.
- University of Chicago Library’s Map Collection – includes many historical maps of the city, as well as GIS and maps based on census data.
- Photographs from the Chicago Daily News: 1902-1933
Cemeteries and Graveyards
- Hidden Truths – 19th Century Chicago City Cemetery
- Hucke, Matt: Graveyards of Chicago
- Graveyards.com – Graveyards of Illinois.
- Oak Woods Cemetery in Woodlawn just a mile south of campus. Mayor Harold Washington, physicist Enrico Fermi, Olympian Jesse Owens, baseball player Cap Anson, and Mayor “Big Bill” Thompson are all buried here. Also has Camp Douglas Confederate Mound where Confederate POWs who died at Camp Douglas are buried.
Chicago People and Places
- Black, Timuel. Bridges of Memory
- Knight, Louise W. Citizen: Jane Addams and the Struggle for Democracy
- Miller, Wayne. Chicago’s South Side, 1946-48; see also Chicago 1946-48 – an online photo essay
Full List of Chicago People and Places »
- Bachin, Robin F. Building the South Side: Urban Space and Civic Culture in Chicago, 1890-1919
- Best, Wallace D. Passionately Human, No Less Divine: Religion and Culture in Black Chicago, 1915-52
- Black, Timuel. Bridges of Memory
- Drake, St. Clair. Black Metropolis
- Duis, Perry. Challenging Chicago Coping with Everyday Life, 1837-1920
- Goodwin, Joanne L. Gender and the Politics of Welfare Reform: Mothers’ Pensions in Chicago, 1911-1929
- Green, Adam. Selling the Race: Culture, Community, and Black Chicago, 1940-1955
- Grossman, James R. Land of Hope: Chicago, Black Southerners, and the Great Migration
- Hirsch, Arnold R. Making the Second Ghetto: Race and Housing in Chicago 1940-1960
- Kaplan, Laura. The Story of Jane: The Legendary Underground Feminist Abortion Service
- Knight, Louise W. Citizen: Jane Addams and the Struggle for Democracy
- Miller, Wayne. Chicago’s South Side, 1946-48; see also Chicago 1946-48 – an online photo essay
- Seligman, Amanda I. Block by Block: Neighborhoods and Public Policy on Chicago’s West Side
- Spear, Allan H. Black Chicago: The Making of a Negro Ghetto, 1890-1920
- Thompson, Nathan. Policy Kings: The True Story of Chicago’s Policy Kings and Numbers Racketeers
Geography and the Environment
- Cronon, William. Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the American West
- Smith, Carl. Urban Disorder and the Shape of Belief: The Great Chicago Fire, the Haymarket Bomb, and the Model Town of Pullman, Second Edition
Full List of Geography and the Environment »
- Bachrach, Julia Sniderman. The City in a Garden: A Photographic History of Chicago’s Parks
- Cronon, William. Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the American West
- Ebner, Michael H. Creating Chicago’s North Shore: A Suburban History
- Greenberg, Joel. A Natural History of the Chicago Region
- Greenberg, Joel. Of Prairie, Woods, and Water: Two Centuries of Chicago Nature Writing
- Jacob, Mark. Chicago under Glass: Early Photographs from the Chicago Daily News
- Keating, Ann Durkin. Chicagoland: City and Suburbs in the Railroad Age
- Kennedy, Elizabeth. Chicago Modern, 1893-1945: Pursuit of the New
- Maloney, Jean Cathy. Chicago Gardens: The Early History
- Mayer, Harold M. Chicago: Growth of a Metropolis
- Mazrim, Robert. The Sangamo Frontier: History and Archaeology in the Shadow of Lincoln
- McKeown, Adam. Chinese Migrant Networks and Cultural Change: Peru, Chicago, and Hawaii 1900-1936
- Pacyga, Dominic A. Polish Immigrants and Industrial Chicago: Workers on the South Side, 1880-1922
- Pellow, David Naguib. Garbage Wars: The Struggle for Environmental Justice in Chicago
- Pierce, Bessie Louise. As Others See Chicago: Impressions of Visitors, 1673-1933
- Pierce, Bessie Louise. A History of Chicago, Volume I: The Beginning of a City 1673-1848
- Pierce, Bessie Louise. A History of Chicago, Volume II: From Town to City 1848-1871
- Pierce, Bessie Louise. A History of Chicago, Volume III: The Rise of a Modern City, 1871-1893
- Platt, Harold L. Shock Cities: The Environmental Transformation and Reform of Manchester and Chicago
- Sawislak, Karen. Smoldering City: Chicagoans and the Great Fire, 1871-1874
- Smith, Carl. Urban Disorder and the Shape of Belief: The Great Chicago Fire, the Haymarket Bomb, and the Model Town of Pullman, Second Edition
- Solzman, David M. The Chicago River: An Illustrated History and Guide to the River and Its Waterways, Second Edition
- Spears, Timothy B. Chicago Dreaming: Midwesterners and the City, 1871-1919
- Washington, Sylvia Hood. Packing Them In: An Archaeology of Environmental Racism in Chicago 1865-1964
- Wille, Lois. Forever Open, Clear, and Free: The Struggle for Chicago’s Lakefront
