Inside the Collection is a video series that invites you into the Chicago History Museum’s storage spaces to explore unusual, interesting artifacts from our vast collection. In this installment, senior collection manager Britta Keller Arendt and summer intern Amy Sparks discuss an original traffic controller switch, c. 1926, from Chicago’s Loop. The city used this More
Get to know Raymond Hudd and the contents of his photographs and papers in this blog post by collections intern Analú M. López, a practicum student in archives this spring. The Chicago-based milliner Raymond Hudd (1924–2011) was well known for his bold, whimsical hat designs and was often referred to as the “Mad Hatter of More
CHM collections volunteer Robert Blythe details the history and contents of the Grand Army of the Republic, Department of Illinois records in our Research Center. During the Civil War, some 2.7 million men served in Union blue from 1861 to 1865. To preserve their bonds of comradeship and ensure that veterans and their families received More
Between now and November 11, 2018, we will commemorate the centennial of the United States’ participation in World War I. It was one of the greatest conflicts in human history, claiming more than 17 million lives and leaving more than 20 million wounded. The Great War, as it was called, shattered the illusions of an More
Collections volunteer Robert Blythe details the history and contents of the Illinois Women’s Agenda records in our Research Center. The records of the Illinois Women’s Agenda (IWA) shed light on the many and varied activities that characterized second-wave feminism in America in the 1970s and 1980s. Established in December 1975, the IWA was a coalition More