CHM curator Petra Slinkard writes about an artifact that celebrated the Cubs’ 2016 World Series win before they actually won. Juan Ceballos of Joliet, Illinois, about forty miles southwest of Chicago, is a die hard Chicago Cubs fan. In fact, he was so confident the Cubs would win the 2016 World Series, he was inspired More
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 discusses three artifacts related to Elmer Ellsworth, a law clerk to Abraham Lincoln who became a martyr at the onset More
On October 1, the Chicago Transit Authority celebrates its 70th anniversary. To commemorate the occasion, we have compiled some highlights about the CTA’s rich history from the Chicago History Museum’s collection. A CTA train heads west on the Lake Street elevated line, June 30, 1967. CHM, Hedrich-Blessing Collection, HB-30550 Long gone are the electric-powered trolley More
Project archivist Adam Melville worked with CHM archivist Julie Wroblewski as part of his graduate school practicum. In this blog post, he describes how he processed one of our largest acquisitions in recent history. This summer, I received the exciting but daunting opportunity to process the papers of US congressman Sidney R. Yates—a 262-linear-foot collection More
Get to know Chicago cultural maven Lois Weisberg with the contents of her collection in our Research Center. Small only in stature, Lois Weisberg was a big presence in Chicago’s civic and cultural life for seven decades. Everything about her seemed larger than life, including a circle of friends that ran the gamut from comedian More