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Chicago History | History
History | Chicago History
Funky town: Chicago nightclubs in the 1970s – in pictures
Before a career photographing the likes of Oprah and Steve Jobs for major US publications, the late Michael Abramson headed to Chicago’s South Side and documented the wild parties of the funk and disco era
History | Chicago History
Photos from the Great Chicago Fire
The Great Chicago Fire erupted on Oct. 8, 1871, and burned a large portion of the city until the fire died out on Oct. 10, 1871. It killed hundreds of people and destroyed a huge swath of the central business district, which was mainly m
History | Chicago History
The Chicago Fire
The whole Midwest was parched, caught in the thrall of a mighty drought. Chicago, with its preponderance of wooden buildings, inadequate fire codes and inferior firefighting equipment, was a conflagration waiting to happen. On this Sunday evening, it did.
History | Chicago History
Letter of Recommendation: The Thorne Miniature Rooms in Chicago
Model rooms at the Art Institute of Chicago can make an adult feel like a child again.
History | Chicago History
How Chicago's Neighborhoods Got Their Names | Mental Floss
It's often said that "Chicago is a city of neighborhoods." Where do the names for all these neighborhoods come from?
History | Chicago History
Statue Stories has David Schwimmer, Steve Carell, others giving voice to Chicago
It would almost be enough to have your cellphone ring and the identifying text say there's an incoming call from "Abraham Lincoln," or "Benito Juarez," or "Cloud Gate." That's a screenshot worth saving.
History | Chicago History
Rare Eastland disaster photos discovered in Chicago Tribune basement
The photographs capture the aftermath of one of Chicago's worst disasters: rows of sheet-covered bodies inside a temporary morgue, two women crying while clutching a baby in a blanket, a Coast Guard crew hauling a woman out of the river, the Eastland flop
History | Chicago History
The last remains of old Chicago
Ever wish you lived in Chicago in the '20s, '60s, '80s? Traces of old Chicago remain, from gambling dens to red light districts to payphones.
History | Chicago History
The Storyteller from Albany Park, Chicago
On Friday nights we went to the Terminal theater. It seemed like 5,000 teenagers were there. After the movie, we'd go to Purity deli for kishkes and cherry Cokes.
History | Chicago History
Unsung urban planning hero Edward Brennan made it easy to find your way around Chicago
Unsung urban planning hero Edward Brennan tamed a chaotic 19th-century street-numbering system.
History | Chicago History
Curious City looks at the history of Chicago’s ‘Dunning’ poor farm and asylum
In both life and death, the people who ended up at the notorious asylum and poor farm were some of Chicago’s least fortunate residents.
History | Chicago History
Lake Michigan’s Shipwrecks From Above
Around 6,000 ships have met their end in the five Great Lakes.
History | Chicago History
McDonald's: 60 years, billions served
Sixty years ago, on April 15, 1955, a 52-year-old former piano player and salesman from Oak Park opened a hamburger stand in Des Plaines. His name was Ray Kroc, and what's today known around the world as McDonald's was off and running.
History | Chicago History
First known film clips emerge of 1915 Eastland disaster
For years, Ted Wachholz had all the evidence he needed to believe that film footage of the 1915 SS Eastland disaster on the Chicago River existed, except maybe for the film itself.
History | Chicago History
The last remains of old Chicago
Ever wish you lived in Chicago in the '20s, '60s, '80s? Traces of old Chicago remain, from gambling dens to red light districts to payphones.
History | Chicago History
It's Good To Be A Gangster: 10 Chicago Haunts Where the Mafia Hung Out
There are fewer reminders left that Chicago was once a rough and tumble town where gangsters like Al Capone once roamed, as new development has forced the demolition of several haunts. But there...
History | Chicago History
Chicago's Gangster Past, Minus the Romance - CityLab
A collection of photographs from the Chicago Tribune archives rejects spectacle in favor of brutal, messy truth.
History | Chicago History
Check Out This Map Of Settlement Patterns In Chicago In 1950
The settlement patterns are from 1950, but the map wasn't printed then. Can you spot the clues?
History | Chicago History
See Chicago's Past Through These Classic Magazine Ads From 1959
What can a magazine ad tell you about Chicago in 1959? Let's take a ride on the Chicagoist Wayback Machine to a time when phone numbers were as long as hashtags.
History | Chicago History
1949: Chicago by Stanley Kubrick
Steel, lingerie, trains, poverty. A "city of extremes."
History | Chicago History
Ghost signs in Chicago: advertisements from the past
Chicago photographer Debbie Mercer captures faded ghost signs hiding in plain sight on Chicago buildings.
History | Chicago History
The Great Chicago Fire happened 143 years ago tomorrow
The Great Chicago Fire blazed through Chicago 143 years ago. This timeline explains what started the fire and how it was able to spread so quickly.
History | Chicago History
Filmmaker Seeks to Show a Softer Side of Capone
Richard Larsen is producing a film showcasing Al Capone's major contribution to the jazz world, he said.
History | Chicago History
Rarely-Seen Photos Spotlight The 1970s Social Scene Of South Side Chicago
To say it was a different time is putting it lightly. In the 1970s on Chicago's South Side, revelers in their finest packed into nightclubs, dancing the night away to the soulful music of the era while knocking back a drink or three at now-extinct...
History | Chicago History
Memories of Chicago's Extinct Businesses Kept Alive on Facebook Page
Pete Kastanes runs the page, and about 20 others, that highlight city spots that have come and gone.
History | Chicago History
Here's how Chicago looked on 9/11
Here is a glimpse of the view from the Chicago area on that fateful day, September 11, 2001.
History | Chicago History
51 Vintage Postcards from the Windy City
As Chicago continues to break its record for tourism year-after-year, the city has set an ambitious goal of attracting 55 million visitors to the Windy City annually by 2020....
History | Chicago History
RC Cola and Chicago: How the Underdog Soft Drink Came to Dominate The Second City Pizzerias
RC Cola was the bronze medalist in the Cola Wars. How did the brand that fought for the scraps of market share end up in Chicago pizzerias?
History | Chicago History
Vintage photographs of Chicago "L" trains and buses
Take a ride back in time on the green and cream CTA buses, trains, trolleys and horses from Chicago's public transportation past.
History | Chicago History
Hoops History in Chicago is Deeper Than the Pizza
Educate yourself on Chicago's rich basketball history.
History | Chicago History
Chicago photos of Martin Luther King Jr. added to Smithsonian
He was a young priest with a camera when the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. came to Chicago in the 1960s, but now his images of racial tumult and civil rights marches are housed in the Smithsonian.
History | Chicago History
A shot of history: Ingredients of the Chicago speakeasy
The faux speakeasy is popping up everywhere these days, but what made the original Prohibition saloon work?
History | Chicago History
Lost WWII love letters delivered to intended recipient
After almost 70 years, the letters written by a World War II sailor made the final leg of a mysterious journey Wednesday when they were turned over to Dorothy Bartos Carlberg, their intended recipient.
History | Chicago History
Life in Chicago during World War II (Gallery)
Over seven decades ago, Chicagoans had to come to grips with a cold, hard fact: The country was at war. Women by the droves went to work in defense plants and Chicago soon led the nation in war production. Consumer goods were scarce and rationed, so many
History | Chicago History
WWII love letters finally arrive in Chicago
Entrusting deep feelings to a flimsy envelope and an 8-cent stamp is an act of faith. But that's exactly what A.L. Fragakis did in 1945 when he was in the Navy and mailed two letters to his sweetheart back home in Chicago.
History | Chicago History
25 Vintage Photos of Chicago
Chicago invented the skyscraper, has hosted two World's Fairs, and boasts its own kind of formidable pizza. Despite being one of the most populous cities in the country, it hasn't all been all clear skies and Green River soda. Chicago survived one of the
History | Chicago History
'Picturing Logan Square' showcases turn-of-the-(last)-century images
Logan Square—forever changing
History | Chicago History
The Evolution Of Lake Shore Drive and Grant Park
Back in the 1920s the vast land between Soldier Field and the Chicago River resembled Lollapalooza after a rain-soaked, three-day mosh.
History | Chicago History
Inside the Pink Palace of the Edgewater Beach Apartments
The Roaring 20s grandeur meets contemporary simplicity at the Edgewater Beach Apartments.
History | Chicago History
99 years ago, 844 died in the Eastland disaster on the Chicago River
It was 99 years ago today, on July 24, 1915, where more than 2,500 people piled onto the Eastland on the Chicago River at the dock between LaSalle and Clark streets. They were to be the first group of an estimated 7,000 people to be transported to Western
History | Chicago History
John Dillinger Was Killed 80 Years Ago Tuesday
The first man to be named “Public Enemy No. 1” by the FBI, was gunned down outside the Biograph Theater on July 22, 1934.
History | Chicago History
The history of Millennium Park in a 3 minute video
The site of Millennium Park has been a parking garage, a rail yard, and now an architectural destination. Learn how the park evolved over a century.
History | Chicago History
Logan Square's Historic Photo Exhibit Finds Roots of Rapid Change
The photos show a neighborhood in flux and will be displayed after being compiled for a decade.
History | Chicago History
See Mid-Century Chicago in 20 Vintage Postcards
A collection of linen postcards from 1930 to 1945 shows Chicago not exactly as it was, but as a visitor would want to remember it.
History | Chicago History
Flashback: Chicago's violent taxi wars
Hopefully the current dispute between licensed cabbies and UberX drivers over the right to pick up passengers at O'Hare and Midway will remain a battle of emails, because Chicago's earlier cab wars...
History | Chicago History
1930s Chicago Gang Map Combines History, Humor, Morality
An illustrated study of Chicago's gang and crime problem in the 1930s.
History | Chicago History
Chicagoist Flashback: Memorial Day Massacre of 1937
74 years ago today, police opened fire on a group of striking steelworkers and their families on the Southeast side. Ten were killed in the
History | Chicago History
From ballparks to backyards, Chicago's unique love affair with the hot dog
From ballparks to backyards, Chicago's unique love affair with the hot dog.
History | Chicago History
How Chicago Invented the Suburbs
In a Q&A, author Elaine Lewinnek tells how Chicago developed in the wake of the Great Fire—and the way its growth influenced ideas on geography, racial divisions, and everything else that makes an American city what it is.
History | Chicago History
Jackpot! Chicago's hold on pinball industry and artistry
Here’s why the city’s hold on pinball industry and artistry continued through the game’s heyday.
History | Chicago History
Hovercars and Tele-Ovens: Scenes of Chicago in Vintage British Newsreels
A look back at the city's good ideas (ski jumping at Soldier Field, animatronic dinosaurs) and bad ones (like the scooter nuns), through the lens of British Pathé.
History | Chicago History
Logan Square Pothole Reveals Chicago's Streetcar History
A Logan Square resident spotted old streetcar track exposed by a pothole on Kedzie Avenue.
History | Chicago History
Chicago's long-forgotten zoo
A video profile of a West Side zoo comes together with help from a historian and the ghost of an urban bear.
History | Chicago History
Vintage: The Drake Hotel -- Chicago Tribune
Situated at the top of the Magnificent Mile, The Drake Hotel was built in 1920 by architect Benjamin Marshall and instantly became synonymous with high-society, luxury and opulence. Visiting royalty, heads-of-state and even well-known gangsters have staye
History | Chicago History
Not always just a baseball field, Wrigley Field was home to the Chicago Bears from 1921-1970
Not always just a baseball field, Wrigley Field was home to the Chicago Bears from 1921-1970. Use #Wrigley100 to share your Wrigley Field memories with us.
History | Chicago History
What Chicago Baseball Was Like in 1914
100 years ago, Wrigley Field—er, Weeghman Park—was not exactly the same place you'd sip an Old Style today.
History | Chicago History
Chicago Public Library picture shows trailer service from The Legler Regional Library, Circa. 1940
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History | Chicago History
An oral history of the Green Mill
The Green Mill has more stories than any tavern in town. Here are a few from the past three decades.
History | Chicago History
'The Breakfast Club' Detention Was 30 Years Ago Today
On March 24, 1984 five (fictional) teenagers walked through the doors of Shermer High and walked out enlightened individuals.
History | Chicago History
Geoffrey Baer sheds light on Harry Selfridge's time in Chicago, the colorful tradition of Chicago firehouses, and the city's first revolving doors
History | Chicago History
History For Sale At Museum Of Science And Industry
The museum is now selling photographs from the 1893 World's Fair and more.
History | Chicago History
Vintage Chicago Film Found at Estate Sale Shows 1940s-era City
"It turned out to be pretty cool," said the man who worked to digitally restore the film.
History | Chicago History
Why Does Chicago Dye the River Green for St. Patrick’s Day?
Fifty years ago, before it was just for fun, the dye was part of a brilliant scheme to catch people illegally dumping waste.
History | Chicago History
Chicago: From trading post to global city
A gallery of images chronicling Chicago's transformation from small trading post to global city.
History | Chicago History
A fresh look at Freedom Wall
What’s behind an outdoor list that includes these names: Harriet Tubman, Rush Limbaugh, Frank Zappa and an empty line? The artist explains and then invites you to rewrite that list — twenty years later.
History | Chicago History
Check out Chicago-area sites named to National Register of Historic Places
(AP) — More than two dozen Illinois buildings and downtown districts have been added to the National Register of Historic Places. Here's a list of the Chicago-area spots.
History | Chicago History
Native numbers: How many Chicagoans were born in the city?
How many Chicagoans were born in the city? A tough question, but census stats lend clues to the depth of residents’ local roots.
History | Chicago History
Theatre Historical Society preserves history of movie palaces
Tucked in offices above the glowing bulbs of the York Theatre's art deco-style marquee in Elmhurst, a tiny association works to document the history of movie palaces that once stood as focal points...
History | Chicago History
A Brief History Of Terrible Chicago Mascots
The Chicago Cubs unveiled their new mascot yesterday to little acclaim. That's what happens when you create a mascot that looks like a nightmarish, perverted furry and lends itself to horrible Photoshop alterations. But Clark the Cub is just the lates
History | Chicago History
Gulp! How Chicago gobbled its neighbors
Our animated map shows how Chicago grew from lakeside outpost to booming metropolis over the course of a century.
