The Chicago Maritime Museum offers visitors a chronological walk through the eras of French fur traders, sail and steam-powered vessels, modern commercial Great Lakes frigates, recreational sailing, and the Ralph and Rita Frese Canoe Collection.
Two permanent exhibits, opened in May, focus on the Lady Elgin, the deadliest disaster on the open waters of the Great Lakes, and on Captain Bill Pinkney, the first Black sailor to solo-circumnavigate the globe around the five Great Capes.
To sign...
Pullman National Monument and State Historic Site tells the story of America’s first planned model industrial community, the sleeping car magnate who created it, and the workers who lived there. The park is significant for its influence on railroad transportation, industrial innovation, urban planning and design, and the American labor and civil rights movements, including the 1894 Pullman Strike and Boycott.
To sign up or to be added to waitlist, click here.
Date and time of the...
We are now at the part of this local’s top ten neighborhoods when things start to get interchangeable. Chicago is home to so many amazing locales that it is difficult to choose one over the other. Keep in mind as you browse this list that each neighborhood has its own appeal, and that they are all worth visiting!
Photograph from Block Club Chicago.
4. Pilsen – Home to many local artists and galleries, Pilsen is so well known for its art scene that there is even a strip of...
This post is part of the Intergenerational Conversations series.
Review of William Maher, “Archives, Archivists, and Society,” American Archivist 61, no. 2 (Fall 1998): 252–65, https://doi.org/10.17723/aarc.61.2.f1555w1738v134n2.
By Samantha Cross, POP Archives [PDF Full Text] | [PDF Article + Full Text]
The saying goes, “The more things change, the more they stay the same,” and there is a massive amount of déjà vu that comes with reading William J. Maher’s 1997 and 1998...
The Union League Club of Chicago (ULCC) was founded in 1879. It traces its origin to the Union League of America (ULA), a Civil War–era organization formed to support Abraham Lincoln and to help preserve the Union. The tour is of the ULCC archives that document members’ contributions to community, country, and culture.
To sign up or to be added to waitlist, click here.
Date/Time of the Tour: Wednesday, August 14, 10:00 AM – FULLWednesday, August 14, 1:00 PM
Approximate Duration:...
Located in Chicago’s Prairie Avenue district, Glessner House is a cultural center and museum, showcasing revolutionary design and celebrating the cultural arts from the late 1800s to the present day. Designed by the legendary American architect Henry Hobson Richardson, this architectural marvel was completed in 1887 and continues to be a renowned treasure in the city of Chicago. John Jacob Glessner, Frances Macbeth Glessner, and their two children, George and Frances, called Glessner House home...
Article originally published in the June/July 2024 issue of Archival Outlook.
Pullman District 112th Street view ca. 1890. Courtesy of Historic Pullman Foundation.
As we inch closer to the start of the Society of American Archivist’s 88th annual meeting in Chicago, I encourage you to participate in one of the many pre-conference tours coordinated by the Local Arrangements Committee. Beginning Tuesday, August 13 through Wednesday, August 14, you can tour a number of repositories...
Wait . . . Chicago has beaches? Yes! The Windy City is home to miles and miles of sandy shoreline, where you can swim, bike, kayak, boat, jet ski, paddle board, sip cocktails, and more. Miles of scenic lakefront include numerous public parks and gardens, an eighteen-mile trail, and more than two dozen beaches that are free and open to the public.
One of Chicago’s most popular, North Avenue Beach boasts spacious sands, cool bars, and convenient location near the nearby Lincoln Park Zoo....
The Grant Park Music Festival has been a Chicago tradition for ninety years and is the nation’s only free, summerlong outdoor series dedicated to classical music. And the finale of this year’s festival on August 16 and 17 is destined to be one for the history books. Uruguayan conductor Carlos Kalmar has served as music director since 2000, and to celebrate the conclusion of his twenty-fifth and final season, he has chosen one of the most spectacular works in the repertoire, Gustav Mahler...
https://dictionary.archivists.org/
Reviewed by Gregory K. Tharp, MLS, Adv. Cert., MCAC [PDF Full Text]
In the ever-changing world of archives terminology, the Society of American Archivists’ (SAA) Dictionary of Archives Terminology (DAT) provides a resource to assist scholars, researchers, and archivists with understanding key concepts and terms that underpin archival work. As “North America’s oldest and largest national professional association dedicated to the needs and interests of...
Photo provided by Rachel Thomas.
This series celebrates all the great information that exists in ArchivesAWARE!
This post originally published on May 12, 2020, challenges us to think about who we consider archivists.
This is the latest post in our series Responses and Retrospectives, which features archivists’ personal responses and perspectives concerning current or historical events/subjects with significant implications for the archives profession. Interested in contributing to Responses...
Chicago is home to 200 neighborhoods and 77 community areas. Our city is the third largest city in America! While you are in town, why not take the opportunity to ride the L out of the Loop and see a part of the city you haven’t been to before?
Here are this Chicago local’s neighborhood rankings. Stay tuned to see the neighborhoods ranked 1-7!
8. West Loop – If you are looking for great places to eat, look no further than West Loop, home of Restaurant Row. With a...
by Beth Bruins
Downtown Chicago boasts a spectacular array of restaurants, and dozens are within walking distance of the conference hotel. A small sampling is below.
Atwood (1 W. Washington St.) – Boasting American fare, the Atwood also is an excellent place to watch the crowds on State Street.
Buddy Guy’s Legends (700 S. Wabash Ave.) – For the best soul food and blues seven nights a week, head to this iconic restaurant and bar.
Cafécito (26 E. Congress Pkwy. /...
In this episode, co-hosts Chris Burns and Camila Zorrilla Tessler speak with Maryna Paliienko, a Ukrainian historian, archivist, and Fulbright Scholar conducting research at New York University on the topic “Archives in the Time of War and Emergency: Problems of the Cultural Heritage Preservation and Usage (from the Experience of the United States and Ukraine).” Listen to learn more about Dr. Paliienko’s work, the crucial role that archives play in documenting shared history and memory during...
Chicago’s festivals highlight what makes our city great, and during the month of August, the season is at its height. The two weekends that bookend this year’s annual meeting are full of events throughout the city’s diverse neighborhoods and suburbs, celebrating Chicago’s food, music, culture, art, and history.
August 9-11 – Retro on Roscoe Live music will play oldies and throwbacks along with popular hits amidst the beautiful tree-lined streets of Roscoe Village,...
Sign up here.
The Brookfield Genealogy Club is giving a talk at the Brookfield Library for their Genealogy Club about F. D. Cossitt, a major slaveholder in Tennessee who came north during the Civil War and eventually founded La Grange. The talk will be at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, August 13, at Brookfield Library, 3541 Park Avenue in Brookfield.
Cossitt was a merchant in La Grange, Tennessee, starting in the 1830s, and by 1860 had four plantations which were worked by 127 slaves. From the...
The Chicago History Museum has a collection of over 23 million objects all about the city of Chicago’s rich history. Founded in 1856, the museum strives to create a space of scholarship, learning, inspiration, and civic engagement with Chicago’s past.
To sign up or to be added to waitlist, click here.
Date and time of the tour: Tuesday, August 13, 2:00 PM – FULLPlease arrive at 1:45 PM for the 2:00 PM tour
Approximate Duration: 75 Minutes
Capacity: 15 people...
This post is part of the Intergenerational Conversations series.
Review of Ernst Posner, “What, Then, Is the American Archivist, This New Man?” American Archivist 20, no. 1 (January 1, 1957): 3–11, https://doi.org/10.17723/aarc.20.1.10h7186h04u21887.
By Emma Barton-Norris, Processing Archivist at Bowdoin College Library [PDF Full Text] | [PDF Article + Full Text]
In Washington, DC, on October 12, 1956, at a turning point in both the evolution of the American archivist and...
Founded by Jeanne Gang in 1997, Studio Gang is an architecture and urban design practice headquartered in Chicago with offices in New York, San Francisco, and Paris. We are excited to welcome SAA conference attendees for a tour of the Studio’s Visible Archive, a new space in our Chicago office, dedicated to the conservation and display of our diverse collections of design records. (Please note: no photography except when given permission.)
To sign up or to be added to waitlist, click here...
Visit one of the largest public library buildings in the world, see highlights from our Special Collections Unit at Harold Washington Library, and learn how we have approached different archival and preservation challenges.
To sign up or to be added to waitlist, click here.
Date and time of tour: Wednesday, August 14, 1:00 PM – FULL
Approximate Duration: 90 minutes
Additional questions, please contact: Beth Bruins | Librarian | bbruins@chipublib.org
Capacity: 25 people...
The circulation desk at the UIC Library of Health Sciences, from https://library.uic.edu/
Join Megan Keller Young, Special Collections Librarian, University of Illinois Chicago’s Health Sciences Library, and Nathalie Wheaton, Archivist, RUSH University Medical Center Archives, for tours of their health-related collections in the heart of the Illinois Medical District. Attendees will view rare books and archival collections documenting the medical and health history of the Chicago area...
Founded in 1887, the Newberry Library is one of Chicago’s most historic cultural institutions. Come have an introduction to the Newberry’s collections, view exhibitions such as Indigenous Chicago and Chicago Style: Mike Royko and Windy City Journalism, and enjoy an overall orientation of this historic institution.
To sign up or to be added to waitlist, click here.
Date and time of tour: Wednesday, August 14, 10:00 AM – FULL
Approximate duration: 1 hour
Capacity: 15 people...
Klaus Mäkelä leads the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in Orchestra Hall (Todd Rosenberg Photography)
Formed in 1990 during the CSO’s centennial season, the Samuel R. and Marie Louise Rosenthal Archives of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association house an extensive collection of audio-visual materials, programs, photographs, newspaper clippings, and administrative records documenting the activities of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Chorus, Civic Orchestra, and Orchestra Hall...
This is the newest post in our There’s an Archivist for That! series, which features examples of archivists working in places you might not expect. In this article, Donna Wojcik talks about her job as Research/Archivist/Oral Historian for the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum.
1. How did you get your gig?
I started volunteering at the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum when it opened in 1998, serving as a greeter and oral history transcriber. I became a full-...
The largest African American history and literature collection in the Midwest, the Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature documents the Black experience with a strong focus on Chicago. Join staff for a tour of the public spaces, staff spaces (stacks) and our current exhibit “Harsh and Woodson: Curators of Black History.”
To sign up or to be added to waitlist, click here.
Date and time of the tour: Wednesday, August 14, 2:00 PM...
This post is part of the Intergenerational Conversations series.
Review of Trudy Peterson, “Reading, ’Riting, and ’Rithmetic: Speculations on Change in Research Processes,” American Archivist 55, no. 3 (1992): 414–419, https://doi.org/10.17723/aarc.55.3.r34727q673748802.
By Elliott Kuecker, Teaching Assistant Professor, School of Information and Library Science at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill [PDF Full Text] | [PDF Article + Full Text]
In 1991, Trudy H. Peterson,...
This series celebrates all the great information that exists in ArchivesAWARE!
This interview originally published on May 2, 2016, is one of the most popular posts on the blog.
Among the resources in SAA’s advocacy toolkit is Public Relations and Marketing for Archives: A How-To-Do-It Manual (2011), edited by Peter Wosh and R. James and co-published by SAA and Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc. Today we bring you an interview with Peter Wosh, Professor of History and Director of the Archives/...
Disaster Planning for Special Libraries
By Guy Robertson. Cambridge, MA: Chandos Publishing, 2020. 320 pp. $78.95. eBook ISBN 9780081010501; Paperback ISBN 9780081009482.
The Disaster Planning Handbook for Libraries
By Mary Grace Flaherty. Chicago: American Library Association, 2021. 168 pp. $54.99; ALA members $49.49. Paperback ISBN 9780838937990.
Reviewed by Katy Sternberger, CA, DAS; Archivist, Portsmouth Athenaeum [PDF Full Text]
Disaster planning can sometimes feel...
Article originally published in the March/April 2024 issue of Archival Outlook.
The Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio in Oak Park, Illinois. Courtesy of Oak Park Public LIbrary Special Collections.
This summer marks the fiftieth anniversary of the landmark restoration of the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio, located at 951 W. Chicago Avenue in Oak Park, IL. Wright is best known for founding the Prairie School style of North American architecture and designing homes for wealthy...
Article originally published in the January/February 2024 issue of Archival Outlook.
Tell me, does this sound familiar? Often times when my mind is wandering, thinking idly perhaps about oat milk, sooner or later I’ll discover myself wondering “Who was the first person to drink oat milk anyway? When was oat milk even invented?” It’s not that I’m all that invested in the answer per se but my day is effectively over unless I can even nominally satisfy my curiosity. Perhaps my kind of curiosity...
By Rose Buchanan and Stephanie Luke, Reviews Co-Editors [PDF Full Text]
“Archives are, by their nature, intergenerational voices. They allow our ancestors to speak to us and for us to speak to our descendants. Given this reality, archivists should value the messages that our predecessor comrades bring forward. . . . This series provides archivists with the opportunity to be in community with other archivists both through space and time.”
—Terry Baxter, 77th SAA president
In 2023,...
By Ellen Cunningham-Kruppa. Ann Arbor, MI: The Legacy Press, 2019. 294 pp. Hardcover $65.00. ISBN 9781940965154.
Reviewed by Courtney M. Gillie, Project Archivist, The State Historical Society of Missouri [PDF Full Text]
Mooring a Field by Ellen Cunningham-Kruppa is a thoughtful look into the sidelining of career conservators and preservationists like Paul Noble Banks. Banks was a forerunner in the field of book conservation and created the first degree-granting program in library...
