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Chicago and the Midwest

20th Century, Collection Essays

Mister Kelly’s and Midcentury Nightclub Culture in Chicago

Color postcard showing a city street at night. The street is lined with low buildings lit with bright lights and signs advertising restaurants, bars, and entertainment.

Hugh Iglarsh
July 17, 2026

19th Century, 20th Century, Collection Essays

Life, Labor, and Culture among Chicago’s Jewish Immigrant Garment Workers, 1880-1910

Cropped cover of a magazine in Yiddish. Blank except for the title at the top in bold lettering.

Dr. Ben Schacht
November 13, 2025

20th Century, Collection Essays

The Jungle and the Community: Workers and Reformers in Turn-of-the-Century Chicago

Black-and-white photo of white men and boys processing sausage. A man removes the sausage from a processing machine, and the boys hang it over a long rod.

Dr. John Hawkins with Hana Layson and James R. Barrett
August 20, 2025

19th Century, 20th Century, Collection Essays

Chicago Workers during the Long Gilded Age

Hana Layson with Leon Fink, revised by Dr. Sebastian Wuepper
April 22, 2025

19th Century, 20th Century, Collection Essays

Left-Wing Political Radicalism in Chicago, 1880-1960

Political cartoon of an immigrant entering the US, represented as a wall with an open door. The immigrant has a bomb for a head and carries a suitcase labeled "undesirable." The open door to the US is a labeled "immigration restrictions."

Hana Layson with David Krugler, revised by Dr. Sebastian Wuepper
April 22, 2025

13th Century, 14th Century, 15th Century, 16th Century, 17th Century, 18th Century, 19th Century, 20th Century, College Prep, High School, Lesson Plans

Indigenous Chicago Curriculum

Indigenous Chicago Project
December 20, 2024

19th Century, Classroom Materials, High School, Lesson Plans, Middle School

Indenture and Enslavement in Illinois

Indenture contract between John Posey and Phillis

Hilary Mac Austin
December 19, 2024

19th Century, Activities, High School, Lesson Plans, Middle School

Nineteenth-Century Currency

$1 bank note with illustrations (clockwise from top) of industrious white farmers, stateman Daniel Webster, and three Indigenous people.

Hilary Mac Austin
November 18, 2024

20th Century, Classroom Materials, Lesson Plans, Middle School

Black Childhood and the Great Migration

Hand-colored portrait of seven young Black men in basketball uniforms. Another Black man stands in the back row wearing a suit. The young man sitting in the front holds a basketball with the text "YMCA Champs 1921."

Dr. Michael Hines & Alexandrea Henry, Stanford University
September 12, 2024

20th Century, Classroom Materials, Lesson Plans, Middle School

Black Labor and the Great Migration

Chart in a printed book showing the percentages of white and Black workers employed in different industries in 1930. Substantially larger percentages of Black men and women work in semi-skilled and unskilled jobs than white men and women. The difference is more pronounced for women, because 55.7% of Black women work as servants.

Dr. Michael Hines & Alexandrea Henry, Stanford University
September 12, 2024

20th Century, Classroom Materials, Lesson Plans, Middle School

The Black Church and the Great Migration

Large, multi-story stone church on a residential streetcorner.

Dr. Michael Hines & Alexandrea Henry, Stanford University
September 12, 2024

17th Century, Activities, Middle School

Mapping Early America: Peoples, Animals, and Environments

Dr. Danielle Alesi
May 28, 2024