Collections Spotlight: Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps
Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps Collection Sanborn Fire Insurance Co. Maps Research Guide Sanborn Maps Navigator Library blog posts Teaching with the Library blog posts
Primary Source Spotlight: Victory Gardens
Victory garden posters FSA/OWI Collection photos: Victory gardens and Victory gardeners More Victory garden images Chicago Victory Gardens: Yesterday and Tomorrow video Pamphlets Victory Gardens historical newspaper coverage 1918-1919 Victory Gardens historical newspaper coverage 1940-1945 116 HRES 937 IH: Recognizing the important role Victory Gardens played in America’s World War efforts Online exhibitions Articles &…
Finding Resources: Story Maps
Story Maps are immersive web applications that tell the incredible stories of the Library’s collections through narrative, multimedia, and interactive maps. The story maps are created within a Geographic Information Systems (GIS)-based software platform created by Esri. Story Maps are chock full of primary sources, including photographs, illustrations, texts, newspaper articles, and even maps. “I find story…
Primary Source Spotlight: Great Migration
Primary sources Online exhibitions Articles Related resources
Collections Spotlight: All American News
Spanning from 1942-45, All-American news were the first newsreels produced for a black audience and were originally intended to encourage black Americans to participate in, and support the war effort, as well as to reflect an African-American perspective on world and national events. 1942 All-American news [1942-08]: includes segments about a Baltimore merchant marine who…
Primary Source Spotlight: Gwendolyn Brooks
Pulitzer Prize winner Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000) wrote more than 20 books of poetry and served as the Illinois Poet Laureate from 1968-2000 and Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1985-1986. Learn more about this amazing artist by investigating the resources below. Audio recordings Readings in Afro-American poetry: Gwendolyn Brooks, Michael S. Harper,…
Primary Source Spotlight: Race Riots/Protests
Wilmington, North Carolina 1898 1898 newspaper coverage Early African American Perspectives on the Wilmington Race Riots Documenting the American South 1898 Monument and Memorial Park Documenting the American South New York City 1900 August, 1900: select newspaper articles more 1900 newspaper coverage Atlanta, Georgia 1906 1906 newspaper coverage E. W. Evans oral history transcript Atlanta…
Primary Source Spotlight: Jazz Music
Jazz audio recordings Jazz webcasts and performance videos Jazz image set Gottlieb jazz photos on Flickr “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to be Free” images & score Jazz sheet music Jazz life histories Jazz Chicago 1 Jazz Chicago 2 Jazz Chicago style Jazz Singers online exhibition Jazz magazine clippings from the William…
Guided Primary Source Analysis: The Woman Whom Justice Brewer Would Make Mayor
Zoom into a more detailed image of this newspaper page but before reading the article, what do you learn about the featured woman and Justice Brewer just from reading the headline and the photo captions? Make a list of as many facts as you can. Then provide an educated guess as to why this was a news…
Primary Source Spotlight: Black Women’s Clubs
In the late nineteenth century black women organized to bolster their communities by undertaking educational, philanthropic and welfare activities.¹ National Association of Colored Women reports, articles & other texts National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs historical newspaper coverage National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs website Negro Women’s Clubs historical newspaper coverage African-American women’s clubs in…
Today in History: Louis H. Sullivan
Today in History–September 3–the Library of Congress features architect Louis H. Sullivan, born on this day in 1856 in Boston, Massachusetts. Sullivan moved to Chicago early in his career in 1873. After the great Chicago fire of 1871 there was much work to do and Sullivan became a pioneer in the design of skyscrapers known for his core philosophy that…
Primary Source Learning: Labor
Labor lessons & activities Chicago Anarchists & the Haymarket Affair Chicago Anarchists on Trial: collection connections Chicago Meatpackers & the Unions Dust Bowl Songs & Photographs Farm Workers – America from the Great Depression to World War II: Color Photographs from the FSA and OWI, 1939-45 The Grapes of Wrath: Voices from the Great Depression Inside…