Chicago Historical Society Analysis

Hermann, Charles H. Recollections of Life & Doings in Chicago from the Haymarket Riot to the

     Although the Chicago World’s fair of 1893 only lasted 6 months, it had an enormous impact on the city of Chicago, its people, and indeed the entire country. Up until that point in its history, the US had done nothing on the scale of the world’s fair, and was regarded as a country of barbarians and cowboys by

The article “Life in Mississippi: East St Louis, Illinois” is one that is not taken lightly. The article shows one the injustice that African Americans face in the city of St. Louis. The article all together is shocking and heartbreaking. To know that in a country that is suppose to be one of the greatest, if not the greatest, there still is so much injustice is not only eye opening but also upsetting. One of the 2 most heartbreaking parts for me was when Kozol describes the old men leaning on his cane listening to Jesse Jackson and crying. This is something so powerful to me because this is someone who has experience all of the hardships that east St. Louis has to offer and he has to live knowing that not much has change and maybe Jesse Jackson was the only one promising the change they deserve. The last scene was when one of the students goes up to Kozol after class and tell him that what Dr. King did was nothing because they are still living in such horrible situations. For a teenage kid to think and feel that way, they must have had to suffer through so much, which is exactly what the article is able to show us, the injustice that these kids face on a daily basis. Having read this is shocking to one because we live in a different area where we aren’t prone to see such things and because we have grown up and taught to believe that racism and poverty is almost non existing because this is American a country that doesn’t fail the people.

The thought of Chicago hosting the world’s fair would be daunting at first, but it could turn around the reputation of Chicago from one of a city of gloom and darkness, to one of a city of light and progress from the Great Chicago fire of 1871, and that city would be fascinating for years to come. Chicago would get an economic shot in the arm from the revenue that it would get from hosting the 1893 World Fair and it would make Chicago into a great city of America. The event and also the transformation that would happen to the city of Chicago would not have happened if it would not be for one great man who had taken up the challenge to make sure to host this 1893 World fair.

Although the Chicago World's fair of 1893 only lasted 6 months, I had an enormous impact on the city of Chicago, its people, and indeed the entire country. Up until that point in its history, the US had done nothing on the scale of the world's fair, and was regarded as a country of barbarians and cowboys by much of the world, especially Old Europe. The fair

In today’s society, many have come to believe what they have been instructed over the years, whether it is fiction of facts. Living in a world, where only certain race can be seen as superior to others. Schomburg was a pioneer beyond his times. In the article “The Negro Digs up His Past”. The beginning of this essay revealed a powerful statement, “The American Negro must remake his past in order to make his future” (Arthur Schomburg). It is very clear, Schomburg realized the importance of being knowledgeable on your true history. “History must restore what slavery took away, for it is the social damage of slavery that the present generations must repair and offset”. Therefore, I acquiesce with such statement, it is up to the present generation to fight, and to aspire on restoring what was taken away. As we acquired more intelligence, today’s generation must continue on indoctrinating one another on our true history. However, let’s not forget, slavery was not the onset of the Negro history; when in fact, slavery interrupted the Negro history. Meanwhile, long ago, before slavery, Africans ruled the world, built nations, mastering in architectural ideas, philosophies, etc. Nonetheless, it is crucial for the Negro to dig up his past, for from it; today’s Africans shall conceive their true potential, and their ancestor’s greatest achievements. Just as Schomburg found his motivation after being told “Negroes has no history. On the other hand, he then stated “The Negro thinking

First of all, I observed a rich cultural museum that has gained national acclaim as a model urban

As the city of Chicago prepped for the 1893 World’s Fair Columbian Exposition, a celebration of the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ arrival in the New World, people all over the world brought artifacts to the city. To keep these artifacts in the city long after the Exposition ended, Edward Ayer and Marshall Field established the Columbian Museum. Built using Field’s money, Columbian Museum would go on to house world artifacts as well as function as a research institution. As time passed, the museum eventually changed names to the Field Museum of Natural History and moved buildings to its much larger current location on Museum Campus. Today, the Field Museum continues to be an innovating research institution and stable of the Chicagoland community.

The speech “Slavery and Freedom: The American Paradox” by Edmund S. Morgan gives a very interesting insight into the American hypocrisy that is slavery. The document itself reveals a bit about its author by reading in-between the lines and foot notes. The author is a well-educated and respected male colonial America history professor of Yale University. He mentions in the text referring to specifically his field and the difficulty of finding the reasoning of slaves not being entitled to the same writes the United States was founded on. Him being able to form such a well-supported argument and claiming his career, secures his intelligence. The document was a speech for the presidential address of the Organization of American Historians in Washington D.C. in 1972, to be a main speech for such an organization he must be well respected by his peers. The male claim is under the assumption that with woman’s rights still being fully established the organization would be resistant to have a woman be the creator of one of the leading speeches.

On May 29th, 1856, Abraham Lincoln gave a speech in which he addressed the moral dilemma and hypocrisy of slavery. “We cannot be free if this is, by our own national choice, to be a land of slavery.” President Lincoln’s rhetoric reflects the challenge to define freedom in America; moreover, it reflects his morality and commitment to upholding personal freedom. It justifies why he does not ignore slavery, as well as why he did not see slaves as property, but as a group of humans who had been abusively denied freedom, and stripped of their humanity for no reason other than avarice personal gain. Slavery was coerced labor that relied heavily on intimidation, brutality, and dehumanization. Regardless that it was once a legal and cultural institution integral to the economic development of the early American economy, slavery was and always will be one of the most horrific violations of human rights. With that in mind, slavery infected American culture in the 17th century, and unfortunately lasted several hundred years. Over the course of that time, slaves produced narratives that sought to garner popular support for bringing an end to slavery. Of the prolific abolitionist narratives published, notably, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, and Harriet Jacobs ' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl were praised for how their rhetoric challenged slavery. These narratives, combined in Henry Louis Gates Jr.’s The

This tour has been almost a century-and-a-half in the making, and during this walk through our city’s past, you’ll discover people, places and happenings either overlooked long forgotten by locals and visitors alike.

Walking up to the door, we took in the scenery of a family of four sitting at a dark, brown circular table, hanging out as if this was the place to be. As soon as we walked in the door, the mouth watering smell of sweet, burning, crispy bacon and pepperoni enticed me. We hadn’t eaten all day and this was our first time in this particular place. I knew this experience would be great when I saw just how many people it attracted. It attracted people of many backgrounds and of many ages. I realized we stood out when Dennis (the pizzaiolo) saw that it must’ve been our first time. He informed us of how things worked; how the pizzas were individually crafted and made from the interpretation of various cities, how you could make your own pizza

Be that as it may, there is another side to history, social history. The "Series Introduction" of Women’s Rights: People and Perspectives, in introducing Perspectives in American Social History conveys “Social history is, simply put, the study of past societies” (DeLuzio [vii]). It furthermore reveals an escalation in research and development of documenting stories of the lives of the lesser known. That is to say, the seemingly less significant: women, the poor, and those of other ethnicities, whose lives previously had not had their stories told (or formally analyzed). This surge began in the 60s and 70s “from political,

The start of our trip we decided to visit the Chicago River and learn about how it is an important asset to the city. We saw numerous boats traveling and people walking by the river. It gave us a chance to look at nature’s beauty in the heart of the city. When walking by the river, it gave me a soothing feeling from the busy city

A prevalent issue surrounding southern historic house museum interpretation today includes, “an acknowledgment of enslaved labor, but not the kind of engaged discussion that would help tourists identify with that labor in affective ways” (Modlin, Jr., Alderman, and Gentry 13). Some sites are interpreting slavery well, other are not, and some choose not to interpret slavery at all. Sites like President Lincoln’s Cottage and the Octagon House in Washington D.C. vary in methods of interpretation, but make the effort to establish slavery as a difficult historical truth in the United States. Examining historic house sites reveal how the absence of comprehensive slavery interpretation furthers structural racism in our society.