Guerrieri Academic Commons aerial view

Nabb Center Finding Aid Portal

Items associated with name 'Chicago (Il.)'

A Century of Progress Exposition Scrapbook (Chicago, Illinois)

by Unknown (1933 – 1934)

1 box (0.5 linear feet)

This scrapbook documents the events, exhibitions, and ephemera of the 1933 to 1934 Chicago World's Fair that was called "A Century of Progress." Included with a nine page memoir of experiences are pasted postcards, photographs, newspaper clippings, and other ephemera.

Associated Subjects: City and Town Life • Newspapers • Scrapbooks
Identifier: SC2013.112
Repository: Special Collections
Attachment: No attachment

African American Portrait Postcards

by Unknown (circa 1910s)

1 folder (0.1 linear feet)

These photographic postcards depict African American people individually and in groups. One postcard featuring a man in a suit was taken in Chicago, Illinois.

Associated Subjects: Photography • Postcards • African American History
Identifier: SC2016.118
Repository: Special Collections
Attachment: No attachment

Betty Otto Collection

by Bricker, JamesOtto, Betty (1930 – 1938)

folders (0.75 linear feet)

The Betty Otto Collection contains correspondence between Betty Otto and James Bricker, a young, American couple from 1930 to 1938. The bulk of the letters are written from 1936 to 1938 and cover topics such as daily life, wedding plans, work life and social life.

Identifier: SC2021.017
Repository: Special Collections
Attachment: No attachment

Diaries of Elaine Zold

by Zold, Elaine (1939 – 1945)

3 folders (0.2 linear feet)

These diaries were written in 1943 and 1945 by Elaine Zold of Chicago, Illinois. Zold was a dancer and USO performer who traveled the United States and wrote extensively about her performances, life on the road, and other activities on hotel stationery and other notepads. She kept a compiled record of each of her performances from 1939 to 1945 and a notepad to practice her signature. While most of Zold's diary entries chronicle her tours throughout the United States, she also visited and performed in Italy in late 1945.

Identifier: SC2016.042
Repository: Special Collections
Attachment: View Attachment

Diaries of Eleanor Meyer Hyde

by Hyde, Eleanor Meyer (1905 – 1906)

1 folder (0.1 linear feet)

The two diaries were written in 1905 and 1906 by Eleanor Meyer Hyde. Eleanor’s entries consist of her daily activities and social life with her husband, Elbert “Bert” Hyde in Washington, D.C.

Identifier: SC2015.040
Repository: Special Collections
Attachment: No attachment

Diaries of John Popp

by Popp, John (1891 – 1935)

1 folder (0.1 linear feet)

These two five-year diaries were written by John Popp from 1891 to 1895 and 1931 to 1935. Popp not only wrote about his daily life including church, relationship with his eventual wife Amelia, politics, and work, but also kept extensive notes about his spending and his genealogy.

Associated Subjects: Business • City and Town Life • Diaries • Diaries (Men) • Family Life • Labor History
Identifier: SC2016.110
Repository: Special Collections
Attachment: No attachment

Diary of John Shaw

by Shaw, John (1856 – 1857)

1 folder (0.1 linear feet)

This diary was written from 1856 to 1857 by John Shaw of Portland, Maine. The journal is written in two different sides. The first side was written in 1856 and includes Shaw's thoughts on religion and Christianity, as well as his observations while visiting Syracuse, New York, Boston, and Chicago. The second side begins with "Thoughts" that include several pages of writings followed by journal entries from Chicago in 1857. Included on this side are also transcriptions of a couple of letters Shaw wrote to a newspaper editor, one of which detailed his opinions about the upcoming presidential election between Buchanan and Pierce. Shaw also wrote about his beliefs on the question of slavery and commented on the ongoing North-South arguments that led to the Civil War.

Associated Subjects: Diaries • Diaries (Men) • Religious History • Slavery • Voyages and Travel
Identifier: SC2018.019
Repository: Special Collections
Attachment: No attachment

Diary of Margaret Devilbiss

by Devilbiss, Margaret (1931)

1 folder (0.1 linear feet)

The Diary of Margaret Devilbiss was written in 1931 by a nurse at the Maryland General Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. During the time of this diary, Devilbiss took two trips: Florida and Denver by way of Chicago. She also wrote about different cases that she worked on at the hospital.

Identifier: SC2016.035
Repository: Special Collections
Attachment: No attachment

Diary of Miss Standish

by Standish, Miss (1888)

1 folder (0.1 linear feet)

This diary was written by a Miss Standish of Omaha, Nebraska between February 14 and May 8, 1888. Until April 29, she was visiting Washington, D.C. and then traveled to Pittsburgh and finally Chicago. She visited many notable locations and met several prominent people while in D.C., including places like the Congressional Library, Corcoran Art Gallery, Botanical Gardens, Mount Vernon, Anacosta Insane Asylum, and the Capitol Building and people such as President Cleveland and his wife, Dr. Mary Walker, and Belva Lockwood, who introduced her to play piano at a reception at Lockwood's home. Standish received an in-depth tour of the Capitol building from someone who worked there. She also wrote in detail about her trip to the asylum.

Associated Subjects: City and Town Life • Diaries • Diaries (Women) • Voyages and Travel
Identifier: SC2013.115
Repository: Special Collections
Attachment: No attachment

Papers of the House of Corrections of the City of Chicago

by House of Corrections of the City of Chicago (1923)

1 folder (0.1 linear feet)

Papers of the House of Corrections of the City of Chicago document the lives and thoughts of inmates at the Chicago/Cook County, Illinois House of Corrections in 1923. These 17 to 21 year old boys wrote confessions, letters about their daily life, memories of their home lives, and completed various assignments that their teacher, Mrs. Hoerr, tasked to them. Many of the assignments, letters, and other writings are revealing of the daily thoughts and activities of the incarcerated peoples, as well as their jobs or lives prior to the House of Corrections as "hobos," "tramps," or "bums."

Associated Subjects: City and Town Life • Education • Labor History • Personal Correspondence • Youth
Identifier: SC2017.005
Repository: Special Collections
Attachment: No attachment

Scrapbook of Clara Walters

by Walters, Clara (1915 – 1919)

1 folder (0.1 linear feet)

The Scrapbook of Clara Walters dates between 1915 and 1919 and documents the young girl's high school experience. The photographs and ephemeral items are pasted within a "The Girl Graduate: Her Own Book" that provided formatting and pages to record school memories. Walters attended Englewood High School in Chicago, Illinois.

Associated Subjects: Education • Scrapbooks • Youth • City and Town Life
Identifier: SC2015.026
Repository: Special Collections
Attachment: No attachment

The Farm Journal

by Atkinson, Wilmer (1882)

1 folder (0.01 linear feet)

The Farm Journal was created in December 1882 to document practical farming practices from Philadelphia to Chicago including poultry, livestock, in season topics and how to notes. Published by Wilmer Atkinson.

Associated Subjects: Agriculture
Identifier: 2014.973
Repository: Local History Archives
Attachment: No attachment

Travel Journal to Chicago and Toronto

by Unknown (1933 – 1936)

1 folder (0.1 linear feet)

This travel journal documents the author's trip to the Chicago World's Fair in 1933 and trips to Toronto in 1934 and 1936.

Associated Subjects: Diaries • Voyages and travel
Identifier: SC2022.012
Repository: Special Collections
Attachment: No attachment

Victor Brockenborough Letters

by Brockenborough, VictorHardy, VictoriaPray, MargaretSkillman, Mabel (1937 – 1946)

1 box (0.5 linear feet)

The Victor Brockenborough Letters are a collection of letters written to and by Victor Brockenborough between 1937 and 1946. The letters written between 1937 and 1942 are from Victor's godmother, Victoria Hardy, who lived in Spring Lake, New Jersey and Charleston, South Carolina. Some of the letters from Victoria are addressed to Victor's, Julie Brockenborough. The letters written in 1943 were mostly by Victor's pen pal, Margaret Pray, from Brooklyn, New York, but others were from Victor's twin brother, Billy, and one of his sister's friends, Mabel Skillman. The majority of the remaining letters in the collection were written by Victor to his girlfriend, Effie Shores, from Chicago, Illinois, and date from 1944 to 1946. These letters trace Victor and Effie's relationship from their first letter to their marriage. Contents of the letter include wedding plans, as well as Victor's training as a Naval electrician, his time on base in Hampton, Virginia and Glenview, Illinois, and his eventual discharge. He continued to write Effie after returning home to Corona, New York and she eventually joined him there. Other letters from 1944-1946 are from family member or friends. Included in the collection are photographs of friends and family members along with a comic strip.

Identifier: SC2014.048
Repository: Special Collections
Attachment: View Attachment

Walter Gustafson Letters

by Gustafson, Walter (1943 – 1944)

2 folders (0.2 linear feet)

Walter Gustafson's letters detail his work on Abadan Island, Iran (likely for the oil company that became British Petroleum) between 1943 and 1944. Gustafson began in the United Kingdom, traveled to Cairo, Egypt, and spent several months in Iran. Through several extensive letters sent to his sisters in Chicago, Illinois, Gustafson provided detailed descriptions of the local people and their customs, as well as the several week voyage back to the United States beginning with the Persian Gulf and Suez Canal. Much of the content written is self-censored and he frequently told his sisters that he would tell everything when he returned. The correspondence includes photographs, as well as one postcard of Gustafson by the Tigris River.

Identifier: SC2013.079
Repository: Special Collections
Attachment: View Attachment