In researching the article about the Confederate monument in Oak Woods Cemetery, I stumbled into the fact that Chicago harbored Confederate sympathizers. It made me question my assumption that Hyde Park had been Lincoln country. I was glad to find that, while I can’t prove the general attitude in what was then a small town, … Continue reading J. Y. Scammon
Category: Chicago
Clara Louise Burnham, A Woman of the Century
(A repeat post) As we head to the November 5, 2024, election and the signs are that women's votes will make a difference, I thought I'd repost this. Illinois was the first state to ratify the 19th Amendment, though in their rush, there was a technical problem that had to be redone. It took over … Continue reading Clara Louise Burnham, A Woman of the Century
Deco Arts Building
Last year, I took a class at the Newberry Library. Turned out to be a bit different than I thought, but it was a writing class that asked us to talk about a corner in Chicago and what it meant to us. So, here’s one of the things I wrote. One day in 1975, I … Continue reading Deco Arts Building
Bur Oaks of Wooded Island
Before the Columbian Exposition, Frederick Law Olmsted said the area in Jackson Park was not promising, with its boggy swales and sand ridges covered with "vegetable mold.” J. Francis Murphy made a watercolor sketch of what it looked like just before work began in January 1891. Olmsted and fair manager Daniel Burnham worked out the … Continue reading Bur Oaks of Wooded Island
Nonviolent resistance gets a test in Hyde Park
In February 2024, I wrote up how James Farmer tested his detailed plan on how to implement Gandhi’s tactics of nonviolent resistance in Chicago in 1943, long before the Montgomery Bus Boycott or later and more famous lunch counter sit ins. It’s been mentioned before, but I found the detailed strategy in the Chicago Defender. … Continue reading Nonviolent resistance gets a test in Hyde Park
Lyman Turnbull
an author of the Emancipation Proclamation Hyde Park has a small intersection with the history of Juneteenth in that an eventual resident of Hyde Park was the architect of the Emancipation Proclamation. Lyman Trumbull (1813-1896) was head of the Senate Judiciary Committee during the Civil War and came up with the legal rationale to free … Continue reading Lyman Turnbull
Sam Ransom
Part II of Two Hyde Park High School Athletes This is the story of two Hyde Park High School athletes—and the road not taken. Part I covered Walter Eckersall, who found the special treatment of football fame toxic in the end. His Hyde Park High School teammate had a very different story. Samuel L. Ransom … Continue reading Sam Ransom
Walter Eckersall
A Tale of Two Hyde Park High School Athletes Part I This is the story of two Hyde Park High School athletes—and the road not taken. The story got a little long, so I’m sending them as separate emails. In 1890, William Rainey Harper, the university’s first president, had the job of creating a major … Continue reading Walter Eckersall
White City Amusement Park
I gave a talk on the time when the Hyde Park area was an entertainment destination and found more images than I could use. Links to the talk on YouTube appear at the end of this post. The biggest amusement park to cash in on the fame of the 1893 Fair was at 63rd and … Continue reading White City Amusement Park
History Picture of the Day
I'm starting a project. As I research my monthly article for the Hyde Park Herald, I come across a lot of fun images scattered across the various archives--with more being digitized seemingly every day. If you want to follow along, I'm posting them on Instagram (hydeparktrish) and Twitter (@HydeParkTrish). Photos of course are informative. Old … Continue reading History Picture of the Day
Patricia L. Morse 