In his Author! Author! blog series, Museum president Gary T. Johnson highlights works that draw on our collection. John N. Low. The Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians and the City of Chicago. East Lansing, MI; Michigan State University Press (2016). This is a very unusual and valuable book for those interested in Chicago history or More
Lyn Millner. The Allure of Immortality: An American Cult, a Florida Swamp, and a Renegade Prophet. Gainesville, University of Florida Press (2015). How many visitors to today’s Fort Myers Beach, Florida, have any idea that this was the site of one of the most peculiar of America’s religious utopias? Cyrus Teed, who saw himself as a More
Timothy Stewart-Winter. Queer Clout: Chicago and the Rise of Gay Politics. Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press (2016). “The path of gays and lesbians to political power led through city hall and developed primarily in response to the constant threat of arrest under which they lived.” With this thesis, Timothy Stewart-Winter offers a carefully-researched and richly-textured More
Laurie Calkhoven. Women Who Changed the World: 50 Amazing Americans. New York: Scholastic (2015). This is a book for children that, not surprisingly these days, includes an edition on Kindle. Among the fifty women is Chicago’s Jane Addams. In his Author! Author! blog series, Museum president Gary T. Johnson highlights works that draw on our More
Chicago Historical Society. In Memoriam, Isaac Newton Arnold, Nov. 30, 1813–Apr. 24, 1884, Arthur Mason Arnold, May 13, 1858–Apr. 26, 1873. Kiev: Leopold Classic Library (2015). This book was originally published by the Chicago Historical Society in 1885. Isaac Arnold was one of early Chicago’s most More
Michael Saler, editor. The Finde-Siècle World. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group (2014). Dozens of writers contribute to this fascinating reconsideration of the “fin-de-siècle before last.” Peter Fritzsche, professor of history at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, contributed an overview of More
Marnie Fogg. The Dress: 100 Ideas that Changed Fashion Forever. London: Goodman (2015). 100 dresses, 100 ideas. The author identifies each innovative idea and follows the reverberations. The dresses date from the nineteenth century to the present. The photographs come from a variety More
Jonathan Eig. The Birth of the Pill: How Four Crusaders Reinvented Sex and Launched a Revolution. New York: W. W. Norton and Company (2014). You will know in advance that Margaret Sanger was the key player and that there must have been a scientist—but More
Cathy Jean Maloney and Chicago Botanic Garden. Chicago and Its Botanic Garden: The Chicago Horticultural Society at 125. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press (2015). The Chicago Botanic Garden is living proof of how a public-partnership on the Chicago model can produce a world-class asset: More