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Chicago has undoubtedly become one of the culinary epicenters of the world. The city’s location in the middle of the country and its diverse communities make it easy to find memorable bites in every neighborhood. The city’s culinary prowess took root at the end of the nineteenth century when Chicago was at the forefront of the nation’s agricultural revolution as both the “Hog Butcher for the World” and a major transportation hub.

The 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition (WCE) opened Chicago’s doors to millions and allowed the US to show off what it had to offer. While replete with memorable architecture and technological innovations, the many culinary offerings throughout the White City and the Midway Plaisance enticed and enchanted the palates of all those who came through the fair. We can thank the WCE for introducing some of the most well-known foodstuffs enjoyed by generations of consumers worldwide. This list is by no means exhaustive. We welcome you to share your favorite culinary legacies from the WCE in the comments!

Vienna Beef


Vienna Sausage Place in the Austrian Village at the World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893. CHM, ICHi-002453; C. D. Arnold, photographer

Vienna Beef Inc. is arguably the hot dog king of Chicago. Vienna’s reign began at the 1893 fair with two entrepreneurial brothers-in-law, Emil Reichel and Samuel Ladany. The pair of entrepreneurs set up shop in “Old Vienna,” an exhibit that was part of the Midway Plaisance, where they charged a dime for their sausages topped with onions and mustard. Popular due to their distinct flavor, accessible price, and heartiness, Reichel and Ladany stayed in the city and set up shop on Halsted Street, opening a store and factory that became the Chicago legend known the world over today. The most important rule of all—no ketchup.

Aunt Jemima Pancake Mix

Trademark registration by Aunt Jemima Manufacturing Co. for Aunt Jemima’s Pancake Flour brand Self Raising Flour, LC-DIG-trmk-1t17825, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

While all products branded with Aunt Jemima were renamed to Pearl Milling Co. in June 2021, the boxed pancake mix found in nearly every grocery store in America is one of the more complicated food legacies from the WCE. Aunt Jemima was a formerly enslaved woman from Kentucky named Nancy Green, who was hired to do cooking demonstrations to promote the cake mix. Her demonstrations typically included songs and other performances widely associated with racist mammy caricatures. At the fair in Chicago, thousands saw Green perform, bringing national attention to the product she promoted. Green passed in August 1923 as part of a car crash. She was buried in Oak Woods Cemetery on the city’s South Side. Her grave was unmarked until 2015, when after a decade of research, Green’s remains were finally verified, and a marker for her was installed.

Juicy Fruit Gum

Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company Juicy Fruit gum tin, c. 1893. The tin was designed to hang against a wall or other flat surface, and the gum would be held in the basket on the bottom front of the tin. National Museum of American History, AG.293320.2740.

When William Wrigley Jr. moved from Philadelphia to Chicago in 1891, he was in the soap business. To incentivize purchases, he was known for giving away freebies to those who purchased his products, primarily baking soda and his own brand and flavors of chewing gum. When the WCE opened, he gambled on a new flavor to entice potential customers, an artificially-flavored sweet strip simply named “Juicy Fruit.” As fate would have it, the gum would come to be far more popular than the rest of the products Wrigley was selling, turning him into Chicago’s very own candy magnate. His fortunes would be so significant that he left his footprint on the city’s built environment with the Wrigley Building downtown and, later, through his acquisition of Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs.

Cream of Wheat


Cream of Wheat advertisement in Harper’s Bazaar, November 18, 1889.

Cream of Wheat, known to many as a breakfast porridge, also debuted at the WCE. While its taste wasn’t the most popular product amongst the culinary critics of the fair, it gained popularity because of how quickly it could be prepared as well as its heartiness. Presented by the Grand Forks Diamond Milling Company out of North Dakota, their straightforward approach was to grind down wheat and make it into farina cereal. After the fanfare in 1893, the proprietors of the mill marketed their creation across women’s magazines and newspapers, which led to national consumption and an eventual listing on the New York Stock Exchange.

Hershey’s Chocolate

While Hershey’s Chocolate didn’t launch at the 1893 world’s fair, the fair was nonetheless integral in the story of America’s most well-known chocolate bar. Before he was a chocolatier, Milton S. Hershey was already a candy entrepreneur, staking his fortunes on selling caramel treats. Like countless other entrepreneurs and curious onlookers, Hershey attended the WCE to catch a glimpse at the future of commerce and manufacturing, and it would be here that his business outlook changed dramatically. After witnessing a demonstration of German chocolate-making equipment, he placed an order and had the equipment shipped back to Pennsylvania and incorporated the Hershey Chocolate Company in 1894.

Finally, for those of you looking to bring the taste of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition to your kitchen table, there exists a souvenir cookbook with more than 2,000 recipes “contributed by over two-hundred world’s fair lady managers, wives, of governors, and other ladies of position and influence.” The entire text has been digitized and can be accessed for free via HathiTrust.

Additional Resources

CHM research and insights analyst Marissa Croft writes about the gap in experience between high society dress and visitors to the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition who traveled in from all over the world to attend.

If you’re taking a trip to an unfamiliar place, one of the first questions you might ask yourself is “What should I wear?” In 1893, millions of people departing for the World’s Columbian Exposition (WCE) in Chicago asked themselves the same question. The month before the exposition opened, Lida Rose McCabe, a reporter for the Los Angeles Times wrote: “Everybody is going to the World’s Fair . . . We all desire to look our best there, and to be at our best.”

People lounging on the promenade on the North Bank of the Grand Basin at the World’s Columbian Exposition world’s fair, Chicago, Illinois, 1893.

Women’s fashion magazines leapt at the chance to offer advice to their readers on how to look their best, because “The majority of women who contemplate going to the Chicago Exposition are inexperienced travelers . . . the journey in many instances will be the first, the greatest ‘outing’ of their lives. Naturally they want to make a good appearance and get the most out of the occasion.” (McCabe, Los Angeles Times). Selecting outfits carefully was critical, as travelers were limited in the amount of luggage that they could bring on the train for their multiple week long stays: one medium hard-sided “telescope” case and a large clasp top handbag or “alligator bag.” These fashion magazines encouraged female travelers to pack a minimal toilet, lightweight, comfortable garments, and noted that “two or three dresses with extra shirtwaists will be sufficient to carry for the stay of a few weeks at the fair.” (Fessenden, “The Trip to Chicago,” Harper’s Bazaar) Furthermore, it was advised that money might be saved on laundry by bringing only dark colored stockings and petticoats, and underclothes that could be washed in the sink. A women could also save space by wearing her heaviest garment during the journey. Depending on the month, this travelling gown might be made of storm serge for rain, silk for the heat, or wool for the cold. A cape made of broadcloth would complete the look.

World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago, Illinois, 1893

Here are some women at the WCE who took Harper’s practical fashion advice. CHM, ICHi-170162

Men’s attire at the WCE did not differ significantly from their normal day-to-day dress, although it provided a strong contrast with the wide array of garb worn by the exhibitors in the international pavilions. In the photograph below, two men in loose-fitting robes and astrakhan caps speak to a group of visitors attired in bowler hats and tailored jackets.

Group of men near Turkish village on Midway Plaisance, World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago, Illinois, 1893.

Clothing was also a central educational fixture of the WCE. There were panel sessions held by the National Council of Women about how women’s dress could be improved. The Women’s Tribune reported the following dress code issued for panel attendees: “the clothing from head to foot, shall be entirely free from stiffness and constricting bonds, and that it shall be suitable to the occasion for which it is intended.” At the Midway Plaisance, near the entrance was an entire building dedicated to global attire called the International Dress and Costume Exhibit, which contained 40 different examples of women’s dress from 40 different countries. New novelties in clothing technology were on view across the fair, from displays of Japanese textiles and Venetian lace to the Libbey Glass Company’s gown made entirely from fiberglass.

The Famous Glass Dress from Libbey Glass Company’s Crystal Palace in Midway Plaisance, World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago, Illinois, 1893.

The Famous Glass Dress from Libbey Glass Company’s Crystal Palace in Midway Plaisance, World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893. CHM, ICHi-061750; Robinson & Roe, photographer

Although most attendees were only able to look at these fine fashions, there were an elite few who actually wore them: the dignitaries and socialites present at the fair. Many of these individual gowns now reside in CHM’s collection. This evening dress worn by Mrs. John (Annie D. Larrabee) DeKoven to the WCE’s inaugural ball is made of pink brocade with collar and front skirt panel of white silk and net embroidered in pearls and silver thread. It would certainly not be an easy garment to pack for train travel and stands in stark contrast to the plain and practical attire worn by the millions of attendees who flocked to take in the sights.

Evening dress of pink brocade with collar and front panel of skirt of white silk and net embroidered in pearls and silver thread. White lace jabot and cuffs.; Worn by Mrs. John (Annie D. Larrabee) DeKoven, mother in law of donor, to Columbian Ball, Chicago, 1893.

Evening dress of pink brocade with white lace jabot and cuffs, c. 1892. CHM, ICHi-066213

As you might have noticed, the historical record of what outfits the average person wore to the 1893 world’s fair comes primarily from candid photographs and printed articles, while examples of elite dress come from posed photographs and extant garments. Although we can certainly learn much about fashion from printed sources, such as those housed in the Abakanowicz Research Center, this gap points to a collecting divide that privileged elite garments connected to the WCE over those worn by attendees with less means. This raises an important question: When museums collect clothing, should they collect representative examples of what was most worn at the time or focus on preserving the most extravagant and artistic clothes? More broadly speaking, is it a museum’s job to share the stories of the many or of a minority of elite?

Additional Resources

Works Cited

  • “World’s Fair Notes: Dress Reform Day.” The Woman’s Tribune 10, no. 19 (April 22, 1893): 76.
  • Fessenden, Laura Dayton, “The Trip to Chicago.” Harper’s Bazaar, May 13, 1893, 378–79.
  • McCabe, Lida Rose. “In The Style.”: What Women May Wear at The World’s Fair. A Woman’s Outfit for A Fortnight’s Stay–How Travel in Comfort and How to Dress Becomingly.” Los Angeles Times (1886–1922), April 2, 1893.

To mark Labor Day 2023, CHM editor Heidi Samuelson writes about Polish-born John Kikulski, a Chicago labor leader in the early twentieth century. You can see more about Kikulski in our exhibition Back Home: Polish Chicago.


Labor Party candidates palm card, Chicago, 1919; CHM, ICHi-182716-001

John Kikulski was born in the village of Okinin in German-occupied Poland in 1876 to Ludwig and Catherine (Graf) Kikulski. He received his elementary education in Poland, and likely immigrated to the United States around 1889. Upon arriving in Chicago, he attended night schools to learn English and found an apprenticeship as a wood maker. He became a US citizen, and in 1898 he married Mary Wajert of Chicago. The couple had two children.

Kikulski was active in Chicago’s labor movement from the late 1890s on. He became a labor official of the Wood Workers’ Union in 1901 and was later elected president of Local 14 after the union became amalgamated with the Mills and Factory Carpenters’ District Council.

Also active in Polish community organizations, Kikulski was a member of St. Hyacinth’s Parish and the Polish National Alliance, for which he served as director for one term in 1904. He also served as president of the Polish Falcons (now Polish Falcons of America) from 1910 to 1912. Kikulski’s first attempt to enter city politics came in 1903 when he ran for Sixteenth Ward alderman on the Independent Labor Party ticket and lost.

During World War I, Kikulski worked as an organizer for the American Federation of Labor (now the AFL-CIO) and helped to lead strikes at International Harvester and the Crane Company. In 1917, he joined the stockyards labor movement where he gained his greatest success. Packinghouse workers elected him president of the largely Polish Local 554 of the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen and later secretary of the Stockyard Labor Council. The Stockyard Labor Council worked to unite Black and white laborers, men and women laborers, and laborers of various skill levels. They had the support of the Amalgamated Meat Cutters union and the Chicago Federation of Labor, and with the intervention of federal mediators gave workers higher wages and an eight-hour workday.

Second page of a political flyer for the Labor Party, which includes a portrait of John Kikulski for city clerk, in advance of election day on April 1, 1919, Chicago. CHM, ICHi-182719-002

Following the union’s success, members voted Kikulski director of District 9 of the meat cutters’ union. In 1919, he ran an unsuccessful campaign for city clerk as the Farmer-Labor Party candidate. As a candidate, Kikulski preached racial harmony and working-class unity, but the momentum gained in the stockyard movement was damaged by the race riots of 1919. The Chicago Federation of Labor issued a statement on August 9 accusing the packing houses of exacerbating the riots in a further attempt to polarize Black and white workers as well as denying Kikulski, J. W. Johnstone, and Martin Murphy of the Stockyards Labor Council entry to a meeting with superintendents of all the packing plants and police.


Informal portrait of John Kikulski in an office in Chicago, 1919. DN-0071292, Chicago Daily News collection, Chicago History Museum

Later that year, Kikulski defected from the Council and continued to be entangled in Chicago’s labor wars. Various factions accused him of embezzling money, though his working-class supporters remained loyal. However, on May 17, 1920, two unknown assailants attacked and shot Kikulski in front of his home. He died four days later. Kikulski received a hero’s burial as mourners filled St. Hyacinth’s Basilica beyond capacity. A procession of some two hundred automobiles escorted his casket to St. Adalbert’s Catholic Cemetery.

Additional Resources

After nearly three decades with the Chicago History Museum, CHM reference librarian Lesley Martin is retiring this October. In this special staff spotlight, she reflects on her time as an editor and librarian at CHM.


CHM reference librarian Lesley Martin (right) with patrons in the Abakanowicz Research Center, 2015. All photographs by CHM staff.  

How did your career path lead you to the Chicago History Museum?

I came to CHM as a librarian who had left public libraries and was freelancing as a researcher, fact-checker, and indexer. I did several projects in the former Publications Department. (Most unusual assignment—labels for a show on Jockey underwear! [Ed. note: A Brief History: The Jockey Underwear Story, October 2, 1993–January 15, 1994]) In 1995, I was hired as one of the full-time editors. Along with editorial colleagues, I edited exhibition labels and Chicago History magazine articles, proofread invitations, produced CHM’s events calendar, annual reports, etc. It was a great job, but after about five years, a position opened in the Research Center (Ed. Note: Now the Abakanowicz Research Center [ARC]), and I was unable to resist the chance to work directly with the research collections. I had used the 2D collections to do fact-checking and photo research as an editor, but as a reference librarian, I could walk right into the storage areas and explore more fully. Assisting researchers has given me many opportunities to dig into the Museum’s collections.

What’s your favorite part about your job?

The ARC gives individuals the chance to explore their own particular interests in CHM’s collections, and my favorite part of the job is connecting them with what they need. Some researchers may be attempting to verify a family legend; graduate students come looking for materials to support a dissertation topic; moviemakers and set designers want photographs with visual details for a particular era; novelists seek out the circumstances of everyday life in a different time; architects check our collections for blueprints of a commercial building that’s being restored or perhaps converted to condominiums; guides hunt for telling details to include in tours of the city. (This year, the Education Department’s partnership with My Block, My Hood, My City brought in youth guides working on tours of their home neighborhood, North Lawndale.) It’s never dull!


A Chicago Rapid Transit Lines map with a fish-eye style design, 1946.

What’s your favorite artifact?

This changes all the time, depending on what I’m working on. Last month, I was pulling out some transit maps. I am a big fan of public transportation (I haven’t owned a car since my first and only automobile died around 1990.) I love looking at the ways Chicago’s transit has changed over the decades, and also the ways it has stayed the same. And I love looking at how graphic designers have conveyed the information. (Spoiler alert—thanks to a National Endowment for the Humanities grant, many of our pre-1940 maps will be available to view online in fall 2024 through a partnership led by the University of Chicago and including the Newberry Library.)


A Chicago Rapid Transit Lines station guide, 1936.

What will you miss about CHM?

I’ll miss working with colleagues throughout the building, but especially my coworkers in the ARC. I’ll miss the community of researchers who made my job so interesting (and were so helpful—often, as one researcher was asking a question, another might pipe up with a useful contact or suggestion). I guess this is my opportunity to switch sides again—I look forward to coming in and doing research from the other side of the reference desk!

CHM curator of civic engagement and social justice Elena Gonzales writes about when the Young Lords Organization took a stand in Chicago for community self-determination.

At the Chicago History Museum (CHM), the history of multiethnic, multiracial collaboration to stand up against white supremacy and colonialism surrounds us. CHM is located in beautiful, wealthy Lincoln Park. Today, the area is synonymous with affluence and whiteness. No signs remain that the neighborhood was, as recently as the 1960s, predominantly Puerto Rican and Mexican and the location of the Young Lords Organization’s (YLO) strongest stand in Chicago for community self-determination.

This work, as Dr. Jacqueline Lazú discussed in the essential “The Chicago Young Lords: (Re)Constructing Knowledge and Revolution” for Centro Journal (2013), lay the groundwork for the Rainbow Coalition, launched Puerto Ricans into the Civil Rights Movement (setting the stage for the YLO, later Young Lords Party, in New York), and forged a longstanding connection between Chicago and the movement for Puerto Rican independence. (Since 1898, when the US invaded the island nation, Puerto Rico has been a US territory, not a state or an independent country. Essentially, Puerto Rico is a colony of the US. Puerto Ricans are taxed but not able to vote and not represented by voting members of congress.)


Fred Hampton of the Black Panther Party, Michael Klonsky of the Revolutionary Youth Movement II, Cha Cha Jiménez of the Young Lords, and others at a press conference at Armitage Avenue and Halsted Street to announce plans for a peaceful march to oppose the Vietnam War and honor Albizu Campos, Chicago, October 1969. ST-17112848-0007, Chicago Sun-Times collection, CHM

José “Cha Cha” Jiménez (above, seated, second from right) reinvented the YLO from its roots as a street gang that protected local youth to a community support organization in 1968. Fred Hampton (above, seated at left) and Bobby Rush founded the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party that same year, and their work—among that of other revolutionaries—inspired Jiménez and the YLO. The murder of YLO member Manuel Ramos by a Chicago police officer in May 1969 galvanized the YLO to engage in several highly visible and historically significant campaigns.

The majority of Chicagoans are people of color. Yet neighborhoods of color are still dramatically underserved in this segregated city. Black and brown populations in Chicago still regularly experience outsized policing and surveillance, race-based violence and hate speech, and discrimination in housing, all of which the YLO and its political descendants—locally and nationally—have fought against since 1968. The image of a diverse coalition protesting the murder of Ramos, an unarmed man of color, by police feels disturbingly relevant today.


The Young Lords, Black Panthers, Young Patriots, and Students for a Democratic Society march along West Armitage Avenue to protest murder of Manuel Ramos, Chicago, May 13, 1969. ST-70004759-0018-E1, Chicago Sun-Times collection, CHM

Just 11 days after the murder, YLO occupied the McCormick Theological Seminary, now the DePaul School of Music, for a week, gaining pledges of action from local leaders. A memorial plaque will be added in 2024 to mark the event on campus—an important step toward revealing the history of resistance that has hidden in plain sight in the neighborhood for decades.


José “Cha Cha” Jiménez and other members of the Young Lords occupying the Armitage Avenue Methodist Church, 834 W. Armitage Ave., Chicago, June 1969. ST-40001941-0023, Chicago Sun-Times collection, CHM

In July 1969, YLO also began a year-long occupation of the Armitage Avenue Methodist Church with the support of Pastor Rev. Bruce Johnson. At the church, YLO opened a childcare and healthcare center and hosted community events, such as a Halloween celebration and a block party. As Lazú notes in her article, Rev. Johnson and his wife, Eugenia, were murdered three months later.


Young Lordettes and children at the YLO-run free childcare center inside Armitage Methodist Church, June 12, 1969. ST-40001943-0006, Chicago Sun-Times collection, CHM

Broadcaster Studs Terkel recorded Jiménez and neighbors live at one block party (among many Black and brown community events) that Chicago Police ended. The two-part recording was presented as Fiesta: A Chicago Happening.


Police confront Young Lords members as they attempt to hold a Puerto Rican heritage festival without a permit, Chicago, August 23, 1969. Studs Terkel can be seen recording the exchange. ST-40001976-0092, Chicago Sun-Times collection, CHM


Author and broadcaster Studs Terkel autographs copies of Division Street: America, January 20, 1967. The book traces changes in the US over the past few decades through personal interviews with Chicagoans. ST-10000401-0004, Chicago Sun-Times collection, CHM

Recently, there has been increased interest in the history of the YLO in Chicago. More local history can be seen in the Museum of Contemporary Art’s Entre Horizontes: Art and Activism Between Chicago and Puerto Rico. YLO also collaborated with Professor Lazú at DePaul (advisor on Aquí en Chicago at CHM), to develop DePaul’s Young Lords Collection and as well as on her two forthcoming books.

Additional Resources

Melanie Ann Apel in association with the Chicago Historical Society, Lincoln Park, Chicago. Dover, NH: Arcadia Publishing, 2002.

Brett Chase, “City Official Lays out Stark Disparities between Lincoln Park, Southeast Side Where Scrap-Metal Shredder Wants to Open,” Chicago Sun-Times, November 4, 2021.

Chicago History Museum, “It Was a Rebellion: Chicago’s Puerto Rican Community in 1966,” Google Arts & Culture.

Sarah Coffman, “The Young Lords and the Black Panther Party,” Digital Chicago. 

Freedom Archives, “The Story of Manuel Ramos.” Accessed July 14, 2023.

Daniel Kay Hertz, The Battle of Lincoln Park: Urban Renewal and Gentrification in Chicago. Cleveland, Ohio: Belt Publishing, 2018.

Jacqueline Lazú, “The Chicago Young Lords: (Re)Constructing Knowledge and Revolution,” Centro Journal, vol. 25, no. 2, fall 2013.

The WFMT Studs Terkel Radio Archive. “Studs Terkel Comments and Presents Fiesta: A Chicago Happening ; Part 1.” Accessed May 24, 2021.

The WFMT Studs Terkel Radio Archive. “Studs Terkel Comments and Presents Fiesta: A Chicago Happening ; Part 2.” Accessed May 24, 2021.

Dani Thurber, “Research Guides: A Latinx Resource Guide: Civil Rights Cases and Events in the United States: 1968: The Young Lord’s Organization/Party.” Research guide. Accessed June 9, 2023.

Robert Waddell, “Puerto Rican Days,” Chicago Reader, July 11, 2002.


Celebration of Obon, 1963. CHM, ICHi-037492; Albert M. Hayashi, photographer

In 2023, the multiday Japanese holiday of Obon or Bon takes place August 13-16. This festival is a time to honor and remember the spirits of the deceased, including family members and ancestors. Though believed to have origins in the Buddhist All Souls Day, Obon is not exclusively Buddhist and is celebrated by many communities in Japan and beyond throughout the Japanese diaspora.


Women and girls dancing with parasols at the 19th annual Midwest Buddhist Church Obon festival, 1763 North Park Avenue, Chicago, July 5, 1963. ST-40001293-0010, Chicago Sun-Times collection, CHM

Many different activities take place throughout the four days of celebrations to honor and welcome the time of remembrance. Before it begins, many families clean their homes and prepare special meals. The celebration is most readily recognized by its glowing paper lanterns, which are lit to welcome the spirits of those who have passed. The first day of the festival is usually marked by tending to loved ones’ graves and cleaning memorial stones.


Two women and girl at the 19th annual Midwest Buddhist Church Obon festival, Chicago, July 5, 1963. ST-40001293-0002, Chicago Sun-Times collection, CHM

Special dances known simply as Bon Odori (“Bon dance”) are usually performed on the second day of the festival and are a pivotal part of Obon celebrations. On the third day, toro nagashi (“floating lanterns”) are lit by the hundreds or sometimes thousands and released on water as a spiritual guide, with the fourth and last day serving to bid loved ones farewell until the next celebration.

 
Dancers (left) and a taiko drummer (right) at the 19th annual Midwest Buddhist Church Obon festival, Chicago, July 5, 1963. ST-40001293-0003 (left) , ST-40001293-0004 (right), Chicago Sun-Times collection, CHM

This set of images from CHM’s Chicago Sun-Times photography collection are of an Obon celebration held at the Midwest Buddhist Church (now Midwest Buddhist Temple) in July 1963. According to news reports, three hundred men, women, and children danced that evening. Dancing took place in the streets with lanterns shining above. The festivities also included a costume parade and an Obon worship service “celebrating the oneness of the past, present and future” (Chicago Sun-Times, 1963).

The Midwest Buddhist Temple has roots in Shin Buddhism (known as Jodo Shinshu or “Pure Land” Buddhism). Early American Shin Buddhist communities formed in San Francisco due to Japanese immigration at the turn of the twentieth century, eventually becoming known as the Buddhist Churches of America. In the wake of World War II, thousands of Japanese Americans were forcefully relocated from the US West Coast in the 1940s, and many were imprisoned at “relocation centers” in rural locations around the country. At this time, Buddhism was seen as incongruous with “Americanness,” but communities fought to retain Buddhist beliefs and practices. Once released, community members looked to form new roots, with many coming to Chicago.


Midwest Buddhist Temple, 435 W. Menomonee St., Chicago, 2023. Photograph by Rebekah Coffman.

The Midwest Buddhist Temple was founded in Chicago in 1944, originally as the Midwest Buddhist Church, by Rev. Gyodo Kono. The community first met at the South Parkway Community Hall on the city’s South Side, then the Uptown Players, until moving to the Olivet Institute, a nonsectarian settlement house and community center on North Cleveland Avenue in the Old Town neighborhood. By 1948, the community bought and renovated their own building on North Park Avenue, dedicating it in September 1950. As they continued to grow and membership evolved beyond Japanese Americans, they recognized the need for a new purpose-built building. In 1971, they dedicated their current “Temple of Enlightenment.” Designed by Hideaki Arao, it draws from traditional Japanese architecture while using materials like concrete to withstand midwestern climate conditions and nod to its hybrid American identity and roots.

Additional Resources

Next week, Chicago welcomes the convening of the Parliament of the World’s Religions at McCormick Place from August 14–18, 2023. CHM curator of religion and community history Rebekah Coffman writes about the event’s origins and its legacy as the genesis of the interfaith movement.


Group photo of scene at one of the sessions of the Parliament from the book The World’s Parliament of Religions, Chicago, 1893. CHM, ICHi-062640

The Parliament of the World’s Religions (PWR) is a legacy of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition (WCE). The WCE saw a wide range of national and international representation through its pavilions and attractions. As a complement, the World’s Congress Auxiliary held numerous programs on a wide range of social and cultural topics with the slogan “Not things, but men,” alluding to the congress’s aims to have conversational programs rather than static displays.

 
Cover page, Neely’s history of the Parliament of religions and religious congresses at the World’s Columbian Exposition / compiled from original manuscripts and stenographic reports. Edited by a corps of able writers. BL21.W8 N4

Throughout the run of the fair, more than 200 individual Congresses were held with nineteen departments represented. Just a sample of the covered topics include women’s progress, commerce and finance, art, government, medicine, and religion. The congresses were organized by Charles C. Bonney, a Chicago judge and author, who, in addition to legal writings, contributed several publications about the world’s fair congresses.

Perhaps the best known today, the Parliament of the World’s Religions was one such congress. Convened from September 11 to 27, 1893, the PWR is regarded today as the origin of the modern interfaith movement. Chicago-based Presbyterian minister Rev. John Henry Barrows served as chairman and, following the Parliament, compiled the event’s proceedings into a two-volume account through his Christian-centered lens.


Portrait of John Henry Barrows from Neely’s history of the Parliament of religions and religious congresses at the World’s Columbian Exposition / compiled from original manuscripts and stenographic reports. Edited by a corps of able writers, p. 18

Invitations to attend were sent globally. While some religious representatives were enthusiastically interested, others were cautiously apprehensive, and some abstained from attending altogether for reasons of belief. For example, the Archbishop of Canterbury declined attending, saying “the difficulties I myself feel are not questions of distance and convenience, but rest on the fact that the Christian religion is the one religion.”

Ten different religions were represented through presenting papers or speeches, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism, Taoism, Confucianism, Shintoism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Some of the event’s representatives and speakers included Swami Vivekananda (from India representing Hinduism), Anagarika Dharmapala (from Sri Lanka representing Buddhism), Virchand Gandhi (from India representing Jainism), Soyen Shaku (from Japan representing Zen Buddhism), Mohammed Alexander Russell Webb (from New York representing Islam), Henry Jessup (from the US, living in Lebanon, representing Presbyterianism), Pung Quang Yu (from China representing Confucianism), A. G. Bonet-Mary (from France representing Protestantism), Frederick Douglass (from Chicago representing the African Methodist Episcopal Church), Fannie Barrier Williams (from Chicago representing Unitarian Universalism), Antoinette Blackwell (from New York/New Jersey representing Unitarian Universalism), and Emil Hirsch (from Chicago representing Reform Judaism).


The Art Institute of Chicago, designed by Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge, at South Michigan Avenue and Adams Street, Chicago, 1892. CHM, ICHi-085800

As the PWR opened on the morning of September 11, 1893, a reproduction of the Liberty Bell ran ten times in symbolic honor of the ten traditions present. Representatives marched to the Hall of Columbus in the WCE’s Memorial Art Palace, today home to the Art Institute of Chicago, where a series of welcoming remarks and religious treatises were read.


Portrait of Swami Vivekananda from The life of Swami Vivekananda / by his Eastern and Western disciples. X .V68L5 1955

Over the seventeen days of the parliament, speakers from across traditions and nations were given a platform to share about belief and the place of religion through their own lens. Swami Vivekananda (1863‒1902), founder of Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission and the official representative of Hinduism at the PWR, gave an opening speech calling for global tolerance and an end to religious discrimination, saying:

Sectarianism, bigotry, and its horrible descendant, fanaticism, have long possessed this beautiful earth . . . But their time has come; and I fervently hope that the bell that tolled this morning in honor of this convention may be the death-knell of all fanaticism, of all persecutions with the sword or the pen, and of all uncharitable feelings between persons wending their way to the same goal.


Front cover of Eben Malcolm Sutcliffe, Sequel to the Parliament of Religions, 1894. CHM Collections, F38T .S965

Though proclaimed a universal event, the gathering’s undertones presumed a white Christian religious conviction. For example, the Lord’s Prayer, coming from the New Testament Gospels of Matthew and Luke, was said at each day of the PWR’s convening. Additionally, while seen as socially progressive for its inclusion of non-Western traditions and representatives, there were notable imbalances in non-Christian representation. For example, the underrepresentation of African American Christian leaders, complete exclusion of Native American and Indigenous leadership and perspectives, and purposeful omission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

In the years immediately after the fair, the PWR received much commentary and reflection but later largely fell out of public memory. In the 1970s and 1980s, religious scholarship began questioning why the groundbreaking strides toward religious pluralism present at the 1893 PWR had been mostly neglected in broader pluralist and comparative religious studies. Additionally, critical conversations were had regarding its lack of representation and inclusion, and the claims for its legacy of peaceful universality were questioned.


Newsletters published by the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions; CHM collections, BL21 .C102 OVERSIZE

In 1988, the Parliament of the World’s Religions was incorporated as an organization with the goal of continuing the legacy of the 1893 gathering through building a platform for interfaith dialogue. This included planning a 1993 convening to mark 100 years since its inauguration. The 1993 Parliament aimed to recontextualize interfaith work in the twentieth century and address the imbalances of the past. This was accompanied by the adoption and publication of The Global Ethic, which proposed a recommended set of shared moral and ethical principles beyond specific religious boundaries.


Newsletter describing the program for the 1999 Parliament of the World’s Religions in Cape Town, South Africa, BL21 .C102 OVERSIZE

The Parliament of World Religions has continued to meet in the intervening years, including in Cape Town, South Africa (1999); Barcelona, Spain (2004); Melbourne, Australia (2009); Salt Lake City, Utah (2015); Toronto, Ontario (2018); and virtually (2021). For the first time since 1993, it will return to Chicago in 2023. However, the rich and complex legacy of its first meeting remains present throughout the many communities who have called Chicago home before and beyond 1893.

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On August 2, 2023, two of Europe’s biggest soccer clubs—Chelsea Football Club of England and Borussia Dortmund of Germany—will face off at Soldier Field. The two clubs have played in Chicago in the past, with Dortmund playing Plymouth Argyle FC of England on May 7, 1954, and Chelsea playing an MLS All-Stars team on August 5, 2006.


A mention of Dortmund vs. Plymouth Argyle in the Chicago Daily News, May 7, 1954. Dortmund won the match 4–0.


Chelsea forward Andriy Shevchenko (left) and MLS forward Brian Ching play in the Sierra Mist MLS All-Star Game, Bridgeview Stadium (now SeatGeek Stadium), Bridgeview, Illinois, August 5, 2006. STM-0440-0854, Jon Sall/Chicago Sun-Times.

Since as early as 1905, when the Pilgrim Football Club of England played against a Chicago all-star team, international soccer clubs have often chosen Chicago as a major venue to exhibit some of the finest soccer talent in the world.

The city’s first organized soccer league can be traced back to spring of 1883, when the 39th Street Wanderers and the Pullman Car Works soccer teams kicked off at Pullman’s Lake Calumet athletic field complex. British and Canadian immigrants had played soccer in the city for years, but with the formation of the seven-team Chicago League of Association Football (CLAF), the city’s commitment to the sport gained national and international recognition.


Hyde Park Blues soccer team, 1907. SDN-005468, Chicago Daily News collection, CHM

The CLAF flourished under the direction of its first president, Charles Jackson. In addition to the Wanderers and the Pullman clubs, other teams established by British immigrants included the Hyde Park Blues, Hyde Park Grays, Campbell Rovers, McDuffs, Swifts, Calumet, and a team of miners from the Braidwood coalfields. Interest in the league grew as local papers reported on an increasing number of teams, roster lineups, and scores. These early teams played two seasons per year, competed in friendly challenge matches against soccer clubs from visiting cities, and played annually for the Jackson Challenge Cup trophy. In 1901, looking to capitalize on soccer’s popular appeal, Charles Comiskey—better known as the founding owner of the Chicago White Sox baseball team—established a Midwest professional soccer circuit with teams from Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, and Milwaukee. Midway through the season financial support deteriorated, and the league folded. Nevertheless, the sport flourished despite this setback, and by 1904 another league, the Association Football League of Chicago, began play.


Sparta A.B.A. soccer team, a Czech organization, page from “25th Anniversary Program,” 1945. CHM, ICHi-037081

Just as organized soccer spread from England to the European continent and beyond, by 1912 soccer in Chicago parks had extended from English immigrant communities to other European ethnic groups. The formation of the International Soccer League (ISL) in 1920 brought organization and regulation to these teams. Twentieth-century amateur teams in Chicago, such as the Sparta, Schwaben, Vikings, Green-White, Eagles, Kickers, and Maroons, descended from soccer clubs that came to prominence in the ISL. Known to late-twentieth-century fans as the National Soccer League, the ISL claims the title of the nation’s oldest organized soccer league.


The Pullman girls’ soccer team, 1922. SDN-064029, Chicago Daily News collection, CHM

In 1911, brothers Archibald and Alexander Paterson introduced soccer into two Chicago high schools, Englewood and Lane Technical. Other than a brief decline in 1936—when financial constraints allowed only two schools to field teams—high school soccer grew steadily more popular, and by the late twentieth century, soccer was drawing more participants than any other high school sport in the city.


Teen soccer team sponsored by the Rohingya Culture Center, Chicago, 2017. Courtesy of the Rohingya Culture Center.

Local universities also sponsored soccer. As early as 1910, the University of Chicago played the University of Illinois, and by 1928 the latter offered soccer as a varsity sport. Wheaton College has long been a preeminent collegiate soccer power, having fielded a varsity squad since 1935.

Professional Chicago soccer debuted in 1967, and the following year saw the formation of the North American Soccer League (NASL). The Chicago Sting captured two championship banners before the NASL folded in 1984.


Chicago Sting forward Karl-Heinz Granitza leaps into the arms of teammate Derek Spalding (4) after Spalding’s penalty kick tied the quarterfinal game vs. the Seattle Sounders at Wrigley Field, Chicago, August 30, 1981. The Sting won to advance to the NASL semifinals. ST-17500456-E1, Chicago Sun-Times collection, CHM

In the 1990s, the Chicago soccer scene grew in visibility. First, the United States Soccer Federation moved its headquarters in 1991 from Colorado Springs, Colorado, to two adjoining mansions in the historic Prairie Avenue District—the Kimball House, at 1801 S. Prairie Ave., and the house right next door at 1811 S. Prairie. [Ed. note: In September 2023, US Soccer announced that it will be moving Atlanta.] Then in 1994, Chicago was one of nine host cities for the FIFA World Cup, with the opening ceremonies and first match taking place at Soldier Field.


Chicago Fire general manager Peter Wilt (left) and Major League Soccer commissioner Douglas Logan announce the new Chicago MLS team at Gateway Park, near 600 N. DuSable Lake Shore Dr., Chicago, October 8, 1997. ST-20002829-0039, Chicago Sun-Times collection, CHM

Professional soccer returned to the city in 1998 with the Chicago Fire FC joining Major League Soccer. The Fire won the league championship and the Dewar (Open) Cup in its inaugural season.


From left: MLS players Bobby Boswell, Dwayne De Rosario, and Freddy Adu at the Sierra Mist MLS All-Star Game, Bridgeview Stadium (now SeatGeek Stadium), Bridgeview, Illinois, August 5, 2006. The MLS All-Stars beat Chelsea FC 1–0. STM-0440-0943, Jon Sall/Chicago Sun-Times. 

In 1999, Chicago was one of eight US host cities for the FIFA Women’s World Cup. When the Women’s Professional Soccer league began play in 2009, the Chicago Red Stars were one of its inaugural teams. The Red Stars have since been part of the Women’s Premier Soccer League (WPSL), Women’s Premier Soccer League Elite (WPSL E), and, currently, the National Women’s Soccer League. They won the National Women’s Cup in 2012.


US forward Mia Hamm signs autographs at a team practice at Benedictine College (Benedictine University), 5700 College Rd., Lisle, Illinois, June 23, 1999. ST-70003772-0089, Chicago Sun-Times collection, CHM

On the international level, Chicago clubs have played teams from London, Glasgow, Mexico City, Vienna, Prague, Budapest, Munich, Liverpool, Tel Aviv, Toronto, Uruguay, and Scotland. The memorable 1959 Pan-Am Games saw the US national team defeat Brazil and Mexico.


US midfielder John Harkes (6) dribbles the ball as defensive midfielder Thomas Dooley (5) looks on at a US-Germany game during the US Cup at Soldier Field, Chicago, June 13, 1993. The US lost 3-4. ST-80004406-0234, Chicago Sun-Times collection, CHM

The city has contributed players, managers, and coaches to most US Olympic and World Cup teams. In 1924, Chicagoan Peter J. Peel took the first US Olympic soccer team to Paris. Some of the greatest players of their time, such as Ben Govier and Sheldon Govier (Pullman), Julius Hjulian (Chicago Wonderbolts and keeper in the 1934 World Cup), Gil Heron (Chicago Corinthians and the first Black player in the Scottish First Division with Glasgow Celtic), Ed Murphy (Maroons, national team), Willy Roy (Hansa, national team, Sting), and Brian McBride (national team), honed their skills on Chicago soccer pitches.


Portrait of soccer player Ben Govier kicking a ball on a soccer field in Chicago, 1905. SDN-004081, Chicago Daily News collection, CHM

Although long ignored by mainstream press and media, soccer continues to be the most played sport in Chicago. Founded in 1916, the Illinois Soccer Commission coordinates more than 600 women’s and men’s teams, while more than 2,000 metropolitan Chicago youth teams compete in the Illinois Youth Soccer Association.

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At the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition (WCE), Polish Chicagoans supported their homeland‘s participation despite colonizing empires, mainly Russia and Germany, resisting an independent Polish presence. Polish artists, musicians, and industrialists still displayed and performed for an international audience.


World’s Columbian Exposition Polish Day ribbon, Chicago, 1893. Collection of the Chicago History Museum, X.3005.2005

At the time, what had once been the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was consumed by the Russian, German, and Austro-Hungarian Empires, so Polish people had no independent state beyond a few territories, including Congress Poland. Nevertheless, Polish Chicagoans met in spring 1893 to discuss how to help visitors from Polish lands and to organize a Polish Day for the fair. The major Polish American organizations at the time—the Polish Roman Catholic Union of America and the Polish National Alliance—supported these efforts.


Informal portrait of Ignace Jan Paderewski standing with a group in Chicago, 1922. DN-0074496, Chicago Daily News collection, CHM

Although overall Poland’s presence in the exhibits was slight, there were opportunities for several Poles to show their talents. On the second day of the fair, May 2, the renowned Polish pianist Ignacy Jan Paderewski performed with the fair’s orchestra. Then on August 4, 1893, Polish Chicagoan Maximilian Drzemala gave a lecture on Polish art, followed by an inauguration of the Polish art section at the Palace of Fine Arts. This was the first exhibition of Polish art in the United States and featured 122 paintings from 59 artists.


Piotr Kiołbassa, n.d. (Later published in Polska w Ameryka by Jan Drohojowski.)

The biggest impact on the fair came on Polish Day. On Saturday, October 7, 1893, thousands of Polish residents from all over the city took part in a procession to the site of the WCE. They gathered at Jackson Boulevard between Wood Street and Paulina Street. Piotr Kiołbassa served as the parade’s grand marshal. He had been elected city treasurer in 1891, the first Polish Chicagoan to serve in such a position. At 10 a.m., Kiołbassa led the parade of uniformed cavalrymen, carriages, bands, and floats toward Michigan Avenue. Many participants were members of Polish fraternal societies and community groups.

Chicago mayor Carter Harrison also participated, riding in a carriage behind Kiołbassa and Captain Joseph Nepieralski, an active participant in the 1830 uprising. The group marched toward Michigan Avenue and then down to the review stand at the Columbus statue. They proceeded to Twelfth Street and doubled back to Van Buren Street before finally going by train to Jackson Park.

The sixteen floats in the parade primarily depicted historical events. In his book American Warsaw, Dominic A. Pacyga writes that the idea behind all the floats was to “convinc[e] the city, and in turn, the world, of the righteousness of Poland’s call for the restoration of its independence” (p. 21). The last float in the parade was from St. Casimir’s Parish and was titled “The Resurrection of Poland.” It displayed a broken prison gate with a female figure representing Poland emerging from it with several “dead” Russian, Austrian, and Prussian soldiers lying around.


Color illustration titled “Festival Hall, World’s Columbian Exposition,” Chicago, 1893. Published in The Inter Ocean Illustrated Supplement. CHM, ICHi-089488

The parade ended at Festival Hall with remarks from Polish Day Central Committee president S. Słominski, Judge Michael A. LaBuy, and Mayor Harrison. Between eight and ten thousand people attended the ceremony. October 7 was one of the most attended days of the entire fair, with various reports claiming twenty-five to fifty thousand Polish Americans in attendance.

See the Polish Day ribbon, as well as items from the 1933-34 A Century of Progress world’s fair, in our Back Home: Polish Chicago exhibition.

Content warning: This blog post contains text and images about violence and sexual assault that may be traumatizing to some audiences. Reader discretion is advised.

Every July 13 marks a grim anniversary in Chicago’s history. On an otherwise normal Wednesday night, Jeffery Manor, in South Deering on the Far South Side witnessed what would later come to be called the “crime of the century.” In a townhome on 100th Street, mass murderer Richard Speck would torture, sexually assault, and ultimately murder eight nurses in one of the grimmest crimes in US history.


Murder suspect Richard Speck during his criminal court hearing at 2650 S. California Ave., Chicago, August 18, 1966. ST-19110229-0015, Chicago Sun-Times collection, CHM

Richard Benjamin Speck was born on December 6, 1941, in the village of Kirkwood, Illinois, about 200 miles west of Chicago. The seventh of eight children, Speck was born into a tumultuous low-income family, and he spent most of his youth growing up in the Dallas, Texas, suburbs where he regularly had run-ins with law enforcement due to his excessive drinking and penchant for public disturbances. Speck received his first major prison sentence in July 1963 at the age 21 when he was convicted of forging a signature on a stolen check and for the robbery of a grocery store. Originally due to serve three years, he was paroled after 16 months only to return to his cell a week later on charges of aggravated assault and a parole violation.

Speck would continue to add lines to his rap sheet in Texas before moving to Chicago to live with his sister in 1966. It was there that his brother-in-law found him work as an apprentice seaman. As was standard practice at the time, when he didn’t have work, Speck would check in at the National Maritime Union hiring hall, in the hopes of receiving an assignment to a vessel. It was a few days with no luck in securing work, on Wednesday, July 13, that Speck began his murderous rampage by sexually assaulting and robbing Ella Mae Hooper, a local woman he met at a bar.


The townhomes at 2319 E. 100th St., Chicago, July 22, 1966. ST-10000417-0010, Chicago Sun-Times collection, CHM

Later that night, around 11 p.m., the then 24-year-old Speck broke into a townhome that served as shared housing for foreign and local nursing students who worked at the local South Chicago Community Hospital. Here, over the course of a few hours he would be responsible for the murder of the eight women who were all inside the premises when Speck broke in. One woman, Corazon Amurao, escaped the death that met her housemates by hiding under the bed until the early morning. It took two days for authorities to apprehend Speck. Chicago Police received a lucky break and arrested Speck when a physician from the Cook County Hospital alerted them that a man they were treating following a failed suicide attempt was believed to be him. The physician had noticed a tattoo on the man’s forearm that read “born to raise hell,” and they recalled a newspaper description of the suspect that mentioned his ink.


Corazon Amurao, witness in the Richard Speck trial, entering the Peoria County Courthouse with her mother, 324 Main St., Peoria, Illinois. ST-19110250-0002, Chicago Sun-Times collection, CHM

After being deemed competent enough to stand trial by a panel of medical professionals, Speck’s trial began in early April 1967 at the Peoria County Courthouse. The evidence against him was damning. In addition to the eyewitness testimony of Amurao, the lone survivor, fingerprints recovered at the scene matched Speck’s. The high-profile trial lasted less than two weeks, and after deliberating for less than an hour, on April 15, the jury found Speck guilty and recommended that he be served the death penalty. In June, a judge upheld the jury’s recommendation and sentenced Speck to death by electric chair. When the media referenced the trial, they often referred to Speck as a “mass murderer.” While today the term is part of everyday vernacular, referring to someone as a mass murderer in the 1960s was a new phenomenon.


Onlookers watch as police remove eight student nurses slain at 2319 E. 100th St., Chicago, July 14, 1966. ST-17500750-E1, Chicago Sun-Times collection, CHM

On June 29, 1972, the Supreme Court ruled in the case Furman v. Georgia, thereby declaring the death penalty unconstitutional, which forced a resentencing for Speck. He received his new sentence in November of that year, ordered to serve from 400 to 1,200 years in prison through eight consecutive sentences. It would later be reduced to a sentence of 100 to 300 years. He would serve his sentence at the Stateville Correctional Center in Crest Hill, Illinois. While imprisoned, Speck unsuccessfully petitioned to be paroled no less than seven times. He died due to what is largely believed to have been a heart attack on December 5, 1991, in a hospital in the nearby town of Joliet, one day before what would have been his fiftieth birthday. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered in an undisclosed area.

The gruesomeness of Speck’s murders captured the fear and imagination of an entire generation, and has been retold in countless films, television episodes, and books. In the decades following the Speck murders, often referred to now as the Chicago Massacre, he only granted one interview to the media when he spoke to a Chicago Tribune columnist in 1978. In that interview, he admitted to being under the effects of alcohol and drugs, and further claimed to have had an accomplice, whom Speck murdered in fear that he would turn him in. No such proof of an accomplice has ever been found.

The names of Speck’s victims were Gloria Davy, Patricia Matusek, Nina Jo Schmale, Pamela Wilkening, Suzanne Farris, Mary Ann Jordan, Merlita Gargullo, and Valentina Pasion. All of them were in their early twenties and were robbed of their promising futures as caregivers and medical professionals. Pasion and Gargullo were both exchange students from the Phillipines. Their bodies were repatriated after a mass was held in their honor in Chicago.


Cell at the Stateville Correctional Center that housed Richard Speck, Crest Hill, Illinois, May 1, 1967. ST-19110222-0044, Chicago Sun-Times collection, CHM

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