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CHM curator of civic engagement and social justice Elena Gonzales writes about the history and definitions of various descriptors of people of Latin American heritage and explains why CHM is shifting from using “Latino/a/x” to using “Latine.”


A woman holds up a sign that reads “Senator Stevenson, you represent the Latin Americans also,” Chicago, July 19, 1971. ST-60004929-0350, Chicago Sun-Times collection, CHM

Latinx, Latine, Latino, Latin@, Latin, Brown, Chicano, Hispanic. Over the years, people of Latin American heritage have described themselves in a lot of different ways, and others have described them still differently.


A girl holds up a sign that reads “Chicano Power,” Chicago, July 19, 1971. ST-60004929-0031, Chicago Sun-Times collection, CHM

It can be confusing for everyone and difficult to stay up to date and feel like you’re using the “right” terminology. The fact is that there’s no definitive “right” answer but there are important considerations to make when deciding what word to use.

Most Latinos define themselves in other ways first:

  • By a country (or colony) of heritage (Mexican, Puerto Rican, Guatemalteco)
  • A heritage word that includes race (Afro-Brazileño, Afro-Colombiano)
  • An Indigenous identity (Kichwa Otavalo)
  • A local marker (Chicagoan)

That’s because all of the words like “Latino” are maddingly unspecific and they leave lots of people out, especially Indigenous folks. Just as many Latinos identify first by country of heritage, as described above, many Indigenous people identify first by Indigenous culture–outside the context of a Latin American heritage.


People holding banners during a march for Las Buenas Amigas, a Latina lesbian group in Chicago, c. 1990. CHM, ICHi-176715

We might think of Latinos as being people from Latin America, but that idea has three major problems. The first is the perception of people with Latin American heritage as perpetual foreigners when 80% of Latinos were born in the US. The second is that the very concept of “Latino” is specific to the US. Mexicans in Mexico or Ecuatorianos in Ecuador are not “Latinos.”

Thirdly, the very concept of Latin America is problematic when you really sit down and try to determine which places are “in” or “out.” There is no neat and culturally accurate solution arising from using language, geography, or colonizer as a determinant of what counts as Latin American. What about Brazilians who speak Portuguese? What about speakers of 23+ Indigenous languages in Guatemala alone? What about places such as the Philippines that are very far from the Americas but nevertheless colonized by the Spanish? What about Haiti and Belize? Things get complicated really quickly.

On a historical note, it’s important to keep in mind the context of moments in the past when we’re thinking about how to refer to folks in history. We want to try to use the terms that would best suit historical actors while still making sense today. So, while we might not use the gender-neutral terms Latine or Latinx to describe a group of men in the 1970s, we might use them to describe a group we know to include members who are more gender-fluid.

Keep in mind:

  • This vocabulary is shifting even now, and the terms we like best today will continue to change. We shouldn’t be afraid to make changes in our own vocabularies as our knowledge and expression of identities change.
  • Whenever you have the chance to use a specific word about someone’s heritage rather than one of these general terms, please do!
  • And of course, if you’re talking about someone in particular who you know, please use the terms they prefer, just as you would for their pronouns.

A Latine Glossary for Today

Latin American: This term usually refers to someone outside the US, though, in the 1960s and 1970s it was still used to refer to folks inside the US and was often shortened to “Latin.”

Chicano/a/x: “Chicano” is a specific anticolonial political identity, not a general ethnic category. Through it, (initially young) Mexicans beginning in the 1960s have rejected the US theft of their ancestral homeland, Aztlán, and sought self-determination and solidarity with others seeking liberation.

Raza (race): “La Raza” is one identity term that acknowledges straight away that most Latinos experience race as non-white in the US. Using “La Raza” or “Raza” expresses solidarity through that.

Gente (people): “Gente” or “mi gente” is similar to “raza” in that it expresses solidarity through Spanish language.


A young man holds up a sign (partially out of frame) that reads “Brown Power,” Chicago, July 19, 1971. ST-60004929-0034, Chicago Sun-Times collection, CHM

Brown: When “Hispanic / Spanish language origin” became a category on the US Census in 1980, Latino activists had been agitating for just such a change. But the word they wanted to use was “Brown.” They recognized that it carried specific meaning to identify as a racial category and that the experience of Latinos in the US was based in race. Though the Census Bureau found the addition of a racial category inconvenient, “Brown” continued to find expression in the “Brown Power” movement as well as in solidarity with other people experiencing race in America outside of whiteness. We hear the legacy of this today whenever we hear “Black and Brown people,” even though many people who are not Latino or Black also have brown skin.


Sign for Vasquez Restaurant serving “Spanish food,” along West Willow Street, Chicago, March 20, 1971. ST-10103752-0010, Chicago Sun-Times collection, CHM

Hispanic: Without any disrespect to those who prefer to identify as Hispanic, this is the one identity term listed above that we avoid. Some people find it disrespectful because it means “of Spanish origin” and therefore places a crucial colonizer of the Americas–Spain–at the center of the identity.

Latino/a: This is the most widely embraced identity term that goes beyond country of heritage. It was added to the US Census in 2000. For a while people tried to use “Latin@” to be inclusive of gender.

Latinx: The failing of “Latino/a” is that it leaves out nonbinary folks. “Latinx” is an attempt to be more inclusive of gender nonconforming Latinos, but Spanish speakers have not widely accepted it. The criticisms are that it is difficult to say in Spanish and that people who are used to “Latino” don’t want to change their habit. In addition, despite best intentions, this term also felt like an example of linguistic colonialism–an imposition from the US.

Latine: Though “Latinx” is quite challenging to say in Spanish, “Latine” is easy. Spanish speakers are increasingly adopting this term, which originated in Spanish-speaking countries, to replace “Latinx,” and so will CHM.

Additional Resources

October is Filipino American History Month, which commemorates the first Filipinos to arrive on the North American continent at what is now Morro Bay, California, on October 18, 1587. In October 2009, the US Congress passed a resolution officially recognizing the commemorative month.


Portrait of Manuel L. Quezon, President of the Philippines, standing on the corner of a sidewalk, Chicago, 1917. DN-0067971, Chicago Daily News Collection, CHM

Before the Tydings-McDuffie Act of 1934, which led to the Philippines becoming an independent country, Filipinos immigrated to the States primarily as pensionado and family-sponsored students while the Philippine Islands was a US territory. The Pensionado Act (1903) was a program that Manuel Quezon, who later became the second president of the Philippines, passionately lobbied for in Congress and established scholarships after the Philippine-American War (1899–1902) to allow Filipinos to attend school in the States. His goal was to have a generation of young Filipinos who could become capable, democratic leaders in the Islands.

Chicago was one of the Midwest cities where ambitious, young Filipino men attended elite universities as well as to combat stereotypes from the war. They not only participated in campus life, but also in the local labor force and contributed to major movements as many settled in Chicago after immigration laws completely excluded Asians.


Edwin A. Lahey, “Finds Race Discrimination Evil Not Confined Solely to White People,” Chicago Daily News, p. 14, April 7, 1944.

Filipino workers also played an unintentional role in negotiations between the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) and the Pullman Company. To intimidate African American porters from joining the Brotherhood, the Pullman Company hired Filipino workers as replacements and published takedown articles to pit them against their African American coworkers. A Chicago Daily News article published April 7, 1944, insisted that the BSCP discriminated against Filipinos.


Milton P. Webster of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, 1951. CHM, ICHi-024898

However, many of the Filipinos who came during the early pensionado years were dues paying members of the BSCP Chicago Chapter, too. Chicagoan Milton Webster, vice president of the BSCP and lead negotiator, was asked by Filipino members to respond to the Daily News article and in an open letter dated April 19, 1944, he dispelled the notion that the Brotherhood discriminated against Asian workers: “A substantial number of our paid up members in the city of Chicago, where we have for eighteen years maintained a local division of which I am the president, are Filipinos. They occupy positions in the official staff. They enjoy every right and privilege in this Organization that the Constitution provides.”


Letter from Milton P. Webster to Edwin A. Lahey, April 18, 1944. Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, box 6, folder 11. Photograph by CHM staff.

Additional Resources

 

CHM museum specialist Jojo Galvan writes about Alfredo Cano and Bertha “Rosita” Musquiz, two professional Mexican American dancers who performed at the 1933–34 A Century of Progress International Exposition.

To celebrate Chicago’s centennial and to stimulate consumer spending in the midst of the Great Depression, the city organized the 1933–34 A Century of Progress International Exposition. That world’s fair opened on May 27, 1933, ran through November 12, 1933, and was deemed so successful that it ran again from May 26 through October 31, 1934. More than 48 million people attended the fair, which expanded across 400 acres of what is known today as Northerly Island, to marvel at the latest innovations in technology and engineering. The “Rainbow City,” as the fair came to be known, featured everything from colorful homes of the future, to the signature attraction of the fair, the Sky Ride, a mechanized transporter bridge that allowed visitors to take in the city from elevated heights.


Northerly Island during the A Century of Progress International Exposition, Chicago, September 9, 1933. ICHi-031117

Beyond American innovation, visitors could see international participants showcasing culture and ingenuity from abroad. Among the slew of nations represented, one of the most popular pavilions was our neighbor south of the border, Mexico.


The entrance to Mexican Village at the A Century of Progress International Exposition, Chicago, 1933. This lantern slide was hand-colored by the photographer, Anton Rodde. CHM, ICHi-176091; Anton Rodde, photographer

As one guidebook to the fair explained, those who ventured to the Mexican village could expect: “Music, dancing, and the free and easy enjoyments of the land of sunshine south of the Rio Grande . . . Señores, Caballeros, the house is yours is the attitude. Free outdoor entertainments are given by dancers and singers in fiestas in the square . . . Floor shows at 1 pm and hourly after 6 pm.”


The plaza of the Mexican Village at the A Century of Progress International Exposition, Chicago, 1933. This lantern slide was hand-colored by the photographer, Anton Rodde. CHM, ICHi-176094; Anton Rodde, photographer

The dancers so prominently advertised as part of the Mexican Village attractions suite were two professional Mexican American dancers, husband and wife Alfredo Cano and Bertha “Rosita” Musquiz. They danced as the professional flamenco dance team known simply as “Alfredo and Rosita.” Alfredo was an immigrant from Mexico who arrived as a laborer in Chicago in the 1920s and studied dance here. Rosita was a Mexican American from San Antonio, Texas, and the two crossed paths in 1930, just at the right time to secure their positions as dancers for the Mexican Village.


Studio portrait of Alfredo Cano and Bertha “Rosita” Musquiz, c. 1930. CHM, ICHI-183252; Larry Karns Cleveland, photographer

Audience members attending Alfredo and Rosita’s show were wowed not only by the intricacy of the embroidery and brightness of the garments worn by the performers, all of which were artisan-crafted in Mexico City but also by the duo’s traditional Mexican dances, bailes folkloricos, which often tell intricate stories and legends as part of the performance.


Proof sheet of photographs of Alfredo Cano and Bertha “Rosita” Musquiz, c. 1930. CHM, ICHI-183252; Larry Karns Cleveland, photographer

Performing at the fair made Rosita and Alfredo some of the premier dancers of their day. While their performances at the world’s fair were primarily traditional Mexican dances, their general performance repertoire was robust, including other traditional Latin dances like salsa and, of course, their signature flamenco. Professionally, Alfredo and Rosita’s career spanned two decades. While they toured at performance venues, festivals, and local celebrations, bringing their rhythms to diverse crowds across the country, Chicago was always their home base, and they were staples at many of the city’s venues, like the former Cuban Village Café that once stood at 715 W. North Avenue in the Old Town neighborhood and the swanky Walnut Room at the historic Bismarck Hotel (today the Allegro Royal Sonesta Hotel) on Randolph Street in the Loop.


Front and back views of one of Alfredo’s costumes. The black wool ensemble comprises a jacket, vest, trousers, shoes (not pictured), and sombrero (not pictured). CHM, ICHi-066611 and ICHi-066610

Rosita donated a number of her and her husband’s garments to CHM’s costume collection in the 1980s, where they remain to this day. Alfredo’s elaborately crafted Charro ensemble was included in the 2003 CHM exhibition Flamenco! Latin Dance in 1930s Chicago.

Additional Resources

In October 1848, a small group of Chicagoans witnessed the Pioneer locomotive’s inaugural run as it pulled from the city’s first railway station. CHM director of exhibitions Paul Durica writes about the winding journey it took to find its way to the Chicago History Museum.

The Pioneer locomotive endures as the historical artifact that could. Despite often being overshadowed by larger and more dynamic objects, it has managed to appear (with some modifications to its appearance over the years) at every significant Chicago fair and festival from the 1880s through the 1940s, including both the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition and the 1933–34 A Century of Progress International Exposition, before finding its forever home at the Chicago History Museum.


An undated photograph of the Pioneer. The first sentence of the caption reads: “On October 10, 1848, the brig ‘Buffalo’ arrived at Chicago with the first locomotive—the Pioneer.” CHM, ICHi-037010

As the first locomotive to operate within the city, the Pioneer has long remained, in the words of one commentator, the “historic symbol of the coming of the railroads” to Chicago and the nation, transforming both in challenging and enduring ways. A small group of Chicagoans witnessed the Pioneer on its inaugural run as it pulled from the city’s first railway station, near the intersection of present-day Canal and Kinzie Streets, 175 years ago this October. Whether they regarded what they witnessed with optimism, skepticism, or some mix of the two was not recorded.

That first ride on the rails of the still-under-construction Galena and Chicago Union Railroad stretched as far as Des Plaines, Illinois, transporting a group of prominent citizens one way and the same group along with some grain, back to Chicago. Bought second-hand (though with no bill of sale, the origin of the Pioneer remains unknown; it was likely manufactured c. 1840 for an eastern railroad company), the Pioneer was replaced within a decade by bigger, faster, more powerful locomotives as first the Galena and Chicago Union and then other railroad lines expanded throughout the 1850s. As the Chicago Tribune described that first run a century later, this “little event in October 1848. . . was the forerunner of a mighty development that ultimately made Chicago the greatest railroad center in the world.”

In 1883 Chicago celebrated being the “center” of the railroad industry by hosting the National Exposition of Railway Appliances. One of the featured exhibits was the Pioneer, which had from about 1858 to 1874 been used solely for company and construction work and was now deteriorating in a train yard. Given a fresh coat of paint, its significance supported by the memories of retired engineers, the Pioneer had pride of place at the Exposition, but this was a prelude to the exposure it soon received at one of the most significant events in Chicago history.


The Pioneer on display in the Transportation Building at the World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893. CHM, ICHi-050434

This year marks the 130th anniversary of the World’s Columbian Exposition, the first Chicago world’s fair, an event invested in celebrating the past even as it looked toward the coming twentieth century. At the fair, in the Transportation Building designed by Louis Sullivan, the only one among the fourteen main structures not inspired by the classical past, stood that relic of Chicago, the Pioneer, “a funny-looking contrivance as compared with the great locomotives now in use,” according to the Tribune. There to tell its story was John Ebbert, who claimed to be its first engineer as well as an eyewitness to its arrival via the Great Lakes on the brig Buffalo. Ebbert’s stories of the early days of rail entertained visitors from around the world and established the Pioneer as an important symbol of this history. Today a variation of this experience at the World’s Columbian Exposition survives in an interactive display in the Museum’s Chicago: Crossroads of America exhibition.


An admission ticket to the 1948 Chicago Railroad Fair. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator, 25¢ in 1948 is equivalent to $3.15 in 2023. Courtesy of Joseph M. Di Cola.

From the World’s Columbian Exposition, the Pioneer embarked on a long, winding journey that would take it, among other places, to the Columbian Museum (today’s Field Museum), the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, A Century of Progress world’s fair, the Museum of Science and Industry, and the 1948 Chicago Railroad Fair.


The cowcatcher of the Pioneer being lifted into the Chicago Historical Society (Chicago History Museum), August 15, 1972. ST-19031875-0010, Chicago Sun-Times collection, CHM

It wouldn’t arrive at the Chicago Historical Society until 1972 and would, along with the 1892 L Car, become one of two large artifacts in Chicago: Crossroads of America when it opened in 2006.


The Pioneer on display in Chicago: Crossroads of America.

There’s one small problem with this whole long story: the Pioneer visitors know may not have pioneered anything. The Pioneer isn’t named in any documents until 1856, when it appears in a Galena and Chicago Union inventory, and there were other locomotives in the company’s stock that fit the description of the one that first left the station in October 1848 (the exact date of which is somewhat disputed by historians). The Pioneer’s history rests solely upon the reminisces of old railroad workers, first taken down in the 1880s and 1890s. “A bill of sale, a contemporary newspaper story, an old diary entry, any scrap dating back to October 1848 might settle the question,” writes John H. White in his survey of the documentary evidence surrounding the Pioneer from 1976. “Perhaps some industrious scholar will one day find the missing information.”

But perhaps having witnessed so much of the city’s history in the last 175 years, where this humble locomotive began its journey and whether it was the first really doesn’t matter anymore?

Sources

  • “All Are of Interest: Exhibits to Be Seen in the Transportation Building,” Chicago Daily Tribune, April 30, 1893.
  • Paul Angle, “Chicago’s First Railroad,” Chicago History, vol. 1, no. 12 (Summer 1948).
  • Philip Hampson, “Chicago Railroad Fair Opens Today,” Chicago Daily Tribune, July 20, 1948.
  • Patrick McLear, “The Galena and Chicago Union Railroad: A Symbol of Chicago’s Economic Maturity,” Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, vol. 73, no. 1 (Spring 1980).
  • John H. White Jr., The Pioneer: Chicago’s First Locomotive (Chicago: Chicago Historical Society, 1976).

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

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