Latest Posts
Chicago grew and prospered largely because of its waterways, the Chicago River and Lake Michigan. Both of them provided water, food, transportation, and fun for area residents. These waterways are represented on the city’s flag by two blue stripes.
The view from Lake Michigan looking west at the Chicago skyline during sunset, August 2019. Photograph by CHM Education DepartmentT
In today’s activity, discover how the Chicago River has changed over time. Then have fun creating and singing a song together about the river to the tune of “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.” Share your song with us on social media! #CHMatHomeFamilies
The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 was a formative event in Chicago’s history and is represented by the second star on the city’s flag. Today, we’ll be looking at artifacts that melted in the fire and inquiring about what they may have been.
Who wants to be a history detective? Ask your kids to examine the images of melted artifacts and think about how they used to look. Then they can express their creativity when they make their own artifact. When your kids have finished, take a picture of their artifact and share it on social media! #CHMatHomeFamilies
The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 was a formative event in Chicago’s history and is represented by the second star on the city’s flag. Today, we’ll be looking at artifacts that melted in the fire and inquiring about what they may have been.
Ask your kids to use their deductive reasoning and creative skills to create an artifact of their own. When they’re done, take a picture of their artifact and share it on social media! #CHMatHomeFamilies
As non-native people moved to Chicago—or Checagou, as the native people of the area called it—they had to decide what to bring with them. In today’s activity, kids will reflect on, write about, and draw what they would bring if they moved to a new place.
What makes an object precious? Is it useful or does it remind you of happy memories? Ask your kids to think about what items are important to them and write out the reasons why. Then, have them illustrate the objects they listed. When they’re done, take a picture of their work and share it on social media! #CHMatHomeFamilies
Today we’re kicking off our weekday CHM at Home family activities! These daily challenges are an opportunity for your family to learn and have fun together. Over the next two weeks, we’ll investigate the Chicago flag as a starting point for exploring the city’s rich history. Each activity will encourage your kids to share their ideas and express their creativity.
The Chicago flag can be found throughout the city, but do you know what its stars and stripes symbolize? Discover the meaning behind the flag’s design and create your own. When you’re done, take a picture of your flag and share it on social media! #CHMatHomeFamilies
The Chicago History Museum is here to support families during these uncertain times. We know that especially now, it is more vital than ever that we stay connected with one another and with our communities. We also know that you have a lot on your plate, answering your kids’ questions, filling their time, and supporting their remote learning.
We’re excited to announce that our CHM at Home initiative kicks off next week! Our Education team will be sharing free, family-friendly activities every weekday. These history challenges are easy to do and use everyday household items. You can get your child started independently or you can explore together. All of our activities promote learning of Chicago history, help make personal connections with the city, encourage family conversation, and foster creativity. The daily challenges will also be posted on our website, so you can do them anytime.
Feel free to share your creations with us using the hashtag #CHMatHomeFamilies on social media, so we can create a digital community that showcases what we love about Chicago and celebrates families and communities across the city. We hope you enjoy these at-home history challenges and your time together. We look forward to hearing from you!
CHM assistant curator Brittany Hutchinson recounts the life of Mary Koga. This blog post is part of a series in which we share the stories of local women who made history in recognition of our online experience: Democracy Limited: Chicago Women and the Vote.
“My lens is attracted to people and their inner strengths and support systems.”
—Mary Koga
Mary Koga was a photographer and social worker, known for her work documenting first-generation Japanese immigrants and working to promote cultural exchange between Japanese and US communities in Chicago and beyond.
An undated photograph of Mary Koga. Courtesy of the Japan America Society of Chicago
Koga was born Hisako Ishii in Sacramento, California, on August 10, 1920. After graduating from the University of California, Berkeley in 1942, she was incarcerated at the Tule Lake Segregation Center in Tulelake, California. Tule Lake was the largest of ten internment camps operated by the War Relocation Authority during WWII and the last to close, remaining in operation until May 5, 1946. This experience affected Koga’s work throughout her life, including her interest in communal living and her strong sense of duty to others.
Koga is listed as “Ishii, Hisako Mary” in this group of “enlistees” being issued new identification at the Tule Lake internment camp, The Tulean Dispatch, 1942. Library of Congress, sn84025953
Following her release, Koga relocated to Chicago where she pursued a career in social work. In 1947, she completed her master’s degree in social work from the University of Chicago and worked in the field for twenty years before earning her photography MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
As a social worker in the 1950s and ’60s, Koga did casework at the Family Service Bureau, United Charities of Chicago; Northwestern University Medical School; and the Institute for Juvenile Research. She was also an assistant professor for field work at the University of Chicago’s School of Social Service Administration from 1960 to 1969.
Koga received her first camera as a child and remained fascinated by photography throughout her life. She did much of her photographic work in the late 1960s and ’70s, including a one-woman show at the Chicago Public Library’s Rogers Park Branch in 1968. During her career as a professional photographer, Koga was also a professor of photography at Columbia College Chicago.
Koga’s photography ranged from floral forms to portraits of Hutterites, a communal branch of Anabaptists living primarily in Western Canada and the upper Great Plains of the US. In the 1980s, Koga documented the Issei, or first-generation Japanese immigrant community (see slideshow below). In one series of photos, Koga captured approximately 100 individuals with an average age of 76 at the Adult Day Care and Senior Citizens Work Center at the Japanese American Service Committee in Chicago.
Dorothy Kaneko and her mother Masano Morita, November 1988. Photograph by Mary Koga. CHM, ICHi-176757
Koga’s close connection to the Japanese American community in Chicago was apparent through her work in reviving the Japan America Society of Chicago (JASC) in the 1950s. Today, the JASC is still actively fostering communication and cooperation between the US and Japan and supporting numerous business and cultural programs, as well as offering Japanese language courses.
When Koga died in 2001, her legacy continued with the Mary Koga Memorial Fund and the JASC’s Mary Koga Award.
The Japan America Society of Chicago will host its 90th anniversary gala later in 2020, which will include a first-time viewing of JASC’s collection of rare Japanese art, including the photography series, Floral Forms, by Mary Koga. To learn more about the Japan America Society visit www.jaschicago.org.
Further reading:
CHM curatorial intern Brigid Kennedy recounts the extraordinary life of Elizabeth Lindsay Davis. This blog post is part of a series in which we share the stories of local women who made history in recognition of our online experience: Democracy Limited: Chicago Women and the Vote.
Elizabeth Lindsay Davis not only took the motto of the National Association of Colored Women (NACW)—“lifting as we climb”—as inspiration for the title of her book, she took it as her personal motto. As an historian, writer, and activist, Davis worked hard but never forgot to uplift the work of her companions and colleagues.
Portrait of Elizabeth Lindsay Davis, c. 1933. Lifting as They Climb, CHM
Davis was born in 1855 and lived her earliest years in Peoria, Illinois. As a young woman, she wrote advice columns that were published in Kansas City’s Gate City Press. Davis continued to write for newspapers, contributing regularly to the Chicago Defender and the NACW’s National Notes.
Davis began her career as a teacher, working around the Midwest until her 1885 marriage to podiatrist William H. Davis. In the next decade, she became active in the women’s club circuit, joining and founding organizations advocating for black women. A founding member of the Ida B. Wells Club, Davis served as secretary while Wells herself served as president. Davis also cofounded the Chicago branch of the Phyllis Wheatley Club, which focused on hyperlocal issues to improve the lives of people in Chicago. She served as president for twenty-eight years.
In 1899, the clubs of Illinois came together to form a coalition, the Illinois Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs (IFCWC)—the groups were collectively known as the “Magic Seven.” Davis was also affiliated with the NACW, for which she was the national organizer from 1901–6 and again from 1912–16, supervising the addition of more than 289 clubs. During this time, Davis saw how organizations such as the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) failed to provide housing, health, and educational services for black girls and women, so in 1908 she founded the Phyllis Wheatley Home.
Phyllis Wheatley Home Association, pamphlet. 1915. ICHi-064245, CHM
As a leader of numerous groups, Davis knew more about the NACW and IFCWC than anyone else. She became the IFCWC’s official historian in 1918 and began work on The Story of the Illinois Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs, 1900–1922. In 1933, for the A Century of Progress International Exposition, Davis published her book Lifting as They Climb—a history of the NACW, which she spent nearly a decade compiling.
During World War I, Davis led the Second Ward’s war office at the Frederick Douglass Center Women’s Club. There, women operated an exemption board for drafted men, a Red Cross auxiliary, and a post office. During the 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic, the Frederick Douglass Center also served as a relief station.
Presidents of the Illinois Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs, from “The Story of the Illinois Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs, 1900–1922.” Davis is in the top row, middle. 1922. ICHi-063063, CHM
When Illinois women gained limited suffrage in 1913, Davis was one of the first women to register to vote. She became increasingly active in politics and instituted citizenship classes for women through her clubs. Davis both celebrated the progress that had been made and devoted her life to equity and opportunities for black women. “To women has come the greatest opportunity through the passage of the 19th amendment,” she wrote in Lifting as They Climb. “It is fitting at this time that the Negro woman should take her part in the Century of Progress and prove to the world that she, too, is finding her place in the sun.”
CHM curatorial intern Brigid Kennedy recounts the extraordinary life of Mary Livermore. This blog post is part of a series in which we share the stories of local women who made history in anticipation of CHM’s upcoming exhibition Democracy Limited: Chicago Women and the Vote.
Mary Livermore dedicated her life to abolition, temperance, women’s suffrage, and supporting the Union during the Civil War. Skilled in organizing, raising awareness, and gaining support for her causes, Livermore became a friend to Abraham Lincoln, a popular orator, and a key figure in the Union’s victory.
An undated portrait of Mary A. Livermore. ICHi-051132, CHM
Born in Boston on December 19, 1820, Livermore spent her early years there working in a secondary school—even editing a temperance newspaper for young people.
Livermore, her husband Daniel, and their family planned to move to Kansas in 1857 with other abolitionists, intending to secure Kansas as a free state. Before the move was complete, their daughter became sick and the family decided to settle in Chicago.
Livermore quickly established herself as a philanthropist in the rapidly growing city. She cofounded the Home for the Friendless, Home for Aged Women, and the Hospital for Women and Children in her first six years in the city. Then, the Civil War broke out.
In June 1861, it became clear that the Union Army was suffering more from illness and malnutrition than from Confederate weaponry, and Lincoln established the United States Sanitary Commission to centralize civilian relief efforts. A Chicago branch opened soon after, managed by Livermore and Jane Hoge. Livermore toured Union encampments and battlefront hospitals, delivering supplies, attending to the wounded, and bringing back news from the front.
In early 1863, Ulysses S. Grant praised the Sanitary Commission and credited them with saving many lives. Still, Grant’s needs were beyond what the Commission could provide as his army closed in on Vicksburg, Mississippi, and he requested more aid.
Front cover of Catalogue of Paintings, Statuary, Etc. exhibited for the benefit of the Great Northwestern Fair, 1863. ICHi-076889, CHM
Livermore and Hoge proposed a Great Northwestern Fair, where they could auction off or sell food, entertainment, and mementos of the war. They recruited thousands of volunteers, almost all women, to plan the event—the first of its kind.
Livermore acquired war mementos for auction from across the Midwest, and even requested assistance from Abraham Lincoln, who donated the original Emancipation Proclamation. It sold for $10,000 and found a home at the Chicago Historical Society before being destroyed by the Great Fire in 1871.
On October 11, 1863, Livermore wrote to Lincoln requesting the original copy of the Emancipation Proclamation. Abraham Lincoln papers at the Library of Congress: series 1, General Correspondence 1833–1916.
The 1863 Great Northwestern Fair was a resounding success. Livermore had hoped to earn at least $25,000, and in the end, the Sanitary Commission made more than $86,000 from the estimated eighty-five to ninety thousand visitors. The fair fundraising model became popular, and soon similar events were held in other American cities.
Due to the success of the 1863 Great Northwestern Sanitary Fair, a second fair was held in 1865. ICHi-063123, CHM
After the war, Livermore focused her energy on fighting for women’s suffrage. In 1869, she organized Chicago’s first suffrage convention and established The Agitator, a suffrage newspaper.
March 13, 1869, edition of The Agitator, with the subheading “Healthy agitation precedes all true reform.” The Agitator, CHM
In 1870, Livermore returned to Massachusetts, but continued her work in Chicago from afar. She traveled the country, lecturing on the history, lives, and experiences of women. She wrote two autobiographies and other texts supporting the rights of women.
An autographed page from one of Livermore’s autobiographies, “My Story of the War: A Woman’s Narrative of Four Years’ Personal Experience in the Sanitary Service of the Rebellion,” 1888. CHM
Although Mary Livermore didn’t plan to spend such a large portion of her life in Chicago, the life she built here not only made her instrumental to the Union war effort, but also made the day-to-day lives of many Chicagoans—especially women—safer through her philanthropic and activist work.
Fred Hampton, chairman of the Illinois Chapter of Black Panther Party, November 5, 1969. ST-17101234-0002
On the fiftieth anniversary of Fred Hampton’s murder, the Chicago History Museum remembers his life, tragic death, and legacy with an eye toward the future. In keeping with the Museum’s goal of sharing Chicago’s stories and educating the community, CHM assistant curator Julius L. Jones partnered with undergraduate research assistants from Lake Forest College to present The Assassination of Fred Hampton, a project through Digital Chicago.
- See more images of Fred Hampton’s life, death, and legacy
- Listen to an interview with Billy Ché, the deputy minister of education for the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party
All images from the Chicago History Museum’s Chicago Sun-Times collection