Going back in time

The past and present interact at the new Chicago History Museum

By Paul M. Banks

Social progressive and Princeton history professor James M. McPherson once said “History is a continuing dialogue between the present and the past.”

The past is communicating clearly with the present at the Chicago History Museum, previously known as the Chicago Historical Society. Exhibitions deal with current events such as immigration in the “Sweet Home Chicago” gallery; and a detailed timeline chronicles the city from 12,000 B.C. to the opening of Millennium Park and last year’s World Series title for the White Sox.

The museum, located at 1601 N. Clark, recently re-opened in September, following a $27.8 million makeover that included architectural renovations and exhibit enhancements. These included a Wolfgang Puck cafeteria and audio tours featuring comedians from Second City. Opening on Nov. 11 is the Chicago Roots Music exhibit, showcasing jazz and blues (of course), along with gospel, folk and insurgent country (a genre of music also known by the less violent sounding name of “alternative country”). Also in the works is an American history gallery, set to open in late 2008 or early ’09.

The Chicago History Museum, like its football team, has upgraded itself quite a bit during the last year. The dioramas, a favorite of many, are back and augmented from the previous version. They reside near a bust of Illinois’ most well-known figure, Abraham Lincoln. You’ll also find Honest Abe’s death bed here on the first floor. However, the second floor is where the museum’s true treasures are buried.

What follows is a brief description of the museum’s five main galleries.

Chicago: Crossroads of America
The 16,000-square-foot exhibit shares its name with the state of Indiana’s official motto. The Hoosier slogan refers to the abundance of interstates that traverse its borders. Here, the saying takes on a metaphorical meaning in addition to literal. The Crossroads exhibit is to the museum what Michael Jordan was to the Bulls. In keeping with that analogy, elevated train car No. 1 is to this exhibit what the turnaround jump shot was to Jordan’s game. The museum’s centerpiece premiered during the Columbian Exposition of 1892. It was one of only three steam-powered train cars produced (the ‘L’ converted to electric power about 20 years later). You can sit inside without paying the original fare of five cents. Next to the car, three talking mannequins of the era, including famous civil rights activist Ida B.Wells, tell us more. The rest of the Crossroads exhibit is organized according to theme instead of chronology.

City on the make
The Pioneer locomotive demonstrates how the railroad industry and geographic confluence of waterways helped make Chicago a true crossroads of not only the Midwest, but the entire nation. In the 19th century, railroads helped Chicago develop much like riverboats did for St. Louis and the automobile industry did for Detroit. However, when those industries declined, the other two cities did not reinvent themselves in the same manner the “Second City” did. Chicago invested in a variety of sectors, including high-tech. In addition to U.S. Cellular, it is home to another multi-billion dollar corporation synonymous with wireless telecommunications. Motorola, headquartered in suburban Schaumburg, released the world’s first commercial hand-held cellular phone, the Motorola DynaTAC, in 1984 (you’ll find one on display here). You can also view products of the defunct Union Stockyards: “pigskins” and basketballs made from leather and a first-edition printing of Upton Sinclair’s muckraking novel, “The Jungle.”

Second to none
This area showcases the most influential and pervasive innovations to come from our hometown. You’ll see exhibits on enovid, the birth control pill invented by G.D. Searle; prairie school windows and furniture designed by Frank Lloyd Wright; and architectural advancements from David Adler and Louis Sullivan. Chicago architecture is world reknown; the first skyscraper originated here. A wall chart displays the history and growth of Chicago’s skyscrapers next to the official wind model for America’s tallest building, the Sears Tower. Soon, they will have to update it by including the new Trump building. There is also an exhibit on the first atomic weapon. The premier development in the “Manhattan Project” occurred on Dec. 2, 1942 beneath the bleachers of Stagg Field at the University of Chicago. Enrico Fermi led a team of scientists who initiated the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction in an experimental reactor named Chicago Pile-1. This gallery also includes some of the major consumer goods to originate from the Windy City: Weber grills, Cracker Jack, Radio Flyer wagons, Tinker Toys, Schwinn bicycles and Kraft macaroni and cheese.

My kind of town
This gallery highlights Chicago at play. There’s a bunny suit from the original Playboy club as well as a 1959 issue of the magazine. One can explore the theatrical contributions of the city by viewing a program from the United States premiere of David Mamet’s “Glengarry Glen Ross” at the Goodman Theatre in 1984; or the city’s music by learning the history of jazz and blues. These genres found a home north of the Mississippi Delta with the great northern migration of the African-American population. I’m looking forward to visiting this exhibit in 50 years, when they might just be displaying artifacts about Kanye West, Common, Wilco and the Smashing Pumpkins.

Wait ’til next year
The title echoes the never-ending optimism embodied by the fan bases of our city’s sports teams. Chicago was rated the nation’s No. 1 sports city this summer by The Sporting News, and this area of the museum will tell the visitor why. “A lot of the items are on loan because sports fans don’t like to just give away their treasures,” said public relations manager Lauren Dolan. The permanent collection includes Mike Singletary’s helmet, Walter Payton’s Man of the Year Award, a scoreboard pinwheel from old Comiskey, Michael Jordan’s shoes, the floor where the Bulls’ fifth NBA title was won and Dusty Baker’s lineup card from the 2003 NLCS.

City in crisis
This exhibit features artifacts from the more infamous events. It also informs us how the city grew and developed further in the aftermath of these tragedies. Included are the 1915 Eastland disaster, the civil unrest following the 1968 Democratic convention and the anarchy that ensued within the Lawndale neighborhood after Martin Luther King’s assassination. I was previously aware that a national disgrace called the “Black Sox” scandal originated on the south side of Chicago during the 1919 baseball season. After visiting this exhibit, I learned of a second, the 1919 race riots, which erupted in the city’s “Black Belt.” Both were dark pages in the city’s history, but both led to reforms that made life in America better. One led to progress toward civil rights and socioeconomic equality, the other brought a crackdown on gambling, legitimizing the national pastime. The aftermath of these two events adhered to John D. Rockefeller’s maxim: “I’ve tried to regard every disaster as an opportunity.”

For more information on the new Chicago History Museum, go to http://www.chicagohs.org or call (312) 642-4600.

Doors are open from 9:30-4:30 every day except Thursday and Sunday. On Thursdays its open until 8 p.m., and on Sunday from noon until 5 p.m. Admission is $12 for adults and $10 for seniors and students between the ages of 13-22. Kids 12 and under and Mondays are free.

Windy City myths disproved
Sir Winston Churchill once said, “History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.” Certain aspects of Chicago history have been written incorrectly. With the help of the Chicago History Museum, I got the red pen out and corrected these misnomers. Points 3-5 are elaborated on in the “City in Crisis” exhibit.

1. The Windy City — The strong winds are political, not meteorological
Contrary to popular belief, Chicago’s nickname has nothing do with the climate or weather. Chicago received its “Windy City” nickname when city politicians were criticized for talking too big and talking too much about the 1893 “Columbian Exposition” World’s Fair. The museum’s exposition exhibit, located within “My Kind of Town,” is styled after the beautiful neo-classical theme of the fair itself. Seeing photographs of “the white city” reminds us how unfortunate it is only two Beaux-Arts buildings remain from the fair: The Field Museum and the Museum of Science and Industry.

2. Blue collar dyed white
This misnomer of Chicago gets more annoying every time a sports announcer works the “blue-collar team for a blue-collar city with blue-collar fans” cliché into his commentary during a Bears game. As the Bears attract more national attention, ignorant and clueless commentators will often repeat this horribly inaccurate fallacy. The globalization of business has resulted in industrial jobs being rapidly outsourced away from Chicago and the rest of the country. The city’s economic transformation is more than just a recent trend. The union stock yards have been closed for over 30 years. After WWII, the steel industry and manufacturing sector’s contribution to the economy was drastically reduced. Taking their place have been new industries, such as conventions, health and information services. This development is explained further by “The new economy” in the “City on the make” exhibit.

3. Let Mrs. O’Leary’s cow stand next to your fire
A famous Norman Rockwell painting depicts Mrs. O’Leary’s cow kicking over a lantern and allegedly setting the city ablaze. Urban legend has it that the inferno, which left one-third of the city’s population homeless and killed 300, originated in this barn. This old-wives’ tale needs to be retired. According to the Great Chicago Fire entry on wikipedia.org, “Catherine O’Leary was the perfect scapegoat: She was a woman, immigrant, and Catholic — a combination which did not fare well in the political climate of the time in Chicago. This story was circulating in Chicago even before the flames had died out and was noted in the Chicago Tribune’s first post-fire issue. Michael Ahern, the reporter who created the cow story, admitted in 1893 that he had made up the story because he thought it would make colorful copy.” The city officially absolved the cow of blame in 1997. However, the true cause remains a mystery to this day. The museum contains items destroyed in the fire as well as a firefighter’s helmet. Today, we have a professional soccer team named the “Fire,” and “Flames” is the University of Illinois at Chicago mascot. Also, the Chicago Fire Academy has appropriately resided on the former site of the O’Leary barn since 1956.

4. What eight-hour workday?
Well, legally, this is true. But in practice, it’s utterly false. Outside of the United States, May Day is a big holiday in most of the Western world. It was established here on May 1, 1886, when workers demonstrated for an eight-hour workday. Three days later, a Haymarket Square rally for this cause resulted in deadly violence. It wasn’t until 118 years later, in September of 2004, that a 15-foot sculpture was erected in Haymarket Square to symbolize the historical event and free speech. The museum features a very informative exhibit on the Haymarket affair. The martyrs are buried beneath a monument in German Waldheim cemetery in suburban Forest Park, right across the expressway from where the Blue Line ends.

Ask any corporate job-holder what the phrase “9-to-5” means today, and they will likely say that an eight-hour day is their half-day. The workers’ movement had a mantra: “Eight hours for work, eight hours for rest, eight hours for what you will.”

Bill C., a prominent financial services worker, told me, “Today, my corporation and most others believe its 12 hours for work, three more for working at home, two more for commuting, four hours for rest, and the rest whatever you have energy left for.” Sounds like workers’ rights are getting dangerously close to the level they were at in 1885.

5. During the “Roaring ’20s,” other cities had gangs and crime too
For decades, the city of Chicago was synonymous with Al Capone. During the early 1990s, stories of gang-banger drive-by shootings first entered the national consciousness. My now 102-year-old grandmother told me something then: “During Capone’s day, it was never like this, people shooting here and there randomly. In the ’20s, if you weren’t in a rival gang, they pretty much left you alone.” My grandmother lived near the site of the St. Valentine’s Day massacre and often reminisced about taking the Clark bus to work minutes after the fateful events of Feb 14, 1929. Was this a bloody part of Chicago’s history? Yes. Was it that much worse than the crime in other major cities? No. Did residents walk around paranoid of getting tommy-gunned? Absolutely not. In the jazz age, there was no color-coded system of threat warnings to instill additional fear. Similar to the coverage of anthrax and Y2K in recent years, the media pandered to fear and over-sensationalized the substance of the Chicago gangster story. For further elaboration, see the exhibit entitled “The crime capital of the nation.”

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