"If it's good, it's too good not to share."
-Shel Silverstein
Chicago for Chicagoans believes in the accessibility of information. If we research it, it's yours to use for non-profit purposes.
Please contact us if you'd like a copy of our tour notes, or some of our books--
educate yourself, your neighbors, and your community!
Please contact us if you'd like a copy of our tour notes, or some of our books--
educate yourself, your neighbors, and your community!
Zines, Pamphlets, Books, & more
We're artists! We like making things to accompany our tours. Our printed goods are imagined, designed, illustrated, researched, written, cut, and folded by our collaborators, staff, & friends.
Neat! Where can I get one? Attend our events! We give zines & stickers out for free in conjunction with certain tours and lectures. You can also head over to the donate page, where any amount over $5 qualifies you to receive your choice of materials below. Educators & activists are entitled to use our handouts, free of charge, with proper credit. Just let us know, and we'll hook you up!
Neat! Where can I get one? Attend our events! We give zines & stickers out for free in conjunction with certain tours and lectures. You can also head over to the donate page, where any amount over $5 qualifies you to receive your choice of materials below. Educators & activists are entitled to use our handouts, free of charge, with proper credit. Just let us know, and we'll hook you up!
RESEARCH Databases & Resources
Curious about Chicago? Want to dive in and learn on your own? We often use these free resources below to conduct our tour research. These should help get you started! Find something neat? Have a cool resource to suggest? Email us, we'd love to know!
Chicago neighborhoods map: http://chicagomap.zolk.com/
Chicago neighborhood overviews: https://www.neighborhoods.com/neighborhood-guides/il/chicago
Chicago, Cook County, & Illinois Architectural resources:
Chicago Public Library resources (access for free online with your card number):
Chicago History resources:
Genealogical resources:
Specific, free, online databases:
Historic Photo Collections:
Library Archival Collections
Books to Keep as Reference:
Books to Read:
Chicago neighborhood overviews: https://www.neighborhoods.com/neighborhood-guides/il/chicago
Chicago, Cook County, & Illinois Architectural resources:
- Commission on Chicago Landmarks: Your House Has A History
- Illinois Historic Preservation Agency HARGIS (overview of historic properties statewide)
- National Register Properties in Chicago + list of Chicago Landmarks
- Historic Resources survey (city database, can often use to find construction date and any associated architects)
- Cook County Building Details (official street address, building PIN number, & age of building in an interactive map)
- Chicago Cityscape (sign up for free neighbor account to view recent permits, property data, & more)
- Chicago Building Violations (good for finding permit numbers, too)
- Chicago Building Permits (contemporary official database, lists architects and contractors, etc)
- Historic Chicago Building Permits (1872 - 1954)
Chicago Public Library resources (access for free online with your card number):
- Chicago Tribune Archives (1849-1997)
- Tip: search for building history (famous past residents, former business occupants, old advertisements, etc.) by searching the street address in quotes. Northside address? Find older articles without the street direction. Ex. “1241 Damen”. Newer articles are more likely to be found with “1241 N Damen”. Southside address? Always include “south” or “s” in the street address or you’ll get the northside address equivalent. Ex. “1255 S Michigan” or “1255 South Michigan”.
- More Chicago newspapers (Chicago Defender, Daily Herald, Chicago Sun-Times, the Jewish Press)
- Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps + Historical Informational Gatherers Maps + MORE MAPS
- Chicago History Map
- Archival Collections A-Z + Digital Collections A-Z (includes Park District photographs)
- Awesome CPL archives that don't exist online, but are free to visit:
Chicago History resources:
- Encyclopedia of Chicago
- Chicagology (articles about Chicago grouped by decades & categories, with primary sources)
- Me & My Shadow blog (oral histories of Northwest-side neighborhoods)
- Chicago Patterns (history by neighborhood)
- Forgotten Chicago (great, well researched articles on various Chicago topics)
- History Makers (oral histories by black Americans, featuring over 295 stories by folks from Illinois)
- Studs Terkel Radio Archive (45 years of interviews)
- Chicago Park histories (click the park, then navigate to the "history" page)
- Street renumbering guide (Loop / Outside of Loop) and street renaming / history guide
Genealogical resources:
- Chicago Genealogy (city directories, birth/death/marriage/property records, & more)
- Chicago Ancestors (address-based history)
- Heritage.com (census records, family & personal records)
- Cook County Business Directories
- Chicago Phone Books
Specific, free, online databases:
- Historic Theatres (every old theatre in the country, it seems, plus photos!)
- Chicago Historic Schools (limited in scope, but great information)
- Chicago El, Metra, & Rail History (painstakingly detailed history of every line and every station)
- Community institution websites — look for “about us” or “history” page on the websites of your local: church, synagogue, mosque, or temple; decades-old mom & pop businesses; local schools; chambers of commerce; historical societies; neighborhood associations
- Archive.org (public domain resources galore! many books can be borrowed for an hour or are available for free)
Historic Photo Collections:
- Chicago Public Library Digital Collections
- Chicago Collections Consortium (historic photos from a variety of Chicago institutions)
- Chicago Geek
Library Archival Collections
- Newberry Library (labor history collections, biographies of local luminaries, religious institution archives, and genealogy)
- Chicago History Museum (Marshall Field records, maps, directories, city guidebooks, building permits, photos)
- Art Institute of Chicago and the Ryerson and Burnham Library (architectural collections, 1893 Fair photographs, Daniel Burnham papers, and more — many available digitally)
- Gerber-Hart Library (huge collection of Chicago and Midwestern LGBTQ+ history)
- University of Illinois @ Chicago (1933 Fair records, Richard J. Daley collection, Forest Preserve collections, Hull-House collection, and a digitized building permits collection pre-1956)
- Northwestern University (transportation collections, feminist collections, Leopold & Loeb collections, tons of maps)
- University of Chicago (fire maps, 19th century maps, Ida B. Wells papers, & more)
- Chicago State University (Maxwell Street photography collection, progressive education collection)
- DePaul University (Lincoln Park), Loyola University (Rogers Park), and North Park University (Albany Park) hold documents related to their neighborhoods' history
- The Field Museum and the Nature Museum are excellent resources for Chicagoland natural history
- Check out IIT's collections for Mies Van Der Rohe records and the Frank Lloyd Wright Trust for his papers
Books to Keep as Reference:
- Our Cultural Geography pamphlet
- AIA Guide to Chicago
- Streetwise Chicago: A History of Chicago Street Names
- The Chicago 77 (Mary Zangs)
- Chicago Business and Industry: From Fur Trade to E-Commerce
- Ethnic Chicago (Peter d’A. Jones, Melvin Holli)
- Illustrated Dictionary of Historic Architecture
- Digitized: History of Chicago (Alfred Andreas)
- City of Big Shoulders: A History of Chicago
- The City in a Garden (Julia Bachrach)
- The Chicago River: A Natural and Unnatural History
- Black Chicago: The Making of a Negro Ghetto, 1890-1920
- Chicago Whispers (LGBTQ+ history)
- Strike! (Jeremy Brecher)
Books to Read:
- Sin in the Second City (history of the vice district)
- City on the Make (Nelson Algren)
- Hillbilly Nationalists, Urban Race Rebels, and Black Power (Chicago in the 1960s)
- The Best Remaining Seats (history of movie palaces)
- Digitized: Chicago Yesterdays (essays about the fire, grand parties, and daily life by famous Chicagoans)
- Digitized: The Jungle
- Digitized: Black Chicago's First Century
- The Pit: A Story of Chicago
- Digitized: Give the Lady What She Wants: The Story of Marshall Field & Company
- H.H. Holmes: The True History of the White City Devil
- The Chicago School of Architecture (Carl Condit)
- For the Thrill of It: Leopold, Loeb, and the Murder That Shocked Jazz Age Chicago
- What Would Jane Say? (Chicago's urban planning from different perspectives)
- The Third Coast (Thomas Dyja)
- Chicago by Day and Night (a look at vice in 1893 Chicago)
- Chicago Death Trap: The Iroquois Theatre Fire of 1903
- Digitized: Growing Up with a City (Louise de Koven Bowen)