Austin High School Records
Scope and Contents
This collection documents Austin High School from its earliest days in the 1870s through the federally mandated desegregation attempts of the 1960s and 1970s. The documentation includes histories, news clippings, photographs, programs, student publications and yearbooks.
Dates
- Creation: 1881 - 1987
Conditions Governing Access
Materials are open without restrictions.
Conditions Governing Use
Please consult staff to determine ability to reuse materials from collection.
Biographical / Historical
The Austin neighborhood is seven miles west of Chicago’s Loop. Community number 25 of Chicago's 77 official communities, it is on the western edge of the city bordering Cicero, Oak Park and Elmwood Park. Austin was annexed into Chicago in 1889.
Austin High School has served Chicago’s Austin community since the last quarter of the 19th century. Delos Buzzell was Austin High School’s first principal from 1876 to 1879. During that time, the school occupied one room of the North School on Ohio Street. In the late 1870s, Austin High School’s library consisted of some 700 books, which led to the hiring of the school’s first librarian.
Following the Austin community settlement’s annexation to the City of Chicago in 1889, the Austin High School’s student population grew dramatically from 400 students in 1900 to 2,298 in 1920 and 6,815 students in 1931.
Austin High School, like the community it served, experienced demographic change during the 1960s and 1970s. Racial tensions were brought to the surface by federally mandated desegregation attempts and demographic changes in Austin’s population.
Extent
6.5 Linear Feet (in 14 boxes, including 17 photographs)
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
This collection documents Austin High School from its earliest days in the 1870s through the federally mandated desegregation attempts of the 1960s and 1970s. The documentation includes histories, news clippings, photographs, programs, student publications and yearbooks.
Arrangement
The collection is arranged into 2 series: Series 1: Documents, 1883-1987 and Series 2: Photographs, 1881-1928, undated
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Transferred from Chicago Public Library, Austin Branch in the 1984 as part of a Dr. Scholl Foundation grant. Supplements to the collection have been donated or transferred from multiple sources.
The initial accession is held in Boxes 1-2 and includes photographs 1.1-1.9 that were collected by various Austin Historical organizations. Supplement 1 is held in boxes 3-4. Supplement 2 is held in boxes 5-13. During the cataloging of Supplement 3, the entire collection was checked for duplicates, and several duplicates were discarded. Photos with accession numbers 2.1-2.8 were transferred from the West Side Historical Society.
Source
- Chicago Public Library. Austin Branch (Organization)
- West Side Historical Society (Chicago, Ill.) (Organization)
Subject
- Austin High School (Chicago, Ill.) (Organization)
- Title
- Guide to the Austin High School Records
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Original author unknown, 1984. Updated and ingested into ArchivesSpace by Michelle McCoy, 2021
- Date
- 1984
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Finding aid written in English.
Repository Details
Part of the Special Collections Unit at Harold Washington Library Center Repository
Harold Washington Library Center, 9th Floor
Chicago Public Library
400 S. State Street
Chicago IL 60605 United States
(312) 747-4875
specoll@chipublib.org