South Shore Community Collection
Scope and Contents
The South Shore Community Collection contains manuscripts, printed material and photographs on businesses, clubs and organizations, religious institutions, residents, schools and street scenes in the community area.
Some materials of interest include genealogy notes on several early settlers, 1918 construction photographs of the North Michigan Avenue Bridge substructure by The Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Company and South Shore Commission meeting materials.
The South Shore Historical Society’s original description of the Glass Plate Slides in the collection can be found in Box 6, Folder 34. Many of these plates are duplicated in the photographic prints.
Dates
- 1839 - 1982
Creator
- South Shore Historical Society (Chicago, Ill.) (Organization)
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 South Shore neighborhood is 9 miles southeast of the Loop. The neighborhood runs along the Lake from 67th Street south to 79th. The area was annexed into Chicago in 1889. South Shore is number 43 of the 77 official communities that make up Chicago.
Originally a swampy region, it was settled as a collection of settlements in the late nineteenth century in the southern part of Hyde Park Township. The settlements of Essex, Bryn Mawr, Parkside, Cheltenham Beach and Windsor Park were already around when the Illinois Central Railroad built the South Kenwood Station in 1881. It became known as South Shore in the 1920s.
Extent
23.5 Linear Feet (in 29 boxes, includes 431 photographs, 87 glass plate slides and 26 oversize folders)
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
The South Shore Community Collection contains manuscripts, printed material and photographs on businesses, clubs and organizations, religious institutions, residents, schools and street scenes in the community area.
Arrangement
The South Shore Community Collection is arranged topically into 12 series:
Series 1: Biographical Data, 1839-1974, undated
Series 2: Business Establishments, 1892-1957, undated
Series 3: Religious Institutions, 1887-1961, undated
Series 4: Clubs and Organizations, 1891-1982, undated
Series 5: Historical Sketches, 1876-1980, undated
Series 6: Municipal Agencies, 1927-1976, undated
Series 7: Parks, 1893-1957, undated
Series 8: Residences, circa 1880s-1973, undated
Series 9: Schools, 1878-1977, undated
Series 10: Street Scenes, circa 1880-1939, undated
Series 11: Transportation, 1884-1958, undated
Series 12: Wartime Activities, 1941-1945, undated
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The initial collection items were transferred from Chicago Public Library, South Shore Branch in the 1980s, as part of a grant from the Dr. Scholl Foundation.
Supplement 1 includes materials (Box 14, Folders 3-4 and Photographs 2.1-2.89) transferred from Chicago Public Library, South Shore Branch. Edith C. Propst donated Photograph 2.19. Collen Cunningham donated materials (Box 14, Folders 1-2 and 5-9; Box 13, Folder 3; and Photographs 2.90-2.9) are related to her time as a student at Aquinas High School and to her participation in theatrical productions at South Shore Country Club.
Separated Materials
The following items have been removed to different collections:
Calumet-Lake Calumet Harbor - Calumet and Indiana Harbors, U.S. Lake Survey, colored map, 1960, Calumet Region Community Collection, Oversize Folder 14
[Map of Central Chicago showing Century of Progress International Exposition Grounds, [1933], Century of Progress Collection
Map of Chicago for the Year 1933…with key to Century of Progress buildings, Bird’s eye view, T. N. T. Co., 1932, Century of Progress Collection
Board of Election Commissioners, 50 Ward Plan Passed by the City Council... July 22, 1921, with map, 1930 February, Chicago City-Wide Collection, Oversize Folder 21
Board of Election Commissioners, Cook County Congressional Districts within the city of Chicago, map, 1931 January, Chicago City-Wide Collection, Oversize Folder 23
Chicago Plan Commission, Lakefront Plan of Chicago, 1972, Chicago City-Wide Collection, Box 47, Folder 21
Chicago Plan Commission, Preliminary Comprehensive City Plan of Chicago: A Generalized Presentation of the City Plan Designed for a Population of 3,800,000 by 1965, (transferred from the South Shore Community Collection, nhrc-sscc), 1946 January, Chicago City-Wide Collection, Oversize Folder 73
“Chicago The Western City of Towers,” aerial view from Stevens Hotel to Palmolive Building (copy prints, parts 1 and 2), circa 1935, Chicago City-Wide Collection, Oversize Folder 146
Court House/City Hall, fourth, cornerstone-laying (2 copies), 1909, Chicago City-Wide Collection, Photographs 1.122a-b
Department of Public Works, Bureau of Maps and Plats, Map of Chicago Showing Growth by Annexations and Accretions, 1933 map with annotation, 1935, Chicago City-Wide Collection, Oversize Folder 29
Department of Public Works, Bureau of Maps and Plats, Ward Map City of Chicago, with Boundaries as Established by Ordinance of July 10 1931 and Amended Oct 21 1931 (reproduction), circa 1931, Chicago City-Wide Collection, Oversize Folder 74
Geologic Atlas of the United States: Chicago Folio, United States Geological Survey, Washington, D.C., includes color maps of geological surveys, economic geology sheets, and area geology sheets for the Riverside, Chicago, Desplaines, and Calumet Quadrangles (12 maps), 1902, Chicago City-Wide Collection, Oversize Folder 12
Map of Chicago in 1830, by A.T. Andreas, photocopy, copyright 1884, Chicago City-Wide Collection Oversize 41
Map of Chicago Incorporated as a Town August 5 1933, Compiled from Original Map of Chicago about 1833, color map by Conley, Walter and O.E. Stelzer, 1933, Chicago City-Wide Collection, Oversize Folder 44
School Map of Chicago, Chicago Board of Education, 1914, 1917, Chicago City-Wide Collection, Box 48, Folder 4
- Aquinas Dominican High School (Chicago, Ill.)
- Associations, institutions, etc. -- Illinois -- Chicago -- History -- Sources. Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Business enterprises -- Illinois -- Chicago Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Myra Bradwell Elementary School (Chicago, Ill.)
- Portraits -- Illinois -- Chicago Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Religious institutions -- Illinois -- Chicago Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Schools -- Illinois -- Chicago Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Societies and clubs -- Illinois -- Chicago Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- South Shore (Chicago, Ill.) Subject Source: Local sources
- South Shore Commission (Chicago, Ill.)
- South Shore High School (Chicago, Ill.)
- The Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Company (Chicago, Ill.)
Source
- Chicago Public Library. South Shore Branch (Organization)
Creator
- South Shore Historical Society (Chicago, Ill.) (Organization)
- Title
- Guide to the South Shore Community Collection
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Original author unknown. Updated and ingested into ArchivesSpace by Michelle McCoy, 2022.
- Date
- circa 1989
- 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