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A lifelong Chicagoan, Brenetta Howell Barrett was a leader and political activist in West Side community organizations. She served in the mayoral administrations of Harold Washington and Eugene Sawyer. Active in housing, environmental and civil liberties issues, she was also involved in community protests in the 1960s and 1970s. Her papers include correspondence, office files, programs, clippings, photographs and memorabilia.

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A collection of photographs from a YMCA (Young Men’s Christian Association) camp in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.

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This small collection contains clippings, programs, yearbooks, photographs, and biographical and historical sketches of the Belmont Cragin neighborhood in the late nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century.

Abstract Bethel New Life, Inc. is a non-profit community development corporation and social service organization. The organization received an Illinois Humanities Council grant in 1983 to “involve the Black community of Chicago’s West Side in recovering the recent history of the area.” The Looking Backward to Move Forward project from 1984 to1989 focused on the themes of migration, ownership patterns, the church, and community leadership. The historical explorations included a series of oral...

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The Beverly-Morgan Park Collection contains range of manuscript, printed and photographic materials on the development of these adjacent community areas in southwestern Chicago. The documentation includes information on businesses, clubs and organizations, municipal agencies, parks, religious institutions, residences, schools, transportation, and the Village of Morgan Park from its incorporation in 1892 until its annexation to the City of Chicago in 1914.

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The Dr. Morris Binder Playbill Collection includes bound volumes of theater programs, documenting nearly every performance the physician attended dating from 1939 until his death in 2012. Binder's index and additional programs were also provided by the donor.

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The Black Ensemble Theater was founded in 1976 by noted actress, producer and playwright Jackie Taylor. The collection includes reviews and promotional pieces for such productions as Taylor’s The Other Cinderella and Muddy Waters: The Hoochie-Coochie Man in addition to administrative and financial records dating from the company’s inception.

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This collection contains two handwritten travel diaries belonging to Chicago artist Esther Blanke. The diaries cover the years 1903-1904 and document her travels in Europe with her sister, Chicago artist Marie Blanke.

Abstract Toni M. Bond Leonard became involved in the reproductive justice movement in the 1980s, eventually becoming executive director for the Chicago Abortion Fund. In 1996, Bond Leonard was one of the founding members of African American Women Evolving, which was formed to provide educational services to the African American community about reproductive justice, equality and education. The collection includes organizational and biographical records, as well as manuscripts, correspondence and...

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A portfolio of facsimile illustrations by well-known artists of World’s Columbian Exposition buildings, fairgrounds and exhibits.

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Houston and Cora Bowman were founding members of Trinity United Church of Christ, a large and influential church on Chicago’s South Side. Their papers include the early history of Trinity, church newsletters, event programs and organizational records.

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Personal papers related to Louis Bowman’s ministry and volunteer work, including radio addresses, speeches, articles, pamphlets and correspondence.

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The collection reflects George Brennan’s personal interest in the local history of the Calumet region and the early Dutch community in Chicago.

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The Brighton Park Community Collection contains information about neighborhood schools and religious institutions as well as a 100-page manuscript, “Gleanings of Archer Road” by local historian and reporter, Joseph Hamzik.

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A leader in the Chicago Music Association and the National Association of Negro Musicians, Sydonia Brooks donated a collection of CMA and NANM newsletters, proceedings and photographs.

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Ann Brown was a member of the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs and longtime member of the Missionary Society of Arnett Chapel A.M.E. Church. Collection contains photographs, memorabilia, funeral programs, church programs and genealogical records relating to the Brown family.

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Collection consists of two scrapbooks from 1934 to 1938 from Al Browne’s tours around the United States as a circus clown and circus owner/manager.

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The Calumet Pioneer Historical Society was established in 1935 by the head of the Pullman Branch Library to help preserve the history of the region. The collection includes administrative records, executive committee and regular meeting minutes, speech transcripts, photographs and artifacts.

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The Calumet Region Community Collection spans Chicago’s Roseland, Pullman, West Pullman, South Holland, Dolton, Fernwood, Gano, Kensington, Riverdale and Rosemoor neighborhoods. The collection includes biographical, business, church, community and school records in addition to photographs, scrapbooks, community histories and artifacts spanning more than one hundred years.

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Lillian May (Smith) Campbell and her husband, Frank R. Campbell amassed a collection of photographs of Chicago views that primarily depict streetcars, trolley buses and other modes of transportation as well as document opening ceremonies for bus and streetcar lines across the city in the 1930s. The collection is particularly strong in the neighborhoods of Roseland, South Shore, South Chicago, Woodlawn, Lake View, Rogers Park, Portage Park and Logan Square.

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This small collection of photographs consists of snapshots taken by Sylvia Campbell’s husband on Chicago’s West Side during the April 1968 riot following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr..

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First dinner-theater in the United States. Collection consists primarily of promotional materials such as programs, reviews and clippings for musical and comedy productions.

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Carter Temple Christian Methodist Episcopal Church was founded in 1921. Carrie McMorris, a longtime member of the congregation, donated this collection, which contains church histories, programs, souvenir booklets and special events records of Carter Temple C.M.E. Church.

Abstract Draft and final scripts, lyrics and scores, as well as some administrative material such as correspondence for productions and projects on which Warren Casey worked during the 1970s and 1980s. Includes considerable materials relating to Grease, including working notes, draft and final versions of the script and score in its various manifestations, and the published score. Also included are drafts of screenplays for the film version of ...

Abstract Horace Cayton (1903-1970) was a Black sociologist, co-author of  Black Metropolis and director of Chicago’s Parkway Community House in the 1940s. His papers consist of correspondence, published and unpublished manuscripts, photographs, subject research files, memorabilia and oral history recordings. In the last years of his life, Cayton conducted research, including interviews, on the life of his friend and noted author, Richard Wright. Housed with Cayton’s...

Abstract Commemorating Chicago’s centennial anniversary, A Century of Progress was the name given to the international exposition held in Burnham Park along Chicago’s lakefront from 1933 to 1934. Technological innovation was the theme of the fair. The collection contains artifacts, brochures, booklets, guides, maps, photographs, postcards, fairgoer scrapbooks, souvenirs and viewbooks from the 1933-1934 World’s Fair as well as publicity and fundraising addresses, press releases and other planning...

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This collection comprises of 11 scrapbooks of news clippings related to Chicago’s Century of Progress World’s Fair. Most of the clippings in the scrapbooks are from Chicago newspapers though the creator is unknown. While many different aspects of the Fair are covered, there is a significant amount of dedicated to Sally Rand, the burlesque dancer and actress, known for her fan dance.

Abstract This collection is made up almost entirely of letters, with a small number of newspaper clippings, photographs and hand-copied poems, prayers and literary excerpts. The letters are written primarily by Albert Hafner to his fiancé Elizabeth (Bessie) Chandler, who was living in Florida. They document his near-decade living in Chicago, 1891-1899. The letters describe, among other things, the 1893 World's Fair, farm life in Evanston, cold winters, boarding houses, bicycling and business...

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The collection consists of correspondence, primarily related to the business of real estate in early Chicago.

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The Chatham-Grand Crossing Community Collection contains a selection of items that fall into the following topical areas: biography, business, clubs and organizations, historical sketches, municipal agencies, religious institutions, schools, transportation and wartime activities. The materials include articles, correspondence, flyers, news clippings and reminisces. The bulk of the items are from the 1920s-1950s.