Chicago Skyscrapers In Vintage Postcards

The skyscraper has changed the face of urban architectureand it all started in Chicago. Born out of the ashes of Chicagos Great Fire of 1871, the first skyscraper, the Home Insurance Building located at the northeast corner of LaSalle and Adams Streets, was completed in 1885. Designed by William Le Baron Jenney, the nine-story building had a metal load-carrying structural frame, the development of which led to steel-frame skeletal construction and the taller skyscrapers that would follow. Much has changed in skyscraper construction since 1885. But Chicagos impressive urban landscape has maintained its important place in architectural history and today boasts the tallest skyscraper in North America, at 110 stories.

Use postcards to present a pictorial history of Chicago's skyscrapers, from the Home Insurance Building completed in 1885 to the tallest skyscraper in North America at 110 stories.

The fires that destroyed Chicago in the 1870s just happened to be events that have led to the city's importance today. Chicago, after the destruction of its downtown, was free to use new architectural concepts and to examine how to use its crowded land space. It was free to reinvent itself. Soon, new Jenny-inspired "tower" buildings began to claw their way into the sky, enabling the city to concentrate its commercial core. By the turn of the century, Chicago had added many lakefront buildings, parks, and temples of art and music, built an elevated railway system, and hosted a World's Fair. Chicago was the first city to let the inventiveness of industrialism mold the way it went about its business and pastimes. Chicago's Opulent Age examines the buildings, events, parks, and people of the city from the 1870s through the 1940s. Also featured are "funlands," fairs, sculptures, and transportation. More than 200 pictures and colorful narratives provide a fitting tribute to the past history of this great city.

Major help for those inevitable American History term paper projects has arrived to enrich and stimulate students in challenging and enjoyable ways. Students from high school age to undergraduate will be able to get a jumpstart on assignments with the hundreds of term paper projects and research information offered here in an easy-to-use format. Users can quickly choose from the 100 important events of the nineteenth century, carefully selected to be appealing to students, and delve right in. Each event entry begins with a brief summary to pique interest and then offers original and thought-provoking term paper ideas in both standard and alternative formats that incorporate the latest in electronic media, such as iPod and iMovie. The best in primary and secondary sources for further research are then annotated, followed by vetted, stable Web site suggestions and multimedia resources for further viewing and listening. Librarians and faculty will want to use this as well. Students dread term papers, but with this book, the research experience is transformed and elevated. Term Paper Resource Guide to Nineteenth-Century U.S. History is a superb source to motivate and educate students who have a wide range of interests and talents. The provided topics on events, people, inventions, cultural contributions, wars, and technological advances reflect the country's nineteenth-century character and experience. Some examples of the topics are Barbary Pirate Wars, the Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings liaison, Tecumseh and the Prophet, the Santa Fe Trail, Immigration in the 1840s, the Seneca Falls Convention, the Purchase of Alaska, Boss Tweed's Ring, Wyatt Earp and the Gunfight at O.K. Corral, United States v. Wong Kim Ark, and Scott Joplin and Ragtime Music.

A “compelling narrative” about three Chicago Cubs legends, the rise of baseball fever, and the emergence of a new America as the twentieth century began (Booklist, starred review). Their names were chanted, crowed, and cursed. Alone they were a shortstop, a second baseman, and a first baseman. But together they were an unstoppable force. Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers, and Frank Chance came together in rough-and-tumble early twentieth-century Chicago and soon formed the defensive core of the most formidable team in big league baseball, leading the Chicago Cubs to four National League pennants and two World Series championships from 1906 to 1910. At the same time, baseball was transforming from small-time diversion into a nationwide sensation. Americans from all walks of life became infected with “baseball fever,” a phenomenon of unprecedented enthusiasm and social impact. The national pastime was coming of age. Tinker to Evers to Chance examines this pivotal moment in American history, when baseball became the game we know today. Each man came from a different corner of the country and brought a distinctive local culture with him: Evers from the Irish-American hothouse of Troy, New York; Tinker from the urban parklands of Kansas City, Missouri; Chance from the verdant fields of California’s Central Valley. The stories of these early baseball stars shed unexpected light not only on the evolution of the game and the enthusiasm of its players and fans, but also on the broader convulsions transforming the US into a confident new industrial society. With them emerged a truly national culture. This iconic trio helped baseball reinvent itself, but their legend has largely been relegated to myths and barroom trivia. David Rapp’s engaging history resets the story and brings these men to life again, enabling us to marvel anew at their feats on the diamond. It’s a rare look at one of baseball’s first dynasties in action. Winner, Nonfiction Book of the Year, Chicago Writer’s Association “Connects these baseball stories to larger cultural themes such as social and economic class, the New York–Chicago rivalry, and the emerging media technologies during this period. Highly recommended for baseball fans and those interested in early 20th-century American history.” —Library Journal

At the outset of the twentieth century the debut of the American picture postcard incited widespread enthusiasm for collecting and sending postcard art that lasted decades. In Picturing Illinois, John A. Jakle and Keith A. Sculle examine a diverse set of 200 vintage Illinois picture postcards revealing what locals considered captivating, compelling, and commemorable. They also interpret how individual messages impart the sender's personal perception of local geography and scenery. Jakle and Sculle follow the dialogue between urban Chicago and rural downstate, elucidating the postcard's significance in popular culture and the unique ways in which Illinoisans pictured their world.

Rich land at the edge of a great prairie with the wonderful Fox River flowing through it, providing a source of power-this is what the settlers of Kane County found when they arrived. Early pioneers came from the eastern United States in the 1830s, and later migrated from Europe. Kane County in Vintage Postcards tells the story of the beginning of Kane County through its first 100 years, 1838 through 1938, featuring images of that period. This new history of Kane County includes an essay on the importance of postcards as historical data, a general history of the county, and a section-by-section look at 27 cities and villages. More than 200 pictures and colorful narratives tell of the accomplishments by those first few generations who lived and died in the county.

"Chicago was incorporated as a city in 1837, and for the years that followed before the Great Chicago Fire, the city grew slowly and steadily, finally becoming for a brief period the second largest city in America. After the Fire in 1871, the city rebuilt quickly and technological changes came with brick buildings, a more modern downtown and transportation system. This was the prologue to the concept of this new book about how Chicago has changed and adapted over the past 145 years. The authors, through the use of a combination of striking and evocative postcards gathered by Lawrence Okrent, black and white photos drawn from collections amassed by the Chicago History Museum and the CTA, and color photographs taken by one of the book’s co-authors, Steven Dahlman, have created a book that provides the reader with the many ways in which Chicago has changed from the 1880s to today"--From publisher.