Blog

By Bobbi Pinkert, Class of 1999

“Aha! That’s how/why that happened!” is the golden moment for author, editor, and publisher of “Connecting the Windy City,” a research blog written by Jim Bartholomew from CAF’s class of 2008. He is not alone.

For those of us who think of research as akin to mystery sleuthing, the internet is our first line of investigation. For Bartholomew, this means 30 to 45 minutes a day spent trolling newspaper archives and Google images to prepare for his daily tidbit.

“I used to write extensively researched pieces,” he laments, “but no one looked at them. I decided I needed a vehicle where people could get in and out quickly, so I decided to fill my blog with something that happened on the date of publication many years ago.”

To accomplish his goal, Jim uses the Chicago Public Library website; it allows anyone with a library card to access many newspaper and magazine archives, including the Chicago Tribune, from the 1800’s. Jim files all his information in a binder, citing subject and date.

Bartholomew also uses Chicagology (Pre-WWII pictures and information) as well as Man on Five (photos from Chicago referenced by year) and the American Memory Collection from the Library of Congress (sorted by topic). While his binder does not rival the Montgomery Ward Catalogue, it is a hefty volume.

If you’d like to tap into your inner Sherlock, there are additional websites that explore the past history, architecture, and planning:

• SAH Archipedia is an online encyclopedia of the built world,
• Chicago: The Roaring Twenties catalogs building, art, and culture of the Art Deco era,
• Forgotten Chicago is a photo collection of people, places, and life in past years, and
• Bygone Chicago a random collection of interesting information including topics such as food, architecture and maps.

If you want to be in tune with current happenings and plans for the city, Chicago has a plethora of relevant websites. I troll these:

• DNA Chicago (subdivided by neighborhood),
• Crain’s Chicago Business (subscription daily),
• Chicago Architecture Blog (the latest real estate news and photos),
• Chicagoist (news and entertainment in Chicago),
• Curbed Chicago (Chicago homes, neighborhoods, and architecture), and
• Choose Chicago (things to do in Chicago).

And I check the Chicago Reader, the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Magazine and the Chicago Sun-Times on a daily basis, always finding some interesting tidbit.

To research specific topics or buildings in Chicago, you could begin with the Encyclopedia of Chicago and then proceed to Explore Chicago (Chicago Architecture Data—-the history and culture of Chicago).

The Digital Public Library of America is the place to go when you need an in-depth fix. It contains 14,037, 948 connections to libraries, archives, and museums across the United States. For blueprints and historic photos, try the Historic American Buildings Survey.

If you are spending a boring day dreaming of architecture, add The Bauhaus, Mies Van der Rohe Society and ArchNews Now to your menu of research spots.

If you’ve had your own AHA (!) moments of research, contact me at bp******@co*****.net, and I will add your sites to this list.