Revisiting the Great Chicago Fire 149 Years Later
Meredith FrancisSeptember 22, 2020
The Great Chicago Fire: A Chicago Stories Special reveals new details with recreations and animation that bring the fire to life. Executive producer Dan Protess and producer and writer Peter Marks talked about their approach to telling the old story in a new way.
Chicago-based Dancer Ruth Page's "Bewildering Array of Activities"
Daniel HautzingerAugust 21, 2020
Anna Pavlova, Irving Berlin, Serge Diaghilev, George Balanchine, Rudolf Nureyev: the choreographer and dancer Ruth Page worked with them all, plus brought Americana into ballet, built artistic institutions in her home base of Chicago, and choreographed over 100 ballets.
The Killing of Fred Hampton
Daniel HautzingerDecember 4, 2019
50 years ago, the promising young Black Panther leader Fred Hampton was killed during a police raid. Hampton's organizing and the outcry after his death helped lead to the election of Harold Washington and Bobby Rush, who was a Panther at the time of the raid.
The Chicago Archaeologist Who Changed the Way We Study Civilization
Meredith FrancisOctober 9, 2019
In 1919, James Henry Breasted founded the Oriental Instiute with what was at the time "a radical idea," that scholars should look toward the ancient Middle East to understand western civilization. Now, 100 years later, OI is celebrating its past by looking toward its future.
Looking Back At ‘The World’s Busiest Airport’
Meredith FrancisSeptember 24, 2019
As both of Chicago's airports look toward the future of air travel, here's a look at the ups and downs of Midway's past. When it was the world's busiest airport, Chicagoans would flock to watch airplanes take off and land in the airfield.
The Story of the Iconic Chicago Home
Daniel HautzingerJanuary 3, 2019
Chicago is renowned for its architecture, but a small-scale, domestic building unique to this city often goes unrecognized: the Chicago bungalow. The history of this style of house encompasses the story of Chicago's immigrants and infamous discrimination.
The Businessman Philanthropist You Haven't Heard of Who Shaped Chicago
Daniel HautzingerDecember 11, 2018
Julius Rosenwald used the fortune he amassed leading Sears to found the Museum of Science and Industry, establish schools for rural African Americans and YMCAs across the country, support newly arrived Jewish immigrants, and more.
Chicago's Deadliest Disaster
Daniel HautzingerJuly 24, 2018
One hundred and three years ago, on July 24, 1915, more than 800 people lost their lives in Chicago's deadliest tragedy, when a top-heavy boat rolled onto its side in the Chicago River only twenty feet from the shore. Watch an archival Chicago Stories episode about the Eastland Disaster.
When Chicago Was 'Hog Butcher to the World'
Daniel HautzingerJune 21, 2018
A square mile of the city just upstream from downtown devoted to turning livestock into products that saw 18 million animals in a year at its peak: the Union Stock Yards are almost unimaginable now, but they once epitomized Chicago, and gave us the assembly line and refrigerated rail cars.
"Respect Yourself": The Power of The Staple Singers
Daniel HautzingerJune 8, 2018
The Staple Singers combined the Delta blues of Pops Staples' birthplace with the gospel of his adopted home in Chicago to become international stars and civil rights activists. Hear Bob Dylan and Harry Belafonte reminisce on the Staples and learn their history before Mavis headlines the Chicago Blues Fest.
The Harlem (Actually Chicago) Globetrotters
Daniel HautzingerJune 6, 2018
The name is deceiving: they're not from Harlem, and they definitely didn't travel the globe at first. The Harlem Globetrotters were founded in Chicago by five high school stars and a short Jewish man, and originally played in small town gyms outside the city.
The First Female African American Pilot
Daniel HautzingerMarch 20, 2018
Only eighteen years after the Wright brothers' first flight, Bessie Coleman overcame both racism and sexism to become the first African American woman to earn a pilot's license, with the help of the Chicago Defender. But her high-flying career was cut tragically short.
From the Archive: Marshall Field's Christmas Windows
Daniel HautzingerDecember 1, 2017
They have been a tradition in Chicago for over one hundred years, and seemingly everyone has fond memories of going to see them. See some of your favorite Christmas windows and learn how they're put together in this episode of Chicago Stories from 2000.
The (Im)Perfect Crime
Daniel HautzingerOctober 31, 2017
Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb were brilliant students from affluent, respected families who had everything going for them – so much so that they felt they had to prove their superiority by murdering a fourteen-year-old boy in the "crime of the century."
Chicago's First Mexican Church
Daniel HautzingerSeptember 20, 2017
A century ago, Mexicans first began settling in Chicago as laborers in the steel mills, packinghouses, and on the railroads. One South Chicago community eventually opened the first Mexican church in the city, first in an old army barracks right before the Depression.
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