On Saturday, October 24, I attended the Chicago Archives Fair. This annual event is a gathering of organizations from the Chicagoland area who wish to share information about their archives and provide support for the Chicago History Fair. The past two years, this event was hosted by the Newberry Library. This year, it was hosted by the Chicago Public Library at the Harold Washington Library Center.
In preparation, Laura Mills made a handout listing the holdings of Roosevelt University Archives collections, and I printed copies of a handout that had been distributed to visitors of the Auditorium Building when it had just opened. It lists lineresting facts about the building and some general information about Chicago as it existed at the the time. I also loaded (with some help) a screensaver of F.D.R. pictures from our archives and the Smithsonian Institution on my laptop. (If you want a copy of this screenaver, you can download it for free here: http://www.roosevelt.edu/newdeal/screensaver.htm )
Twenty four archives were represented at the Archives Fair: The Archdiocese of Chicago, The Chicago Area Archives, Chicago History Museum, Chicago Metro History Education Center, Chicago Public Library, Chicago State University, DePaul University, Frances Willard Historical Association, Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago, The HistoryMakers, Japanese American Service Committee Legacy Center, Lake County Discovrery Museum, Lake Forest College, Loyola University, Media Burn Independent Video Archive, National Archives at Chicago, National-Louis University, Northwestern University, Pritzker Military archives, Rush University Medical Center, University of Chicago, University of Illinois at Chicago, Women & Leadership Archives, and, of course, Roosevelt University.
After the exhibitors set up their displays, we met in the Reception Hall to listen to opening remarks from Glenn Humphreys on "How to Assist Chicago History Fair Students", while we enjoyed coffee and donuts.
We then went to the Cindy Pritzker Auditorium to hear a book talk by Carl Smith on his book "The Plan of Chicago: Daniel Burnham and the Remaking of the American City." The talk included a slideshow of original documents by Burnham and others. The original documents are now housed at the Art Institute of Chicago http://www.artic.edu/aic/libraries/research/specialcollections/collections.html.
After the exhibit hall opened to the public, I spoke to about forty visitors about the university archives. I showed the visitors the primary sources that we available at our archives site: http://www2.roosevelt.edu/library/newsite/university_archives.htm
Here is a link to the Chicago History Fair web site: http://www.chicagohistoryfair.org/ .
Michael Gabriel
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