The IDHH contains some content that may be harmful or difficult to view. Our cultural heritage partners collect materials from history, as well as artifacts from many cultures and time periods, to preserve and make available the historical record. Please view the Digital Public Library of America’s (DPLA) Statement on Potentially Harmful Content for further information.
As the month of October draws to an end, we enter the festivities of Halloween, Samhain, Allhallowtide, and Día de los Muertos. For some it’s spooky season, a time to delight in the macabre and darker side of life and death (and free candy); for others, it’s a time of religious rites and celebrations, including feasting, prayer and fasting, and remembrance.
Here are a few of our favorite Halloween-related images from IDHH contributors:
John Comstock, Skeleton reader. March 06, 1922. West Chicago Public Library District. Cornelia Neltnor Anthony and Frank D. Anthony Book Plate Collection. Courtesy of the West Chicago Public Library District.Mount Greenwood Park (0251) Events – Holiday celebrations – Halloween, 1971. 1971. Chicago Public Library. Chicago Park District Records: Photographs. Courtesy of the Chicago Public Library.Halloween party stereo cards, 1899 [page 1]. 1899. Bensenville Community Public Library. Bensenville Historical Collection. Courtesy of the Bensenville Community Public Library.Independence Park (0083) Events – Holiday celebrations – Halloween, undated. Chicago Public Library. Chicago Park District Records: Photographs. Courtesy of the Chicago Public Library.
The IDHH contains some content that may be harmful or difficult to view. Our cultural heritage partners collect materials from history, as well as artifacts from many cultures and time periods, to preserve and make available the historical record. Please view the Digital Public Library of America’s (DPLA) Statement on Potentially Harmful Content for further information.
In recognition of Black History Month, the IDHH would like to highlight several collections from our contributors and curated searches of IDHH items that tell different stories about the history of Black people in Illinois:
Gwendolyn Brooks: explore photographs related to Gwendolyn Brooks, Poet Laureate of Illinois and the first African American poet to win the Pulitzer Prize.
EBR African American Cultural Life (Southern Illinois University Edwardsville): a collection containing photographs, posters, and pamphlets centered around Eugene B. Redmond, Poet Laureate of East St. Louis whose work is connected to the Black Arts Movement and Professor Emeritus at SIUE.
EBR Million Man March (Southern Illinois University Edwardsville): a collection containing photographs about the Million Man March, a demonstration by Black men marching to Washington on October 16, 1995, and its second Anniversary celebration.
Timuel D. Black, Jr., Digital Collection (Chicago Public Library): a collection containing handwritten and typed letters and speeches by Timuel D. Black, Jr., civil rights activist, educator, and historian of Black life and politics in Chicago.
For the ancient Romans, the Ides functioned as one of three fixed points occurring each month that helped them keep track of the current date in the Roman calendar. The Ides landed around the 13th day in most months, but took place on the 15th day in a few months of the year such as March. The Ides of March is particularly infamous due to its association with the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BCE by Roman senators. Marking the end of the Roman Republic, Caesar’s downfall during the Ides of March would be chronicled by Greek-Roman writer Plutarch in his work Parallel Lives, eventually inspiring a number of adaptations and artworks over the centuries depicting this historical event.
One of the more well-known adaptations of Plutarch’s writing on Julius Caesar is William Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar. First produced in 1599, perhaps for the opening of the Globe Theatre that same year, Shakespeare dramatizes the events surrounding Caesar’s assassination to pose questions about authority, political power, and fate. The tragedy play has had a varied production history over the last 423 years, as political regimes and movements have found the work’s themes sympathetic or contrary to their cause. Illinois theatres have hosted a number of historic productions of the piece, including a three-week run in 1888 at the Chicago Opera House featuring in the lead role of Brutus the actor Edwin Booth, brother of actor John Wilkes Booth infamous for assassinating Abraham Lincoln in 1865. Though during his attack John Wilkes Booth credits himself as shouting “Sic semper tyrannis!” — a phrase which his brother Edwin would cry in his role as Brutus — it is the words the soothsayer character uses to warn Caesar that we repeat today: “Beware the Ides of March.”
Below are a few of our favorite items featuring Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar:
Chicago Opera House, Julius Caesar (September 24, 1888). September 24, 1888. Chicago Public Library. Chicago Theater Collection-Historic Programs. Courtesy of the Chicago Public Library.Grand Opera House, Julius Caesar (February 28, 1892). February 28, 1892. Chicago Public Library. Chicago Theater Collection-Historic Programs. Courtesy of the Chicago Public Library.Scene from ‘Julius Caesar’. March 18, 1937. Photographed by Harold E. Way. Knox College. Harold Way Photograph Collection. Courtesy of Knox College.James Prescott Warde as Brutus in a scene from “Julius Caesar”. n.d. Engraved by [George Henry] Adcock. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library. Portraits of Actors, 1720-1920. Courtesy of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library.Robert Downing as Marc Antony in “Julius Caesar”. 1889. Created by Gebbie & Husson. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library. Portraits of Actors, 1720-1920. Courtesy of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library.Caesar. n.d. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library. Motley Collection of Theatre and Costume Design. Courtesy of the Rare Book & Manuscript Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.Murder of Caesar. n.d. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library. Motley Collection of Theatre and Costume Design. Courtesy of the Rare Book & Manuscript Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Want to see more?
Visit the IDHH to view even more items related to Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.
Happy October! The Illinois Digital Heritage Hub will be at the Chicago Research Summit and the Illinois Library Association Conference later this month.
Join Keri Cascio, chair of the IDHH Marketing Working Group and Chicago Public Library’s Assistant Chief of Technology, Content and Innovation at the Chicago Research Summit on October 18th. Keri will introduce the new IDHH website and search portal and its potential as a resource for educators and students of Chicago History.
Joshua Lynch, IDHH metadata specialist and webmaster, will present on the IDHH Website and Portal at the Illinois Library Association Annual Conference during both exhibits sessions on Wednesday, October 23rd and Thursday, October 24th. Learn about the IDHH and the DPLA and the website as a tool for new and current contributing institutions, educators and learners, and other user groups.
We look forward to seeing you there and want to hear your thoughts on the site!
It’s the middle of summer and with the warm weather and school vacations, it’s peak season for outdoor activities. This time of the year, kids in Chicago take advantage of the city’s more than 500 parks, over 90 of which are featured in the Chicago Public Library’s Chicago Park District Records Photographs collection.
What better way to keep cool during the summer heat than at the pool? Chicago’s parks boast more than 70 pools across the city, just three of which are pictured below. As these photos suggest, pools have been an integral part of outdoor summertime activities in Chicago at least since the turn of the twentieth century.
Riis Park (0123) Activities – Swimming. 1936-07-01. Chicago Public Library. Chicago Park District Records-Photographs collection. Permission to display was given by the Chicago Public Library.
Madden Park (0028) Activities – Swimming. 1976-07-27. Chicago Public Library. Chicago Park District Records-Photographs collection. Permission to display was given by the Chicago Public Library.
Armour Square Park (0003) Features. C.1905. Chicago Public Library. Chicago Park District Records-Photographs collection. Permission to display was given by the Chicago Public Library.
On cooler days or when kids would prefer to stay dry, there are the Chicago Park District’s more than 300 playgrounds around the city. Beyond the slides, swings, merry-go-rounds, and more unusual features, the playground has long been a central place for after-school and summertime activities.
Washington Park (0021) Features – Playgrounds. 1956-06-11. Chicago Public Library. Chicago Park District Records-Photographs collection. Permission to display was given by the Chicago Public Library.
Washington Park (0021) Features – Playgrounds – Bynum Adventure Playland. No date. Chicago Public Library. Chicago Park District Records-Photographs collection. Permission to display was given by the Chicago Public Library.
Avondale Park (0081) Features – Playgrounds. 1935-07-16. Chicago Public Library. Chicago Park District Records-Photographs collection. Permission to display was given by the Chicago Public Library.
The Chicago Public Library has provided a collection comprised of 10,000 images capturing the history of the Chicago Park District. One of the largest contributions to the DPLA by an IDHH institution, the Chicago Park District Photographs digital collection is but a fraction of the Chicago Public Library’s Park District photographs. The digitized items represent 93 parks across the city. See all of the Chicago Park District items in the IDHH.
Washington Park, lagoon, 1935. Chicago Park District Records: Photographs, Box 104, Folder 5, Special Collections, Chicago Public Library. Permission to display provided by Chicago Public Library Special CollectionsDouglas Park, track and field, 1952. Chicago Park District Records: Photographs, Box 17, Folder 5, Special Collections, Chicago Public Library. Permission to display provided by Chicago Public Library Special Collections
