Aside serving as cornerstone of the Chicago Public Library system, Harold Washington Library Center is also home to CPL's Special Collections and Preservation Division. Since 1975, the Division has collected, preserved and offered access to the library’s rare and unique materials. Within the Division’s four categories - Special Collections, Archives, Exhibits and Preservation - Harold Washington houses an interesting selection of historic materials. There’s stuff relating to the Civil War, Chicago theatre history, Chicago’s world’s fairs, neighborhood history, and rare books and manuscripts from Chicago authors and publishers and relics from Chicago’s past. The Division also houses the Harold Washington Archives & Collections, which document the Harold Washington’s political career with artifacts, published material and manuscripts, and more than 10,000 photographs, audio and video cassettes. more ›

• Dan Hynes campaign for governor got a posthumous boost from the late Mayor Harold Washington -- who, it's worth noting, couldn't stand Hynes' father, Tom -- in a a new political ad which replays some not-so-glowing words Washington had for Gov. Pat Quinn, who Washington shitcanned in 1987.
• Two thousand Chicago Teamsters are gearing up to vote "yes" next week on authorizing a strike which would put an immediate stop to snow plowing and garbage pickup services. Sounds like a great plan since, you know, Mayor Daley doesn't want to privatize those services or anything.
• Weight loss specialist and constant talk radio advertising presence Dr. Gautum Gupta had his five Illinois clinics searched by the Feds yesterday.

This Thursday, Harold Washington Library will participate in Jumpstart’s Read for the Record, an event aiming to break a world record for the largest shared reading experience by encouraging children across the country to read the same book with an adult on the same day. The official campaign book is children’s classic Corduroy, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. more ›

In news of the bored today, the Chicago Public Library finally updated their website. You know the one that was just white with a little bit of green and just linked to a bunch of PDFs? Now it's all pretty and red and green like, yeah, kind of like a Christmas tree, but the redesign is better organized and most exciting, has an entire section devoted to digital media with ebooks, audio books, and archival photos available. more ›

Former Chicago mayor Eugene Sawyer has died, following a long illness. Sawyer was 73 years old. more ›

...than Ed Smith's video blog? As alderman of the West Side's 28th Ward, Smith has a reputation as (sort of) an independent. Coming into office with Harold Washington in 1983, Smith was behind the smoking ban, has pushed for federal prosecution of former police commander Jon Burge, and generally annoys Mayor Daley. Now he wants to be Cook County Recorder of Deeds. As The Reader's Mick Dumke pointed out, this election may be the Year... more ›

Chicagoist wasn't the only one reminiscing about Harold Washington this week. With the Cook County Commission deadlocked over the budget, County Commissioner Bill Beavers lashed out at the opposition in a press conference yesterday, saying that if Stroger were white, his budget proposal would pass. “This is a remake of the Harold Washington days with the 29, 21,” Beavers said, adding “it’s basically dealing with who’s going to control the county, white or black.... If... more ›

Yesterday was the 20th anniversary of the death of Harold Washington. The Chicago of 1983 was very different from the Chicago of 2007: factories were shutting down, and white middle-class homeowners were leaving the city in droves, taking their property taxes and urban stability with them. An alarming upswing in crime and drugs, coupled with escalating racial tensions left many Chicagoans nervous about the future. Richard J. Daley had been dead for seven years, and... more ›

It was twenty years ago today that Mayor Harold Washington collapsed at his desk in City Hall. He died of a massive heart attack. In 1983, Washington surprised Chicago by winning the Democratic Primary for Mayor. He won with 36% of the vote, beating out incumbent Mayor Jane M. Byrne and Richard M. Daley. In the April 1983 general election, Washington received 52% of the vote to become Chicago’s first black mayor, trumping Bernard Epton... more ›

We hope some of you got a chance to go to something at the Chicago Book Festival last week, but if not, here’s your chance. Our take on the second week: Jeffrey Toobin, CNN’s senior legal analyst, discusses and signs his newest book The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court, and maybe adds a few pointers for broke Chicagoists. Monday, Oct. 8, 6 p.m., Harold Washington Library, 400 S. State St., Cindy... more ›

Now that the Cubs are in the playoffs, want to convert? Or maybe you've been a Cubs fan but need to brush up on your trivia skills? Tonight, authors Glenn Stout, of the Best American Sports series, and Richard A. Johnson, the curator of the New England Sports Museum, present their latest collaboration, The Cubs: The Complete Story of Chicago Cubs Baseball, at Harold Washington Library. The Cubs details Cubs history covering such items as... more ›

We're all down with sculpture gardens. But are garden-gardens art? That’s the question artist Chapman Kelley (warning: pdf) is putting to the Chicago Park District — via a federal suit. Kelley alleges that the garden he designed and planted in Daley Bicentennial Plaza is art protected under the federal Visual Artists Rights Act. Not everyone agrees, saying that the flowers have run wild and that the garden occupied too much space. The park district reduced... more ›

You might have already heard of the City 2000 project. The mission was to document life in Chicago in the first year of the 21st century for future generations and all that (which, as NASA's "Ask an Astrophysicist" informs us actually started in 2001). Over 200 photographers set out to capture life in the city, as well as sounds and video, which are housed at UIC's library. You can watch parts of the project... more ›

Around the virtual Chicagoist "offices" we're known as "Grandpa" because we're one of the older members of the staff. We also have a penchant for telling "back in my day" stories, so sit back and strap in as we take the Chicagoist Wayback Machine on a trip to the spring of 1987. Back then, Harold Washington was re-elected as mayor and he had the votes in City Council to fully implement his agenda; Andre Dawson... more ›

Hi, we’re Chicagoist, and we’re Harry Potter addicts. We’re not ashamed of our guilty love, and when we take off the dust jacket to read on the train, it’s because we don’t want to ruin it, not because we’re embarrassed. We could argue with you over why we love them, but we’ll save our breath for reading the easy-to-read-well-written-and-just-plain-fun books instead. Unless you’ve been living under a rock since February, you already know that the... more ›

Chicagoist got a blast from the past yesterday when our man in Dirksen, Patrick Fitzgerald, announced the indictment of former 10th Ward Alderman Fast Eddie Vrdolyak on charges of federal fraud and bribery in connection with an alleged scheme to collect kickbacks in exchange for the sale of choice Gold Coast property. The charges allege that Vrdolyak conspired with businessman Stuart Levine to defraud the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science of the full... more ›

Well, we've been hearing about Looptopia for awhile. A big overnight festival held in the Loop, blah blah. We didn't think too much about it. We pretty much dismiss the Loop after 5 p.m. and give it up for lost on the weekends. Looptopia is obviously working hard to change all that. It's going on this Friday through early Saturday morning and since we're going to be down there, we decided to check out the... more ›

Is it 2007 or 1927? more ›

This election has been one of the most significant in recent memory. With seven new aldermen set to take office in May, including the wife of Jesse Jackson Jr. in the 7th Ward, the stage is set for a new power struggle in Chicago. This year, more than any other, saw the city's labor movement — especially the service-sector unions — flex their political muscle. The result? A record-low turnout in the mayoral vote, and... more ›

This week's theme: soul food, y'all. We ate enough of it last week to pine for the days of Ms. Biscuit on South Chicago Avenue (located next door to Mr. Biscuit's Hand Car Wash and Auto Detail). Here we go. City Mouse: Chef Gilbert Langlois (Rushmore, SushiSamba Rio) describes his new North Center-based concept Chalkboard as "new American cuisine," drawing inspiration from French country, classic Southern, and the less spicy elements of Creole for his... more ›

As if the gorgeous weather wasn't enough reason to call out sick for the week, Columbia College give you another with its 11th annual Story Week: Cities of Words. Sunday kicked off the week of words with an alumni reading, and Monday's reading by Anchee Min about Maoist China was tender, raw and funny. With fifteen events over five days, you can't go to everything, but here's where Chicagoist will be: Tuesday: the Graduate Student... more ›

This past weekend reinforced why we live in Chicago. Everything may still be brown and muddy, but the fact remains that the blue skies and warm sun reminded us why this city rules. Here are two more reasons why Chicago is awesome, just in case this weekend wasn’t enough for you. more ›

After a brief jaunt out west, Chicagoist is back at the homestead, making camp here on the prairie that is sweet home Chicago. But just because we took a long weekend doesn't mean that our elected officials did. Here's a look back at what's been newsworthy so far this week: Illinois junior senator Barack Obama has a huge lead — in MySpace friends! Outpacing Hillary Clinton's "friends" by some 20,000, he's clearly in the lead,... more ›

If you haven't heard the news that Barack Obama is officially running for president yet, we'd have to wonder what hole you've been hiding in. After a rousing announcement speech in Springfield, where he laid out his reasons for running and outlined his vision for America, Obama headed to Iowa, where he made a whirlwind tour of one of the states that will be critical to securing the nomination. After talking tough about Iraq, energy... more ›

In the US, February marks Black History Month, and while there are no shortage of opportunities to learn about important and significant people of African descent this month, the purpose and history behind the event is sometimes lost. While Africans have been present in North America at least since colonial times, black history had barely begun to be studied — or even documented — when the tradition formally began in 1926. It wasn't until later... more ›

We tend to keep the 10 p.m. local news on for background noise as we work on perfecting our next blogging masterpiece. Night after night, the stories tend to be about the same – a few robberies, some new business merger, speculation about the Bears future, and a health piece about how some food that will really make us fat may also help us fend of diseases. But on Tuesday night, our ears perked up... more ›

Cook County Commissioner Forrest Claypool more ›

Mayor Daley has a lot on his mind these days, and most of what's in there has been in the news recently. He started this week being hailed by Conscious Choice magazine as a great environmentalist. Plus he's building those solar bus shelters and recycled sidewalks. (Now if only the buses would actually show up....) And when the local hippie press isn't fawning over his recycling program and his big plans for the CTA (WTF!?),... more ›

What happens when you combine a zest for development, poor video editing skills, and a DSL connection? You get this. Being a Chicago Alderman, by default, makes you something of a historical figure. Being notable, then, ought to warrant you your own page on Wikipedia. The funny thing about Wikipedia is that it is created and maintained by anyone with an internet connection. As Stephen Colbert illustrated all too clearly, that system doesn't always lend... more ›

The political season is over for most of the country. Hell, it's over for most of the media, and all the other people that sit around and watch it like "Monday Night Football." For the next month and a half, most of us will be thinking about eggnog, latkes, Wild Turkey with grandma, and how to pick up that cashier at Jewel with the intriguing accent. But if there's one group of people that are... more ›