Educational History in Chicago: Free Online Resources

Find and create interactive learning activities with primary source documents that promote historical thinking skills.

An online interpretive exhibit about settlement house neighborhoods containing photographs and documents from collections in the Special Collections Department, Richard J. Daley Library, University of Illinois at Chicago.

Founded in 1910, the National Urban League is one of the oldest African American social service, research, and advocacy organizations in the United States. A group of sociologists, social workers, and philanthropists founded the Chicago League in 1916 to address the rapidly increasing needs of the African American community during a time of voluminous migration.

Photographs and documents in this exhibit are from collections in the Special Collections Department, Richard J. Daley Library, University of Illinois at Chicago. The materials featured here represent only a small portion of the materials available in the individual collections.

A collaboration between Special Collections and the Hull House Museum, this online site explores many aspects of Hull House, including education and community support. Many primary documents and images are available on the site.

The BMRC is currently undertaking a city-wide survey of African American primary source materials collections in Chicago. While this survey is in progress (and is currently incomplete) researchers can search across preliminary descriptions of holdings from a range of Chicago respositories.

This exhibition is presented in association with the Black Metropolis Research Consortium, a Chicago-based association of libraries, universities, and archival institutions.