Veterans’ Administration War Bond Office, Christmas 1949Veterans’ Administration War Bond Office, Christmas 1949. Source: Bethel New Life Records, Special Collections. Photograph 15.10.
Children’s Program, South Chicago Branch Library, 1954Children’s Program, 1954. Source: CPL Branch Photographs, Special Collections. Photograph 3.8.
Bohemian Women’s Civic Club Day, Toman Branch Library, 1942Bohemian Women’s Civic Club Day, 1942. Source: CPL Branch Photographs. Photograph 2.3.
326 S. State St., 1945326 S. State St., 1945. Source: Chicago Loop Alliance Collection, Special Collections. Box 3, Folder 1.
Gary Playground, swim team, AAU Novice Relays, 1942Gary Playground, swim team, AAU Novice Relays, 1942. Source: Lawndale-Crawford Community Collection, Special Collections. Photograph 1.198.
Citizenship class, South Chicago Branch Library, 1957Citizenship class, 1957. Source: CPL Branch Photographs, Special Collections. Photograph 3.12
Johnson’s Hat Shop, circa 1939Johnson’s Hat Shop, circa 1939. Source: Bethel New Life Records, Special Collections, Photograph 2.5.
State St. Days, 1956State St. Days, 1956. Source: Chicago Loop Alliance Collection, Special Collections. Box 4, Folder 5.
A theme running throughout this year's One Book One Chicago selection, Thomas Dyja's The Third Coast, is the value Chicagoans placed on being "regular." In the preface, Dyja states,
Towering success mattered less to the vast majority of Chicagoans than just being "regular".... "Beyond being regular," wrote novelist Nelson Algren, "there was nothing expected of a man. To give more wasn’t regular. To give less wasn’t straight."
Dyja frequently discusses men and women whose importance and talents were anything but regular, but he notes that many of them projected images of themselves as "regular guys" and messages that appealed to "regular" citizens.
So what was it like for all those regular people to live in the 1930s to 1950s, the time period of Dyja's book? How would we learn about daily life for the average person in Chicago? CPL's Special Collections, Northside Neighborhood History Collection and Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection offer the chance to learn about this day-to-day living. Through our neighborhood collections you can explore photographs, letters, yearbooks, scrapbooks and more from people who lived all over the city. While some material comes from community leaders, plenty comes from "regular" folks.
The gallery above gives just a glimpse of what you can find. Many of the photographs from the Northside collections are online. For all the rest, please stop by and learn more about living in Chicago in the past.
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