| Dates: | 1978-1979, 2016 |
| Size: | 1.5 linear feet in 1 box, includes 69 photographs |
| Repository: | Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, 400 S. State Street, Chicago, IL 60605 |
| Collection Number: | spe-n00021 |
| Immediate Source of Acquisition: | Photographs 1.1-1.60 were purchased from David Gremp, 2015. Photographs 1.61-1.68 were transferred from the Chicago Public Library, Pullman Branch and Photograph 1.69 was transferred from the Chicago Public Library, Chinatown Branch. |
| Conditions Governing Access: | Materials are open without restrictions. |
| Conditions Governing Use: | Please consult staff to determine ability to reuse materials from collection. |
| Preferred Citation: | When quoting material from this collection the preferred citation is: David Gremp Photographs, [Box #, Photograph#], Special Collections, Chicago Public Library. |
| Finding Aid Author: | Michelle McCoy, 2015. Updated and ingested into ArchivesSpace by Michelle McCoy, 2021 |
Abstract
As part of the CETA/Neighborhood Arts Program in Chicago, David Gremp was the artist-in-residence assigned to the Chicago Public Library. His photographs document the neighborhoods surrounding 13 library branch locations including Austin, Chatham, Chinatown, Garfield Park, Hyde Park, Lincoln Park, Lincoln Square, Little Village, Lower Westside, Pullman, Scottsdale, Uptown, and Washington Heights.
Biographical/Historical
Born and raised in Chicago’s south suburbs, David Gremp earned an M.A. in photography at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale in 1978. He has taught at Prairie State College in Chicago Heights, Illinois, and Columbia College in Chicago, Illinois. He has also been the recipient of a humanities grant from the Rockefeller Foundation in 1980 and a completion grant from the Illinois Arts Council in 1982. His photographic exhibitions include: Alibi Fine Art Gallery, Chicago, Illinois (2011, 2013), Prairie State College, Chicago Heights, Illinois (2012) and Calumet Photographic Gallery, Chicago, Illinois (2013).
He began taking this series of photographs in September of 1978 as part of the CETA/Neighborhood Arts Program in Chicago. The Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) was initiated in 1973 as a program to create additional employment opportunities for unemployed and low income earners. Inspired by programs from the 1930s New Deal era such as the Works Progress Administration (WPA), opportunities were opened to artists in several U.S. cities.
As part of this program, David Gremp joined 120 artists-in-residence hired by the Chicago Council on Fine Arts. He was assigned to the Chicago Public Library where he taught photography workshops at various branches and was asked to document the various library facilities along with their corresponding neighborhoods. This amounted to about fourteen neighborhoods in twelve months. The photographs consist mainly of ordinary Chicagoans on the city streets, but also include individuals in the branch libraries, and the architectural styles of neighborhoods and the time period.
Gremp’s choice was to approach all of his human subjects in the same way; by asking them to look directly into the camera. The project produced approximately 100 rolls of film. The library selected 120 black and white photographs to display in the various branch libraries and 40 photographs from this selection were exhibited at Chicago’s Cultural Center in 1980.
Scope and Contents
This collection contains 69 black and white photographs from thirteen Chicago neighborhoods taken between September 1978 and August 1979. The neighborhoods include: Armour Square (Chinatown), Ashburn (Scottsdale), Austin, Chatham, Hyde Park, Lincoln Park, Lincoln Square, Lower West Side, Pullman, South Lawndale (Little Village), Uptown, Washington Heights and [West] Garfield Park.
Arrangement
The photographs are arranged alphabetically by Chicago 77 Community area where the photograph was taken and alphabetically within by subject description.
Subject Headings
- Armour Square (Chicago, Ill.)
- Ashburn (Chicago, Ill.)
- Austin (Chicago, Ill.)
- Chatham (Chicago, Ill.)
- Chicago Council on Fine Arts
- Gremp, David, 1948- -- Archives.
- Hyde Park (Chicago, Ill.)
- Lincoln Park (Chicago, Ill.)
- Lincoln Square (Chicago, Ill.)
- Lower West Side (Chicago, Ill.)
- Neighborhood Arts Program (Chicago, Ill.)
- Chicago Public Library -- Pictorial Works.
- Near North Side (Chicago, Ill.)
- Neighborhoods -- Illinois -- Chicago -- Pictorial Works.
- Photography -- Illinois -- Chicago.
- Pullman (Chicago, Ill.)
- South Lawndale (Chicago, Ill.)
- United States. Comprehensive Employment and Training Act
- Uptown (Chicago, Ill.)
- Washington Heights (Chicago, Ill.)
- West Garfield Park (Chicago, Ill.)
Related Materials
- Austin Community Collection
- Chicago City-Wide Collection
- Chicago Department of Urban Renewal Records
- East Garfield Park Community Collection
- Laurie M. Leigh Photograph Collection
- Lillian M. Campbell Memorial Collection
- Lower West Side Community Collection
- Scottsdale Homeowners Association
- Akito Tsuda Photographs
- West [Near West] Side Community Collection
- West Garfield Park Community Collection
Collection Inventory
| Box 1 | Folder 1 | Gremp, David, biographical information, 2016, undated |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.69 | Armour Square (Chinatown) - Chinatown Library Branch and Wentworth Medical Center, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.11 | Armour Square (Chinatown) - five children, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.12 | Armour Square (Chinatown) - man in a lawn chair by residence, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.10 | Armour Square (Chinatown) - man in doorway, Quong Hong, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.9 | Armour Square (Chinatown) - newsstand operator, sign reads: Welcome to Chinatown, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.48 | Ashburn (Scottsdale) - family bowling, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.46 | Ashburn (Scottsdale) - Fotomat, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.43 | Ashburn (Scottsdale) - man and boy in a pool hall, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.44 | Ashburn (Scottsdale) - three men in a mall, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.49 | Ashburn (Scottsdale) - triptyph of one-story bungalows, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.45 | Ashburn (Scottsdale) - two men at phone booths, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.47 | Ashburn (Scottsdale) - woman in uniform, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.1 | Austin - unidentified boy on stairs, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.3 | Austin - unidentified boys in empty lot, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.2 | Austin - unidentified man on park bench, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.5 | Chatham - bungalow, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.4 | Chatham - four girls jumping rope, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.6 | Chatham - man at sales window, George Saddler News, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.7 | Chatham - man in doorway, Jiffy Taxi Cabs, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.8 | Chatham - two men at counter of a local small grocery or general goods store, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.18 | Hyde Park - apartment buildings, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.21 | Hyde Park - boy in snow, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.17 | Hyde Park - Harold’s Chicken Shack, 1208 E. 53rd Street, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.19 | Hyde Park - mail carrier, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.22 | Hyde Park - man in his garden, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.20 | Hyde Park - young man at Americanization Center, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.24 | Lincoln Park - Doggie Diner, 723 W. Armitage Avenue, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.26 | Lincoln Park - man with produce delivery truck, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.25 | Lincoln Park - two women behind shop counter, Romano’s Italian Lemonade, 1136 W. Armitage Avenue, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.23 | Lincoln Park - two women cross a vacant lot, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.27 | Lincoln Square - Beauty Salon, Montrose Avenue east of Lincoln Avenue, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.29 | Lincoln Square - Johnny’s food cart, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.28 | Lincoln Square - La Mode Tailors, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.30 | Lincoln Square - Matt’s Barber Shop, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.37 | Lower West Side - four young men and a boy on bench, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.38 | Lower West Side - woman and daughter watering the lawn, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.66 | Pullman - Gatelys People Store, storefront, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.41 | Pullman - girl with a fishing pole, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.65 | Pullman - Gus Swain Wig, storefront, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.42 | Pullman - portraits of young couples, 4 photographs printed together, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photographs 1.61-1.63 | Pullman - portraits of young couples, (3), 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.40 | Pullman - sign before building advertises services of the Gospel Minister, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.39 | Pullman - two men in front of C. K. Fruit Market, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.64 | Pullman - two men on a loading dock, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photographs 1.67-1.68 | Pullman - unidentified interiors (2), 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.34 | South Lawndale (Little Village) - boy in front of Maria Isabel Abarroles Carniceria, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.31 | South Lawndale (Little Village) - family of ten on front stairs, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.33 | South Lawndale (Little Village) - man behind counter of general store, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.32 | South Lawndale (Little Village) - man watering his yard, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.35 | South Lawndale (Little Village) - two people on front stairs, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.36 | South Lawndale (Little Village) - two women in front of Bonnie’s bar, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.52 | Uptown - boy and a dog alongside a station wagon, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.51 | Uptown - family of eight on front stairs, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.56 | Uptown - five men at the counter of J&M Kosher Meat Market, 4465 W. Lawrence Avenue, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.54 | Uptown - girl along street, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.58 | Uptown - Goldblatt’s, Lawrence Avenue and Broadway Street, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.57 | Uptown - man in front of Ancel Radio Service, Broadway and Wilson, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.55 | Uptown - man in front of Cat’s Paw shoe repair, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.53 | Uptown - three boys with man along street, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.50 | Uptown - woman with protest message before gas station advertisements, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.60 | Washington Heights - girl in front of a card catalog at the Carter G. Woodson Regional Library, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.59 | Washington Heights - man with a baby across the street from the Carter G. Woodson Regional Library, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.15 | [West] Garfield Park - man and a woman, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.13 | West Garfield Park - two boys at Legler Branch, Chicago Public Library, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.16 | [West] Garfield Park - two women in front of wall with “Soul Love” in graffiti, 1978-1979 |
| Box 1 | Photograph 1.14 | [West] Garfield Park - woman and two girls, 1978-1979 |
