University Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Picture Chicago

Picture Chicago is a collection of images originally published in books about Chicago that were digitized by the University of Illinois' Urbana and Chicago campus libraries. Here you can see photographs of Chicago gangsters, politicians, and early famous Chicagoans; the first taxicab in the city; the early pneumatic tube system installed in the the Chicago Post Office; the devastating fire at the Iroquois Theater in 1904 that took the lives of hundreds of Chicagoans; Michigan Avenue before it was widened; stately North Shore residences; the draft plans to straighten the Chicago River; and much, much more! Within the description of each image you will find a link back to the original digitized text. Picture Chicago is a joint project of the libraries of the Urbana and Chicago campuses of the University of Illinois. Funding to support building this image collection was provided by a 2009 Collections Enhancement and Access Award from the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois (CARLI).