Finding Aids

Hyde Park-Kenwood-Woodlawn Neighborhood

57th Street Art Fair. Records

This collection contains the planning and promotional materials for the 57th Street Art Fair, including meeting minutes, reports, posters, textiles, banners and buttons.

Block, Jean F. Papers

Jean Friedberg Block was a University of Chicago expert and a renowned scholar of the architecture and peopling of Hyde Park and the University. Block’s papers include general information about the University from the early-to-mid 20th century. Series I contains general correspondence and other information about the University’s development. Series II contains material pertinent to “The Uses of Gothic,” a 1985 exhibit in the Special Collections Resource Center, which was largely authored and coordinated by Ms. Block.

Buzzell, Edgar A. Collection

The Edgar A. Buzzell Collection consists of glass plate negatives, two photograph albums, newspaper articles, and a painting. The bulk of the collection consists of glass plate negatives of the University of Chicago, Hyde Park, the World’s Columbian Exposition (1893), and downtown Chicago, IL. A smaller portion of the collection is an assortment of collegiate and family photographs. Negatives and photographs from this collection have been digitized and are available as part of the

Cleaner Air Committee of Hyde Park-Kenwood. Records

The Cleaner Air Committee of Hyde Park-Kenwood, organized in April 1959 by a group of women led by Laura Fermi, sought to educate the community to the dangers posed by air pollution as well as to monitor local smoke emission violations. Contains membership lists, minutes, correspondence, clippings, statements made at public hearings, and publications.

Friends in Council. Records

The records of the Friends in Council include meeting minutes, constitutions and by-laws, annual programs for the club dating back to its inception, as well as various works produced by and about its members (papers prepared for meetings, histories of the club, and correspondence). The collection also contains some information relating to other Friends in Council groups, as well as national women’s organizations.

Goetz, Rachel Marshall. Papers

Rachel Marshall Goetz was a writer, researcher, and activist who spent much of her career focused on national and local Hyde Park politics. These papers include much of Goetz’s early writing advocating the use of new media in state and local governments. She worked as a speechwriter on Illinois governor Adlai Stevenson’s 1956 presidential campaign, and many of her drafts, memos, position papers, and letters are included here. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Goetz was an important figure in Hyde Park-Kenwood’s urban renewal, and her papers hold many drafts, clippings, and notes relating to that project. Late in her life, Goetz and her sister, Barbara Frye, dedicated themselves to making elaborately decorated ornamental eggs. Many photographs, articles, and letters about her egg artwork are included here. The collection also holds clippings, correspondence, and photographs relating to Goetz’s father, Leon Carroll Marshall.

Goodspeed, Charles Ten Broeke. Papers

The Charles Goodspeed papers consist of Goodspeed’s correspondence, printed material relevant to his civic activities, his travel diaries and some memorabilia. The collection also includes materials relating to Goodspeed’s civic interest, most especially the Y.M.C.A., and some family memorabilia, including his obituaries and letters of condolence to his brother, Edgar. The collection is completed by a series of notebooks and travel diaries written by Goodspeed during the Spanish-American War, World War I, and his journeys throughout the United States.

Hyde Park Center. Collection

Established in 1908, the Hyde Park Center was an independent welfare organization providing services to children and youth in the neighborhood, such as a free kindergarten and playground, clubs and activities, and job training for youth. The organization was established in response to the problem of homeless and wayward young boys in the neighborhood. It was affiliated with the Hyde Park Juvenile Protective League, a branch of the Juvenile Protective League founded by Jane Addams in 1901, and relied heavily on mostly female volunteers from the neighborhood and local churches. This collection consists of six bulletins published by the Hyde Park Center.

Hyde Park Garden Fair Commitee. Records

The collection contains various administrative, financial, membership, and publicity documents related to the Hyde Park Garden Fair Committee public services projects. Included are records such as member handbooks, minutes, financial reports, newspaper clippings, and event procedures.

Hyde Park High School. Records

This collection is comprised of materials relating to Hyde Park High School from 1907 to 1934, including yearbooks, monthly student publications, and information about sporting events and alumni meet-ups, memorabilia, and miscellaneous student belongings.

Hyde Park Historical Society. Collection

The Hyde Park Historical Society was founded in 1977 to record and preserve the history of the Hyde Park-Kenwood neighborhood. Included are the Hyde Park Historical Society's administrative records, as well as its collection of historic materials. The collection contains architectural drawings, artifacts, audio material, clippings, correspondence, deeds, manuscripts, maps, memorabilia, oral histories, photographs, postcards, posters, publications, scrapbooks, and slides. These document the individuals, institutions, events, and projects that have shaped Hyde Park's urban and social landscape.

Hyde Park Historical Society. Hyde Park Co-op. Records

The Hyde Park Cooperative Society was founded in 1932. Based on Rochdale cooperative principles, it operated food stores in Hyde Park between 1933 and 2008. The Co-op was involved in many charitable and educational activities in the neighbourhood, including cooperative housing and other retail ventures. The Hyde Park Co-op records include administrative records, correspondence, pamphlet literature, books, photographs, audiovisual and digital material, and artifacts. The collection spans 1915-2008, with the bulk of material devoted to the period between 1934 and 2008.

Hyde Park Historical Society. Joyce Turner Hilkevitch. Papers

Joyce Turner Hilkevitch (1921-2019) founder of Mostly Music, an organization that supported young performers and composers of chamber music in Chicago. Part of the collections of the Hyde Park Historical Society.

Hyde Park Youth Symphony. Records

This is a collection of the administrative records of the Hyde Park Youth Symphony. The records of the Symphony include administrative, budget, and fund raising material arranged by year, dating back to 1983. Also included are recordings of concerts, newspaper clippings and a scrapbook of photographs and programs.

Hyde Park and Kenwood Interfaith Council. Records

This collection contains the records of the Hyde Park and Kenwood Interfaith Council, from 1911-1993. Included are administrative records such as minutes, correspondence, budgets and directories of membership. This collection also contains general subject files covering Council projects and affiliated institutions.

Hyde Park, Kenwood, and Woodlawn Neighborhoods. Collection

The Hyde Park-Kenwood and Woodlawn Records contain articles, journals, small publications, brochures, correspondence, neighborhood directories, flyers, newsletters, advertisements, neighborhood guides, pamphlets, proposals, reports, and newspapers concerning the history of Hyde Park and its surrounding neighborhoods, as well as the urban renewal movement.

Hyde Park-Kenwood Community Conference. Records

The Hyde Park-Kenwood Community Conference was formed in 1949 to "to build and maintain a stable interracial community of high standards." The collection contains correspondence, memoranda, meeting agendas and minutes, budgets and fundraising material, by-laws, directories, reports; press releases, surveys, newsletters, brochures, clippings, photographs, an audio reel, maps, posters, flyers, pamphlets, booklets, and other documents representing the activities of the Conference. Materials date between 1895 and 2011, with the bulk of the material dating from 1949 to 2000. The records primarily document the administrative functions of the Conference and its program activities related to urban renewal.

Hyde Park-Kenwood Razed Buildings. Collection

This collection is the result of a circa 2006 study of buildings in the Hyde Park-Kenwood neighborhood in Chicago, most of which were demolished as part of the mid-20th century urban renewal movement. This collection contains copies of photographs and illustrations of the Hyde Park-Kenwood area, along with supporting material used to develop the collection and research the images. The images represent individual structures, street scenes, aerial views, and panoramas showing businesses and properties that were relocated, repurposed or vacated during the urban renewal period. Research files in the collection include descriptions and notes on the projects; lists and indexes of addresses, street names, properties and businesses; and photocopies of architectural records produced by the Department of Urban Renewal.

Jones, Ella May. Papers

Ella May Jones (circa 1884-1975), teacher. The collection comprises diaries, certificates, and other personal items documenting Jones life and career.

Ladies Matinee Musicale of Woodlawn. Records

The Ladies Matinee Musicale of Woodlawn was a musical society based in the present-day Woodlawn neighborhood.

Malone, Virginia Eckels. Family. Papers

Virginia Eckels Malone (1898-1978) was a writer and amateur historian who lived in Chicago, Washington D.C., and Long Island, New York. Her extended family included distinguished politicians, attorneys, and philanthropists. The collection consists of family papers kept by Virginia Eckels Malone. There are papers of the Eckels family, the Malone family, and the Bright, Oberly, and Schuckers families. It also includes Virginia Eckels Malone's own personal papers. Materials include correspondence, publications, ephemera, manuscripts, financial and organizational records, photographs, artworks and artifacts.

Miyakawa Family Collection

The Miyakawa Family Collection contains materials related to Japanese American incarceration during the Second World War as well as Japanese American social, cultural, and economic life in Chicago. Documents date from the early 1940s to 1954, with the bulk of items dating from 1945 to 1952. Materials include Hyde Park High School yearbook and ephemera, photographs of Japanese cultural institutions and activities in Hyde Park, and a New Testament pocket bible from the Grenada War Relocation Center, an American concentration camp in Amache, Colorado.

Royal Palm Artifacts and Ephemera. Collection

This collection contains a variety of artifacts and print ephemera. Included are political items from the 20th century, University of Chicago and Hyde Park memorabilia, a small collection of recipes and information on home remedies, and patriotic memorabilia. The cigar box in which this material was found is also included.

South Park Improvement Association. Records

The South Park Improvement Association was founded in 1901 for the purpose of providing for services not rendered by the city of Chicago. This collection contains records of the South Park Improvement Association, including correspondence, service planning information, membership lists, and financial information such as budgets and invoices.

South Side Academy. Records

The South Side Academy was founded in 1892 and merged with other area schools to form University High School at the turn of the century. The South Side Academy records include financial as well as student records.

Starrett School for Girls. Records

Records, photographs and memorabilia from the University of Chicago Lower Rickert House, part of the Woodward Court residential hall that was demolished in 2001.

Stone, Ursula Batchelder. Collection

Ursula Batchelder Stone was a researcher, activist, and teacher who lived for more than 60 years in the Hyde Park community. This collection contains materials relating to her work as a board member of the South East Chicago Commission and to her teaching career at George Williams College. The collection also includes extensive research files compiled by Stone’s daughter, Mary Alzina Stone Dale, in preparation of a book on Stone.

University of Chicago Service League. Records

The University of Chicago Service League was founded in 1895 as the University of Chicago Settlement League, a social and philanthropic organization of University women interested in supporting the work of the University of Chicago Settlement. The records of the League include constitutions and by-laws; annual reports of the League president; general correspondence; financial records; minutes; calendars of events; announcements, brochures, and programs of League benefits and special interest group activities; newsletters and yearbooks; and histories of the League and the University of Chicago Settlement.

University of Chicago. Cityspace: The Past of Urban Renewal and the Future of Community Development. Records

"Cityspace: The Past of Urban Renewal and the Future of Community Development" was a conference hosted by the University of Chicago on April 9 and 10, 2004. The conference was designed to "combine perspective of both scholars and community activists and practitioners to uncover new and exciting ways of tackling the persistent challenges of racial and economic integration, access to knowledge, affordable housing and community revitalization." The collection includes publicity materials, broadsides, schedules, and digital documentation of conference proceedings.

University of Chicago. Midway Studios. Records

Midway Studios, the fine arts studios of the Art Department at the University of Chicago since the mid-1940s, founded by the sculptor Lorado Taft in 1906. This collection contains correspondences, newspaper clippings, drawings, photographs, academic journals, notes, brochures, and exhibit signs. Materials document Taft’s work and legacy, and the later history of the studio, particularly the work of Director Harold Haydon.

University of Chicago. Office of University News and Information. Records

The Office of University News and Information Records contain correspondence and reports about the University of Chicago Campaign for the Arts and Sciences and the Chicago Chronicle. The collection also includes general clippings about the University (photocopies).

University of Chicago. Postcards.Collection

The collection contains postcards featuring the University of Chicago campus.

Uretz, Vi Fogle. Papers

This collection contains the papers of Vi Fogle Uretz (1916-2007), a University of Chicago alumna, artist and community activist. The collection includes material related to the organization of the 57th Street Art Fair and the threatened closure of the university's International House. Also included are samples of Uretz's artwork, such as sketches and photographs of urban renewal in Hyde Park.