News

We are excited to announce a new pilot program sponsored by the Chicago Area Archivists: Interest Groups! The mission of the interests groups is to give CAA members an opportunity to gather informally around common archival subjects in the Chicago area. During the pilot program, we are hosting three Interest Groups: Archives and Archivists of Color Group, AV Materials Group, and Membership and Association Group. We welcome interested members to learn more: 

Archives and Archivists of Color Group Led by: Jennifer Ho

A forum for discussion related to issues and current events facing archivists of color, as well as archival collections concerning people of color.

Topics at discussion group may include but are not limited to:

• Ethnic diversity in the archives field
• Publications relating to archives and people of color
• Collections acquisitions, management and outreach of archives of color

Audio-Visual Materials Group Led by: Amy Belotti and Kristin MacDonough
In effort to promote communication amongst archivists that handle audio-visual materials, Audio-Visual Materials group facilitates discussions around the care, management, and use of a/v collections.

Topics at discussion group may include but are not limited to:

• Material standards
• Metadata
• Digitization
• Materials care

Membership and Association Group (working name)  Led by: Amber Dushman
A gathering for association archivists to meet and discuss their collections, and challenges presented by their unique organizations

Topics at discussion group may include but are not limited to:

• Records Management
• Oral Histories
• Public Digital Libraries
• Collection Policies
• Intern programs

Look for event registration in the coming days. Events will include discussion groups, happy hours, online discussions, and much more!

The pilot program is running between September 2017 through February 2018 for members only with the hopes of broadening the scope of groups beginning at the 2018 CAA Members Meeting. We welcome ideas for the interest groups above, as well as ideas for an interest group that you’d be interested in leading! Please send us your suggestions!

Please send questions or comments to info@chicagoarchivists.org

Thank you to everyone who attended CAA All-Ages Archives on August 22 at Oak Park Public Library. Eight people joined us to hear Chicago-area colleagues share their experiences of welcoming students of all ages into the archives.

Leigh A. Tarullo and Emily Reiher of Oak Park Public Library presented on Hacking Hemingway, a digitization and outreach project targeting middle school aged students through a partnership with the Oak Park Elementary School District. The grant-funded project not only digitized a portion of the Hemingway family collection, but it also engaged students in creative ways - introducing them to the world of archives through idea boxes, Minecraft, and 6 word stories.

Kellee Warren, Instructor and Special Collections Librarian at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), spoke on UIC’s partnership with Chicago Metro History Fair (CMHF), an initiative to spark students’ interest in history. New to the 2016 collaboration were a change in research rules that helped ease students into working with the unfamiliar world of special collections and the introduction of a staff planning timeline to assist in better managing UIC Special Collections staff resources during the time-consuming, but fulfilling, CMHF research cycle.

Following the presentations, attendees engaged in a lively Q & A and brainstorming session.

Didn't make it to this event? Don't worry - Chicago Open Archives is just around the corner!

Thank you to everyone who attended the Chicago Open Archives (COA) Spotlight Event Workshop on Tuesday, August 8 at DePaul University. Eight joined us to hear more about COA 2017: Hidden Stories and the changes to this year's format. Working Group chair, Morgen MacIntosh-Hodgetts welcomed the group and introduced the new format:

Working Group committee members Amber Dushman and Meg Hall were on hand to demonstrate examples of Spotlight events:

 

COA Working Group member, Meg Hall and participant, Virginia Jung, OSB discuss potential COA ideas

Q: Are students allowed to events?

A: Yes! COA is intended for audiences of all ages. Host sites decide the appropriate audience for their program.

 

Q: Can I have an event in the evening?

A: Based on feedback we received last year, the working group opened up COA to the whole month, including weekends and evenings. When filling out the registration form, host sites pick the day and time most convenient for them!

 

Q: Will CAA promote my event?

A: Yes, all events will be included on the CAA calendar, and Spotlight events will be featured on the Facebook and Twitter pages.

 

Q: My collections are difficult to get to, can I hold the event  somewhere else?

A: Yes, consider holding an event in an nearby meeting space.

 

Q: My institute is thinking of doing a general tour and a spotlight event, is that okay? And should I fill out two registration forms?

A: Yes! We invite host sites to hold multiple events if they are willing.

 

Q: I want to hold a spotlight event, but I won’t know the specifics by the August 22 deadline, can I still register?

A: Yes, Absolutely!

 

Leo Belleville and Laura Berfield, Working Group members, also announced other changes for COA 2017: Hidden Stories:

• An Online Trivia Game: visitors will use clues gathered from the COA sites to answer trivia and win a prize! (details to follow)

• All promotional materials will be digital and distributed to host sites via email this year. This will give participating sites the opportunity to customize the material using images from their collections. Host sites will receive customizable promotional materials as PDF files in early September.

COA Working Group Chair Morgen MacIntosh-Hodgetts discuss promotional materials with CAA Steering member Kara Jefts

 

All events must be submitted by August 22, 2017. Submit your event for Chicago Open Archives 2017. Have questions? Please email info@chicagoarchivists.org.

 

For more information and to register, visit the Workshop events page.

CAA thanks all who attended the CAA Summer Cookout on August 6 at LaBagh Woods forest preserve. 28 people (and one dog!) joined their fellow archivists and friends to enjoy some summertime food, beverages, and fun in the great outdoors. The rain held off, which made for a pleasant summer day! CAA thanks all those who brought things to share for the potluck. We look forward to having the cookout every summer!

 “This is my great aunt in the middle of the photograph. I know she lived in Chicago for a while, but I don’t know what she was doing there. Can you tell me anything about her?”

Photo courtesy of Archdiocese of Chicago Archives.

Family historians contact the Archdiocesan Archives asking “What parish did my ancestors attend?” or “I want to trace my genealogy – what records do you have that can help me?” By using clues from this photograph and from our collections, we’ve identified the woman in the center of this photograph as Sr. M. Petronilla, superior general of the Sisters of St. Joseph, LaGrange Park, IL. As mother superior in the 1960s, she oversaw nearly 300 religious women who worked at 20 grammar and high schools in the Archdiocese of Chicago. The lives and work of religious women are under-documented in histories of Chicago Catholics, but every nun has a story to tell, and Archives can help those stories come to life.

Join us Tuesday, August 8, at 6:00 PM at DePaul University for the Chicago Open Archives Spotlight Event Workshop as we piece together a genealogical mystery: the life of a religious woman in Chicago.

The COA Spotlight Event Workshop is designed for Chicago Area Archivists members and allies who are interested in hosting an archives month event that follows the 2017 theme. The 2017 theme, Hidden Stories, will give visitors an opportunity to uncover a story from your collections using specific “clues” (documents, artifacts, images, maps) that create a narrative. During the workshop members of the COA Working Group will demonstrate a 'building a narrative' activity, brainstorm hidden story ideas with you, and discuss our vision for encouraging visitors to attend multiple COA events.  Consider the clues your collection uses to help researchers tell their story.

For more information and to register, visit the Workshop events page.

“Will you please give me information regarding the Chicago Health Institute, 36 West Randolph Street, City?”  William Fishbein, of Chicago, wrote the American Medical Association (AMA) on December 10, 1928.

Photo courtesy of AMA Archives.

The AMA’s response called the advertisement full of “scare stuff” from “men’s specialist” type of quacks. According to the AMA, the thing belonged to the class of fake medical institutes. The Bureau of Investigation assured the inquirer that they were reaching out to the Illinois Department of Registration and Education in Springfield to learn who the physicians were behind this outfit.  The AMA doggedly went after the quacks inside the Chicago Health Institute or “the sucker mill” as the Chicago Tribune referred to it over the years, exposing the unlicensed physicians and advising the public against the untruths going on behind the walls of 36 West Randolph Street.

Photo courtesy of AMA Archives.

Join us Tuesday, August 8 at 6:00 PM at DePaul University for the Chicago Open Archives Spotlight Event Workshop as we piece together the AMA’s case against a Chicago quack, the Chicago Health Institute.

The COA Spotlight Event Workshop is designed for Chicago Area Archivists members and allies who are interested in hosting an archives month event that follows the 2017 theme. The 2017 theme, Hidden Stories, will give visitors an opportunity to uncover a story from your collections using specific “clues” (documents, artifacts, images, maps) that create a narrative. During the workshop members of the COA Working Group will demonstrate a 'building a narrative' activity, brainstorm hidden story ideas with you, and discuss our vision for encouraging visitors to attend multiple COA events. 

For more information and to register, visit the Workshop events page.

CAA thanks all who attended the CAA@SAA meetup on July 28 in Portland. 21 people - both CAA members and friends of CAA - joined colleagues after the MAC members' meeting to catch up and swap SAA stories. Everyone enjoyed discussing fun they had in Portland so far, and the Chicago Open Archives committee was in action spreading the word about the great plans they have for October!

Many of Chicago’s cultural institutions have used grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services to preserve, promote, and provide access to their collections. In response to the proposed elimination of funding for these federal agencies, CAA asked members to submit stories highlighting the projects that their institutions have undertaken with support from the NEH, NEA, and IMLS. We hope these stories will inspire a dialog among Chicagoans about how we can advocate for and better protect our cultural heritage.

 

Today’s submission is from Media Burn Archive. Media Burn Archive collects, restores and distributes documentary video and television created by artists, activists and community groups. Media Burn is a project of the Fund for Innovative TV (FITV), which has been producing challenging documentary video and television since 1990. With the support of funding from the NEH and NEA, Media Burn has made a staggering amount of historical video footage available to the general public.

 

In 2011, Media Burn was awarded a $79,000 federal grant from the NEH Save America’s Treasures program in order to preserve and make available one-of-a-kind documentary footage of the 1992 presidential election and the U.S. senatorial election in Illinois. The Media Burn Archive holds the largest single collection of documentary footage of the 1992 election cycle–over 450 hours of footage. The 120 videotapes chosen to be preserved include behind-the-scenes footage of then-Governor Bill Clinton’s early campaigning with his wife Hillary, and dozens of hours with Clinton’s strategic team. The collection also includes footage from other campaigns that ran at the same time, including that of President George H.W. Bush, and the videos were produced by some of the best independent videomakers in the country. These videos can be publicly accessed on the Media Burn website.

 

In 2015, the NEA awarded a grant of $50,000 to FITV/Media Burn for a project dedicated to digitizing and creating access to 239 videotapes from three rare, unfinished or previously unreleased collections from the Kartemquin Films archives that document artistic communities and the role of art in society. The three collections include A Year on Teen Street (1996), Chicago Crossings (1994), and When Art Makes a Difference (1991). More details about this project can be found on Media Burn’s blog.

To learn more about Media Burn Archive, please visit http://mediaburn.org/.

Do you have a story about your federally funded project and its significance to your community? Submit your stories to info@chicagoarchivists.org.

 

Thank you to everyone who attended CAA mini-MAC at CPL-Lincoln Belmont on May 2^nd. Twenty-two people joined us to hear from Chicago-area colleagues who presented at MAC. CAA would like to thank the panelists who dedicated their time and expertise to this great program: Joanna Russ, Morgen MacIntosh-Hodgetts, Anita Mechler, Julie Wroblewski, and Laura Alagna. Those who attended also grabbed a peek at the promo video for MAC Chicago 2018. Panelists and attendees gathered afterwards to chat with colleagues at The Green Lady. This program was so great it left those who attended a little sad that MAC will be in Chicago next year…but only a little.

Didn't make it to this event? Don't worry - there will be more events throughout the year at a variety of dates, times, and locations.  Stay tuned for more event announcements from CAA. -Amber Dushman