Alumni

Six Faculty Members Contribute to the Encyclopedia of Chicago

Contributions by Michael H. Ebner, Paul B. Fischer, Richard Pettengill, Steve Rosswurm, Franz Schulze, and Arthur Zilversmit

Chicago’s nickname, the Windy City, famously pays tribute not to its bracing climate but the “windy” boosterism of its citizens. The name has often been attributed to East Coast politicians and journalists upset when the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 was assigned to Chicago rather than New York. But history is seldom that simple—researchers have now established that “Windy City” was being used in Cleveland, Louisville, and other cities by the 1880s, if not earlier, as a shorthand reference to the lakefront metropolis. New York, it seems, was not the only city irritated by Chicago’s brash confidence.

The origin of Chicago’s moniker is only one of the countless revelations awaiting readers of the long-awaited Encyclopedia of Chicago. More than 1,100 pages in length, with over 1,400 alphabetical entries and hundreds of illustrations, the Encyclopedia of Chicago is truly a reference work to be reckoned with. Edited by Chicago urban historians James Grossman and Ann Durkin Keating and historian Janice Reiff of UCLA, the Encyclopedia is the product of a ten-year joint effort by the Newberry Library, the Chicago Historical Society, and the University of Chicago Press.

The Encyclopedia provides concise histories of many of the city’s most famous events and places: Fort Dearborn; the Maxwell Street market; the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre; Ike Sewell and the birth of deep-dish pizza; Bronzeville; the Manhattan Project; Leopold and Loeb; the Nation of Islam; the Century of Progress Exposition; and hundreds more. Entries trace the history of Chicago’s multitude of ethnic groups, including Lithuanians, Afghans, Laotians, Yugoslavians, Mexicans, and Icelanders. Topical entries discourse on subjects as diverse as Boxing, Jazz, Toll Roads, Homicide, Machine Politics, Tornadoes, and Medical Education. Beyond this, the Encyclopedia provides descriptions of 250 of Chicago’s most important businesses and a biographical dictionary of more than 2,000 individuals who have shaped Chicago history.

This is more than a conventional reference work, however. Its thousands of entries are placed within a larger interpretive context by a series of 21 critical essays based on the insights of a generation of urban and social historians. Writing on themes such as Chicago in the Middle Ground, Contested Spaces, Multicentered Chicago, Work Culture, and Suburbs and City as Dual Metropolis, leading scholars identify key analyses and theories and point readers to the extensive literature available for further reading. Many essays are supported by an intriguing array of original maps developed under the Encyclopedia’s cartographic editor Michael Conzen—readers can view Chicago’s evolving economic geography from the mercantile era to the information age; or track Prairie Avenue’s elite residents house by house in 1886; or follow the dispersal Chicago’s retail centers from 1948 to 2002.

The Encyclopedia’s mass of data and interpretation represents the distilled effort of hundreds of Chicago experts. Among them are six Lake Forest College faculty members who contributed 16 entries based on their own scholarly expertise:

Michael H. Ebner, A. B. Dick Professor of History
 - Chicago Historical Society
 - Lake Bluff, Illinois
 - Lake County, Illinois
 - Lake Forest, Illinois
 - Ravinia Festival
 - Suburbs and Cities as Dual Metropolis

Paul B. Fischer, Professor of Politics
 - Gautreaux Assisted Housing Program

Richard Pettengill, Assistant Professor of English and Theater
 - Acting, Ensemble
 - Playwriting

Steve Rosswurm, Professor of History
 - Catholic Worker Movement
 - Congress of Industrial Organizations
 - Roman Catholics

Franz Schulze, Betty Jane Hollander Professor of Art Emeritus
 - Architecture: The Second Chicago School

Arthur Zilversmit, Distinguished Service Professor of History Emeritus
 - Progressive Education
 - School Architecture
 - Schooling for Work

In addition, Lake Forest alumnus Glennette Tilley Turner ’55 contributed the entry on the Underground Railroad, and Ben Mason ’01 and Rima Kuprys ’06 worked on the Encyclopedia project research staff as interns.

Ambitious in scope, thoughtfully conceived, and richly detailed, The Encyclopedia of Chicago provides a remarkable range of fresh and revealing perspectives on the city and its region. History buffs and specialists alike will find it a compelling read, a volume as expansive, diverse, and surprising as the Windy City itself. 

Dan Meyer, associate curator of Special Collections and university archivist at the University of Chicago, is co-author of Classic Country Estates of Lake Forest: Architecture and Landscape Design 1856–1940.

by James R. Grossman (Editor),
Ann Durkin Keating (Editor),
Janice L. Reiff (Editor)
University of Chicago Press, 2004