As part of the annual Chicago Open Archives program, the Chicago Public Library will open their collection on Saturday, October 13, for an event exploring the history of the city park that became home to the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. “From Swampland to Presidential Center: The History of Jackson Park” will be held from 10 am to noon at the Harold Washington Library Center.
CPL offers this description of the program:
“Throughout many of Illinois’s 200 years, Chicago’s Jackson Park has been an important site to the city, Illinois and the world. Through unique archives we explore the history of the South Side gem. We look at early plans for Jackson Park, its development as host of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, its post-Fair change into a permanent home for the Museum of Science and Industry and recreation grounds for citizens, its role in Cold War missile defense and preparations for the Obama Presidential Center. From Lake Michigan to meadows to prairie, from the 19th century to the present, Jackson Park is Illinois history.”
A bird-eye view of Jackson Park. [Image from The World’s Columbian Exposition Illustrated, February 1891.]