Carnegie Museum of Natural History: Vertebrate Paleontology Collections

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Visit our Tour Destination: Pennsylvania page to see the entire tour of the state’s Save America’s Treasures sites.

Allosaurus fragilis:  The razor-toothed Allosaurus as seen in
Dinosaurs in Their Time at Carnegie Museum of Natural History.
Photo Credit:  Joshua Franzos for Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

Carnegie Museum of Natural History: Vertebrate Paleontology Collections

400 Forbes Avenue

Pittsburgh, PA

Website:  Carnegie Museum of Natural History

Carnegie Museum of Natural History: Vertebrate Paleontology Collections

The Treasure:  The vertebrate paleontology collections at Carnegie Museum of Natural History are justifiably famous for their magnificent dinosaur skeletons but are just as important for the breadth and depth of their collections, from the early fish of the Silurian seas to cave fauna of the Pleistocene.

Accessibility:  Carnegie Museum of Natural History is open Tuesday through Friday from 10 to 5, Thursday from 10 to 8, and Sunday from noon to 5.

Andrew Carnegie.
Photo courtesy of Carnegie
Museum of Natural History.

Background:  At Carnegie Museum of Natural History, dinosaurs are the superstar attraction. They were big at the turn-of-the-century when steel magnate Andrew Carnegie decided that the new Carnegie Museum of Natural History needed dinosaur bones—the bigger, the better. And they’re still big today, proudly exhibited in Dinosaurs in Their Time, the museum’s thorough re-imagining of a dinosaur hall for the 21st century.

But a great vertebrate paleontology collection covers a huge spectrum of time, with only a medium-sized wedge for the age of dinosaurs in the middle. The Carnegie Museum’s collections trace the story of vertebrate life over nearly half a billion years, with 103,000 specimens extending from primitive early fish of the Silurian period (about 420 million years ago) to cave fauna of the Pleistocene (within the last couple of million years). While the collections are international in scope, they can boast of a fine representation of North American prehistory. The museum has prime fossils of bony fish from the Mississippian period found in Montana, amphibians and early reptile remains from the Pennsylvanian and Permian periods unearthed in the Mid-Atlantic region, mammal fossils of the Cenozoic era from the American west, and relatively recent (Quaternary epoch) fossils discovered in the Appalachians and Rocky Mountains.

A glimpse of the Big Bone Room, a collection storage area for the vertebrate
paleontology collections. Save America's Treasures funding contributed to
installation of a new climate control system for the collection storage areas.
Photo courtesy of Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

Starting in 1898, Andrew Carnegie enthusiastically financed the Carnegie Museum’s western fossil hunting expeditions. The director of the museum, William J. Holland, fittingly repaid Carnegie for his generosity, naming the museum’s first great dinosaur find (the nearly complete skeleton of a new species of sauropod) after the museum’s patron—Diplodocus carnegie. Proud of his namesake dinosaur and the museum’s work, Carnegie continued to invest in the hunt for American dinosaurs.

Earl Douglass.
Photo courtesy of
Carnegie Museum of
Natural History.

In 1902, the Carnegie Museum hired Earl Douglass, a resourceful scientist with a trained eye and the fortitude to thrive in the sometimes harsh conditions of the American west. Concentrating on outcrops of the promising Morrison Formation along the Colorado-Utah border, Douglass spied eight Apatosaurus tail bones embedded at the top of a ledge on one of his outings. As Douglass and his crew unearthed this great find, a nearly complete Apatosaurus skeleton, they discovered that the surrounding rock was crammed with many more treasures. The exposed tail bones had lured Douglass to what turned out to be one of the world’s greatest fossil beds, loaded with dinosaur remains.

Over the next 13 years, Douglass shipped hundreds of tons of material back to the Carnegie Museum, comprising nearly forty Jurassic period dinosaur skeletons, including Apatosaurus, Camarasaurus, Diplodocus, Stegosaurus, and Camptosaurus. When the Carnegie Museum pulled out in 1924, satisfied with their haul, Douglass stayed on, now working under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution and the University of Utah. He died in 1931, many years before his ambitious dream of establishing the quarry as a site for interpreting fossil-hunting was fully realized. In 1958, Douglass’ intact quarry wall, a veritable stew of dinosaur bones, was opened to public view as the centerpiece of Dinosaur National Monument.

Historic photo of Douglass' crew packing fossils at
Dinosaur National Monument, Utah, in the early 1900s.
Image courtesy of Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

Tinted postcard of the Gallery of Paleontology at Carnegie Museum
of Natural History in 1907.
Image courtesy of Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

Other Recommended Sites:  The Earl Douglass Workshop Laboratory, built into a hillside near the Utah quarry in 1920, is still standing at Dinosaur National Monument. After he discovered the site in 1909, Douglass chose to make Utah his home, inviting his wife and baby to join him for a pioneer life in the largely unsettled canyon area. He prepared the fossils there—eventually using the resources of this Workshop Laboratory—and then shipped them east by train to Carnegie Museum of Natural History for exhibition to a public hungry for dinosaurs.

Stegosaurus armatus:  Known as one of the
largest plated dinosaurs, the massive Stegosaurus
stands ready to defend itself in Dinosaurs in Their
Time at Carnegie Museum of Natural History.
This specimen was found in Utah by Earl Douglass
and crew between 1920 and 1922.
Photo Credit:  Joshua Franzos for Carnegie
Museum of Natural History.

Tour America's History Itinerary

Tuesday:  Brookville Historic District

© 2013 Lee Price

Free Library of Philadelphia: PA German Manuscript Collection

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Visit our Tour Destination: Pennsylvania page to see the entire tour of the state’s Save America’s Treasures sites.

John Freadrich tune booklet (Notenbuchlein) with Harmonics.
FLP Borneman Ms. 56.
Image courtesy of Free Library of Philadelphia, Rare Book Department.

Free Library of Philadelphia: PA German Manuscript Collection

1901 Vine Street

Philadelphia, PA

Website:  Free Library of Philadelphia

Free Library of Philadelphia: Rare Book Department

Free Library of Philadelphia: Fraktur Collection (in addition to the fraktur, this guide includes images and information regarding many of the manuscripts preserved through the Save America’s Treasures grant)

The Treasure:  The Pennsylvania German manuscript collection at the Free Library of Philadelphia reveals the great artistry and craftsmanship of the Pennsylvania German communities that flourished in the state in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Accessibility:  The Rare Book Department at the Free Library of Philadelphia is open Monday through Saturday from 9 to 5, with a daily tour of the General Collections at 11 a.m.

Plane geometry problem from a
mathematical exercise book.
FLP Borneman Ms. 155.
Image courtesy of the Free Library of
Philadelphia, Rare Book Department.

Background:  As part of his “Holy Experiment,” William Penn (1644-1718) advertised his new colony, the Province of Pennsylvania, throughout Europe, making it known that he welcomed persecuted minorities. Many Germans responded, creating a pathway into Pennsylvania (through Germantown, then located right outside Philadelphia) that provided assistance and encouragement for immigrants. Mennonites, Amish, Schwenkfelders, Lutherans, members of the Reformed Church, and many other religious denominations and sects were represented among the individuals and families that embraced Penn’s invitation.

The cultures of these new “Pennsylvania German” communities were distinctive, as the immigrants quickly adapted their traditional folkways to the American environment. They expressed themselves through a vibrant and colorful folk art that reflected their religious and social convictions.

But while the craftsmanship of their work was often charming, and sometimes deeply artistic, it was not recognized for its quality until the great heyday of the late 18th and early to mid-19th centuries had passed. Finally, in the early 20th century, collectors like Abraham Harley Cassel, Henry Chapman Mercer, Howard W. Kriebel, and Henry S. Borneman realized that the local attics and barns were sheltering often remarkable cultural documents, as valuable for their artistry as for their history.

In 1955, the Free Library of Philadelphia purchased the great collection of Henry S. Borneman, Esq., founder and first Dean of the Temple University School of Law. Taking deep pride in his own Pennsylvania German heritage, Borneman collected a broad range of items, including a magnificent collection of fraktur—paper documents (birth, baptismal, and wedding certificates; writing samples; awards; holiday greetings; etc.) decorated with a distinctive “broken letter’ calligraphy and often embellished with exuberant artistic designs.

Account book (1856-1858)
of Saml Serfass.
FLP Borneman Ms. 93.
Image courtesy of the
Free Library of Philadelphia,
Rare Book Department.

Justly proud of their world-class fraktur collection, the Free Library of Philadelphia has taken exemplary care of the fraktur, making it digitally accessible through a resource guide on their website. With their 2011 Save America’s Treasures grant, the Free Library turned to the other items in the Borneman Collection, seizing the opportunity to conserve and digitize the Pennsylvania German manuscripts, books, hymnals, and business account records that Borneman had collected. As they become more accessible, these items will continue to add to our understanding of life in the early Pennsylvania German communities.

Here are some more beautiful examples of some of the treasures that have received conservation treatment through the grant.

Bookplate for Johannes Funck from an
account book in German and English recording
his business transactions from 1789-1814.
The book plate is the work of
Johannes Ernst Spangenberg, formerly known
as the Easton Bible Artist.
FLP B-1032.
Image courtesy of the Free Library of
Philadelphia, Rare Book Department.

Geometry problems from a
mathematical exercise book.
FLP Borneman Ms. 156.
Image courtesy of the Free Library of
Philadelphia, Rare Book Department.

"The Incense Hill of Zion" (Zionitischer Weyrauchs Hugel),
a hymnal of the Ephrata Cloister with elaborate pen work
by the sisters of the cloister.
FLP Borneman Ms. 2.
Image courtesy of the Free Library of Philadelphia,
Rare Book Department.

Notes from the Editor:  

“If I were an 18^th century manuscript, and had a broken spine, and detached boards, not to mention all kinds of other injuries to my pages, I think I would contact the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts (CCAHA) for a restoration appointment because I know that a lot of careful and expert work is needed to restore a manuscript.”

Quoted from the

Pennsylvania German Collection blog

at the Free Library of Philadelphia

I’ve highlighted this particular quote for two reasons.  First, it nicely links to the Free Library’s excellent ongoing blog series on the history behind these amazing manuscripts. Go and enjoy! And, second, I’m quoting it because I love the compliment it pays to my work place, the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts!

Other Recommended Sites:  Pennsylvania is home to many historic sites and museums that honor its Pennsylvania German heritage. Just an hour’s drive north of Philadelphia, you can learn about Mennonite and Schwenkfelder cultures at, respectively, the Mennonite Heritage Center and the Schwenkfelder Library and Heritage Center (which also has one of the world’s finest collections of fraktur).

Music Copybook of Sarah Horsfield, Bethlehem, July 14, 1833.
Laid paper, gall ink, watercolor;  leather.
FLP Borneman Ms. 143.
Blog entry:  If I'm Happy, Then I Must Sing, Part 4.
Image courtesy of the Free Library of Philadelphia,
Rare Book Department.

Tour America's History Itinerary

Tuesday:  Carnegie Museum of Natural History: Vertebrate Paleontology Collection

© 2013 Lee Price

Black Horse Inn

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Visit our Tour Destination: Pennsylvania page to see the entire tour of the state’s Save America’s Treasures sites.

West view of the Black Horse Inn (Flourtown, PA) in 2008.
Photo courtesy of Springfield Township.

Black Horse Inn

1432 Bethlehem Pike

Flourtown, PA

Website:  The Black Horse Inn

The Treasure:  The Black Horse Inn is a picturesque reminder of the once-bustling inns that catered to clientele along the main 18th and 19th century thoroughfares.

Accessibility:  As restoration efforts continue, your best bet is to appreciate the exterior of the Black Horse Inn from the road. The interior is sometimes accessible during special events.

Exterior bar door at the Black Horse Inn.
Photo courtesy of Springfield Township.

Background:  Located in the center of Flourtown, the Black Horse Inn is a landmark on Bethlehem Pike, a once-major road that links Philadelphia to Bethlehem, PA, a distance of approximately 50 miles. Bethlehem Pike is still a busy road today, but it has long since lost the prominence that it enjoyed for nearly 200 years. Today (following Google Maps, Mapquest, or your GPS), you might get to Bethlehem from Philadelphia by jumping on the Schuylkill Expressway, taking the Northeast Extension, exiting to Route 309 in Quakertown, and finishing on Route 378 into Bethlehem. Altogether it takes about an hour, mostly high-speed highway driving—slowing only for a few traffic lights around Quakertown.

But traveling that 50-mile trip wasn’t so easy in colonial days. From 1703 to 1734, the British government oversaw the development of Bethlehem Pike (a.k.a. the “Great Road”), a colonial highway that stretched from Chestnut Hill to the newly established Moravian community in Bethlehem. Naturally, inns sprang up to serve the stagecoach business. The Black Horse Inn was one of the first, strategically located about ten miles outside Philadelphia at a point where the drivers would be looking for a place to rest or change the horses.

Abraham Wakerly appears to have built the first inn on the property in 1744, offering only a plain one-room building plus a kitchen. As travel and trade increased, business justified growth. There were significant additions and improvements to the Black Horse Inn in 1833, 1880, and 1908, keeping up with the times and the traffic.

The Black Horse Inn opened under British rule, flourished under President Washington, and was still going strong when Lincoln was in office and the Civil War raged. At the turn of the century, in 1901, the core stagecoach business was superseded by a trolley line set up on the Bethlehem Pike, still maintaining its status as the main corridor linking Philadelphia with sites north. When the trolley service closed in 1926, the Black Horse Inn became more of a local—rather than a regional—landmark. While it has not been regularly open to the public for the last quarter of a century, it continues to securely anchor its hometown of Flourtown, standing testimony to the area’s rich history.

The Black Horse Inn during restoration in 2007 with stucco removed from
the north side.  Photo courtesy of Springfield Township.

Other Recommended Sites:  Ten miles northwest on the Skippack Pike, enjoy a visit to the Peter Wentz Farmstead, a beautifully restored 18th century Pennsylvania German farmstead which served as General George Washington’s headquarters during the fall of 1777.

South view of the Black Horse Inn in 2009.
Photo courtesy of Springfield Township.

Tour America's History Itinerary

Tuesday:  The Pennsylvania German Collection at the Free Library of Philadelphia

© 2013 Lee Price

The Woodlands

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Visit our Tour Destination: Pennsylvania page to see the entire tour of the state’s Save America’s Treasures sites.

The Woodlands mansion, home of William Hamilton (1745-1813).
Photo courtesy of The Woodlands Trust for Historic Preservation.

The Woodlands

4000 Woodland Avenue

Philadelphia, PA

Website:  The Woodlands

The Treasure:  Once the centerpiece of a large 18th century Philadelphia estate, The Woodlands mansion is a classic example of early Federal architecture.

Accessibility:  The grounds of The Woodlands are open from dawn to dusk. Check the website for information on events and tours.

Historic photo of The Woodlands mansion, circa 1900.
Photo courtesy of The Woodlands Trust
for Historic Preservation.

Background:  The west side of the Schuylkill River still reflects some of the botanical glory of its heyday in the late 18th century. Pioneering botanists John and William Bartram lived and worked along the banks here. And just around the river bend north of the Bartram estate was The Woodlands, a magnificent property developed by William Hamilton (1745-1813) as a base for his botanical pursuits.

Hamilton based his property design on English picturesque landscapes. Among the admirers of Hamilton's work was Thomas Jefferson who claimed it was the only American landscape that could compete with the best of Europe: “(T)he only rival which I have known in America to what may be seen in England.” In his greenhouses, Hamilton cultivated both imported plants and American native plants, notably including some seeds brought from the Lewis and Clark expeditions.

Hamilton was equally ambitious with his architectural choices. When he inherited the land in his early 20s, he built a classical villa and ornamented it with what may have been the first monumental portico in Philadelphia. Twenty years later, Hamilton rebuilt the house in the new style of British architects Robert and James Adam—converting his Woodlands mansion into one of the first American examples of the newly emerging Federal style.

During restoration, the original 18th century
wooden posts were exposed for the first
time in more than two centuries.
Photo courtesy of the Woodlands Trust
for Historic Preservation.

You can stroll through The Woodlands today and feel the draw of the past. In truth the landscape of The Woodlands is now more reflective of the Victorian rural cemetery tradition (the Woodlands Cemetery Company has flourished here since 1840), but much of the spirit of Hamilton remains. The Woodlands mansion remains a stunning reminder of Philadelphia’s tradition of grand estates. Save America’s Treasures funding contributed to historical research and restoration focused upon the portico, preserving a record of its original configuration and subsequent modifications in 1786, 1789, and the early 19th century, as well as roof restoration on the historic main carriage house.

Notes from the Editor:  My friend and co-worker Edith Mulhern wrote an eloquent love letter to the Woodland Cemetery:

Dear Woodlands Cemetery:

I’m so glad I found you. I spent years wandering in less lovely spots, and you were just lurking behind those gates across from the trolley portal…

Enjoy the rest of her tribute at Philly Love Notes!

In addition to the work on the mansion's portico, Save America's Treasures
funding was used to replace the deteriorated roofing and downspouts on the
historic main carriage house.
Photo courtesy of The Woodlands Trust for Historic Preservation.

Historic print of the entrance to The Woodlands Cemetery.
Image courtesy of The Woodlands Trust for Historic Preservation.

Other Recommended Sites:  For more botanical glory along the Schuylkill River, visit nearby Historic Bartram’s Garden, the oldest surviving botanic garden in the country and the home of the Bartram family (father John and sons John Jr. and William), friends and neighbors of William Hamilton.

A view of The Woodlands Cemetery.
Photo courtesy of The Woodlands Trust for Historic Preservation.

Tour America's History Itinerary

Taking a short sabbatical:  Will return for more Pennsylvania destinations in mid-April 2013.

© 2013 Lee Price

Destination: Pennsylvania

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I’ve chosen Pennsylvania for our next Tour America’s History destination in order to capitalize on the state’s current multi-year Save Pennsylvania’s Past initiative and the upcoming Pennsylvania’s 10 Most Endangered Artifacts campaign. Through my work at the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts in Philadelphia, I’m closely connected with both programs and eager to use my blog resources to promote them!

In January 2012, Tour America’s History was launched with a brief Philadelphia spotlight featuring blog entries on a dozen key sites. Those entries will now be folded into the mix as we move on to celebrate approximately 80 more sites in the state. The tour will bounce all around Pennsylvania, with major stops in Scranton, Bethlehem, Lancaster, Harrisburg, Titusville, Gettysburg, Johnstown, and, of course, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia—uncovering fascinating history all along the way.

Included within this group are 15 collections where the conservation treatment work was conducted at my work place, the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts. In several cases, I was even involved with the preparation of the grant requests to Save America’s Treasures. I’ll try not to play favorites, but, well… some of these places are very special to me.

I’ve worked in Pennsylvania for over 30 years and it was my home state for 15 years (before I crossed the Delaware River to New Jersey). Pennsylvania is a beautiful state abounding with rich history. It’ll be a pleasure to cover these sites.

For a more professional orientation to Pennsylvania tourism, there’s the official website VisitPA.com. Naturally, big cities like Philadelphia and Pittsburgh have helpful tourist websites and so do many of the smaller cities and towns. A little googling should bring up plenty of advice on regional events, transportation, hotels, and restaurants.

Our Tour America’s History exploration of Pennsylvania’s 89 Save America’s Treasures sites begins next Tuesday.

That's me at Fallingwater, a Frank Lloyd Wright
architectural masterpiece in western Pennsylvania.

Tour America's History Itinerary

Tuesday’s destination:  The Woodlands

© 2013 Lee Price

Feehan Memorial Library, Mundelein Seminary

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Visit our Tour Destination: Illinois page to see the entire tour of the state’s
Save America’s Treasures sites.

Exterior of Feehan Memorial Library at Mundelein Seminary.
Photo courtesy of the University of Saint Mary of the Lake/
Mundelein Seminary.

Feehan Memorial Library, Mundelein Seminary

1000 East Maple Avenue

Mundelein, IL

Website:  Feehan Memorial Library and McEssy Theological Resource Center

The Treasure:  The Feehan Memorial Library at Mundelein Seminary is home to a remarkable special collection of rare books and Americana.

Accessibility:  The Feehan Memorial Library is open daily.  Check the website for hours.

Cardinal George Mundelein in 1932.
Source:  Wikimedia Commons

Background:  Cardinal George Mundelein (1872-1939) had a passion for collecting. A widely respected Roman Catholic leader who served as Archbishop of Chicago from 1916 until his death in 1939, Cardinal Mundelein cherished his country and his faith.  For him, this meant a commitment to preserving records of the past. Mundelein’s collection of Americana, Presidential signatures, and autograph manuscripts of saints comprises a significant portion of the treasures of the Feehan Memorial Library at Mundelein Seminary. Other treasures can be found among the library’s rare books, many collected by John E. Rothensteiner (1860-1936), a parish priest who served in Fredericktown and St. Louis, Missouri. Combine these collections and it’s no wonder that the American Library Association named the Feehan Memorial Library one of the 250 World’s Greatest Libraries in 2010.

Nearly 75 years after his death, much of the campus of the University of Saint Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary still bears the stamp of Cardinal Mundelein.  Feeling that Chicago needed a seminary for the formation of priests, Mundelein revived St. Mary’s College, which existed here from 1844 until 1866. Renamed the University of Saint Mary on the Lake, Mundelein’s new seminary opened in 1921.

The ceiling of the Feehan Memorial Library.
Photo courtesy of the University of Saint Mary
of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary.

A great school needs a great library and Mundelein had a vision for it, as well.  He had the architects base the interior of the Feehan Memorial Library on the 16th century Barberini Palace in Italy where Mundelein had completed his seminary training. Mundelein had his coat of arms incorporated into the tables and ceiling beams, with representations of bees (a symbol of the Barberini family) and the Virgin Mary.  He named the building the Feehan Memorial Library in remembrance of Chicago’s Archbishop Patrick Augustus Feehan (1829-1902).

Of course, the library is primarily focused upon books that serve for the education of priests—thousands of books on theology, scripture studies, and church history.  But the special collections are an unexpected surprise, full of treasures you might not expect to stumble across in this environment.  Here you find a land survey by George Washington, a collection of first-edition Charles Dickens books, a signed edition of Napoleon’s memoirs, a 15th century illuminated “Book of Hours,” a 1515 edition of Dante’s Divine Comedy, the first Bible printed in Gaelic, and major sets of autographs of American presidents and Catholic saints personally collected by Cardinal Mundelein.

Interior of the Feehan Memorial Library.
Photo courtesy of the University of Saint Mary
of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary.

Other Recommended Sites:  Mundelein Seminary is located in Lake County, Illinois, which forms the tip of the northeastern corner of the state. The Lake County Discovery Museum in Wauconda, Illinois interprets the history and culture of the county.  Here you can find the Curt Teich Postcard Archives, the largest public collection of postcards (365,000!) in the country.

Overhead image of the Feehan Memorial Library.
Photo courtesy of the University of Saint Mary
of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary.

Tour America's History Itinerary

Coming next:  A tour of Pennsylvania’s Save America’s Treasures sites.

© 2013 Lee Price

Jane Addams Hull-House Museum

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Visit our Tour Destination: Illinois page to see the entire tour of the state’s
Save America’s Treasures sites.

Jane Addams Hull-House Museum.
Photo courtesy of Jane Addams Hull-House Museum.

Jane Addams Hull-House Museum

The University of Illinois at Chicago

800 S. Halsted

Chicago, IL

Website:  Jane Addams Hull-House Museum

The Treasure:  Hull-House was America’s most famous settlement house—a place where the ideals of the Progressive Era were put into practice, improving the lives of thousands.

Accessibility:  The museum is open Tuesday through Fridays from 10 to 4 and Sunday from noon to 4.  It’s closed Mondays and Saturdays.

Jane Addams.
Image from Hull-House
Yearbooks, courtesy of
University of Illinois at
Chicago Library.

Background:  Jane Addams took the ideals of the Progressive Era and put them into practice.  Hull-House, a settlement house co-founded by Addams and Ellen Gates Starr in 1889, was her incubator.  Through a wide array of programs and activities, Addams and Starr endeavored to improve the lives of the residents of some of Chicago’s poorest neighborhoods.  They fought for better urban living conditions, while creating a safe environment where disadvantaged people could benefit from the free offering of arts, culture, and education.

A reformist social movement that began in London in the middle of the 19th century, the settlement movement sought to bring the upper class and the lower class together in environments of mutual respect.  Largely driven by the idealistic concerns of upper-middle-class and upper-class women, the settlement movement was extremely flexible, ready to engage in social work, cultural and art activities, recreational programs, and education.  Hull-House was not the first American settlement house, but thanks to the drive of Addams and Starr it quickly became a beacon of the movement in the United States.

Known as “residents,” the volunteers who worked at Hull-House offered a buzzing environment of classes, concerts, lectures, theater, and training programs.  They served a local community that was a complex maze of small ethnic neighborhoods.  Initially, they primarily worked with Italians, Irish, Germans, Greeks, Bohemians, and Russian and Polish Jewish immigrants.  As immigration and migration patterns began to change the makeup of the neighborhoods, Hull-House reached out to Mexican-American and African-American families, as well.  It was always the working poor that were the focus of Hull-House—the people who worked long hours as unskilled laborers at the garment industry sweatshops and the factories along the Chicago River.

At the Front Door of Hull House.
Historic photo from Hull-House Yearbooks, courtesy of
University of Illinois at Chicago Library.

In the city’s poorest sections, sanitation was poor, wages were low, and young children were recruited for some of the dirtiest and most dangerous jobs.  Hull-House was on the forefront of advocating for improved government services and tougher industry regulations.  Hull-House offered an oasis where families could imagine a better future.  Jane Addams wrote, “To feed the mind of the worker, to lift it above the monotony of his task and connect it with the larger world, outside of his immediate surroundings, has always been the object of art.”  Following her vision, Addams organized and promoted art classes and training programs to unleash creativity and tap latent talents.

Today, the Jane B. Addams Hull-House Museum is an historic site that tells the story of America’s most famous settlement house.  Exhibits explore the lives of neighborhood children, the commitment of the residents who worked at Hull-House, artwork by Chicago artists who trained and taught at Hull-House, historical photographs of the neighborhood, and the restored bedroom of Jane Addams, where you can see her 1931 Nobel Peace Prize, the first ever given to an American woman.

But the real story of Hull-House lies in the thousands of changed and transformed lives that passed through it.  One exhibit explores two of those lives:  Hilda Satt Polachek and Jesús Torres.  Born in Poland, Polachek immigrated to the United States and Chicago when just a little girl.  At the age of 18, she began attending courses at Hull-House and discovered a talent for writing.  Her memoir of her time at Hull-House, I Came a Stranger:  The Story of a Hull-House Girl, was published posthumously in 1989 and is one of the best windows into life inside a settlement house.  A Mexican migrant, Jesús Torres learned ceramics at the Hull-House Kilns, receiving instruction from Russian immigrant artist Morris Topchevksy in the 1930s.  Thanks to his Hull-House training, Torres became a successful and widely admired ceramic artist, doing much work with Chicago’s Carl Street Studios.

The oldest known photograph of Hull-House.
Photo courtesy of Jane Addams Hull-House Museum.

Hull-House at it looked in the 1920s.
Photo courtesy of Jane Addams Hull-House Museum.

A children's art class at Hull-House.
Image from Hull-House Yearbooks.  These images were
preserved through a 1999 Save America's Treasures grant.
Through this grant, master negatives, use negatives, and
use prints were produced for an estimated 5,000
photographs and 1,500 yearbook images from the
collection of the University of Illinois at Chicago Library.
Image courtesy of the University of Illinois at Chicago Library.

Other Recommended Sites:  Many Mexicans came north in the 1920s, looking for work at the Chicago factories.  They settled into neighborhoods, bringing a vibrant culture and traditions with them.  Fittingly, Chicago is now home to the National Museum of Mexican Art located in Pilsen on the Lower West Side.  The museum showcases the beauty and richness of Mexican culture which has flourished not just in the country of Mexico but throughout the Americas.

A painting of Hull-House that served as a basis for the 1960s restoration.
Image courtesy of Jane Addams Hull-House Museum.

Tour America's History Itinerary

Thursday’s destination:  Feehan Library, Mundelein Seminary

© 2013 Lee Price