Chicago is home to some of the world’s greatest libraries, archives, and museums, and each one contains unique stories about the people and places that have placed Chicago at the center of the American experience for more than 150 years. For the first time, anyone with an interest in the history of Chicago can explore the resources housed at places like the University of Chicago, the Chicago History Museum, the Newberry Library, and DePaul University in a single place.
Explore Chicago Collections, a digital portal providing access to digital images, maps, descriptions of archival collections, and other resources, is the flagship initiative of Chicago Collections, a consortium of more than 20 libraries, archives, museums, historical societies, and other cultural heritage organizations across the Chicago region. Through Explore Chicago Collections, you can browse a wealth of digital material (as well as guides for locating physical objects) by topic, neighborhood, city, and more. Whether your interest is architecture or theatre, urban design or politics, the Chicago Fire or the World’s Fair, the Settlement House movement or the Gay Rights movement, you can, for the first time, find primary sources and the expertise of Chicago librarians, archivists, and curators in one place.
DePaul University has been a leading member of Chicago Collections over the past three years, contributing to the design of Explore Chicago Collections, as well as other Chicago Collections initiatives, including a cooperative reference service and the inaugural exhibition, “Raw Material: Uncovering Chicago’s Historical Collections.” Working with Chicago Collections is just one way that the DePaul University Library contributes to the university’s strategic goal of “deepening the university’s distinctive connection to the global city of Chicago,” and Explore Chicago Collections is just one program that will bring the unique resources of the city to students, faculty, and staff at DePaul.
Learn more about the Explore Chicago Collections launch at http://chicagocollections.org/news-events/news/explore-chicago-collections-launch/.