Who doesn't love maps? I went to the Newberry Library Friday morning to see the Mike Royko exhibit — I felt obligated — then I slid over to the new Indigenous Chicago exhibit in the main gallery space. We think of Chicago as a relatively new city, founded in 1833. But it was a community long before, for people who until recently didn't register on our civic consciousness as much as they should. There it is, above, on a 1718 French map, labeled "Les Checagou." Notice that the future Lake Michigan above it, called Lac des Illinois at the time, a reminder that our state is named for a confederation of Native-American tribes, known at the time as the Illiniwek or the Illini. I believe sometimes we forget that.
Talk about continuity. To get to the library, I took the No. 22 bus up Dearborn. And if you look closely at the 1833 map below, there aren't many streets in the little grid of Chicago, but there's Dearborn, right next to Clark Street, right where it belongs.
Talk about continuity. To get to the library, I took the No. 22 bus up Dearborn. And if you look closely at the 1833 map below, there aren't many streets in the little grid of Chicago, but there's Dearborn, right next to Clark Street, right where it belongs.
The bulk of the show is about Native-American communities in Chicago, and it might say something bad that I gravitated toward the brightly colored maps and not the photographs of people. Drawn to the shiny object. But you have to be who you are.
The Royko show closes Saturday — it's small, and I can't say it contained any surprises, but I couldn't miss it. The Indigenous Chicago show runs until Jan. 4. It might not be for everyone. The school group that was visiting when. I was there seemed to be staring off into space more than at the exhibits. But it behooves us to remember the people who were here before us — and who are here right now, still. Part of the show emphasizes that, despite enormous hardships, indigenous Chicagoans are right where they've always been, in Chicago, carrying on their traditions as best they can.
I love maps myself. The old maps are breathtaking.
ReplyDeleteYou have to be who you are?
ReplyDelete‘To Thine Own Self Be True’, Meaning & Context
‘To thine own self be true’ is a line from act 1 scene 3 of Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet. It is spoken by King Claudius’ chief minister, Polonius as part of a speech where he is giving his son, Laertes, his blessing and advice on how to behave whilst at university.
It is a speech that contains a number of different well known Shakespeare quotes, such as ‘Give every man thy ear but few thy voice,’ ‘Neither a borrower nor a lender be,’ and ‘The apparel oft proclaims the man’ fill the speech. Polonius’ advice is summed up with the lines: ‘This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.’
I have an antique maps calendar by my desk as I type this, and one of my prized books is a pre-WW1 Hammond Atlas that came with a pamphlet explaining the League of Nations. I couldn't wait to shell out the $5 for that one!
ReplyDeleteBefore Illinois officially became a state, the northern border of the territory was about sixty miles to the south, cutting off access to Lake Michigan and putting "Checagou" in what later became the territory of Wisconsin.. But Illinois needed access to rivers, for canal-building purposes, so the boundary was changed.
ReplyDeleteRead elsewhere that visitors to the Royko exhibit could pick the newspaper columnist that they feel is "today’s Royko"--and that Mr. S. got a number votes. Which is.something I find pretty cool. Not sure I agree with that, however, as Royko took a sharp right turn when he got older. He'd probably be voting for the Orange Guy now.
Thank you for this glimpse into the past and your field trip!
ReplyDeleteI recommend an excellent book: A History of the Chicago Portage: The Crossroads That Made Chicago and Helped Make America by Benjamin Sells
ReplyDeleteI may have to go this exhibit just to see the rest of the 1833 map. I love the notation about once a week mail delivery arriving along the 'road to Detroit' from Niles, MI.
ReplyDeleteVery cool! Thank you.
In addition to Grizz 65's correct assessment about the rivers and access to Lake Michigan, there was another reason for moving the northern line of Illinois. In the 1929 book "Chicago: The History of its Reputation", the authors argue, "Illinois, which was begging for statehood in 1818, was credited to the anti-slavery forces and paired off against Mississippi, which would be pro-slavery. But Nathaniel Pope well knew that in case of division between North and South, the State of Illinois, as things then stood, would side with the slave section. This was serious, for although the nation had not yet begun to rock to the bitter quarrels which were to end in the awful blood letting of the ’60s, thoughtful men in 1818 were seeing the danger of disunion on the horizon. And it was on this fear that Pope played when he persuaded President James Monroe and Congress to include Chicago in the new State of Illinois.
ReplyDelete"If Illinois’ northern boundary were moved up some sixty miles into Wisconsin, said Pope, it would capture the mouth of the Chicago River, a place certain to become in time the gateway to the canal and the Mississippi. Through this port, Pope contended, would come Northern and Eastern blood by way of the Great Lakes—energetic merchants and thrifty farmers of the Eastern States—a civilization which would counterbalance that of the down-state Southerners. Thus IIlinois would not only become settled more rapidly, but its population would be ideal, a mixture of North and South; IIlinois would develop, Pope seemed to think, into a sort of model commonwealth, bulwark against any threat of disunion which might arise in either national group.Illinois"
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The answers can also be found in "How the States Got Their Shapes"...a copy of which I eagerly got my paws on after seeing the History Channel series of the same name, with its excellent explanations and ANIMATED maps. The answers come directly from the book:
DeleteWhen Illinois residents sought statehood, they knew that access to Lake Michigan would be critical to the state's economy, because of the construction of the Erie Canal. So Illinois sought a border adjustment that urged Congress to locate its border nearly sixty miles to the north. There were multiple reasons for this.
* First, Missouri was also about to become a state...a slave state. The drift toward civil war was already becoming a concern. A new state "connected" to New York (via the Lakes) would give "security" to the Union--and allow Illinois to channel goods and resources through the Lakes as an alternative to shipping them through the South, via the Mississippi.
* Secondly, the canals Illinois needed to divert commerce to Lake Michigan depended on access to the network of rivers (the Rock, the Fox, the Des Plaines, and even the Kishwaukee) that lie in the sixty miles of flat land between the Wisconsin hills and the proposed Illinois-Wisconsin border. Not having this access could have jeopardized the canal ventures.
* Apparently, there were not yet enough Cheeseheads in the Wisconsin Territory to voice a serious objection. Wisconsin's population growth lagged far behind Illinois and the other states in what came to be called the "Middle West." The fact that it was the last of these states to acquire sufficient population for statehood significantly altered its borders, including its northern border with Michigan, which took the "Upper Peninsula" as compensation for the land it lost to Ohio in the "Toledo War" of 1835.
* Wisconsin strongly objected to the loss of the U.P.--but still lacked the political clout to prevent it--just as Michigan had lacked the clout to fend off the designs of Indiana and Ohio.
Track down the book. It's fascinating, with magnificent maps. You will learn a helluva lot.
---Grizz 65, EGD, September 18, 2018