Current Exhibits

Have you visited an exhibit at the Chicago Public Library? It's fun. Come listen to a lecture, browse a gallery and experience the Library in a new way. 

Chicago Alliance of African-American Photographers Presents a 10 year retrospective.
February 6, 2010 – January 7, 2011

Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection Gallery
Carter G. Woodson Regional Library
9525 South Halsted Street

The Chicago Alliance of African-American Photographers (CAAAP) will present a retrospective look at individual members’ photographic works. CAAAP was founded in 1999. Some of their members are established professionals, while others are hobbyists, but all share a common passion for the art of photography and its power to inform, educate and record history. Their membership includes three past Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalists.  They are: former Chicago Tribune photographer Ovie Carter, recipient of the 1975 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting; Milbert Brown, Jr., member (with Carter) of the Tribune's team which won the 2001 prize for Explanatory Reporting; and Chicago Sun-Times photographer John H. White, who won the 1982 Pultizer Prize for Feature Photography.

Inspiring Dreams! Promoting the Burnham Plan
August 3, 2009 – February 2010

Chicago Gallery, Third Floor
Harold Washington Library Center
400 South State Street

Daniel Burnham’s Plan of Chicago inspired the dreams of people living and working in Chicago in the early decades of the 20th century. Many strategies were employed to enable Burnham and the Commercial Club of Chicago, who supported his work, to “sell” the “Plan” to the City Planning Commission and eventually the public. This exhibit explores how the “Plan” was promoted to Chicago’s citizens. Burnham’s plan became part of the public school curriculum and was supported by clergymen in sermons. It also was the feature of illustrated lantern slide lectures, a film, and department store window displays. The Plan of Chicago even inspired the development of future guidelines for the Chicago Public Library when Chief Librarian Henry E. Legler published A Library Plan for the Whole City in 1916. Burnham’s plan continues to influence strategic goals for Chicago, most recently seen in the City’s bid for the 2016 Olympics. 
 

Tall Man of Destiny: Images of Abraham Lincoln
February 7, 2009 to February 28, 2010

Special Collections Exhibition Hall, 9th floor
Harold Washington Library Center
400 S. State St.

The face of Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), the16th President of the United States, is one of the most recognizable in America. In celebration of the 200th anniversary of his birth, the Chicago Public Library will present an exhibition on the myriad of images of President Abraham Lincoln. This exhibit looks at a variety of images of Lincoln during his lifetime as well as representations of him from his death in 1865 to today. The images are drawn primarily from the Chicago Public Library’s Grand Army of the Republic and Civil War Collections. Additionally, in conjunction with the bicentennial celebration of President Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, the Chicago Public Library will feature the life, times, and history of President Lincoln as the theme for the 2009 Summer Reading Programs for children and adults. The Library’s Summer Reading Programs will run from June through August 2009.

Called to the Challenge: The Legacy of Harold Washington
Ongoing

Harold Washington Library Center
Harold Washington Exhibit Hall, Ninth Floor
400 S. State St.

This exhibit highlights three themes from Washington's personal and political legacy – his life, his image, and his work. Harold Washington, 42nd Mayor of Chicago, was the city's first African American Mayor. He was a reformer who changed Chicago politics and a person who never lost sight of the place from which he came and the influences that inspired him. This exhibition, drawn largely from the Harold Washington Archives & Collections of the Special Collections & Preservation Division of the Chicago Public Library, highlights three themes from his personal and political legacy – his life, his image, and his work.