Business & Labor

Dates: 1938-1965. Size: 1.25 linear feet. Accession #2010/04. Chicago Public Library, Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature. Jesse Lee Albritton was a Chicago-based labor organizer and author of regular columns featured throughout the 1940s and 1950s in the Chicago Crusader and Federation News. [Finding aid]

Dates: 1928-1979. Size: 69 linear feet. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Music Information Center. Contains deceased members files (1940-1979), photocopied minutes of the trial board (1928-1938), annual meetings (1938-1965) and board of directors (1930-1965) of Local 208. [Partially processed]

Dates: 1955-2005. Size: 5.25 linear feet. Accession #2006/04. Chicago Public Library, Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature. These workers were the first African Americans allowed to work at Midway Airport’s AMF postal facility. They later worked on trains, distributing mail throughout the Midwest. The AMF Midway Postal Retirement Organization was founded in 1991 to document the history of African Americans in the organization. The collection contains administrative records, newsletters, photographs, reports, diagrams and memorabilia. [Finding Aid]

Dates: 1975-1996. Size: 4 linear feet. Accession #1979/01. Chicago Public Library, Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature. Wally Amos, entrepreneur, speaker, actor and writer from Tallahassee, Fla., is the founder of the Famous Amos chocolate chip cookie brand. The collection consists of correspondence, draft copies of manuscripts, memorabilia, awards and books. [Finding aid]

Dates: 1862-1886, undated. Size: 2 linear feet in 9 volumes. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. List of additional illustrations, photographs and documents bound into an extra-illustrated set of volumes of History of Chicago from the Earliest Period to the Present Time in Three Volumes by A.T. (Alfred Theodore) Andreas, with the corresponding catalog reference: F548.3.A5 1885 [Finding Aid].

Dates: 1990-2002. Size: .75 linear feet in 2 boxes. Chicago Public Library, Sulzer Regional Library, Northside Neighborhood History Collection. Established by Charlie Soo in 1979, the Asian American Small Business Association encouraged economic development in the area near Argyle Street and Broadway. The bulk of the collection consists of news releases and flyers promoting events. It also includes newspaper articles about Argyle Street, letters from Soo, reports, newsletters, and ephemera. [Finding Aid]

Dates: 1843-1902. Size: 0.75 linear feet in 2 boxes. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collections. Collection consists of business (real estate) correspondence. [Finding aid]

Dates: 1987-2009. Size: 9 linear feet. Accession #2012/04. Chicago Public Library, Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature. Palma Scott-Winbush, professionally known as Chef Kocoa, is a well-regarded Chicago-based chef and owner of Kocoa's Kitchen. She spent seventeen years on the staff of the Chicago Reader in advertising before changing careers, transforming her life-long love of baking into a new venture. In 1990, she returned to school to further develop her culinary skills and graduated from the Washburne College Chef Training Program in 1991. Among her many accomplishments as a successful chef and business owner, author, consultant, food critic, and correspondent for several local media outlets, Chef Kocoa also made history as the first African American to have a syndicated, live cooking segment on WGN. Her papers contain personal and professional documents, photographs, audiovisual materials, as well as memorabilia that shed light on her impact on Chicago's hospitality industry. [Processed]

Dates: 1830-1957. Size: 1.5 linear feet in 5 boxes. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections. Collection of diaries, letters and manuscripts that include descriptions of business dealings, daily Chicago life, family, school, weather and work in the Chicago area between 1830 and 1957. [Finding Aid]

Dates: 1872-2019. Size: 1.5 linear feet. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections. Contains pamphlets created by food manufacturers, recipe booklets, recipe card sets and recipe scrapbooks. [Partially Processed]

Dates: 1895-2006. Size: 39 linear feet in 53 boxes and 7 oversize folders, includes 4,056 photographs, 2,480 slides, 795 4”x5” negatives, 60 videos, 6 audio cassettes, 2 artifacts. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. The Chicago Loop Alliance, formerly known as the State Street Council and the Greater State Street Council (GSSC), was founded in 1929 to promote the business interests of downtown State Street. This collection documents the activities of the organization through correspondence, marketing materials, meeting minutes, newsletters, photographs, press releases, studies, reports, and audiovisual resources. Among the projects was the closure of vehicular traffic on State Street and its transformation into a walking Mall between 1979 and 1996. [Finding aid]

Dates: 1885-2020; bulk dates: 2010-2020. Size: 1 linear foot. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections. Collection includes menus from restaurants and food establishments across the city. [Partially Processed]

Dates: 1972-2006. Size: 7 linear feet. Accession #1992/07. Chicago Public Library, Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature. Founded in Detroit in 1972, the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists was created to address the labor, civil rights and political concerns of African Americans active in unions. Donated by Beverly Sandifer of AFSCME Local 1215, the archive includes convention documents, minutes, resolutions, programs, photographs and memorabilia from the Chicago Chapter of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists. [Finding Aid, opens a new window]

Dates: circa 1960s-circa 1980s. Size: 1 linear foot in 2 boxes. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections. Stewart-Warner Corp., founded in 1905, made automobile accessories, predominantly speedometers. Its main plant in Chicago was at 1826 W. Diversey Parkway employing over 8,000 workers at its peak. There was a strike in 1981 followed by years of demise, and the factory closed during the 1980s. Workers at Stewart-Warner were organized by the United Electrical Radio and Machine Workers of America Union (UE) but the Union was replaced by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), Local 1031. By the late 1960s and early 1970s, some workers, dissatisfied with Local 1031, an umbrella Local not specific to Stewart-Warner, began a movement to spin off a new Local for Stewart-Warner. The United Workers Association-United Electrical Workers (UWA-EW) was formed in 1979. Conflict between the old and new Unions, and with management, led to a strike in 1981. The collection, amassed by employee Steve Cohen, documents the struggle for Union representation through printed newsletters, flyers, memos, and correspondence.  [Unprocessed]

Dates: 1966-1978. Size: 2 linear feet. Accession #2003/03. Chicago Public Library, Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature. Melvin Davis served as president of United Automobile Workers Local 1083. He was also active in the Black Arts Movement and in the African Nationalist Pioneer Movement. His papers include materials on the 50th anniversary of Marcus Garvey’s death, the campaign to build a Marcus Garvey memorial and black theater. The papers consist of manuscripts, bulletins, flyers, serials and photographs. [Unprocessed]

Dates: 1953-2015. Size 7.5 linear feet. Accession #2016/03. Chicago Public Library, Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature. Milton Davis co-founded South Shore Bank, later renamed ShoreBank. It was the first bank holding company to combine commercial banking, real estate development, nonprofit loan funds and international advisory services aimed at community development. Davis was also an active Civil Rights activist and served as President of the Congress of Racial Equality, Chicago Chapter. The collection consists of correspondence, event programs, newspaper clippings, photographs, audiovisual materials and memorabilia. Davis' work as a banker, activist and community leader are well documented with manuscript materials. [Finding Aid]

Dates: 1891-1985. Size: 12 linear feet. Accession #2008/02. Chicago Public Library, Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature. Attorney and business executive Earl B. Dickerson was honored for his civil rights and civil liberties work. He was general counsel at Supreme Liberty Life Insurance (an African American-owned company), a Chicago alderman and lead attorney in Hansberry v. Lee, a landmark case challenging restrictive covenants. Dickerson’s papers include correspondence, programs, genealogical materials, clippings, serials, photographs and memorabilia. [Finding aid]

Dates: 1878-1974. Size: 2.5 linear feet. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections. Norman Forgue was a bookmaker, typographer and founder of several private presses including At the Sign of the Gargoyle, The Black Cat Press, The Norman Press and Normandie House. The collection includes keepsakes, books and booklets, printed advertising and promotional material, greeting cards from his presses, a small selection of correspondence with Lloyd Emerson Siberell and a carbon typescript of an unpublished memoir about his youth called, Suddenly I Remember. [Finding aid]

Dates: 1963-2002. Size: 1.5 linear feet. Accession #1996/06. Chicago Public Library, Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature. Herbert Hill served in the 1950s and 1960s as labor director of the NAACP, where he was one of the most effective voices raised against racial discrimination by unions. He was later a professor of Afro-American studies at the University of Wisconsin. His collection consists of correspondence, manuscripts and published articles written by Hill. [Finding aid]

Date: 1920-1992. Size: 1 linear foot in 1 box, includes 3 photographs. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections. Clarence Hoff worked as an electrician for Marshall Field and Company from 1942 until 1985. Marshall Field and Company grew out of earlier wholesale and retail companies of which Marshall Field was a part beginning in the 1860s. Marshall Field’s grew to be one of the most recognized department stores in America, with its flagship building in the heart of Chicago’s downtown Loop. Field’s was acquired by Macy’s in 2005. This small collection documents employee activities and company publications in the mid-twentieth century. [Finding aid]

Dates: 1923 March-August. Size: 2 folders, including 16 photographs. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections. This photograph album documents a construction project on the Illinois Central Railroad tracks in the downtown Chicago lake front area. The 16 images were taken by the Illinois Central Railroad. [Finding aid]

Dates: 1911-1941. Size: 1.25 linear feet in 2 boxes, including 41 photographs. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. May Johnson was a performing arts agent. Collection primarily concerns the careers of violinist Zlatko Balokovic and soprano Eleonora DeCisneros, and includes information on the Chicago Grand Opera Company. [Finding aid]

Dates: circa 1890-1994. Size: 107 linear feet. Accession #1992/09. Chicago Public Library, Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature. Marjorie Stewart Joyner was national supervisor of Madame C.J. Walker Beauty Colleges, chair of Chicago’s Bud Billiken Parade and Chicago Defender Charities, benefactor of Bethune-Cookman College and an activist in the Democratic Party in Chicago. Her papers include correspondence, business records, programs, serials, clipping files, photographs and memorabilia. Organizational materials from the United Beauty School Owners and Teachers Association, Alpha Chi Pi Omega Sorority and Fraternity, Cosmopolitan Community Church and the Bud Billiken Parade are also included. [Finding Aid]

Dates: 1919-2010. Size: 15 linear feet. Accession #2012/05. Chicago Public Library, Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature. This collection contains the funeral registers from Kersey, McGowan and Morsell Memorial Chapel which was located in the heart of the Bronzeville community at 3515 S. Indiana. The chapel opened in June 1919, one month before the Chicago Race Riot of 1919 and closed on January 31, 2010. [Unprocessed]

Dates: 1874-1940s. Size: 11 folders. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections. The Lanyon Family Papers consists of photographs and ephemera about members of the Lanyon family who settled in and started businesses in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood. [Finding aid]

Dates: 1870-2008. Size: 13 linear feet. Accession #2004/08. Chicago Public Library, Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature. Nathan K. McGill, a native Floridian, had a profound impact on Chicago journalism and law. In 1925, he was appointed assistant state’s attorney in Chicago. A confidant of Robert Abbott, he later served as general manager, vice president and counsel of the Chicago Defender. He was also a member of the Chicago Public Library Board of Directors. From 1934 to 1937, he published his own newspaper, Metropolitan News. Nathan McGill’s papers consist of newspaper clippings, serials, rare documents, photographs and memorabilia. The McGill Family Papers also include materials from Nathan McGill’s brother, Simuel D. McGill, a civil rights attorney who represented the Scottsboro Boys, and items from their descendants. [Finding aid]

Dates: 1889-1895. Size: 1 linear foot in 1 box. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, part of the Calumet Region Community Collections. Account book from the Milk Dealers Association [which may also have been known as the "Milkman Association"] in the Roseland neighborhood. While most of the entries are minutes from the Association meetings, the value of the book is its documentation of a grass-roots union movement in Chicago. [Finding aid]

Dates: 1940-1995. Size: 6.5 linear feet. Accession #2001/02. Chicago Public Library, Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature. The Morgan Park Co-op Credit Union, founded in 1940, is the oldest African-American credit union in Chicago. The collection contains photographs, legal documents, history brochures and memorabilia. [Finding aid]

Date: 1924-1929, 1944, undated. Size: 2 photo albums, 303 photographs. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections. The People’s Gas Light & Coke Company photo albums were created to document three natural gas pipeline projects in Chicago neighborhoods. The 1925 Northwest Side Project runs through the Old Irving Park and Mayfair communities and goes on to span the bridge at North Branch Chicago River near Forest Glen Avenue. The 95th Street Project runs through the Beverly, Longwood Manor and Rosalind communities. The 1944 project includes pipelines that extend to and from the Crawford Distribution Station, the Division Street Station and the 22nd Street Station. The albums contain views of equipment, natural gas pipes, iron fittings, work crews and street views of the surrounding neighborhoods. [Finding aid]

Dates: 1919-2011. Size: 2 linear feet. Accession #2009/01. Chicago Public Library, Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature. Rusty Restuccia, a retired Ford Motor Co. executive, runs a website dedicated to the history of African Americans in the automobile industry. His papers center on his research and writing on the history of African American-owned car dealerships, including those in Chicago, Kansas City, Missouri, and Detroit. [Unprocessed]

Dates: 1960-1992. Size: 2 linear feet. Accession #1997/08. Chicago Public Library, Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature. Labor history educator Stan Rosen’s papers include materials on Chicago’s African American labor activists. [Unprocessed]

Dates: 1980-1991. Size: .25 linear feet in 1 box. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections. This small collection consists of case studies, legal documents, reports, pamphlets and booklets connected to Susan B. Rosenblum's work in Chicago in the 1980s. Items in the collection relate to three distinct areas of focus: displacement in the Uptown neighborhood in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the 1984 closing of the Playskool toy factory in West Humboldt Park and the creation of the non-profit Chicago Consortium of Worker Education in 1989. [Finding aid]

Dates: 1920-1956. Size: .25 linear foot. Accession #2005/01. Chicago Public Library, Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature. Rosella E. Smith’s papers include capital stock certificates from Binga State Bank and Supreme Liberty Life Insurance and receipts. Jesse Binga’s bank was a major Black-owned financial institution on Chicago’s South Side. It closed in 1933. [Finding aid]

Dates: 1979-1992. Size: 2 linear feet. Accession #1997/06. Chicago Public Library, Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature. A social worker and union organizer beginning in the 1930s, Victoria Kramer Starr was one of the three women present at the 1937 founding of the Packinghouse Workers Organizing Committee. Her papers include United Packinghouse Workers Union of America materials, oral history interviews and newspaper clippings. [Finding aid]

Dates: 1960-1995. Size: 18 linear feet. Accession #1999/10. Chicago Public Library, Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature. Fanniemae Summerower was a schoolteacher, mathematics consultant, philanthropist and widow of real estate broker James Summerower. The couple was prominent in elite Chicago social organizations. The papers include files of social and fraternal organizations, correspondence, audiovisual materials, textbooks, photographs, awards and memorabilia. [Unprocessed]

Dates: 1930-1987. Size: 96 linear feet in 108 boxes, includes 1240 photos, 368 35mm photo slides, 18 audio cassettes and 1 oversize folder. Accession #1987/01. Chicago Public Library, Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature. Era Bell Thompson, author of American Daughter and Africa, Land of My Fathers, was a pioneering photojournalist for Ebony and international editor for Johnson Publishing Company for more than 30 years. She was also an important figure in the Chicago Renaissance; her ties to the Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature span nearly 50 years. Thompson’s papers include correspondence, diaries, financial records, audio and videotapes, monographs, journals, subject clipping files, photographs and memorabilia. [Finding aid]

Dates: 1864-1986. Size: 29 linear feet in 34 boxes, includes 88 bound volumes. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Neighborhood History Research Collection. The collection consists of catalogs and advertisements for goods and services produced or sold by Chicago’s manufacturers, retail stores, wholesale houses and other businesses. The product categories include agriculture, amusement, apparel, appliances, automotive, bicycles, construction, education, furniture, hardware, housewares, jewelry, machinery, medicine, music, printing, publishing, sporting goods and general merchandise. [Finding aid]

Dates: 1910-1941. Size: 9 linear feet, includes 111 posters in 18 oversize folders. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections. The collection contains 20th century posters from Chicago, North America and international destinations. The chromolithographic posters employ graphic design and illustration to advertise tours, travel agents, and transportation to destinations by railroad as well as ship and bus lines. [Finding aid]

Dates: 1970-2008. Size: 30 linear feet. Accession #2010/09. Chicago Public Library, Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature. Dempsey Travis was a real estate developer, mortgage broker, author of books on Chicago’s African American history and civil rights activist. His papers include correspondence, typescripts of his books, organizational files, photographs, scrapbooks, subject research files and memorabilia. [Unprocessed]

Dates: 1852-1975. Size: 2 linear feet in 2 boxes and 4 photographs. Chicago Public Library, Sulzer Regional Library, Northside Neighborhood History Collection. John B. Turner was born in England in 1815. He came to Chicago in 1836 and started a successful livery business. His business was destroyed by the Chicago Fire in 1871. He owned land in North Center in Lake View Township. After the fire, he and his family moved to North Center where they farmed. The materials in this collection document the business activities of John B. Turner and include receipts, correspondence and a ledger. The collection contains some personal materials including family tree, news clippings about the family and a few photographs, including a portrait of John Turner and his family and their home in North Center. [Finding aid]

Dates: 1931-1990. Size: 2 linear feet. Accession #1992/02. Chicago Public Library, Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature. Laurence Turner, an African American supporter of independent African nations, moved to Tanzania in the 1970s. He established his own business and trained local entrepreneurs. His papers document his life and work in Tanzania. [Finding aid]

Dates: 1934-1944. Size: 38 labels. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections. The Valmor Products Company was started in 1926 by South Side native and chemist, Morton Neumann. Together with his wife, Rose, the Neumanns operated Valmor Products Co. and its subsidiary companies: Lucky Brown, Madam Jones, King Novelty, and Famous Products Co. The products ranged from hair pomades, perfumes and skin creams to household products that were marketed to African American women prior to the Black is Beautiful movement and frequently consisted of skin lighteners and hair straighteners. The collection consists of a small selection of labels. [Finding aid]

Dates: 1968-1991. Size: 50 linear feet. Accession #1994/04. Chicago Public Library, Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature. ViewPoint, Inc. was a black-owned market and media research firm founded by Felix Burrows. Based in Chicago, ViewPoint was at one time the largest black-owned market research firm in the nation. The corporate archives consist of chronologically arranged client/case files for each contract performed by the firm, as well as subject research files. Burrows closed ViewPoint, Inc. in 1992. [Finding aid]

Dates: 1917-1958. Size: 78 linear feet. Chicago Public Library, Harold Washington Library Center, Special Collections, Chicago Authors and Publishing Collection. Collection consists of the financial records and greeting cards of this Chicago publisher of cards and children’s books. Materials include business ledgers, receipts and the salesmen’s props (sample sets) for the greeting cards. The printed finding aid to the collection, available in the Special Collections Reading Room, includes an index of artists and writers who worked for Volland. The best known of these individuals include Johnny Gruelle, creator of Raggedy Ann and Andy, and illustrators Maginel Wright Enright and Frederick Richardson. [Finding aid]

Dates: 1890-1983. Size: 2.5 linear feet in 2 boxes, 13 oversized folders and 87 photographs. Chicago Public Library, Sulzer Regional Library, Northside Neighborhood History Collection. The Wermich North Center News Collection contains records from the Wermich family, who published the neighborhood newspaper the Northcenter News. Items in the collection include issues of the newspaper from the 1940s-1960s; minutes, correspondence and newspaper clippings about the North Center Commercial Association; miscellaneous files about other neighborhood organizations, and photographs. [Finding aid]

Dates: 1985-2004. Size: 4 linear feet. Accession #2005/03. Chicago Public Library, Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature. Sarah White, born in poverty in the Mississippi Delta town of Inverness, became a leading organizer of unions for black women working in the catfish processing plants of the region. She was a key figure in the 1990 strike at Delta Pride Catfish, the largest strike in the history of Mississippi. The catfish workers’ struggle became a celebrated cause in Chicago, as civil rights groups, unions and churches sent assistance. White’s papers include extensive oral history interviews, manuscripts, speeches, clipping files, serials and memorabilia. [Partially processed]

Dates: 1980-1984. Size: .5 linear foot. Accession #1987/03. Chicago Public Library, Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature. Jearl Wood, an autoworker, Vietnam veteran, UAW member and artist, was accused of attempted murder, aggravated battery and armed violence. This collection contains the files of the defense fund for Wood, including correspondence, litigation documents, logbook, leaflets and political buttons. [Finding aid]

Dates: 1947-2005. Size: 220 linear feet. Accession #2007/04 Chicago Public Library, Woodson Regional Library, Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature. The Rev. Addie Wyatt and her husband, the Rev. Claude Wyatt, were co-pastors at Vernon Park Church of God for more than four decades. Addie Wyatt was a meatpacking worker and union activist in the 1940s. Her determination to fight for social justice led her to union leadership roles, culminating in her election as vice president of the Amalgamated Meatcutters Union (later merged into the United Food and Commercial Workers Union). She was a founder of the Coalition of Labor Union Women and the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists. This collection includes correspondence, manuscripts, programs, proceedings, serials, clipping files, audiovisual materials and photographs from her work in labor, black and women’s organizations. Also included is extensive documentation on the history of Vernon Park Church of God, including sermon texts by Claude Wyatt. [Finding aid]