A new art exhibit, What Is Progress?, opens August 28, 2026, in the 3rd Floor Gallery of Harold Washington Library Center.
Chicago’s motto, Urbs in Horto, Latin for “City in a Garden,” captures a city that has continuously reinvented itself. Built at the edge of Lake Michigan, Chicago has grown through engineering, industry, immigration, art and civic ambition into one of the nation’s largest cities. For nearly two centuries, Chicagoans have pursued what they believed was progress. But what does progress mean?
Drawn from the Chicago Public Library’s Archives and Special Collections, What Is Progress? offers different perspectives on how Chicagoans have tried to answer this question over the past 189 years. The materials included in this exhibit invite you to consider the many roles played by industry, health, art and infrastructure in our city.
What Is Progress? will be on display in the 3rd Floor Gallery of Harold Washington Library Center from August 28, 2026 to January 8, 2027.