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North Aurora: 1834-1940 is a quintessential study of what happened when settlers arrived in the Midwest in the 1830s. The village's location on the Fox River provided plentiful trees and waterpower for sawmills. Soon other mills, smelting works, a packing plant, a door-sash-blind factory, and a creamery all came to town. The village's railroad enabled its Boswell Cheese Factory to ship cream cheese to England in 1877. By 1922, North Aurora had
...8) Maywood
The character of this singular suburb is preserved and celebrated in Images of America: Maywood. A must-have for fans of Illinois history.
Ten miles west of Chicago on the west bank of the Des Plaines River sits Maywood, a village that was founded in 1869 by seven New England businessmen who established the Maywood Land Company. This prairie community, carefully laid out along the railroad, experienced a population
...10) Cicero revisited
Strategically located seven miles west of Chicago's Loop, multifaceted Cicero is one of the oldest and largest municipalities in Illinois. In the late 19th century, this unique industrial suburb developed as an ethnic patchwork of self-sufficient immigrant neighborhoods. Since the Roaring Twenties, when mobster kingpin Al Capone set up shop there, the town has often been characterized by corruption and controversy. Yet the Cicero story continues
...11) Melrose Park
Originally founded by German immigrants, followed by successive waves of Lithuanians, Italians, and Hispanics, Melrose Park has undergone a series of transformations since its incorporation in 1882. Close proximity to Chicago and the coming of the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad ensured that Melrose Park became a center for manufacturing and heavy industry. Major companies including Benjamin Moore, International Harvester, and the National Malleable
...13) Chicago Heights
Chicago Heights is a multicultural tableau, depicting the story of nineteenth-century pioneers and twentieth-century workers who built one of the most vibrant of the small, industrial cities of the Midwest. The exciting collection featured here is a result of an intensive city-wide campaign to identify the very best photographs of old Chicago Heights.
About half came from the extensive collections of the Public Library and the Historical Society,
...14) Huntley
Huntley was founded in 1851. Its first boom years—the 1850s to 1920s—saw the town prosper thanks to the local dairy industry. Prolific dairy farmers provided milk for the many local condensing plants and cheese factories and sent huge surpluses into Chicago by train each day. It was said that the Huntley area produced more milk per square mile than anywhere else in the world. Businesses, homes, and churches all grew with the population.
...15) Matteson
The village of Matteson was founded in 1855 and named after the 10th governor of Illinois, Joel Matteson. German immigrants were the area's first settlers, seeking agriculture and business opportunities. The Illinois Central and Michigan Central Railroads provided the stimulus for the growth of one of the first communities to the south of Chicago. The area became popular in the 1890s, when Chicago residents rode special trains to visit the amusement
...17) Joliet
In vivid historical images and rare archival documents, see for yourself how Joliet became a quintessential American City.
Joliet once was a lush prairie bordered with scenic bluffs along the Des Plaines River. In the late 19th century, settlers and a large influx of Eastern European immigrants arrived, transforming the area into a bustling industrial community of steel, limestone, manufacturing, and transportation. In the 20th
...Drawn from scores of family albums, these intimate snapshots tell the story of the unique and universal saga of Italian immigration and life in Chicago.
More than 25,000 Italian immigrants came to Chicago after 1945. The story of their exodus and reestablishment in Chicago touches on war torn Italy, the renewal of family and paesani connections, the bureaucratic challenges of the restrictive quota system, the energy and spirit
...The Polish Community of Gary is a vibrantly illustrated tale of the history of the Midwest's Steel City and its Polish-Catholic residents. It reveals the journey of hopeful and hard-working Polish immigrants who arrived in the early 1900s, established an ethnic community, and adapted to the American way of life. This fascinating photographic compilation of almost 200 images features various past and present residents of Gary. It examines the city's
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