Chicago Municipal Records Guide

Chicago Public Library's Municipal Reference Collection, located at Harold Washington Library Center, is a unique resource that serves as the first point of contact for information on Chicago ordinances, statistics, government, budgets and community areas. Included in the collection are departmental and agency publications such as annual reports, statistical reports, maps, election results, and a clipping file. The collection can be accessed at Harold Washington Library Center during the normal hours of operation. No appointment is necessary.
Areas of interest include:
Chicago Board of Education
Chicago Board of Election Commissioners (election results and ward maps)
Chicago City Council
Chicago Department of Health (Vital Statistics)
Chicago Department of Planning
Chicago Department of Public Works
Chicago Fire Department
Chicago Housing Authority
Chicago Park District and earlier parks agencies
Chicago Police Department (Crime Statistics)
Chicago Transit Authority
Cook County
Cook County Forest Preserve District
Lincoln Park and Brookfield zoos
Metropolitan Water Reclamation District
Community organizations
Public interest groups

In 1992, when its future as the Municipal Reference Library on the tenth floor of City Hall was uncertain, legendary Chicago author and WFMT radio host Studs Terkel interviewed Joyce Malden, head librarian for the Municipal Reference Library. In this episode of his show Studs and Joyce, along with former Chicago Alderman Leon Despres, discuss the Municipal Reference Collection, its history and evolution, and how important it is to understanding the workings of Chicago's government. Although the library in its previous incarnation in City Hall did close the collection moved to Harold Washington Library Center where it is is still accessible during the normal hours of operation. This recording comes from the Studs Terkel Radio Archive, a project of both WFMT and the Chicago History Museum.

Joyce Hughes served on the Chicago Board of Education from 1980 to 1982 and was involved in school desegregation policy. The collection includes correspondence, meeting minutes and agendas, reports, legal and financial records, newspaper clippings, and other papers. Materials chiefly pertain to school desegregation and related financial issues. Includes records of the Chicago Board of Education (CBE) Desegregation Committee, Audit and Finance Committee, and Real Estate Committee, as well as the Chicago School Finance Authority (SFA).

Gerald Sbarboro served on the Chicago Board of Education from 1970-1975. The collection includes correspondence, articles, reports, research materials, photographs, and other working files relative to his service as a member of the Chicago Board of Education.

Sidney T. Holzman served as Chair of the Board of Election Commissioners from 1952-1962. The collection consists of biographical material, clippings, correspondence, editorials, photographs, press releases, speeches, statements, reports and roster concerning Holzman's career on the Board of Election Commissioners and his membership in various military and veterans organizations.

The collection includes correspondence, legal documents, financial records, research files, newsletters, press releases, newspaper clippings, meeting minutes, maps, transcripts of speeches, and other records of the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA).

Edward Holmgren served as the Tenant Selection aide for the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) from 1946-1954. Edward Holmgren spent more than 40 years working in the area of public housing, housing integration and urban renewal, both in government and private sectors. He began his career with the Chicago Housing Authority and was executive director of the Leadership Council for Metropolitan Open Communities. His papers include correspondence, organizational records, conference proceedings and serials.

Wayne McMillen served as a commissioner of the Chicago Housing Authority from 1943-1953 and as its Chairman from 1950-1953. The collection includes published articles, photographs, and awards.

Madeline Murphy Rabb served as Executive Director of the Chicago Office of Fine Arts from 1983 to 1990. The collection includes administrative documents, speeches, material related to conferences and exhibits, publicity, research, and photographs. Some material has been redacted for privacy reasons.

The records of the Chicago Park District are comprised of a wide variety of landscape and architectural drawings of parks, park buildings and related green spaces.

Representing over 500 parks from the late nineteenth century to the present, these photographs document site development, park facilities, features (such as gardens, fountains, playgrounds and sculptures), park staff, programmatic activities, special events, the lakeshore and shore protection efforts and road construction and re-development. Photographs of people engaged in activities and events also appear in great numbers.

This collection of photographs features 23 of the Chicago Park District's earliest parks, showing park construction, fieldhouses, aerial views and people enjoying the park

Beginning around 1937, the Chicago Park District established Toy Centers in its fieldhouses as a Works Progress Administration (WPA) program to provide playthings for families that could not afford toys of their own during the Great Depression. This collection includes 78 wooden toys created for the Chicago Park District's Toy Centers.

In addition to serving as alderman of the 24th ward (1923-1941) Jacob Arvey served as a commissioner for the Chicago Park District Board in the 1950s and 1960s. The collection includes correspondence, pamphlets, flyers, meeting minutes, committee reports, newsletters, personal calendars, election vote tallies, photographs, and other papers.

Millennium Park, Inc. Records contain information from the early planning stage of Chicago's "Lakefront Millennium Project" in 1998 through the completion and opening of Millennium Park in 2004. The majority of the collection consists of presentation boards showing elevations, site plans, renderings and architectural sections of the various sites in the park.

This online database features 12,705 records extracted from the Chicago Police Department Homicide Record made between 1870-1930. The original documents can be found at the Illinois Regional Archives Depository (IRAD) on the lower level of the Ronald Williams Library at Northeastern Illinois University.

Collection includes 51 photographic prints.

Collection includes personnel registers (1890-1910); staff meeting reports on microfilm (1960-1964); mug shots (1900-1920).

The Film Review Board Files of the Chicago Police Department (1914-1979) can be viewed at the IRAD facility on the lower level of the Ronald Williams Library at Northeastern Illinois University

The collection includes card indexes; files containing reports and correspondence about persons and organizations investigated as possible political subversives, scattered photographs, and some materials created by the persons or organizations under investigation, such as newsletters, brochures, and correspondence; plus some administrative records of the Chicago Police Department's Security Operations Section. Collection also includes gang surveillance records.

The various library-related special collections held by Chicago Public Library include the following:
Chicago Public Library Archives. Early CPL, 1866-1917
Chicago Public Library Archives. Branch Annual Reports, 1895-2013
Chicago Public Library . Board of Directors, 1873-2008
Chicago Public Library Archives. Harold Washington Library Center, Design Build Competition Records, 1986-1991
Chicago Public Library Archives. Chicago Cultural Center Contractor Bids, 1892-1898
Chicago Public Library Archives. 125th Anniversary Records, 1997-1998
Chicago Public Library Archives, Branch Library Photographs, 1885-2014

The collection includes several items relating to the early history of the Chicago Public Library.

Esther A. Barlow was a children's librarian at Chicago Public Library from 1927 until her retirement in 1976, including over twenty years as Head of Children's Services at Hild Regional Library. The collection contains personal and professional papers, books and publications, and photographs.

Carl Roden was the fourth chief librarian of the Chicago Public Library, from 1918-1950. He wrote a biography of Chicago's first chief librarian, William F. Poole, who served in the role from 1874-1887. The collection includes correspondence, writings and research materials. Research materials include newspaper clippings, correspondence, and publications concerning or authored by William F. Poole.

Helen Zatterberg (1902-2002) worked for Chicago Public Library from 1921 until her retirement in 1967. She founded the Ravenswood-Lake View Historical Association in 1935 and spent many years at Hild Regional Library before becoming Regional Librarian of the North Side in 1957. The collection contains personal and professional papers, books and publications, and photographs.

Clark Burrus was Chicago's first African American comptroller. He was appointed by Mayor Richard J. Daley in 1974 and served in the position until 1979. The collection includes correspondence, publications, reports, and a small amount of black and white and color photographs documenting Burrus' work as city comptroller and at First Chicago Capital Markets.

Cecil Partee was elected city treasurer in 1979. Series II of his papers contains materials pertaining to his work as the City Treasurer of Chicago, dating primarily 1979-1989.

The City of Chicago Graphics and Reproduction Center Photographs document many aspects of City government and functions for most of the twentieth century.

Includes files collected by individuals who served on the commission, including Joe Benson, Clement Silvestro, and Harold Skramstad.

Richard L. Curry served as assistant corporation counsel (1956-1970) and corporation counsel (1970-1974) under Mayor Richard J. Daley. The collection contains office and work documents, as well as, press concerning Mayor Richard J. Daley’s career as collected by Curry throughout the years.

Earl Dickerson served as assistant corporation counsel for the City of Chicago (1923-1927) in addition to other roles in local government. The collection includes scrapbooks (7 v.) and unbound materials, including news clippings, photographs, speeches, correspondence, campaign literature, legal briefs, and other materials relating to his career as a lawyer and his activities in politics, civil rights and civil liberties, and government service.

The collection includes correspondence, legal documents, writings by Hodes, news clippings, film, and fliers on Hodes' career as a lawyer, Chicago Corporation Counsel, 1935-1946, and Democratic politician.

Includes photographs related to Fred Fine, Chicago Commissioner of Cultural Affairs under Mayor Harold Washington.

Lois Weisberg was Commissioner of Cultural Affairs for the City of Chicago from 1989-2011. Series 4 and subseries 2 of her papers contain materials related to her career with the Department of Cultural Affairs. Subseries 3 has material related to special events held by the Department of Cultural Affairs.

Contains press releases, forms, correspondence, speeches, contact lists, invitations, photographs, slides, flyers, and other promotional materials about events in Chicago organized and/or promoted by the Mayor's Office of Special Events, such as parades and festivals.

The Chicago Millennium Collection documents the events planned by the City of Chicago to mark the beginning of the third millennium. The Collection consists of the files generated primarily by the City of Chicago's Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA).

Collection includes reports by public and private task forces, news clippings, and speeches pertaining to community development, produced and/or collected by Judith Walker, Commissioner of the Department of Human Services, Chicago (Ill.), under Mayor Washington and Mayor Sawyer.

The records in this collection were created and collected by the Department of Urban Renewal, its predecessors and other Chicago city departments with duties related to planning and development.

The Open Space Section is part of the City of Chicago's Department of Planning and Development's Sustainable Development Division. The collection documents Open Space's varied initiatives to increase the amount of and improve the access to green space for all Chicagoans.

The City Council of Chicago, Illinois, enacted an Ordinance on July 25, 1947, creating the Temporary Community Housing Rent Commission to cope with the rapid rise in rents on certain hotel accommodations in Chicago after World War II. The papers consist of correspondence, reports, proceedings, lists, minutes, statements, memoranda, clippings, notes, legal documents, bulletins, forms, telegrams, and manuals pertaining to the regulation, control, and stabilization of rents in temporary housing accommodations, redevelopment of blighted areas to provide housing for evicted tenants, housing and labor force characteristics of Chicago's Metropolitan District.

Includes photographs and other prints collected by William K. Brussat, who worked for Chicago's Office of Housing and Redevelopment from 1952-1955. Images related to many topics often involved in city planning.

Contains materials related to Chicago Planning Commission (1979-1996), and other City of Chicago departments (Dept. of Planning, Dept. of Housing, Chicago Crime Commission).

Correspondence, speeches, meeting agendas and notes, newspaper clippings, and other papers of Elizabeth Hollander, the first female commissioner of the City of Chicago Department of Planning.

Robert Mier served as Commissioner of Economic Development for the City of Chicago in the Mayor Harold Washington administration (1983-1987) and as assistant for development and planning in the Mayor Eugene Sawyer administration (1987-1989). The collection includes correspondence, meeting minutes, reports, discussion papers, and other working files.

Correspondence, reports, memoranda, newsletters, and other working files of Ken O'Hare relative to his service as Director of the Research and Development Division of the Department of Economic Development of the City of Chicago.

The collection includes bills and receipts from the Chicago Department of Public Works. Includes several bills pertaining to the construction of the Water Tower and the festivities planned for the laying of the cornerstone.

The collection includes photographs documenting the construction of over twenty bridges along various branches of the Chicago river as well as images of commercial and industrial buildings in the area of Illinois Street and Cass Street (now Wabash Avenue), ca. 1915 and more.

The newly created CTA Archives houses materials that describes the history and creation of the Chicago Transit Authority in the context of the parallel development of the Chicagoland area. The archive collects and maintains records from the Chicago Transit Authority and its predecessor companies that capture various policy, structure, and culture changes throughout the agency’s history.

Milton Pikarsky served as Commissioner of Public Works for the City of Chicago (1964-1973) and as Chairman of the Chicago Transit Authority (1973-1975). The majority of the collection consists of correspondence, reports, speeches, and articles related to Pikarsky's work in the field of transportation systems and public works.

The collection includes historic documentation of the Jardine Water Purification Plant (formerly Central District Filtration Plant), Eugene Sawyer Water Purification Plant (formerly South District Filtration Plant), the water cribs in Lake Michigan, and Chicago’s 12 pumping stations, including Chicago Water Tower (Chicago Avenue Pumping Station). Historic materials in this collection include articles, brochures, newsletters, pamphlets, photographs, press releases, reports, and scrapbooks. [Partially processed]

The Chicago Sewers Collection contains historical sketches, maps, photographs, plans and reports. The bulk of the materials contains photographs that depict the construction and repair of Chicago's sewers with views above and below ground. The sewer systems span neighborhood sites across the city and include several Works Progress Administration (WPA) projects. A selection of photographs from this collection are available in the Library's Chicago's Sewers Digital Collection.

The Chicago City Council established the mayor’s advisory Commission on Women’s Affairs in 1984. This archive includes materials from the Chicago Commission on Women’s Affairs, including the commission’s mission, procedures, minutes, first year accomplishments, and report to the mayor for 1984.

Includes materials related to Aurie Pennick's time with Harold Washington's campaign and administration, including the Women's Task Force and Office of Women's Affairs.

In 1984, Mayor Harold Washington appointed Rosen to the Mayor's Commission on Women's Affairs, which became the Chicago Commission on Women in 1987. The collection includes correspondence, meeting minutes, press releases, newsletters, committee reports, legal and financial documents, newspaper clippings, fliers, and other papers.