History

As the U.S. commemorates its 250th anniversary look back to a previous anniversary celebration, which brought Chicago an iconic artwork, Chagall's second large-scale piece for Chicago.

The writer of Walden has been flattened into a caricature, but Henry David Thoreau was much more than a "prophetic hermit," the directors of the documentary say. 

Margaret C. Anderson was censored by the U.S. government for publishing Ulysses but helped modernists like James Joyce and T.S. Eliot find an audience through her Chicago-founded magazine, as a new book shows. 

The Chicago Way by James Beard Award-winning reporter Michael Gebert brings readers into the kitchens of the restaurants that made Chicago an acclaimed dining city.

In what would one day become Illinois, a smaller theater of war called the Illinois Campaign would push the fight for independence deep into the interior of the young country.

From the little-known architect to the over 375,000 terra cotta pieces on the facade, the pioneering radio stations and extraordinary designers that worked there, The Wrigley Building: The Making of an Icon tells the stories of one of Chicago's most famous buildings. 

The South Shore Cultural Center was once a country club that excluded Black people. Now it's home to a soul food restaurant owned by a Black entrepreneur.

From cramped corner stores to big local chains, our audience shared memories of grocery stores in the Chicago area both extant and long-gone. The reminiscences track the changing landscape of grocery stores over the decades. 

From open-air public markets to big national supermarkets, grocery stores have both tracked and influenced our diets and urban life. The Chicago area has had its share of homegrown companies, from Dominick's to Jewel and all the independents in between. 

Refrigeration has divorced us from the origins of the food we eat, thanks to entrepreneurs like the Chicago meatpacker Gustavus Swift, who helped the stockyards grow by developing the refrigerated train car.

Otto Kerner gave his name to a report that called for enormous changes in American society to address racial disparities, but his reputation for integrity suffered when he became the first (not the last) Illinois governor convicted of a crime.

Long Grove, Illinois is home to the state's oldest restaurant, The Village Tavern. What was once a watering hole 177 years ago is now a charming spot steeped in history.

Even today there is a huge disparity in the number of women head chefs, but achieving success in the food industry earlier on was even less common. Meet some of the women who influenced Chicago and America's attitudes towards food.