University of St. Francis Library Archives

Research room in the Chicago History Museum October is American Archives Month and in celebration I attended Chicago Open Archives: Yours to Explore last week. Over thirty local archives, research centers, and cultural institutions in the Chicago area offered special events open to members of the public. I visited three archives, each with different missions and goals for their collections. First up, the Chicago History Museum . “The Chicago History Museum is a research center and exhibition space focused on collecting and telling Chicago's stories. In addition to exhibitions on Chicago’s history, the Chicago History Museum houses a Research Center which serves the research collections of the museum—archives and manuscripts, prints and photographs, published material, and architectural drawings.” With such vast holdings the archivists focused on their sports-related collections. The two-hour tour began in the museum with the typical cases the public can easily view. T