[j _ ^ 4 * 
 
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 The Library and Collections 
 
 ^ OF THE 
 
 ^ Chicago Historical Society 
 
 ^ By CAROLINE 
 
 N 1856, just twenty years after 
 the handful of settlers then re¬ 
 siding in Chicago had organized 
 as a village, a few gentlemen 
 met and founded the Historical Society 
 of the City of Chicago. Among the 
 twenty founders may be mentioned W'il- 
 liam H. Brown, the first president; Rev. 
 William Barry, the first secretary and 
 librarian; Messrs. William P>. Ogden, T- 
 Y. Ceammon, Mark Skinner, George 
 ;Manierre, J. H. Kinzie, Dr. J. \\ Blaney, 
 Dr. X. S. Davis, E. B. McCagg aiifl 
 Isaac X. Arnold. Twelve years from the 
 date of the adoption of the constitution, 
 Mr. Arnold in an address before the 
 society reported the total numl>er ot 
 volumes, manuscripts, maps, etc., as 
 100,205. 
 
 The foundations of the society were 
 laid broad and deep, the object, as stated 
 in the constitution Ijeing to gather the 
 fundamental materials for the history of 
 the X^orthwest and particularly of Illinois 
 and Chicago. li it remarkable that Chi¬ 
 cagoans of to-day hold in affectionate 
 remembrance the names of the brilliant 
 group of men who were sacrificing time 
 and money to preserve for future genera¬ 
 tions the original sources of information, 
 at a time when men of less culture and 
 foresight would have busied themselves 
 only in laying the foundations of their 
 own fortunes? 
 
 The particular field* of this institution 
 being somewhat clo.sely confined to what 
 was originally the ()ld Xorthwest Ter¬ 
 ritory, the collection has become very 
 highly specialized. That is, it contains 
 not only the general works on this sub¬ 
 ject, but monographs dealing with par¬ 
 ticular events and ])eriods, early news¬ 
 papers, manu.scri]jts, documents, prints, 
 ]K)rtraits, maps, and historic relics illus¬ 
 trating almost every conceivable pha.se of 
 historical and archaelogical research con¬ 
 cerning the Xorthwest. 
 
 When it is remembered that the entire 
 collection was destroyed by fire in 1871, 
 and again in 1874, it will be understood 
 what almf)st heroic effort must have 
 
 J/. JR/L CAINE* 
 
 been expended in reassembling it. An 
 example of this is found in the action of 
 the Hon. John Wentworth, who at the 
 time of the first fire had collected for 
 the society a complete file of the “Demo¬ 
 crat”. This was of course destroyed 
 but the ashes of the great fire had 
 scarcely cooled when he began the second 
 time, and the result of his labors stand 
 on the shelves to-day a monument to this 
 Chicago grit and energy. But Chicago 
 people and members of other historical 
 societies in this country were not alone 
 in their efforts to re-establish this. Do¬ 
 nations of money and books came in 
 from many foreign countries. The mag- 
 mticent painting by Edward Annitage, 
 was the gift of the London “Graphic” 
 to the City of Chicago as a memorial of 
 the great fire, and was in turn presented 
 by the city to this society. The picture 
 is allegorical, representing Chicago in 
 distress, ministered to by Columbia and 
 Great Britain, while smoldering ruins 
 form the background. 
 
 Above is a view of. thi^ present home 
 of the society where all of its collections 
 are housed. In this building fireproof 
 construction has l)een carried to an ex¬ 
 tent exceeded in no other library in the 
 world. Not only every part of the build¬ 
 ing is made either of stone or of iron, 
 but all shelving, desks, chairs, tables, and 
 even waste-paper baskets are of the same 
 materials, , and all of these are so grace¬ 
 ful of desigu»^J .so wel^^^lapted to their 
 purpose thal^^e To*^n*^f^esent a most 
 attractive appearance. A minute study 
 of this building was made by Dr. A. B. 
 .Meyer, director of the Royal Museum 
 of Dresden, and in his official report 
 ( 1901 ) he s])eaks<>f it at length in terms 
 of the highest commendation. This ab¬ 
 solute safety from fire has made this 
 library a favorite repository for dona¬ 
 tions of valuable manuscripts, family 
 [)apers, relics, special private collections, 
 and portraits. In fact the jtractice of 
 presenting portraits of jtrotninent citi- 
 
 *I,ibrarian of the ChicaRo Historical Society. 
 
422 
 
 THE PRINCESS 
 
 zens, and pioneers of Chicago has been 
 so long continued that a special room has 
 been set apart as a gallery where these 
 portraits are exhibited. This collection 
 is increasingly interesting and useful, 
 supplying as it does authentic portraits 
 of persons connected with the history of 
 our city. 
 
 The collections of paintings and his¬ 
 torical objects have been arranged as far 
 as possible in accordance with the his¬ 
 torical periods covered by the collection 
 of books. This first period is two fold 
 consisting of the time of the Mound- 
 builders and the American Indians. This 
 period is represented in the library by 
 the works of Bancroft, Brinton, Catlin, 
 Drake, Schoolcraft, Winsor and others, 
 supplemented by the publications of the 
 historical and archaelogical societies. 
 The same period is represented in the 
 museum by implements, weapons, 
 jewelry, articles of dress, and by bronze 
 reliefs and portraits of Indians by cele¬ 
 brated artists. 
 
 The second period, beginning in 1673, 
 is the period of discovery and own¬ 
 ership by the French. This is the 
 period richest both in chronicles 
 and relics. How chanuing it is to 
 turn from the printed pages even 
 of Charlevoix, and the Journals of Mar¬ 
 quette,* Joliet, Hennepin, and Allouez 
 to manuscripts by their hands, mellowed 
 and yellowed with age, and signed with 
 intricate flourishes, or after laboring with 
 LaSalle and Tonty through the wilder¬ 
 ness and at the Court of Versailles (with 
 Margry or Parkman for our guides) 
 what revelation to be brought face to 
 face with their portraits in oil or bronze 
 together with that of Louis XIV. To 
 young readers it is of great assistance 
 after reading repeatedly in the accounts 
 of Marquette of “the portage” which of 
 course refers to the present Chicago, to 
 examine the beautiful series of maps 
 colored by hand, showing the routes by 
 which the early explorers reached the 
 Des Plaines River and finally the Illin¬ 
 ois, after their voyage upon Lake Alich- 
 igan from Green Bay and Mackinac. 
 
 The period of French colonization be¬ 
 gan by LaSalle and carried on by Iber¬ 
 ville and Bienville, is fully illustrated 
 
 *Recit des Voyages et des Decouvertes en I'annee 1673. 
 Paris, 16S1. 
 
 by books and relics. On the settlement at 
 Kaskaskia, supposed to be the oldest 
 permanent European settlement in the 
 Mississippi Valley, the library has many 
 valuable disquisitions but more interest¬ 
 ing than all to the seriou student are 
 copies of the Parish Record Books. This 
 parish was described in 1764 by Father 
 Meurin as Parish of the Immaculate 
 Conception of the Virgin, Village of 
 Kaskaskias, Country' of the Illinois, 
 i'rovince of Louisiana, Diocise of Que¬ 
 bec. In the Records we may read in the 
 hand of Father Gavier, March 20, 1695. 
 the birth of Pierre Aco, son of Michael 
 Aco the companion of Father Hennipin. 
 The connection of this same Aco with 
 the settlement period is still further 
 evidenced by his signature to a deed (the 
 first Illinois deed) by which Francois de 
 la Forrest conveys to him one-half oi 
 Forrest’s part of the land granted to him 
 and Tonty. This deed signed by For¬ 
 rest, April 19, 1693, and made payable 
 “a Chicagou” is in the possession of the 
 society. The grant is of a quarter inter¬ 
 est in the seignory of Fort St. Loiiis, on 
 what is now known as Starved Rock, on 
 the Illinois River. In 1768 the bold 
 signature of Pierre Gibault (who later 
 was of such great assistance to Clark I 
 announces that he assumes the function 
 of “Cure des Kaskaskias.” The register 
 runs on into the nineteenth century and 
 we note in passing, that on May 22. 
 1806, Pierre Menard, widower, and An- 
 gelique Saucier were married. Now if 
 we wash we may cross over to the 
 museum and see the Indian coat of this 
 same Pierre Menard, and until about 
 twenty years ago we might have visited 
 at Kaskaskia the Menard mansion, with 
 its furniture and books just as left by 
 their owner. The Father of Waters has 
 long since claimed as his own this man¬ 
 sion and indeed all Kaskaskia. 
 
 We will not linger with the period 
 covering the struggle between France 
 and England and ended by the Treaty of 
 Paris, 1763, but pass lightly on our way 
 to the Revolutionary period. Here we 
 cannot mention too early nor praise too 
 long tlie particular hero of the North¬ 
 west—George Rogers Clark. After 
 thrilling with Roosevelt,* and Winsor.t 
 
 ♦winning of the West. Vol. 2. Chapter 2-6. 
 
 tWestward Movement. Chapter 8. 
 
THE PRINCESS 
 
 423 
 
 over Clark's almost unaided conquest of 
 the Northwest, we may turn to gaze at 
 the portrait of him in the Reading Room, 
 and find in that stern countenance the 
 lines of strength that assured the success 
 of his daring undertaking. It must be 
 remembered, however, that when he led 
 the attacks on Kaskaskia and Vincennes 
 he was not the grim old fighter of this 
 portrait but a youth of twenty-six. It 
 was only after the embittering experi¬ 
 ence and neglect with which his enter¬ 
 prise was repaid that these lines of 
 austerity marked his handsome features. 
 But let us not fancy that we are one whit 
 more discriminating than those very peo¬ 
 ple of Virginia, who sent him a sword 
 when he needed provisions and men, if 
 we contemplate with complacency the 
 idea of changing the name of the street 
 honored in being named for him. We 
 should search long in the annals of Illi¬ 
 nois for a hero more illustrious. 
 
 Space is wanting to dwell upon the 
 Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and 
 Clark Expedition, although the library 
 contains four folio volumes of the papers 
 of General James Wilkinson, Governor 
 of Louisiana in 1805. We can onlv 
 jmuse to mention the James iMadison 
 j^apers, contained in eight quarto vol¬ 
 umes, presented to the society by one of 
 its members, Mr. Marshall Field, and 
 consisting of letters and papers of Mad¬ 
 ison from the time he was a delegate to 
 the Continental Congress until after lie 
 retired from the Presidency to private 
 life. 
 
 Naturally,^ the jx^riod following the 
 erection of Illinois into a territory is par¬ 
 ticularly interesting to us who are living 
 here to-day. In i8ckj Ninian Edwards 
 was appointed by President Madison to 
 be the first governor of Illinois Territory. 
 This period of Illinois histor\' is illus¬ 
 trated by some uniciue documents, 
 namely, the papers of Governor Ed¬ 
 wards. A selection of these pajx'rs has 
 been published by tbe society. It is dif¬ 
 ficult to turn from the ])a])ers of thi.s 
 courtly governor of Illinois, whose hand¬ 
 some ])ortrait in powdered wig, and ruf¬ 
 fled shirt hangs in the Reading Room, 
 without lingering over his great .services 
 (o the state, but the minute study of his 
 life and character must be left to stu¬ 
 dents who can visit the library and ex¬ 
 
 amine at length his personal documents. 
 
 A companion volume to the Edwards 
 Papers is the History of the English Set¬ 
 tlement in Edwards County, by George 
 Flower, the manuscript having been pre¬ 
 sented to the society by the author in 
 i860, and the expense of the publication 
 being borne by Mr. Levi Z. Leiter, also 
 a member of the society. Portraits of 
 Air. and Airs. B'lower hang in the Read¬ 
 ing Room, and near by is one of Alorris 
 Birkbeck. Reminiscent of Edwardsville 
 is the collection of bank notes issued by 
 the Bank of Edwardsville, in 1819-20. 
 That bank of wbicb Judge Theophilus 
 \\A Smith was cashier. Judge Smith’s 
 portrait hangs near by. 
 
 Finally we reach the period when his¬ 
 torical interest begins to center about 
 Chicago in earnest. Not to enter into 
 the recent revival of the controversy re¬ 
 garding the origin of the name “Chi¬ 
 cago,” a word as to its spelling may not 
 be out of place. The Honorable John 
 Wentworth in Congress occupied a seat 
 near that of John Quincy Adams who 
 seeing Air. Wentworth write “Chicago,” 
 said: “That’s the way everybody spells 
 it novv; but under my administration, no 
 two government officers spelled it the 
 same way,” and added, “I see you have 
 not settled upon your pronunciation yet, 
 as members of your own delegation pro¬ 
 nounce it differently.” In 1803, while 
 Illinois was still a part of Indiana Terri¬ 
 tory, a fort was erected upon this site 
 and named Fort Dearborn in honor of 
 General Henry Dearborn. This fort was 
 built and commanded by Captain John 
 Whistler. For several years Chicago 
 consisted simply of the fort and the home 
 and trading establishment of John Kin- 
 zie. The portrait of Air. Kinzie, justly 
 called the “Father of Qiicago,” hang.s 
 in the Lecture Hall. Another priceless 
 relic of Air. Kinzie is his Dictionary of 
 the Winnebago Language, in manu¬ 
 script. An exact model of Fort Dear¬ 
 born made from plans drawn by Captain 
 Whistler, and complete in every partic¬ 
 ular is a valuable aid in studying the 
 facts alK>ut the massacre. Among works 
 dealing with the fort and massacre mav 
 be mentioned Airs. Kinzie’s Narrative, 
 printed at Chicago in 1844, John Went¬ 
 worth’s Recollections of Early Chicago 
 ami Fort Dearborn, Dr. Simmons’ 
 
424 
 
 THE PRINCESS 
 
 Heroes and Heroines of the Fort Dear¬ 
 born Massacre, and Joseph Kirkland’s 
 Chicago Massacre (1893). 
 
 Not far from the model of Fort Dear¬ 
 born in the niiiseum is a mahogany 
 cabinet containing the bones of John 
 Lalime, an Indian interpreter, who came 
 to his death accidentally in an encounter 
 with Air. Kinzie. On the wall near by 
 this grewsome relic hangs a sketch in 
 water colors of the old Kinzie mansion, 
 with its row of Lombardy poplars that 
 waved in the breezes from the river op¬ 
 posite the fort, at what is now Pine and 
 North Water streets. But even to touch 
 upon the romantic incidents connected 
 with this house and family would exceed 
 the limits of this article. Fortunately 
 the record of them is found recounted 
 by Airs. Juliette A. Kinzie in Wau-Bun, 
 that classic of the Northwest. Of this 
 delig'htful book, the library possesses 
 three distinct editions, the original 
 printed in 1856, the luxurious edition 
 published by the Caxton Club, contain¬ 
 ing voluminous notes by Reuben Gold 
 Thwaites, and the popular edition by 
 Airs. Elinor Kinzie Gordon, grand¬ 
 daughter of John Kinzie, the two latter 
 being published in 1901. 
 
 Another historic home of the earlv 
 
 period was “Hardscrabble.” This has 
 also been immortalized in literature and 
 in the possession of the society is the 
 rare volume of Sartain’s Lmion Alag- 
 azine for 1856, in which appears the title 
 “Hardscrabble, a Tale of Chicago, by 
 Alajor Richardson.” This story also 
 deals with the massacre. 
 
 And here this catalogue (for it is little 
 else) of documents and relics must end 
 where some will say it should have be¬ 
 gun. In defense I will only quote what 
 “Long John” Wentworth said in one of 
 his Sunday afternoon lectures in 1877: 
 “If I should undertake to write the his¬ 
 tory of Chicago, I should close my first 
 chapter with the massacre, August 15, 
 1812. But who can tell where I should 
 begin it?” Later he darkly hints that 
 he should begin it at the discovery of 
 America by Columbus. 
 
 In conclusion, it only remains to say 
 that the collections are open at all times 
 to visitors and students, and that cata¬ 
 logues and indices are in course of prep¬ 
 aration which make available the riches 
 of this storehouse. The president of the 
 societv is Air. John N. Jewett, who has 
 held that office since the death of Air. 
 Edward G. Alason, in 1899. 
 
 Opportunity. 
 
 Alaster of human destinies am I! 
 
 Fame, love and fortune on my footsteps 
 wait. 
 
 Cities and fields I walk. I penetrate 
 Deserts and seas remote, and passing by 
 Hovel and mart and palace, soon or late, 
 
 I knock, unbidden, once at every gate! 
 
 If sleeping, wake; if feasting, rise before 
 I turn away. It is the hour of fate, 
 
 And they who follow me reach every stale 
 Alortals desire, and conquer every foe 
 Save death; but those who doubt or hesi¬ 
 tate. 
 
 Condemned to failure, penury and woe. 
 
 Seek me in vain and uselessly implore. 
 
 I answer not, and I return no more! 
 
 —John J. Ingalls.