The Chicago Metro History Education Center, founded in 1978, organizes an annual History Fair competition in which Chicago-area students in grades 6 through 12 develop their own history research projects using primary sources. The students produce papers, exhibits, multimedia presentations, or live performances to communicate their findings. In this photo, History Fair volunteer judge Priya Shimpi poses with Jeff Nelson and Bradley Thomas, students from Morgan Park High School, at the Chicago Metro History Fair awards ceremony, May 2004. Nelson and Thomas were finalists and won an award for their exhibit on the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.
See also: Schools and Education; Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
The vision of the 1909 Plan of Chicago, often referred to as "The Burnham Plan," influenced many young Chicagoans in the early 20th century through Walter D. Moody's textbook popularization, Wacker's Manual of the Plan of Chicago. In the introduction to the volume, Moody expressed a desire to cultivate in young citizens an understanding of the importance of cities and a sense of civic responsibility. Wacker's Manual conveyed a sense of Chicago's history as part of the history of the great cities of the world, and it shaped the popular memory of the Plan of Chicago for a generation of Chicagoans.
Many people seek a sense of history through their own family and ancestors. Genealogical experts suggest beginning with current family stories, tracing them back in time and using documentary evidence to confirm and add to those stories. This pursuit can lead one to a better understanding no only of one's ancestors and of history, but of the challenges of finding and interpreting evidence relating to people and events that often did not leave much documentary evidence. David T. Thackery and Dee Woodtor, Case Studies in Afro-American Genealogy (Chicago: The Newberry Library, 1989).
See also: African Americans; Libraries, Cook County; Newspapers
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The Electronic Encyclopedia of Chicago © 2005 Chicago Historical Society.
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