Thursday, May 1, 2008

Stores on 63rd

So I found some useful map images of 63rd street after talking to the people in the Maps collections. The first one is from the 1930s and it gives a breakdown of the stores along the street as well as who owned them at the time.

http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/su/maps/chisoc/G4104-C6-2W9Q4-1930z-U5.html

There is also a set of map images copyrighted in the 1950s but were apparently made in 1926. You can access them through this website:

http://sanborn.umi.com.proxy.uchicago.edu/

Click on Browse Maps, then select the state (Illinois), the city (Chicago), and the date (1905-1951). At the top under "Select a volume" select vol. 16 1926-Oct 1950, the plate numbers we would probably use are 27-32 and 40-46. No blueprints though, but from the looks of it they were mainly retail shops, a barber shop, and even a gallery.

If anyone wants to (and would like to do me a big favor since I'm finishing my BA that's due tomorrow) you can get a better image through microfilms. I have the microfilm call numbers, so if anyone is up for the task, message me and I can give them to you. Sorry I couldn't find any blueprints (or any maps later than 1930).

2 comments:

Will Larsen said...

First of all, thanks for doing this research, especially if your BA is due so soon.. good luck :) I may try to find some city records dealing with the issue, we'll see what I have time for before tomorrow.

Just a tip in the future, please hyperlink web addresses when you put them in. I did it for you this time, but in the future it's really easy.. on the format bar above the post when you're typing, there's an icon with a chain link that says hyperlink... just select the text you want to link, click the button, and enter the URL.

Natalia said...

Yesh, sorry about that. I was actually trying to get just the image in at first, but they kept on coming out either too small or too blurry.