Chicago Historian
Here is a little piece I wrote on indoor baseball, a game that once rivaled basketball in Chicago. I really hate to be the type of a historian who geeks out at celebrity endorsements, but this made my night. (It’s Buck Weaver, after all.)
When working on my dissertation, I came across some extraordinary letters from Chicago kids to Santa Claus–letters that showed just how cruel the city could be over hundred years ago. Here is the story of the man tasked with reading thousands of letters to St. Nick to match desperate children with charities, an assistant postmaster who became known as the Official Santa Claus of Chicago.
This morning I received word that ’63 Boycott has been shortlisted for an Oscar in the category of Documentary (Short Subject). I have a credit in the film as an Archival Researcher.
This is a piece I wrote about the unlikely partnership between the Daley Administration and Rogers Hornsby, the greatest right-handed hitter in baseball history (and also one of the orneriest.) Even though Hornsby seemed to be on his best behavior teaching baseball to Chicago school kids, there were a number of fun details was able to dig up.
I recommend this great article in the Washington Post by Jennifer Mendelsohn and Peter A. Shulman on the myths surrounding the 1924 National Democratic Convention. I had a role in the direction of the article. In researching of the origins of the word “Klanbake,” I concluded that word was not the recent invention of right-wing commentators. My hypothesis that sole primary source for Klanbake could be found somewhere in the June 1924 issues of the New York Daily News, a paper that has yet to be digitized, turned out to be true.
I’m really looking forward to this upcoming documentary on Barry Gifford. I have worked on the film as an archival consultant. We have found some really great images and footage of Chicago from late Forties to the early Sixties. Check out the new website for the film.
Welcome to my new website!
I’m still getting the hang of having my own site. Every once in a while I plan to post some of my historical finds here.
