Nationalities and Wages in a Congested District of Chicago

Hull-House maps and papers, a presentation of nationalities and wages in a congested district of Chicago, together with comments and essays on problems growing out of the social conditions is the title of a book of research conducted by Florence Kelly and her colleagues in 1893, published in 1895. I found a selection of the maps at the Jane Addams Hull House Museum and thought I would share some of my snapshots with you.

The boundaries of the district where Kelly gathered data extended from Polk to 12th & Pacific to State. This overlooks the location of the Papermaker's Garden, 8th and Wabash, by just a block. Though our spot is not represented precisely in the district surveyed, there is still useful information about nearby areas around the college. If you look closely at the images you can see Dearborn Station to the north. 12th Street is present day Roosevelt Ave.

I do not know how the districts were arranged at that time and the property numbers are confounding. Luckily, the college archivist at Columbia has been quite helpful to point me to some resources about Chicago history. I will write more about that in a later post.

To see the maps in more detail, go to http://homicide.northwestern.edu/pubs/hullhouse/Maps/ Check out Wage Map #4 and Nationality Map #4 to see maps of the area that overlaps with our neighborhood.

In the 1890s, the area where our campus stands was home to tenements, brothels, and sweatshops. This area was considered to be a slum, a ghetto for the working poor. To get a quick overview of that history and the social justice work that was happening at the time, visit Northwestern's Florence Kelley archives, which I also link to above.