Hidden Bibliographic Details
| Varying Form of Title: | Minnick, James L.,University of Chicago Settlement Album circa 1900-1901
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| Notes: | The collection is open for research.
The James L. Minnick Album contains about 20 photographs that capture the physical environment of the Packingtown (Back of Yards) neighborhood in Chicago at the turn of the 19th century and a few of the activities organized at the University of Chicago Settlement House. Established in 1894, the Settlement House reflected the wider social settlement movement in Britain and the United States. Settlements called upon wealthier members of society to give of themselves personally by going to live among the working poor. Settlement residents got to know their neighbors, made surveys of their conditions and undertook a variety of programs to improve their lives. Settlement work was shaped by both the application of the ethos of Christian brotherhood to addressing the ills of society but also the aspirations of nascent social science.
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| Summary: | James L. Minnick was serving as Superintendent of the Stock Yards District for the Chicago Bureau of Associated Charities when he took the photographs contained in this album, sometime in 1900 or 1901. Minnick was at the time a resident of the University of Chicago Settlement House in the Packingtown (Back of the Yards) neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side. About one-half of the photographs in the album pertain either to activities organized at the Settlement House or to Packingtown and its environs. The other half of the photographs are miscellaneous and may not have been taken by Minnick himself. Those range from a postcard of Keir Hardie, the founder of the British Labor Party, to a picture of Mrs. Minnick’s dog to several pictures of homes in an unknown fashionable neighborhood. Hardie addressed the postcard to Mary McDowell, head resident at the Settlement. Whoever ultimately came to be in possession of the album is not known but he or she likely received it from Mrs. Minnick, whose address is recorded at the end of the album. Either Mrs. Minnick or the person who later received it may have been responsible for the addition of the photographs that are unrelated to Packingtown or the Settlement House.
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| Cite as: | When quoting material from this collection, the preferred citation is: Minnick, James L., University of Chicago Settlement Album, [Box #, Folder #], Hanna Holborn Gray Special
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| Cumulative Index / Finding Aids Note: | Finding aid available in the Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library, 1100 E. 57th St., Chicago, IL 60637.
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