Virtual Presentations for Groups

Incorporated in 1837, Chicago was a frontier town that soon became home to numerous industries, such as meatpacking, garment making, goods manufacturing, professional services, and more. Learn how Chicago became known as the “City That Works.”

Like many cities in the US, Chicago has welcomed people from all over the world. With his background in US immigration history, Alter discusses how migrants, immigrants, and refugees have adapted to life in Chicago and contributed to the city’s culture.

Discover how and why eight Chicago White Sox players allegedly threw the 1919 World Series through an arrangement with a nationwide gambling syndicate. Alter will discuss what we know about the scandal, the historical context in which it occurred, and relevant items in the Museum’s collection.

What’s in a name? Discover how Chicago’s 77 community areas came to be and their relationship to Chicago neighborhoods. Alter explores the intellectual and social history of the community areas and neighborhood naming during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. This talk runs from 30 to 45 minutes.

Many of us know what Chicago’s flag symbolizes, including the four historical events represented by its stars. In this talk, Alter looks behind the standard historical interpretations of those events. He examines how people of color were typically misrepresented at the world’s fairs of 1893 and 1933–34 and how they fought back. He’ll also broaden the common interpretations of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and Fort Dearborn by looking at their commemorations. This talk runs from 35 to 45 minutes. 

Citizen Soldier offers a glimpse into the history of African Americans in times of war from the earliest accounts of patriotism to the prolonged desegregation of the armed forces. Get a brief historical overview of several conflicts from the American Revolution to Operation Desert Storm, as well as the social realities for African Americans of each era and ponder the hypocrisy of the US asking Black Americans to fight for a country that treats them like second-class citizens.

While Martin Luther King Jr.’s activism focused on dismantling the systems that kept African Americans oppressed in the American South, he also spent time in Chicago and often spoke out on the realities of northern discrimination, particularly around the issues of poverty, education, and housing. Bethea discusses the Museum’s exhibition Remembering Dr. King: 1929–1968, which features photographs depicting key moments in Dr. King’s work and the Civil Rights Movement, with a special focus on his time in Chicago.

The national story of America’s Independence is well documented. On July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence asserting “all men were created equal.” However, equality was denied to those who were enslaved and of African descent. For them, freedom did not arrive with independence from the British. On June 19, 1865, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation had been issued, news that the Civil War had ended finally reached Galveston, Texas. This event is now commemorated as Juneteenth, also known as Freedom Day, considered the oldest celebration commemorating the ending of chattel enslavement in the United States. Bethea presents on the legacy of Juneteenth, the connections of the event to Chicago, and the importance of remembering the story today.

On a spring day in May 1924, a young boy, Bobby Franks, went missing while walking home from school. Within a day, his body was discovered, which launched an investigation that led to the killers, neighbors and young men of means, Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb. In this talk, explore the 100-year legacy of the “Crime of the Century.”

In 1893, 27 million people paid admission to the World’s Columbian Exposition to marvel at the grand architecture, scientific innovations, and cultural treasures. While names of the “starchitects” like Daniel Burnham and Louis Sullivan are remembered, who remembers those who built Chicago’s first world’s fair? Those who worked there? And those who were excluded from having any role in this important event? Take a virtual walk through the fairgrounds to explore the collective effort, sacrifices, and successes that made the World’s Columbian Exposition possible.

In the middle of the Great Depression, Chicago hosted its second, lesser-known world’s fair, the A Century of Progress International Exposition. Despite the challenges visitors faced outside the fairgrounds, where they encountered scientific marvels, changing cultural values, and brazen entertainments. While the fair looked to the future with optimism, its various international pavilions foretold conflicts to come. In this talk, explore the often-surprising legacy of Chicago’s forgotten world’s fair.

To mark the 91st anniversary of the repeal of prohibition, this talk looks at how everyday Chicagoans violated the 18th Amendment and the Volstead Act and the consequences of their actions. Meet a grandmother who brewed beer out of her apartment, a famed writer who kept cases of whisky at his private club, and a corrupt prohibition agent who posed as an Eastern European count to shake down the Green Mill jazz cabaret on this exploration of how nearly everyone, not just those named Capone, scoffed at an unpopular law.

Opening Sunday, May 19, 2024, Designing for Change: Chicago Protest Art of the 1960s–70s, features Chicago artists and activists in the 1960s and ’70s who used design to create powerful symbols and imagery to amplify their visions for social change. See more than 100 artifacts and images from the Chicago Freedom, Black Power, anti-Vietnam War, women’s liberation, and early LGBTQIA+ movements that often challenged the status quo, plus works from contemporary artivists responding to issues that parallel those of the past.