Images of America: Illinois

Series · 4 books · 1999-2010

By Kelly Pucci, William H. Tyre, Dominic Candeloro, and more

Books in series

#37

Camp Douglas

Chicago's Civil War Prison

2007

Thousands of Confederate soldiers died in Chicago during the Civil War, not from battle wounds, but from disease, starvation, and torture as POWs in a military prison three miles from the Chicago Loop. Initially treated as a curiosity, attitudes changed when newspapers reported the deaths of Union soldiers on southern battlefields. As the prison population swelled, deadly diseases—smallpox, dysentery, and pneumonia—quickly spread through Camp Douglas. Starving prisoners caught stealing from garbage dumps were tortured or shot. Fearing a prisoner revolt, a military official declared martial law in Chicago, and civilians, including a Chicago mayor and his family, were arrested, tried, and sentenced by a military court. At the end of the Civil War, Camp Douglas closed, its buildings were demolished, and records were lost or destroyed. The exact number of dead is unknown; however, 6,000 Confederate soldiers incarcerated at Camp Douglas are buried among mayors and gangsters in a South Side cemetery. Camp Douglas: Chicago's Civil War Prison explores a long-forgotten chapter of American history, clouded in mystery and largely forgotten.

#58

Chicago to Springfield

Crime and Politics in the 1920s

2010

The story of Chicago gangsters in the 1920s is legendary. Less talked about is the tale of the politicians who allowed those gangsters to thrive. During the heyday of organized crime in the Prohibition era, Chicago mayor �Big Bill� Thompson and Gov. Len Small were the two most powerful political figures in Illinois. Thompson campaigned on making Chicago �a wide open town� for bootleggers. Small sold thousands of pardons and paroles to criminals, embezzled $1 million, and was then acquitted after mobsters bribed the jury. This book is the story of those Jazz Age politicians whose careers in government thrived on and endorsed corruption and racketeering, from Chicago to Springfield. It complements author Jim Ridings�s groundbreaking biography, Len Governors and Gangsters, which was praised by critics and situated Ridings as a trailblazer among Chicago crime authors.

#69

Chicago's Historic Prairie Avenue

2008

Prairie Avenue evolved into Chicago's most exclusive residential street during the last three decades of the 19th century. The city's wealthiest citizens—Marshall Field, Philip Armour, and George Pullman—were soon joined by dozens of Chicago's business, social, and civic leaders, establishing a neighborhood that the Chicago Herald proclaimed "a cluster of millionaires not to be matched for numbers anywhere else in the country." Substantial homes were designed by the leading architects of the day, including William Le Baron Jenney, Burnham and Root, Solon S. Beman, and Richard Morris Hunt. By the early 1900s, however, the neighborhood began a noticeable transformation as many homes were converted to rooming houses and offices, while others were razed for construction of large plants for the printing and publishing industry. The rescue of the landmark Glessner house in 1966 brought renewed attention to the area, and in 1979, the Prairie Avenue Historic District was designated. The late 1990s saw the rebirth of the area as a highly desirable residential neighborhood known as the South Loop.

#164

Italians in Chicago

1999

Italians have been a part of the Chicago community since the 1850s. The city's Italian immigration rate peaked in 1914, and many of these new residents settled in neighborhoods on the north, west, and south sides of the Loop and in the industrial suburbs of Chicago. An intriguing visual tour, Italians in Chicago explores the lives of over four generations of the community's residents and experiences. In over 200 images accompanied by an insightful narrative, this collection uncovers the challenges of migration and ethnic survival as well as the trials and triumphs of daily life.

Authors

Kelly Pucci

Author · 1 book

Kelly Pucci has covered everything from bergamot orchards in Southern Italy, to life on the Cook Islands, urban beekeeping in the Midwest, and history of magic. She is the author of Camp Douglas: Chicago's Civil War Prison, The Hidden History of St. Joseph County Michigan and Chicago's First Crime King: Michael Cassius McDonald. She currently lives in Chicago and Michigan.

Jim Ridings was born in Joliet, Illinois. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Journalism from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale in 1976. He was a reporter for The Daily Times in Ottawa and The Beacon-News in Aurora. He won more than a dozen awards for investigative reporting at both newspapers, from the Associated Press, United Press International, Copley Press, Illinois Press Association, Northern Illinois Newspaper Association, Aurora Lions Club, SDX Society of Professional Journalists and other organizations. Jim Ridings was presented a Studs Terkel Humanities Service Award from the Illinois Humanities Council in 2006. Ridings has written and published more than 20 books of local Illinois history. Four of his books have won awards from the Illinois State Historical Society: County West: A Sesquicentennial History of Western Kankakee County in 2004, Cardiff: Ghost Town On the Prairie in 2007, Cardiff 2 in 2009, and Greetings From Starved Rock in 2012. His most popular books are Len Small: Governors And Gangsters (2009); Small Justice (2014); Cardiff: Ghost Town On the Prairie (2006); Wild Kankakee (2012); Kankakee County Confidential (2016); Kankakee County Stories (2019); Chicago To Springfield: Crime and Politics in the 1920s (2010); Greetings From Kankakee (2005); Kankakee Makes Good (2007).