LibGuides: Photography--Walker Evans: Home

Chicago Loop Photo Archives/Resources

Chicago Tribune--Chicago During the Great Depression
Archival images of Chicago during the Great Depression. Users will encounter a paywall if they access the website too often, so make sure to use it as much as possible the first time you visit.
Explore Chicago Collections
A collection of various archival records and images from many different sources. Search "1930" and then look at images, or search "Loop" and then search for images with control f to find "1930s".
Digital Public Library of America
Archival collections of images and resources from around America. Search "Chicago Loop" then refine to the dates 1930 to 1940.
Buildings of Chicago Database
A database of buildings in Chicago. You can search by various filters and find information about the building's history, architecture, current use, and see if there's a tour available.
Internet Archive Images
Pre-filtered for images from 1930-1940. Can uncheck date filters or filter further using the search on the left hand side, using terms such as "Chicago" or "Loop".
Internet Archive Video and Film
Pre-filtered for video from 1930-1940. Can uncheck date filters or filter further using the search on the left hand side, using terms such as "Chicago" or "Loop".
Chicago Tribune Vintage Photos
Various collections of vintage Chicago photographs. May contain Great Depression-era and Loop photographs.
Chicago History Museum Images
Search using the terms "Loop", "1930" or "1930 AND Loop".
Chicago History Museum General Catalog
Many images are available to browse online. Try the search: 1930 AND Loop, then Limit By Photos/Prints (not neg./slides)
Railroads and Chicago's Loop, circa 1930
Map of railroads and Chicago's loop in 1930.
Chicago-L.org
Interesting photo gallery of CTA trains and Loop advertisements and station signage throughout the years.
Chicago - Photographic Images of Change (University of Illinois at Chicago)
An archival collection of images of Chicago throughout many years. May be able to find Loop images. Trying searching "Loop" in the search box or browsing the collections.
Archival Image & Media Collection from Ryerson & Burnham Libraries
The Ryerson & Burnham Archives collect artists' and architects' papers that complement and extend the permanent collections of the museum's curatorial departments. The Archives' collections are notably strong in late 19th- and 20th-century American architecture, with particular depth in Midwest, Chicago School, Prairie School and organic architecture.

Writing Resource Center

Writing Resource Center
Located in the Irving Shapiro Library, the WRC is available to help students with their grammar, spelling, citations, and more. You can book an appointment online, see their hours, and get more help on the Writing Resource Center page.
If you need help with doing research, contact the librarian.

Online Newspapers

Current Events & Magazines
by Librarian Irving Shapiro Library Last Updated Mar 6, 2023 7 views this year

Physical Resources To Visit

Harold Washington Library Center--CPL Branch
They have a print collection of archival images from the Chicago Loop Alliance Collection, which is a fantastic resource. Bring the information in this link to a librarian on the 9th floor in Special Collections.
Chicago History Museum's Research Center
Click on the link to learn more.
The Art Institute's Ryerson & Burnham Libraries
Go visit the Ryerson & Burnham libraries, especially since you get into the Art Institute free! The entrance is located inside the museum's Michigan Ave. entrance, past the ticket collectors, to the right of the staircase.

Books to Check Out

Helen Levitt by Helen Levitt; Walker Evans (Text by) Helen Levitt, the visual poet laureate of New York City, published her magnum opus Crosstown in 2001 to great acclaim. Since then, Levitt has authored two smaller volumes, Here and There and Slideshow, her first monograph featuring her little known colour work which has garnered her accolades from around the globe. Here is a collection of her most iconic works, intermixed with never-before-seen photographs combining seven decades of New York City street life with Levitt's seminal work in Mexico City.
ISBN: 9781576874295
Publication Date: 2008-04-01
The Modern Century by Peter Galassi (Text by); Henri Cartier-Bresson (By (photographer)) Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004) is one of the most influential and beloved figures in the history of photography. His inventive work of the early 1930s helped define the creative potential of modern photography. Following World War II, he helped found the Magnum photo agency, which enabled photojournalists to reach a broad audience through magazines such as Life while retaining control over their work. Cartier-Bresson would go on to produce major bodies of photographic reportage, capturing such events as China during the revolution, the Soviet Union after Stalin's death, the United States in the postwar boom and Europe as its older cultures confronted modern realities. Published to accompany an exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art, this is the first major publication to make full use of the extensive holdings of the Fondation Cartier-Bresson--including thousands of prints and a vast resource of documents relating to the photographer's life and work. The heart of the book surveys Cartier-Bresson's career through 300 photographs divided into 12 chapters. While many of his most famous pictures are included, a great number of images will be unfamiliar even to specialists. A wide-ranging essay by Peter Galassi, Chief Curator of Photography at the Museum, offers an entirely new understanding of Cartier-Bresson's extraordinary career and its overlapping contexts of journalism and art. The extensive supporting material--featuring detailed chronologies of the photographer's professional travels and of spreads of his picture stories as they appeared in magazines--will revolutionize the study of Cartier-Bresson's work.
ISBN: 9780870707780
Publication Date: 2010-04-30
Garry Winogrand by Leo Rubinfien (Editor); Sarah Greenough; Erin O'Toole; Tod Papageorge; Sandra S. Phillips Widely regarded as one of the most important photographers of the 20th century, Garry Winogrand (1928–1984) did much of his best-known work in Manhattan during the 1960s, becoming an epic chronicler of that tumultuous decade. But Winogrand was also an avid traveler and roamed extensively around the United States, bringing exquisite work out of nearly every region of the country. This landmark retrospective catalogue looks at the full sweep of Winogrand’s exceptional career. Drawing from his enormous output, which at the time of his death included thousands of rolls of undeveloped film and unpublished contact sheets, the book will serve as the most substantial compendium of Winogrand’s work to date. Lavishly illustrated with both iconic images and photographs that have never been seen before now, and featuring essays by leading scholars of American photography, Garry Winogrand presents a vivid portrait of an artist who unflinchingly captured America’s swings between optimism and upheaval in the postwar era.
ISBN: 9780300191776
Publication Date: 2013-04-02
Chicago by Marilyn Soltis Explore the beauty of the Windy City through photographs! From Wrigley Field to Lakeshore Drive and the Magnificent Mile, this volume contains more than 100 full-color photographs of sights throughout the Chicago area. Also includes informative captions and quotes from some of the city's most famous residents. The perfect souvenir for any lover of the great American city.
ISBN: 9780762409983
Publication Date: 2001-02-08
City Spaces by Bob Thall; Ross Miller (Afterword by) In 1996, photographer Bob Thall—walking to his car after completing some work in downtown Chicago—was stopped by something. "I noticed this strange view down an alley," he later wrote. "It wasn't the type of photograph I was doing that year, but the scene stopped me. I had one sheet of film left and thought, 'Oh, what the hell,' and took the picture." Thall didn't print that picture for over a year. He had just published the highly-praised The Perfect City, an investigation of the sweeping changes in downtown Chicago over a twenty-year period—and he was still working on The New American Village, a look at the new edge city around O'Hare Airport that stands in such contrast to the urbanity of downtown. That single alley photograph, however, would stay with him, and eventually it would inspire the project that led to this, his third book: City Spaces is an exploration of the terrain of Chicago's alleys, where Thall finds remnants of the old city that he, and many other Chicagoans, once found so compelling. What these photographs transcribe are deep urban slits, afterthoughts to the gleaming modernist fronts of buildings. As Thall writes, "Investigating these spaces reminded me of my earlier sense of the city as a mysterious landscape to explore. My history as a Chicagoan, my history as a photographer, the history of the city, and, in a small way, the history of photography—without any plan or anticipation, these photographs brought these histories together for me." City Spaces will be a welcome addition to those interested in fine art photography, architecture, Chicago, and the urban scene—and will reinforce Bob Thall's presence as a leading artist and spokesperson for the city he loves.
ISBN: 9781930066076
Publication Date: 2002-11-01
Chicagoland by Ann Durkin Keating Formed by images of crowded city streets and towering skyscrapers, our understanding of nineteenth-century Chicago completely neglects the fact that the city itself was only the center of a web of neighborhoods, farm communities, and industrial towns--many connected to the city by the railroad. Farmers used trains to transport produce into the city daily; businessmen rode the rails home to their commuter suburbs; and families took vacations mere miles outside the Loop. Historian and coeditor of the acclaimed Encyclopedia of Chicago, Ann Durkin Keating resurrects for us here the bustling network that defined greater Chicagoland. Taking a new approach to the history of the city, Keating shifts the focus to the landscapes and built environments of the metropolitan region. Organized by four categories of settlements-farm centers, industrial towns, commuter suburbs, and recreational and institutional centers-that framed the city, Chicagoland offers the collective history of 230 neighborhoods and communities, the people who built them, and the structures they left behind that still stand today. Keating reanimates nineteenth-century Chicagoland with more than a hundred photographs and maps; we find here the taverns, depots, and way stations that were the hubs of the region's vibrant, mobile life. Keating also includes an appendix of driving tours so readers can see this history for themselves. Chicagoland takes us into the buildings and sites that are still part of our landscape and repopulates them with the stories and characters behind their creation. The result is a wide-angle historical view of Chicago, an entirely new way to understand the region.
ISBN: 9780226428826
Publication Date: 2005-11-15

Databases to Try

Credo Online Reference Service This link opens in a new window Credo Online Reference Service enhances the research experience by combining expertly curated content with a one-stop exploratory search platform that drives usage of all trusted library resources.
ProQuest Central This link opens in a new window The largest single periodical resource available, bringing together complete databases across all major subject areas, including Business, Health and Medical, Social Sciences, Education, Science and Technology, and Humanities. Search across more than 30 databases at one time. Full-text available.
Arts & Humanities Full Text This link opens in a new window "This database features hundreds of titles covering Art, Architecture, Design, History, Philosophy, Music, Literature, Theatre and Cultural Studies. It is designed to complement the following indexes: ABM, Avery, BHA, BHI, DAAI, Index Islamicus, MLA, Philosopher's Index and RILM."