March 23, 2005 – May 6, 2005
Roosevelt University, Rotunda Gallery, Albert A. Robin Campus, Schaumburg, IL

Click here to order the 60-page exhibition catalog

Roosevelt University, in partnership with the Chicago Historical Society and LaSalle Bank, is pleased to present an exhibition of photographs showing the rich history of public housing’s early years in Chicago. The exhibition includes 88 photographs from the archives of the Chicago Housing Authority and the Chicago Historical Society showing the genesis, progress, and early struggles of public housing in this city. Included are works from some of Chicago’s most important photographers, including Harry Callahan, Mildred Mead, Bob Natkin, and Vories Fisher. Most of these images have never been presented to the public.

Harry Callahan, Loomis Courts, 1952

Mayor Richard J. Daley examines Hilliard Homes, 1965

The Chicago Housing Authority hired these photographers to tell a now-forgotten story of public housing’s past. The CHA replaced the often-abysmal slums of the city with gleaming new structures that offered the promise of a better life for tens of thousands of low-income Chicagoans.

This progress, however, was eventually eroded by intractable problems of race, design, and urban poverty. The photographs challenge the memory of public housing in Chicago. Rather than a doomed institution, the photographs reveal a more complex history, with buildings full of hope and promise but also burdened by racism and the problems of constructing community.

Bob Natkin, South Side Slums, 1949

Additional Roosevelt University Sponsors: Center for New Deal Studies, Mansfield Institute for Social Justice, St. Clair Drake Center for African and African American Studies, Institute for Metropolitan Affairs, Evelyn T. Stone University College, and the College of Arts and Sciences.

Curated by: Michael Ensdorf, Roosevelt University and Kathy Pilat, New Trier High School
Historian: D. Bradford Hunt, Roosevelt University Research Assistant: Locey Pfeifer