Harold Washington Library Free Author Lecture Series.
Where: Harold Washington Library Center, 400 S. State Street,
Most events are in the Cindy Pritzker Auditorium, Lower Level. Schedule subject to change or cancellation. Always call to confirm or check the CPL website. Seating is available first come, first served.
Tim O’Brien with Alex Kotlowitz Discusses Dad’s Maybe Book Tuesday, October 22, 2019 6:30PM – 7:30PM
In 2003 as an older father, O’Brien began writing notes to his sons, imagining he would give them advice, tell them about times in his life they wouldn’t know about otherwise, and offer them a glimpse of his own past. For the next 15 years, he talked to them on paper, as if they were adults, imagining what they might want to hear from him when he was gone.
The resulting book is an erudite, vulnerable, honest portrait of a life in letters, the lessons learned in wartime, and the challenges, humor and rewards of raising two sons.
Author David Wallace-Wells: The Uninhabitable Earth Monday, October 28, 2019 6:00PM – 7:30PM
His book, The Uninhabitable Earth, is a No. 1 New York Times bestseller and reveals the dramatically different near-future lives that humans will lead due to the global impacts of the climate crisis.
David will be interviewed by Tony Briscoe. Tony Briscoe is an environmental reporter with The Chicago Tribune who has written extensively about issues facing the Great Lakes and the impacts of climate change in the Midwest. Since joining the Tribune in 2014, Briscoe has delved into a broad range of issues, including the complexity of plastics pollution within the planet’s largest system of freshwater and the dangers posed by wave phenomena known as meteotsunamis.
Author Pia Justesen Discusses From the Periphery: Real-Life Stories of Disability Wednesday, October 30, 2019 6:00PM – 8:30PM
“From the Periphery consists of more than 30 first-person narratives of everyday people and activists who describe what it’s like to be treated differently by society because of various visible and invisible disabilities. Race, class and intersectionality are recurring motifs.
Author Sheila Watt-Cloutier: The Right To Be Cold Thursday, November 14, 2019 6:00PM – 7:30PM
Climate expert Sheila Watt-Cloutier. Sheila Watt-Cloutier is an activist who lives with the impacts of climate change every day from her home in the Arctic Circle. Her memoir, The Right to Be Cold, chronicles her life growing up in the Arctic reaches of Quebec, the human story of life on the front lines of climate change, told by one of the leading Indigenous climate change, cultural, and human rights advocates in the world.
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About the Chicago Public Library
1871: After the Chicago Fire, Thomas Hughes, a prominent member of British Parliament and children’s author supports a plan to donate more than 8,000 books to Chicago.
Chicago citizens petition for a free public library. Previous libraries were private membership-only organizations. The Children’s Library at Harold Washington Library Center is named after Thomas Hughes
1872: The Illinois Library Act of 1872, authorized cities to establish tax-supported libraries throughout the state. In April, the City Council passed an ordinance proclaiming the establishment of Chicago Public Library.
1873: The Chicago Public Library opens at the southeast corner of LaSalle and Adams streets in a circular water tank that survived the fire. The library moved several times during its first 24 years, including an 11-years on the fourth floor of City Hall.
1874: A delivery station system of outposts served Chicago’s neighborhoods mostly in stores. Patrons could call for a book, which was delivered by horse-drawn carriage to the outpost nearest their home.
By the early 1900s deposit stations accounted for two-thirds of the circulation of the Chicago Public Library.
1897: October 11, the Central Library, on Michigan Avenue between Washington and Randolph streets, opens in what is now the Chicago Cultural Center. The building cost about $2 million, was designed by Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge.
The building was designed to be practically incombustible. Preston Bradley Hall, contains a dome and hanging lamps by Tiffany Glass.
1904: Isabella N. Blackstone donates funds to construct the first branch library, located in the Hyde Park and Kenwood neighborhoods. The library was modeled after the famous Erechtheion on the Acropolis in Athens, Greece.
1916: Chief Librarian Henry E. Legler presented a library plan calling for an network of neighborhood library locations to bring library service within the walking distance for every person in Chicago.
The plan called for several regional libraries with more comprehensive collections. The first regional library, the Henry E. Legler Regional Library, opened in 1920 in West Garfield Park.
1918: Carl B. Roden, who began work as a library page in 1886, was appointed chief librarian. Over 32 years (1918-1950) he increased staff, holdings, circulation and total expenditures exponentially.
The Carl B. Roden Branch in the Norwood Park neighborhood, where he resided, is named in his honor.
1960s: CPL added a significant number of neighborhood branch libraries, via new construction or leasing storefronts or reading rooms. By 1985, there were 76 branches.
1991: The new main library the Harold Washington Library Center opened October 7.
1995: Chicago Public Library established its website.
1996: A three-year, $65 million capital improvement plan begins building or renovating 52 neighborhood libraries.
2000: $44 million in neighborhood library construction begins.
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