Arcadia Bestsellers

If any place in Chicago has been all things to all men, it has to be the corner of the city that is occupied by Edgewater and Uptown.

Babe Ruth and Mahatma Gandhi found a place of refuge at the Edgewater Beach Hotel, but the locale has also been a sanctuary for Appalachian coal miners and Japanese Americans released from internment camps. Al Capone reportedly moved booze through a secret tunnel connecting the Green Mill and the Aragon Ballroom, Burglar Cops moonlit out of the Summerdale police station, and a Kitchen Revolt by some not-very-ordinary housewives sent once-invulnerable machine ward boss Marty Tuchow on his way to Club Fed. Ferret out the hidden history of Uptown and Edgewater with veteran beat reporter Patrick Butler in this curio shop of forgotten people and places..

The 1890s was a time of great growth for Hyde Park. The construction of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Jackson Park had a profound and lasting effect not only on Hyde Park and the city, but on the entire country. The famous University of Chicago was founded in 1890 and was under construction simultaneously with the World's Columbian Exposition. The area grew, attracting additional businesses, people, and an expanding economy to the area.

Like many large American cities in the early 1900s, Chicago's industrialization and waves of immigration spawned crowded, unhealthy urban conditions. The Prairie Club turned to nature for relief from these societal ills. From its first outing on Saturday, April 18, 1908, around Mount Forest District near Willow Springs, members sponsored hikes and outdoor activities from Palos and Tinley, through Hinsdale and Downers Grove, and up to the North Shore. With each of these walks, public support grew for what ultimately became victorious efforts to establish the forest preserves, Indiana Dunes, and other nature spots around the burgeoning cityscape.

Discover how the Midwest refined the nation's sweet tooth through a delicious mix of immigrant traditions and American ingenuity.

Chef Jenny Lewis dips a spoon into generations of homemade desserts and examines the inner workings of some of the biggest brands of the baking industry. Learn how to make Pumpkin Whoopie Pies, witness the rise of Red Star Yeast, and plumb the secrets of the Kraft Oil Method, before sitting down to consume an engaging history in which Midwest beet sugar, vanilla cream and evaporated milk are mixed into a narrative of wars, social shifts, and politics. Encounter a rich medley of true stories and irresistible recipes from Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan in this delightful collection.

Revisit a critical and little-known piece of WWII history that had a profound impact on Illinois and the nation.

During WWII, the United States was home to almost half a million POW's—German, Italian, and Japanese soldiers captured overseas and then brought to the United States. The POWs were housed in various large camps set up in forty-four of the nation's then forty-eight states. One of those states was Illinois. At its peak, Illinois housed three major base camps and twenty branch camps, stretching from the Rockford-Chicago area down to Camp Pomona, near Murphysboro. When not housed in these camps, POW's were put to work, on the state's farms and in its factories, to alleviate the country's serious wartime labor shortages. By the end of the war, there was no part of Illinois that was not touched by these prisoners of war.

Author Cary O'Dell sheds light on a largely forgotten element of home front WWII history. 

Financial ambition, a tortured marriage, and an American city on the rise are brilliantly depicted in Frank Norris’ 1903 masterpiece. Curtis Jadwin is obsessed with speculating on the market, manipulating it so he can control the nation’s wheat supply. He neglects his wife, Laura, who seeks refuge in the arts, and in particular one artist, Sheldon Corthell. The Jadwin’s wealth buys them a mansion on Lincoln Park with an art gallery that strangers gawk at, but inside they struggle. And is Jadwin’s gambling sustainable, or is there a bear market in his future?

Curtis and Laura play out this American Dream scenario in the streets of Chicago, where they attend the opera at the Auditorium Building, visit the new art museum on the lake, and, from the comfort of their carriage, watch the trains and grain elevators. At the Board of Trade, in the pit, men yell and knock against each other, performing the theater of capitalism in front of an always crowded visitor’s gallery.

Few novels depict the struggles of marriage, the world of finance, or the rise of Chicago from the flatlands of the Midwest, as viscerally as this novel, originally published in 1903. Norris’s novel may immerse readers in a historic setting, but it’s punishing and profound themes are anything but dated.

This Belt Revivals edition features archival photographs and an introduction by Whet Moser.

Readers interested in the America's heartland and the growth of both nuclear power and agriculture will delight in DeWitt County. Founded in 1824 by settlers such as Prettyman Marvel and Cicero Twist, DeWitt County was considered an abundant area because of its flat, open prairies that could be used for farmland and its plentiful forests. Within 15 years, DeWitt County was officially formed, with the first census including approximately 600 people. Over time, several towns changed their names: Mount Pleasant became Farmer City, Marion became DeWitt, and Dunham became Midland City. Other towns came and went, such as Shoo-Fly and Niptight. Clinton, the county seat, drew lawyers and politicians, allowing Stephen A. Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, Vespasian Warner, and many others to make impressions first in Illinois and then throughout the nation. Over 180 years from DeWitt’s founding, factories and a nuclear power plant boosted population by 15,000. The county’s fertile sediment of rich minerals and organic matter left by glaciers and wind over millennia helps Illinois rank as the third state in total prime agricultural acreage.

Images of America: DeWitt County provides photographs covering almost 200 years of engaging county history. The author of two other Images of America books, Maureen Holtz lives in Champaign with her husband and cat. Her two other books about Robert Allerton were published locally.

Significant members and locations of the Haitian-American community of Chicago are detailed in this book, highlighting the influence and importance Haitian culture has had on the city.

Haitians have always had a place in Chicago history. From Jean Baptiste Point DuSable, a Haitian man and the first nonindigenous founder of Chicago; to the Haitian Pavilion built for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition; to Nicole Smith, a gallerist that uplifted Haitian art and artists, Haiti is here to stay in this diverse city.

The book includes information and images featuring Haitian community leaders such as the Illinois attorney general Kwame Raoul and Metz T.P. Lochard, former chief editorial writer for the Chicago Daily Defender newspaper; academics; and topics like immigration and religion. Haitians in Chicago is the one-stop guide to uncovering the history, vibrancy, and resiliency of the Haitian community.

Elsie Hector Henandez, a native of Haiti, founded the Haitian American Museum of Chicago (HAMOC) in 2012, located in Uptown, a multicultural area of Chicago. The mission of the museum is to promote and preserve Haitian art, culture, history, and community in Chicago and beyond.

The museum is an institution that holds a wide array of programs and exhibits showcasing Haiti’s rich culture and art as well as its complex history. Here is an unforgettable record of the extraordinary impact Haitians have had, and continue to have, on Chicago.

When the police caught up with Johann Hoch, he’d already proposed to what they believed would have been wife number fifty-five.

For a decade, he traveled the country, marrying and deserting desperate women—and five of his wives were lying in their graves. He married Marie Walcker in Chicago in 1904, and when Marie died five weeks later, he proposed to her sister while the corpse lay on the bed. The sister agreed, only to be swindled out of her savings. Adam Selzer trails jovial, big-talking Hoch through a twisting tale of Chicago journalism, Chicago justice and the coming together of some of most daring and corrupt characters the city had to offer.

With vivid, design-centric illustrations that and short whimsical rhymes, C is for Chicago Board Book shows off the iconic people, places, food and music of Chicago. This A-Z tour of the Windy City takes readers through iconic landmarks in the Second City, including Millennium Park and "The Bean", Grant Park and Buckingham Fountain, The El, The Chicago River and Navy Pier. "C is for Chicago" also highlights the food and music that make Chicago great: Chicago Hot Dogs, Deep Dish Pizza and the Chicago Blues.

Chicago ports fans won't be disappointed either with a stop at Wrigley Field and iconic Chicago sports legends' jerseys. Can you guess them all?

This Chicago children's book is a durable version of the beloved picture book C is for Chicago and is great for traveling and little hands. Whether on a coffee table or on the nightstand, this large-format book is sure to make any local or visitor smile.

The Marquette Park area on the southwest side of Chicago is comprised of two neighborhoods- Chicago Lawn and Marquette Manor.

This book depicts the evolution of both neighborhoods with photographs and images of the earliest developments, buildings, and families-some of which have been professionally reproduced from original glass slides-beginning in 1876 with the arrival of John F. Eberhart, the ""Father of Chicago Lawn."" Due focus is paid to the common denominator and centerpiece of both communities-Marquette Park. Beginning with early photographs of this popular 323-acre park and golf course, Chicago Lawn/Marquette Manor takes the reader through its grand beginnings as ""the playground of the Southwest Side,"" and features activities throughout the years, including the racial strife it unfortunately acquired national notoriety for. The reader will have the opportunity to peek inside Amos Cravener's grocery store and H.E. Cain's pharmacy, c. 1900, as well as walk down 63rd Street when it was surrounded by prairie, watch as new buildings appear, and return when it is fully populated.

Columbia College Chicago was founded in 1890 as the Columbia School of Oratory.

It was a coeducational institution with teaching methods of physical culture, expression, elocution, public reading, and dramatic action. From the 1930s onward, the college focused on the growing fields of radio, television, and other mass communication. By the 1960s, the school had created a liberal-arts curriculum with a hands-on approach to arts and media education and a progressive social agenda. In the 1970s, the college relocated to its permanent home in the South Loop. Today, with deference to its past, the college encourages students to author the culture of their times, to produce a body of work, and to realize their abilities according to the school's original motto ""esse quam videri"" (to be rather than to seem).

In recent decades, Lake Villa Township has once again found itself at the center of regional attention, this time as the Gateway to Metropolitan Chicago. As the growing suburban network of Chicago has reached the township, frenetic residential development has come against an older, rural way of life. This development has created a township at a crossroads: between the many identities of its past, and the uncertain road to the future, Lake Villa Township is again adding another fascinating chapter to its history.

From scenes of the historic business district to the banks of Island Park, the vintage postcards of Geneva reveal a community rich in history and charm.

Geneva was an ideal location for settlement, with rich farming soil, a river to power the mills, and a plentiful supply of trees for lumber; it didn't take long to attract and support a thriving community. Incorporated in 1858, Geneva remains an idyllic village, home to fine architecture from the mid- to late-19th century, scenic parks along the banks of the Fox River, and a sense of community spirit and pride. Geneva in Vintage Postcards opens a window into the past, allowing us to experience what this community most wanted to present to others and what visitors most wanted to share with their families and friends.

Take a tour of Taylor Street, the heart of Chicago’s Little Italy, with local historian and journalist Kathy Catrambone. A must-have for fans of Italian-American history.

Chicago's Near West Side was and is the city's most famous Italian enclave, earning it the title of Little Italy. Italian immigrants came to Chicago as early as the 1850s, before the massive waves of immigration from 1874 to 1920. They settled in small pockets throughout the city, but ultimately the heaviest concentration was on or near Taylor Street. At one point a third of all Chicago's Italian immigrants lived in the neighborhood. Some of their descendants remain, and although many have moved to the suburbs, their familial and emotional ties to the neighborhood cannot be broken.

Taylor Street: Chicago's Little Italy is a pictorial history from the late 19th century and early 20th century, from when Jane Addams and Mother Cabrini guided the Italians on the road to Americanization, through the area's vibrant decades, and to its sad story of urban renewal in the 1960s and its rebirth 25 years later.

Coincidentally, use of the penny picture postcard had approached a national mania during this era. Thus from the earliest years of the 20th century, the rapid growth and development of Oak Park was well documented, even celebrated, with a vast and varied array of outstanding postcard images.

Today, the village's limestone and brick water tower, built in 1892, still stands as the centerpiece for many village events and celebrations. With nearly 200 vintage photos documenting the village's first century, including the first schools and churches, old-fashioned automobiles, and a photo of a young local woman who was one of only 305 female marines in World War I, this book brings to life the evolution of Western Springs from farming village to stately suburb.

Take a fascinating journey through the history of Glen Ellyn, Illinois with more than 200 vintage photographs and anecdotes from the locals who experienced it.

Glen Ellyn took its name from a Victorian real estate development whose massive promotional campaigns brought this unusually beautiful village to the attention of city dwellers eager to move their families away from the grimy, coal-fired environs of Chicago.

The story begins with hardy New Englanders who felled trees to build log cabins, broke the virgin prairie sod, and trapped wild game in the marshlands that would become greater Chicago, continuing through the radical changes that came with the railroad and the Civil War.

From Potawatomi Indiansand pioneers to an important Underground Railroadstation; from a luxurious lakeside health resort with a fabulous grand hotel to one of Chicago's premier suburban communities, Glen Ellyn presents the village's rich history with evocative photographs from the collection of the Glen Ellyn Historical Society.

This delightful follow-up to the first volume of Peoria: A Postcard History guides the reader through the development of Peoria to the twenty-first century.

From the Illinois Riverfront to the streets of downtown, these postcards demonstrate the many changes that have taken place in this city throughout the years. The growth and expansion in Peoria have been phenomenal, and this volume allows us to follow the timeline of the city.

Produced through the Greek Women’s University Club, this is a collection of the struggles and triumphs, the pathos and joy of five women who immigrated to the United States.

Greek women pioneers faced a difficult life when they arrived in the xenia (strange land) from the rural farms of Greece. They did not speak English, were bewildered by crowded Chicago and the alien culture, and unlike their male family, often did not have opportunity to work outside the home. Yet these brave, spirited women triumphed over adversity and embraced their adopted country to become exemplary citizens. Chronicling the stories of Georgia Bitzis Pooley, Presbytera Stella Christoulakis Petrakis, Theano Papazoglou Margaris, Venette Tomaras Askounes Ashford, and Senator Adeline J. Geo-Karis, this book showcases the life stories of immigrant pioneer women, their families, friends, and the emerging Greek-American community of Illinois.

In Chicago, it has long been common knowledge that the neighborhoods have been overshadowed by the Loop's luster.

Portage Park is one of these hidden gems, offering up a wealth of history, culture, and art. As the site of a lesser-known Chicago Portage, the largest retail district outside the Loop at Six Corners, the visual backdrop of movies such as My Life and The Color of Money, and the spot where both Abraham Lincoln and John Dillinger legendarily stayed and the sister of the czar of Bulgaria prayed, this corner of Chicago has seen its share of glitz and glory. Discover Portage Park's architectural treasures, whether it is in its place as a part of Chicago's ""Bungalow Belt,"" its wealth of notable buildings spanning different genres and time periods, or its beautiful churches and grand movie palaces. An area diverse in culture, many peoples, beginning with Native Americans and going onto the Yankees, Irish, Scandinavians, eastern Europeans, and even a Tibetan lama, have made Portage Park their home, each adding their own unique contribution to the vibrant cultural landscape. The site of the largest concentration of Chicago's legendary Polish population, it is also the place where immigrants left the inner city's ethnic enclaves to take part in the American dream.

Scots helped found Lake Forest, and hundreds of native-born Scots settled there.

The Scottish influence is evident in town names along Chicago’s North Shore like Glencoe, Bannockburn, Milburn, and Dundee.The Keith family theater chain became RKO Studios with Scots-born J.J.Murdock as president.James Simpson was CEO of Marshall Field and Company and oversaw the building of the Merchandise Mart.After Simpson, a series of Scots ran Fields: John McKinlay, James McKinsey, and Hughston McBain.Scots partnered to form Carson Pirie & Scott.They also founded Douglas and Stuart Oats, which became Quaker Oats.Hugh Robertson was president of the Zenith Corporation, and the Armour family operated one of the largest meatpacking companies in the world.Only slightly smaller was Wilson Meats, which later spun off Wilson Sporting Goods.This book tells the story of these Scots and many others.

The story of the Baha’i House of Worship is one of how very few believers in a new faith built the “Great Bell” of the North Shore.

Sitting on the shores of Lake Michigan, just five miles north of Chicago, the Baha’i House of Worship’s story begins with the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893. Inspired by news of the first Baha'i¬ Temple in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, members of the Chicago Baha'i¬ House of Spirituality drafted a petition in 1903 asking for permission to begin their own. Fifty years later, in 1953, a completed Baha'i¬ House of Worship was dedicated in Wilmette. With archival photographs, readers can see the complete timeline of the temple from the Great Depression and World War II years up to the present, including ongoing restoration projects preserving the beauty of the “Temple of Light.”

Inside the life of Amos Alonzo Stagg, a man who not only witnessed great change, but was responsible for much of it in college football.

The arc of Amos Alonzo Stagg’s life spanned the presidencies of Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy. His career flourished on the Chicago Midway and found an encore on California’s Pacific coast and in Pennsylvania’s Susquehanna Valley. Stagg pioneered use of the tackling dummy, the huddle, the forward pass, the shift, the man-in-motion, the quick kick and the short punt. He developed the raw talent of young men with little or no athletic background long before the age of scholarship athletes, and his championship teams at the University of Chicago established the school’s national reputation before it became famous for producing Nobel laureates. He helped shape the modern Olympic Games, and the coaching tree he nurtured continues to bear fruit in football programs across the country. Author Jennifer Taylor Hall traces the remarkable life of the “Grand Old Man of Football.”

When John Wood built his first log cabin in 1822 at what is now Front and Delaware Streets, he began a settlement that would become Quincy, Illinois.

To the east was a high bluff, and to the west, the Mississippi River. As the town grew, it moved eastward onto the bluff. In Qunicy's early days, the settlers depended on the Mississippi River for their livelihood. Today's residents still depend upon the Mississippi, but now more for transportation and for pleasure. It is difficult today to imagine what the area looked like in those early years. As with many American towns, Quincy has experienced change through the years, dramatic and subtle, both captured here in the unforgettable images of Then & Now: Quincy, Illinois.

Vintage postcards show the magic of the scenes and people of Fox Lake, a populsr destination of vacationing Chicagoans.

Fox Lake, nestled as it is in the the heart of the chain, has been one of the Chicago area's favorite recreation destinations for over 100 years. Starting in the late 1800s, wealthy sportsmen constructed clubs that sparked an era often referred to as the resort heyday. An explosion of resorts and cottages beckoned tourists to come to hunt, fish, enjoy nature's gifts, or be entertained. In 1910, the Chicago Tribune referred to the area as the Vice Capital, noting the openness of gambling, saloons, dance halls, and more. Through the magic of vintage postcards, some of the ghosts of the past are brought to life in this book—scenery, structures, boats, and people gone but not totally forgotten.

Considered to be one of the largest neighborhood-based St. Patrick's Day parades outside Dublin, Chicago's South Side Irish Parade began quite modestly, with 17 children under the age of 10 marching twice around the block.

Dubbing themselves the ""Wee Ones of Washtenaw and Talman,"" the founders of this great parade marched with homemade signs, costumes, and a baby buggy while neighbors and family members cheered them on. Over the next 31 years, the parade grew into an annual event, attracting hundreds of thousands who came to celebrate Irish heritage with family and friends. In 2009, Pres. Barack Obama encouraged Taoiseach Brian Cowen of Ireland to visit the parade, calling it ""one of the great events in America.""

Featuring more than 200 vintage postcards, Peoria: A Postcard History captures the changing scenes of the river and downtown Peoria from 1900 to 1950.

One of the largest cities in Illinois, Peoria is the seat of Peoria County and lies on the Illinois River where it forms Lake Peoria. Located in the state's central-farm country, Peoria is a manufacturing center known as the Earth-Moving Equipment Capital of the World.  Distilling has also been important in Peoria, which was home to the world's largest distillery, Hiram Walker and Sons, in 1933. Peoria: A Postcard History will allow you to visit the world's most beautiful drive, as proclaimed by President Theodore Roosevelt during his visit to Grand View Drive in an automobile manufactured in Peoria Heights.

Kankakee County was organized in early 1853. In June 1853, the village of Kankakee Depot, later known as the city of Kankakee, was declared the new county seat. The establishment of both Kankakee County and the city of Kankakee owed a great deal to the railroad, particularly the Illinois Central Railroad. By the end of the 19th century, the county had become an important railroad hub where several important lines converged and the city had become a commercial and manufacturing center. By 1900, Kankakee was a growing community possessing a vibrant economy and many fine public and private buildings. The city was also host to the Illinois Eastern Hospital for the Insane, renamed the Kankakee State Hospital in 1910, which at the beginning of the 20th century was the second-largest mental health facility in the United States. It was probably the Kankakee River that most clearly defi ned the community. Many of Kankakee's citizens boated on the beautiful river and enjoyed good times at the "new-fangled" amusement facility, Electric Park. The over 200 vintage postcards displayed in this book illustrate the exciting period from 1900 to 1916.

In 1854, Decatur was nicknamed Hell's Half Acre. By the 1910s and 1920s, the town was referred to as the Second Most Corrupt City in Illinois, gaining notoriety as a place where murder, bootlegging, prostitution, kidnapping, gambling and political corruption were common. Members of the Decatur police force, like Troy Taylor's great-grandfather, were hard-pressed to bar the door against crime in a town that seemed determined to remain wide-open. Wicked Decatur presents a rogue's gallery of those who have slipped through the cracks of legality over the past century and a half.

Inside are views of Rockford's bustling downtown, including rare glimpses of long-gone landmarks like the Grand Opera House and Orpheum Theater. Witness history in the making with Rockford's first recorded airplane flights in 1911 and experience U.S. Army doughboy life at Rockford's Camp Grant. Be there for Teddy Roosevelt's historic visits to Rockford, and marvel at the intrepid companies that turned Rockford into a national manufacturing power.

Jerseyville, located across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, Missouri, is the largest community in Jersey County as well as the county seat. The county is comprised of four villages, Brighton, Elsah, Fidelity, and Fieldon, along with 17 unincorporated communities and the towns of Otterville and Grafton. In 1827, James Faulkner of Pennsylvania built his family a home in the area and named it the Little Red House. By 1834, Hickory Grove, the small settlement that grew around Faulkner’s house, was formed. Later, the land was surveyed and plotted by two emigrants from New Jersey, and the name “Jerseyville” was chosen for the settlement. Jersey County is notable for its agricultural heritage and small-town atmosphere. Residents and guests also frequent Marquette State Park in Grafton for activities such as hiking and boating. Today, many workers travel outside the county to work in industrial plants in Alton, Wood River, and Roxana. The former Little Red House is now the site of the Jersey County Historical Society.

Michael Barr Mossman is a graduate of Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville and has taught in the Jerseyville School District for over 20 years. The images for this book have been provided by the Jersey County Historical Society and Stan Sinclair, a longtime local businessman. 

Ghostly reverberations pulse for eternity in the most haunted crime scenes in Chicago.

The rat-a-tat of machine guns echoes at the site of Al Capone's St. Valentine's Day Massacre. The ghost of Louisa Luetgert makes the occasional appearance on the grounds of the old Luetgert Sausage and Packing Company—her husband, the “Sausage King,” cooked her down in a vat of meat tenderizer in 1897. Ghostly screams ring out and dogs get their hackles up at the site of serial killer H.H. Holmes's “Murder Castle” on West 63rd Street. Hundreds died at the Iroquois Theatre fire in 1903—inspectors had overlooked violations that made the venue on West Randolph Street a veritable tinderbox. Today, passersby are greeted by cold spots and pleas for help from the long-dead and perpetually tortured. The City with Broad Shoulders is burdened by souls whose lives were stolen and are seemingly in pursuit of justice and comfort—or perhaps vengeance. Author Eva Pilch guides readers on a citywide tour of the most haunted crime scenes in Chicago.