If These Items Could Talk.. History In Little Pieces

From the March 26, 2015, Chicago Tribune by Steve Johnson.

"They do in new Chicago History Museum exhibit" An Iroquois Theatre lamp sheds light on the fire as Leopold's eyeglasses give a view of the murder."

This is from the museum's new exhibition "The Secret Lives of Objects."  To get it, curators were sent back into the vaults to find stuff.  And, they liberated a lot of good stuff from the vaults.

Nathan Leopold's eyeglasses were evidence of a ghastly murder. They were found near the body of victim Bobby Franks and helped convict the two.   Ann Landers' typewriter gave lots of advice.  Booth One at Chicago's Pump Room was a marker for celebrities.

Some other things you can see:

**  The surveillance cards from the Chicago Police Department's infamous "Red Squad" filled out with notes on the activities of Chicago's leftest author and historian Studs Terkel.

**  Bamboo cane used by Charlie Chaplin for "His New Job" movie, the only film he shot in Chicago.

**  The piano on which Thomas Dorsey essentially invented gospel music.

*  The lamp that started the 1903 Iroquois Theatre Fire alongside the door hardware that prevented 600 people from exiting to safety.

**  The letters from the sign at the Palm Tavern, the famous Bronzeville jazz club.

**  The Colt revolver carried by Owen brown, son of abolitionist John brown, during the 1959 raid on Harpers Ferry, the attack that more than any one thing else led to the Civil War.

Forty-two objects made the final cut.  The exhibit continues until 2018.

Some Real History.  --Cooter