MAPPING THE GREAT WAR IN CHICAGO

The greater Chicago area is the perfect place to examine the effects of World War I at home. As the heartland of the United States and the place where all rail lines met, Chicago was a hub of activity during wartime, transporting everything from troops to harvests. Chicago's Stockyards produced most of the nation's meat. Local military camps like Fort Sheridan trained the nation's soldiers in the latest tactics. African-Americans moving to Chicago from the Jim Crow South found both community, but also new forms of discrimination. As a city of immigrants, many Chicagoans struggled with ideas of loyalty and allegiance in the city's ethnic Polish and German communities. Others, like Jane Addams of Hull House, advocated for peace in wartime and felt there were wars to fight at home first. This map examines the effects of the war through different locations in the city to highlight the complexity of wartime in Chicago and the lasting physical remnants.