In 1803, the first residents of Fort Dearborn had a large garrison vegetable garden. It was, of course, cultivated out of necessity. Settlers had to grow their own food as they were unable to rely on provisions shipped west by very primitive methods. Gardening was essential to their survival, but it was also a source of burgeoning community. Early Chicagoans banded together to put down roots and survive in an unfamiliar new climate.

Captain John Whistler’s 1808 plan of Fort Dearborn, including the designated area of the community’s garden in the foreground. iCHI-37865

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Minnesota Historical Society Staff.  The 1968 Project:  A Nation Coming of Age. St. Paul, Minnesota: Minnesota Historical Society Press (2011).

President’s Commentary: This blog post lays down a marker: In 2014 the Chicago History Museum intends to present the intriguing exhibition that is connected with this book.  Reading the book and visiting the exhibition will bring back memories to those of us who lived through that tumultuous year.  The book’s month-by-month presentation captures the dramatic pace of political and social change.  The exhibition was prepared by the Minnesota Historical Society and it is includes material from the Chicago History Museum.

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On May 16, 2002, the Museum hosted a celebration in honor of Studs’s 90th birthday. Photograph by John Alderson

Today is Studs Terkel’s birthday—happy birthday, Studs—he would have been 100 years old. Studs loved to tell people he was born in 1912—“the Titanic went down and I came up.” Few nonagenarians can match Studs’s legacy: more than 5,500 audiotapes of his radio programs and another 1,200 oral history interviews for his books that encompass all aspects of creativity, discovery, and the human spirit.

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