Selected links related to Chicago’s culture and urban nature, with an emphasis on the arts, the humanities, sustainability, and ecology.

Chicago Nature

• Art/Architecture/Design/Photography: Mike Bryson, How Much Is the Chicago River Worth? (CAF video); Ryan Hodgson-Rigsbee, urban nature photographer; Terry Evans, Revealing Chicago; Ford Calumet Environmental Center Design Competition; UrbanLab, Growing Water (City of the Future Competition); Chicago Architecture Foundation exhibits
• Nature Writing: Great Books of the Chicago Wilderness (by Chicago Wilderness Magazine); Seeding the Snow (Midwestern Women’s Nature Writing); Michael A. Bryson, “Empty Lots and Secret Places” (critical essay on Leonard Dubkin)
• Geography/Mapping: The Public Square — An Atlas of the Next Chicago Region; Atlas of Biodiversity; Natural Connections (Green Mapping); The Continental Divide in Oak Park; WBEZ Curious City, How Chicago Gobbled up Its Neighbors (animated map)
• Ecology/Natural History: Wild in the City: Chicagoland’s Urban Ecology (Explore Chicago Connections 2019) Atlas of Biodiversity; The Mike Nowak Show on WCPT Radio (environmental issues in Chicagoland); Wetlands of the Calumet Region (Sierra Club); Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie; Bridgehouse and Chicago River Museum; Joel Greenberg, A Naturalists’s Tour of Southern Lake Michigan; Field Museum of Natural History
• Conservation/Restoration:  Chicago Wilderness Reports; Edens Lost and Found (PBS); Calumet Environmental Resource Center (Chicago State Univ.); Journey Through Calumet (Field Museum);
• Planning: Chicago Climate Action Plan; The Burnham Plan Centennial; Daniel Burnham’s Plan of Chicago (fall 2008 Art Institute exhibit); Chicago Metropolis 2020; Metropolitan Planning Council; Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning; Carl Smith, The Plan of Chicago (EofC); Campaign for Sensible Growth; CW Biodiversity Recovery Plan; Schaumburg’s Biodiversity Plan; Calumet Area Use Plan (pdf)
• Environmental Organizations/Resources: City of Chicago Environment and Sustainability; Chicago Wilderness; Center for Humans and Nature; Chicagoland Environmental Network; Chicago Park District; Forest Preserve District of Cook County; Friends of the Chicago River; Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore

Chicago Culture

• Communities and Neighborhoods: City of Chicago Community Map and Data (2000 Census); UIC Chicago Community Area Demographics and Maps (1990 Census); Chicago Neighborhoods Map (Wildonions.org); The Chicago 77 Chicago List of Neighborhoods and Community Areas; Mapping Chicago’s Neighborhoods and Crime/Safety (Chicago Reader’s “Straight Dope”); Encyclopedia of Chicago Community Areas (also can search for neighborhood names); Yo Chicago’s Neighborhood Maps and Photos
  1. ICA 77 Chicago Neighborhood Data Form
  2. FMNH Engaging Chicago Communities in Climate Change (detailed maps and reports on selected communities)
  3. LISC Chicago’s New Communities Program (information, maps, videos of selected neighborhoods)
  4. Social Explorer Mapping and Data Tool (based on US Census information)
• History:  The Online Encyclopedia of Chicago; Chicago History Museum (formerly the Chicago Historical Society); The History Files (CHM exhibits); Historical Timeline of Chicago (CPL); Chicago’s Southeast Side (history, architecture, photos); Chicago Public Library’s Chicago History Resources; The Great Chicago Fire (Web of Memory exhibit); DuSable Museum of African-American History; Chicago: City of the Century (PBS site based on the book by Donald Miller); The History Makers (African-American history archive); WBEZ Curious City, How Chicago Grew
• Sustainable Development and Design: City of Chicago’s sustainability webpage; Chicago Center for Green Technology; Foresight Design Initiative; Center for Neighborhood Technology; UrbanLab architecture + design
• Art and Architecture: Photographs from the Chicago Daily News, 1902-1933 (CHS / Library of Congress); ArtInstitute; Chicago Architecture Foundation; Forgotten Chicago (preservation organization); Chicago ArchitecturalLandmarks (City of Chicago); MexicanFine Arts Museum; Daniel Burnham’s Plan of Chicago (fall 2008 ArtInstitute exhibit)
• The World’s Fair of 1893: IIT’s DigitalHistory Collection on the Fair; MultimediaTour and Analysis of the Fair; CHS’s website on theExposition; Eric Larsen’s The Devil in theWhite City
• Literature: University of Chicago Press’ listof Chicago books; American Authors on the Web (listed chronologically by date of birth); American LiteratureChronology; Seminary Co-op Bookstore
• Other Humanities Resources: Chicago Humanities Festival; Institute for theHumanities at UIC; PBS online; AmericanMemory exhibits at the Library of Congress