- ARCHITECTURE / Buildings / Landmarks & Monuments
- BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Corporate & Business History
- BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Industries / Retailing
- HISTORY / United States / General
- HISTORY / United States / State & Local / Midwest (IA, IL, IN, KS, MI, MN, MO, ND, NE, OH, SD, WI)
- PHOTOGRAPHY / Subjects & Themes / Historical
- PHOTOGRAPHY / Subjects & Themes / Regional (see also TRAVEL / Pictorials)
- ARCHITECTURE / Buildings / Landmarks & Monuments
- BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Corporate & Business History
- BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Industries / Retailing
- HISTORY / United States / General
- HISTORY / United States / State & Local / Midwest (IA, IL, IN, KS, MI, MN, MO, ND, NE, OH, SD, WI)
- PHOTOGRAPHY / Subjects & Themes / Historical
- PHOTOGRAPHY / Subjects & Themes / Regional (see also TRAVEL / Pictorials)
Historic Sears, Roebuck and Co. Catalog Plant
9780738539775
Regular price $24.99 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%The Society of the Living Dead
9781634992299
Regular price $24.99 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%"It will put pink cheeks on you."
That is what the managers of Radium Dial in Ottawa, Illinois, told the young women who painted radium on the faces of clock dials in the 1920s and 1930s. Instead, their teeth fell out and their jaws and bones disintegrated. Instead of putting pink in their cheeks, it put the women in their graves.
The company knew the hazards of working with radium, but they took no safety precautions. They lied to the workers and they denied compensation to the victims. To avoid financial liability, Radium Dial closed its doors and reopened a few blocks away as Luminous Processes and continued its deadly work for another forty years. Radium Dial cared more about the health and profitability of its company than they cared about the health of the women who made the company profitable.
There really was a "Society of the Living Dead," formed by the women who were dying from radium poisoning. Their astounding true story is told here.
Hawthorne Works
9781467111355
Regular price $24.99 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%Discover the maufacturing plant that typifies the era when American industrial giants dominated the global economy and generations of blue-collar workers strived for a fair share of the ""American Dream.""
A burgeoning town on the fringes of Chicago rose and fell with the successes of the Western Electric Company. For almost 90 years, the Hawthorne Works plant employed, educated, entertained, and defined the township of Cicero. As the manufacturing arm of Western Electric, Hawthorne contributed greatly to the prosperity and national defense of the United States. As the site of the controversial Hawthorne Studies of workplace motivation and behavior, the plant reconfigured business and social science models. A community within a community, Hawthorne had its own sports teams, social clubs, hospital, railroad yards, and savings and loan. At its peak, the works was the largest single-site employer in Illinois and one of the biggest manufacturing establishments in the country, second only to the Ford plant in Detroit.
Chicago
9781634993135
Regular price $23.99 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%For more than a century, Chicago has been a workshop to the world. The city nurtured thousands of companies that supplied a hungry market with industrial products. Successful firms that survived nearly 100 years are Mars Candy, Motorola Inc., Abbot Labs, Radio Flyer, Rand McNally, and others. Aged companies that sold off their brands or were bought-out entirely include Schwinn Bikes, Sears Stores, Pullman Rail Cars, Bell & Howell Cameras, and more. The large manufacturers listed in this history book are arranged in a "then-and-now" photo format that is easy to follow across decades.
This book is a survey of economic growth. Trace a large city firm that was once a mom-and-pop store like Brach's Candy or follow the growth of an industrial giant like Western Electric as it morphed into AT&T. Through world wars, economic recessions, and boom times, the companies in this book offer lessons on perseverance, abundant energy, and innovative labor.
Today, Chicago has lost its lead in the meat packing, farm equipment, and clothing industries, but significant gains have been made in computerization, medical services, social media, and finance. This book traces Chicago's economic legacy.
Schaumburg’s Woodfield Mall
9780738551029
Regular price $24.99 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%Chicago in 50 Objects
9781467146753
Regular price $21.99 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%Abandoned Chicagoland
9781634993296
Regular price $23.99 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%Chicago is known the world over for its architecture and theater, as well as a myriad of other tourist sights. Visitors, however, usually only see the "nice" parts of the city, mostly the heavily gentrified corridor between the Loop's business district and the baseball shrine of Wrigley Field. But every city has its dark and dirty side, and Chicago is no exception. Economic upheaval and racial segregation, as well as the more mundane ravages of time, have created pockets of blight and abandonment.
The strange transformations brought on by years of decay can be both tragic and beautiful. This effect is all the more poignant when it happens a stone's throw from the opulence of the Magnificent Mile. The photos within showcase the area's neglected, sometimes forgotten places, from shuttered industrial areas to churches whose congregations have moved on. This book presents portraits of the old, abandoned and off-the-beaten-path places across all of Chicagoland. See what happens when the doors close, nature takes over, and the din of humanity fades away.
Joliet's Gerlach Barklow Calendar Company
9780738577265
Regular price $24.99 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%