There are 20 million stories in the Chicago Historical Society. They are stories not loudly told but quietly embodied by such items as the table on which the terms of surrender were signed at Appomattox Court House in 1865 or two red linen sashes worn by defendants charged in the Haymarket Square bombing of 1886. A repository of the city’s–and some of the nation’s–dreams and triumphs, disasters and follies, rascals and rogues, the CHS is among Chicago’s most important cultural institutions.
But it’s difficult for history to toot its own horn. Even packed with its 20 million items near the corner of Clark and North, the CHS does not have the sort of steady pizazz–a new bear at Lincoln Park Zoo!–that attracts constant public attention.
But the spotlight falls on the CHS Thursday when it celebrates–with a dinner and speeches–its first “Making History Awards,” a presentation of awards to Chicagoans who “have helped shape the history not only of our city, but the United States.”
These are the winners of the first Making History Awards:
– Gwendolyn Brooks, the poet laureate of Illinois and the first black writer to win a Pulitzer Prize, in 1950.
– John Hope Franklin, influential author and former chair of the University of Chicago’s history department.
– Bob Galvin, chairman of Motorola Inc.
– Leon Lederman, a Nobel Prize winner in physics while serving as director of Fermilab.
– Abraham Lincoln Marovitz, senior federal judge, bon vivant and, at nearly 90, an active community servant.
– Studs Terkel, author-radio host-actor-activist.
These are, to most Chicagoans, familiar names. They may be more familiar, perhaps, than some of the people for whom the individual awards are named: the Richard Wright History Maker for Distinction in Literature (Brooks); the Marshall Field History Maker Award in Corporate Leadership and Innovation (Galvin); the Enrico Fermi History Maker Award for Distinction in Science, Medicine and Technology (Lederman); the Harold Washington History Maker Award for Distinction in Public Service (Marovitz); the Joseph Medill History Maker Award for Distinction in Journalism and Communications (Terkel).
Franklin has the distinction of receiving his own prize, the John Hope Franklin History Maker Award for Distinction in Historical Scholarship.
“No other institution is tasked with keeping track of the city,” says Douglas Greenberg, president of the CHS. “We think these awards will help articulate the history of Chicago.”
The winners’ names will not stir controversy. They are, though deserving, safe selections. But Greenberg says the process was hardly sedate. “There was a lot of debate,” he says. “There was debate about what categories we should have and debate about who the categories should be named for. And there was considerable debate about who the awards should be presented to.”
The idea for the awards was born shortly after Greenberg became CHS president 18 months ago. The selections were made by a small committee of CHS trustees and officials.
“It was really a delightful process,” says Greenberg. “I am a historian by training and who we were determined to honor was the person who, for instance in Chicago journalism, people would think of 100 years from now when you said `Chicago journalism.’ And that, of course, was Studs.”
Plans are for the awards to be presented annually. But it’s a flexible system, not restricted by number or by this first year’s categories. Future winners will come from the realms of education, social services and sports.
Hmmm, 100 years from now when someone mentions “Chicago sports . . .” Any names pop to mind?
