Citizens Schools Committee records

Descriptive Summary

Title: Citizens Schools Committee records
Dates: 1911-1983
Creator: Citizens Schools Committee (Chicago, Ill.)
Creator: Lapp, John A.(John Augustus), 1880-, Chicago (Ill.) Board of Education, Chicago Teachers Union
Size: 27.75 linear ft. (55 boxes, 3 transfer files, 3 wrapped v.)
Size: 14 sound recordings.
Language: Material is in English unless otherwise noted.

Scope and Content

Correspondence, minutes, financial and other reports, annual proceedings, speeches, scrapbooks, press releases, etc. relating to Citizens Schools Committee's (CSC) work promoting quality in Chicago public education and monitoring administration of the school system. Includes materials from parents' and teachers' organizations in 1920s and 1930s; Chicago Board of Education; Chicago Teachers Union; records of the annual Civic Assembly, sponsored by CSC (1949-1972), and personal papers of Mary J. Herrick, an officer of CSC and of the Chicago Teachers Union and a teacher at DuSable High School. Topics include school board budgets, policies, and nominations; racial desegregation, bilingual education; awards to teachers, principals, and students. Correspondents include John Lapp, a CSC leader.

Conditions for Access

Some scrapbooks are extremely fragile and closed to researchers until they can be microfilmed. For listening purposes, it is necessary to use a copy, not the original (and to have a listening copy made if one is not available). As part of our storage renovations, some or all items in this collection are offsite and inaccessible until 2022. Materials in the "Copy/Holdings Information" section with "Lot" or "OS" or "Oversize" in the call number are NOT currently available unless stated otherwise. Please email us at research@chicagohistory.org with any questions you might have.

Conditions Governing Use

Contact the archives for more information on licensing and permissions for use and reproduction.

Preferred Citation

A common citation for archives is as follows: Item, Folder number and/or title, Box number, Collection title, ID number, Repository name, location.

Custodial History

Most materials were donations of the Citizens Schools Committee, beginning in 1972.

Related Material

Related materials at Chicago History Museum, Research Center, include the Citizens Schools Committee photographs [graphic]; the Chicago Teachers Union records; and the Robert J. Ahrens papers.

Descriptive inventory available. Recent additions to the collection are not described.

Contents

Collection Access