Chicago Daily News negatives collection
Descriptive Summary
- Title
- Chicago Daily News negatives collection
- Dates
- ca. 1901-1973
- Identifier
- 1960.0784
- Creator
- Chicago Daily News, Inc.,photographer
- Creator
- Size
-
ca. 243 negatives :
glass ;8 x 10 in.
- Size
-
ca. 17,731 negatives :
glass ;5 x 7 in.
- Size
-
ca. 65,000 negatives :
glass ;4 x 5 in.
- Size
-
7,767 negatives :
nitrate ;8 x 10 in. and smaller.
- Size
-
1 negative :
b&w ;8 x 10 in.
- Size
-
ca. 200,000 negatives :
b&w ;4 x 5 in. or smaller.
- Size
-
ca. 10,500 negatives :
b&w ;35 mm.
- Language
- Material is in English unless otherwise noted.
Scope and Content
Collection of black and white photographic negatives created by staff photographers of the Chicago Daily News. Primarily contains images of events, people, and activities in the Chicago area as well as national events that held a local interest. Topics include civic ceremonies, public demonstrations, court cases, festivals, ethnic celebrations, and persons in the news, especially politicians, local celebrities, and criminals. Also shows street scenes, commercial and domestic buildings and construction, and members of the ethnic groups prominent in Chicago's population. Sports negatives relate to amateur and professional sporting events and athletes as well as to leisure activities, sports facilities, and spectators. Approximately 15-20% of the images in this collection were published in the Chicago Daily News; however, most images are not dated or labeled specifically enough to identify the issue of the newspaper in which they appeared.
Most of the collection is divided between glass plate negatives and flexible film negatives and arranged by the identification number assigned to the negatives by staff of the Chicago Daily News, roughly in chronological order. The regular news negatives are labeled DN, and the negatives categorized by the Chicago Daily News staff under "Sports" are labeled SDN. There are many gaps in the collection indicated by gaps in the original identification numbers.
The collection contains mostly 4 x 5 in. film negatives. However the collection includes ca. 82,974 glass plate negatives. Of the glass plate negatives, ca. 243 are 8 x 10 in. and ca. 17,731 are 5 x 7 inches. The collection also includes many 120 mm. film negatives and ca. 10,500 35 mm. negatives.
Conditions for Access
Original negatives are fragile and are not available to researchers. To see copies of the images in this collection, researchers may (1) consult the on-line, digital images linked to each catalog record for the early, glass plate negatives or (2) purchase a photographic copy of an image described on a Daily News index card. Nitrate negatives restricted from access, see reference copies instead.
Conditions Governing Use
Credit the Chicago Sun-Times/Chicago Daily News collection, Chicago History Museum.
Preferred Citation
Please cite collection as the Chicago Sun-Times/Chicago Daily News Collection, Chicago History Museum.
Acquisition Information
Chicago Daily NewsGift1960/00/001960.0784ca. 82,974 glass plate negatives. Chicago Daily NewsGift1973/01/00ca. 205,000 safety film negatives and 3,895 nitrate negatives. Safety film negatives from the 1950s onward have 2 types of retrieval designations. The oldest group contains 14,480 glass or film 4 x 5 in. negatives (intermingled in drawers) in order by a letter prefix followed by a number. Index cards apply to this group. The more modern group is called the Alpha-group and is in order only by name. This modern group has 2 sections. The first section dates from the mid-1950s to the late-1960s and contains 184,500 negatives (4 x 5 in. film or 120 mm. film exposures intermingled in drawers and boxes). The second section dates from the late-1960s to 1973 and contains ca. 10,500 35 mm. film exposures. Perhaps some of the missing D-K items are filed by name. Negatives from the Sports category numbered after 80,000 are mostly missing.Custodial History
Gift of the Chicago Daily News, 1960 (1960.0784), 1973, and later.
Biography or History
The Chicago Daily News published from 1875 to 1978. For many years, the newspaper sold for a penny a day and reached a diverse audience of Chicagoans returning home from work in the afternoon. In the twentieth century, it became well known for its extensive foreign coverage, investigative local reporting, and excellence in writing for which it earned 15 Pulitzer Prizes.
Other Descriptive Data
A grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation supported the scanning and cataloging of the oldest glass plate negatives in 1998-2002. Images from this project are available through the online catalog at Chicago History Museum, Research Center.
Other Descriptive Data
This collection of negatives is separate from the collection named, "Photographic prints made by the staff of the Chicago Daily News," which is described in a separate catalog record in this computer catalog.
Alternate Format Available
To purchase copies of images in this collection, for production or enhanced digital images, or the right to copy and reproduce images from this collection, please contact the Rights and Reproductions Office at RightsRepro@chicagohistory.org..
Alternate Format Available
Nitrate reference copies available online.
A card index created by the Chicago Daily News staff provides one section covering regular news images, ca. 1902-1930; one section covering sports images, ca. 1902-1930; one section covering news images, ca. 1931-1955, and one section covering sports images, ca. 1931-1955.
The 55,000 images that were digitized from glass negatives dating between 1901 and the spring of 1933 are individually cataloged and viewable through the online catalog of Chicago History Museum, Research Center, (at: www.chsmedia.org ). The easiest way to search for specific topics is to search for the topic in General Keyword and add the term jpg to the topic before clicking on ENTER.
An inventory list was made for the nitrate digitization project; this nitrate box level inventory is available online.
Indexed Terms
- Chicago Daily News, Inc. -- Employees
- WMAQ (Radio station : Chicago, Ill.)
- Buildings -- Illinois -- Chicago
- Events -- Illinois -- Chicago -- 1901-1973
- Interpersonal relations -- Illinois -- Chicago -- 1901-1973
- People -- Illinois -- Chicago -- 1901-1973
- Radio broadcasting -- Illinois -- Chicago -- 1920-1939
- Sports -- Illinois -- Chicago -- 1900-1973
- Strikes and lockouts -- Illinois -- Chicago -- 20th century
- Newspaper publishing -- Illinois -- Chicago -- 20th century
- Photojournalism -- Illinois -- Chicago -- 20th century
- Chicago (Ill.) -- Pictorial works
- Newspaper illustrations
- Portrait photographs
- Glass negatives
- Film negatives
- Dry plate negatives
- Gelatin dry plate negatives