Chicago Christmas Tree installation at Michigan Avenue and Congress (1958) - CARLI Digital Collections Featured Image

From Chicago - Photographic Images of Change (University of Illinois at Chicago) in CARLI Digital Collections.

As a longtime Midwesterner, I've loved traveling to Chicago for shopping trips in December the most -- any miserable weather is more than made up for by the beautiful tree lights lining Michigan Avenue. This year, as a new Chicagoan experiencing her first winter here, I've been catching up on the rest of the city's holiday traditions, including one that I'm embarrassed to confess ignorance of until discovering historic photos in CARLI's digital collections: the official Chicago Christmas Tree.

I dusted off my library degree and settled in for some intensive research on the topic (hello, Wikipedia). In my defense, the Chicago tree, unlike its more well-known counterparts in New York and D.C., has migrated over the years -- from its debut in Grant Park in 1913, to Daley Plaza from 1966, to Millennium Park starting this year. The historic images in UIUC's CARLI digital collection document another past practice, when a single massive Christmas tree was constructed of multiple trees attached to a frame. After news reports that 2008's tree (built from 113 smaller trees and standing 85 feet tall) cost taxpayers $300,000, the city announced that it would switch to a single tree as a cost-saving measure during the recession -- a tradition that continues to this day.

While local readers can head downtown to see the 102nd version in all its glory, anyone can enjoy viewing a few of its 101 predecessors, thanks to the holiday magic of digitization: Chicago Christmas Trees, between 1958 and 1995.

--Written by Jen Wolfe, Digital Initiatives Librarian, Newberry Library

For more information about this and other CARLI Digital Collections, visit http://collections.carli.illinois.edu

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