Morning AMp (Weekdays 8-10AM CST)

toasterwaffles:

Look what the original La Pasadita used to sell. 5¢!

fieldmuseumphotoarchives:

CSGN44668

© The Field Museum, CSGN44668, Photographer Charles Carpenter.

Field Museum of Natural History building as seen from the roof of the Blackstone Hotel, looking south west. Smoke from passing train in foreground.

8x10 negative

5/1/1921

obitoftheday:

Obit of the Day: “Growing Up Black in Nazi Germany”

Hans Massaquoi was very disappointed when his teacher told him that he could not join the Hitler Youth. Massaquoi’s friends had all joined and he was enthralled with the uniforms, the parades, the camp-outs. But Hans’ desire to join was trumped by the color of his skin.

Born in 1926, Mr. Massaquoi’s parents were a German nurse and the son of a Liberian diplomat. He would grow up in Hamburg as the Weimar Republic was collapsing and the the Third Reich was building up.

When he was in second grade, Mr. Massaquoi was so taken with the Nazi imagery that, at his request, his nanny sewed a swastika to his sweater. Although his mother removed it when he returned home from school, a picture had already been taken. (See above.)

Mr. Massaquoi’s family lived in Germany for the duration of the war. According to Mr. Massaquoi’s memoir, Destined to Witness, he theorized that there were so few blacks living in Germany that they were a low priority for extermination. Eventually he would move: first to his father’s home country of Liberia and later to Chicago.

In the United States, although trained in aviation mechanics, Mr. Massaquoi would become a writer for Jet magazine and eventual move to its sister publication, Ebony, where he became managing editor.

Mr. Massaquoi, who passed away on January 19, 2013 on his 87th birthday, was encouraged to write down the story of his unusual childhood by his friend and author of Roots, Alex Haley.

Sources: L.A. Times and Chicago Sun-Times

(Image is from Mr. Massaqoui’s collection and copyright of William Morrow Paperbacks via spiritosanto.wordpress.com)

calumet412:

Cross section view of the substructure below the Marshall Field store on State Street, 1900, Chicago.

Important notes are the Caisson wells, which are the standard for most large scale architecture in Chicago and the “subway” (referenced in several past posts), a series of tunnels beneath the Loop formerly used for transportation of cargo, mail, etc…The tunnels were Chicago’s answer to New York’s subway system, meant to alleviate commercial traffic on surface streets.

(via gapers)