Maxwell Street first appeared on a map of Chicago in 1847, a wooden plank road running from the Chicago River west to Blue Island Avenue. Originally built by and for Irish immigrants brought to the city to construct the first railroads, it turned into a gateway for other immigrant populations. Miraculously, The Great Chicago Fire (1871) avoided the growing community despite starting just a few blocks away but burning to the north and east. The Maxwell Street Market, lauded as the largest open-air market in the country, was a precursor to the outdoor market scene in Chicago, drawing in fledgling entrepreneurs and representing a change in American retail as the spending power of immigrants and minorities was recognized. A multi-cultural phenomenon, immigrants could take their cash to where they were welcomed and accepted, and department stores took notice – the “Ellis Island of the Midwest.”
The 1930s and ’40s brought Black musicians to Maxwell Street from the segregated south, and with them, the blues music the area would become known for, later stylized as “Chicago Blues.” Merchants would encourage blues players to set up near their storefronts and provide them with supplies to play their instruments, luring in shoppers.
In October 2008, Maxwell Street Market was downsized and moved to the intersection of Roosevelt Road and South Des Plaines Avenue, under the protection of the Maxwell Street Foundation. The original market was demolished but lives on through the educational and outreach work of the Foundation.
It’s impossible to talk about Maxwell Street without mentioning a traditional Maxwell Street Polish, a length of Polish Sausage served on a bun and topped with grilled onions, yellow mustard, and pickled green sport peppers. And it’s impossible to talk about a Maxwell Street Polish without thinking of Vienna Beef, one of the largest manufacturers of the Chicago-specific kielbasa. Vienna Beef was founded in 1893, by Austrian-Hungarian immigrants Emil Eichel and Samuel Ladany, who introduced their family frankfurter recipe at the legendary Columbian Exposition/World’s Fair. 125 years after Vienna Beef was born, the company is still making their sausages the old-fashioned way. Reichel and Ladany opened their first sausage shop just north of Maxwell street, and eventually expanded to a factory building that produced product for virtually every street corner of the Maxwell Street Market.
Needless to say, we were honored when the Maxwell Street Foundation brought in a treasure from a bygone era: a hand-painted pressboard sign attributed to Gus Korn, an artist who hand-painted the iconic Vienna Beef signs from the 1950s to mid-1980s in a shed behind the factory.
When the board arrived at The Center, it exhibited gouges, scratches, and abrasions throughout, with drill holes along the perimeter. The coated paper had some surface skinning at the edges, with fractures and losses to both the paper and the board. The surface had acid staining and age-related discoloration throughout, with oil, fingerprint, and water stains. As expected for a sign installed primarily outdoors, there was evidence of insect migration, as well as a layer of grime, soot, and accretions, with mold where water had affected the surface.
This exciting opportunity to treat a piece of Chicago history was a multi-departmental collaboration between our Objects and Paper Conservators. First, our Objects Department stabilized the fractures at the perimeter with appropriate conservation methods and materials. Then, it was brought to our Paper Department, where it was surface cleaned to remove grime, and treated to arrest any possible mold growth.
A montage of photos capturing the treatment process in our Objects Department before heading to our Paper Department.
The sign is currently still in our laboratories being flattened before it will be ready to make its way back to the archives at the Maxwell Street Foundation. We’ll be sure to share pictures on our social media channels when the project is complete. If you don’t follow us already, you can find us on Instagram and Facebook!
Thank you to the Maxwell Street Foundation for their work in keeping the memory of the Ellis Island of Chicago alive!
Sources:
https://www.viennabeef.com/our-company/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell_Street_Polish
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1997-06-03-9801160300-story.html
https://library.uic.edu/about/news/article/8574/maxwell-street-architectural-remnants-exhibit-opens
