RESEARCH TOPICS IN SEARCH OF STUDENTS
topic ideas with a * are related to Lake County history!
EARLY CHICAGO HISTORY AND DIPLOMACY
Explorations of Marquette & Joliet Early Chicago Founders: Jean Baptiste DuSable and John Kinzie
Illinois Territory in the American Revolution
Native Americans Removal: Treaty of Grenville (Treaty of Greenville ) and its Impact
Chicago and the War of 1812 Blackhawk War and related treaties – Acts of Diplomacy?
The Negotiation of the Treaty of Chicago and Native American Loss of Land in Lake County*
CIVIL WAR-ERA DEBATES Underground Railroad Stops in Lake County*
1850 Fugitive Slave Law and the Chicago Response Struggle to End the Black Codes in Illinois
Stephen Douglas and the Missouri–Compromise
Rise of the Republican Party in Illinois
Lincoln Douglas Debates Dealing at the Wigwam: The 1860 Republican National Convention
Illinois: The Slave or Free State Debate
Illinois and the Secession Crisis Opposing the Civil War: Copperheads in Chicago
96th Illinois Regiment Volunteers (archives at the Lake County Discovery Museum)*
African American soldiers and participation in the Civil War
Confederate Prisoners of War in Chicago and the Camp Douglas Conspiracy
Lyman Trumbull and the impeachment of Andrew Johnson
GILDED AGE DEBATES
For the Rich and Powerful: 19th Century Resorts of Lake County*
Establishment of Fort Sheridan (Lake County, IL) for Domestic Security*
Debate and Failure of the Palatine, Lake Zurich & Wauconda (PLZ & W) Train Line*
Temperance Movement in Chicago and the Besley Brewery in Waukegan*
Investment in the Illinois and Michigan Canal or Trains for economic transformation? St. Louis vs. Chicago and the Reversal of the
Chicago River Marketing Power: Gas versus Electricity 1880-1900
Debates of the World's Columbian Exposition (location, role of minorities and other nationalities, consumerism)
The US Government’s Lease of 17 Sioux Indians to Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show (1891-1893)*
The Battle over the Lakefront: Burnham vs. the Army Corps of Engineers Making Mass Transit a Public Utility
Ida B. Wells and her Anti-Lynching Campaign
Ruth Hanna McCormick's Work for Women’s Suffrage and her 1930 Senatorial Campaign
Jane Addams and the League of Women Voters
Settlement Homes in Chicago and Lake County: Jane Addams and Louise Dekoven Bowen Chicagoans’ roles in the Debate over
Women’s Rights (employment, suffrage, ownership, education)
GREAT DEPRESSION-ERA DEBATES
A World’s Fair During the Great Depression?
Public debate over what to do with Chicago’s “Hoovervilles” at the beginning of the Depression
Prohibition and the Rise of Organized Crime in Chicago
Lake County Hangouts for Chicago Mobsters during Prohibition*
Al Capone’s Greatest Rival: Little Hymie Weiss
John Dillinger and Baby Face Nelson
Tony Accardo "Big Tuna" and the Last of Capone’s Chicago Outfit
The Mob in Lake County: Gambling Resorts and the Fox Lake Mineola Hotel*
WORL WAR DEBATE AND DIPLOMACY The Spanish American War and the Establishment of the Naval Training Center Great Lakes in
North Chicago*
World War I: Dewey vs Randolph Bourne
Samuel Alschuler, the Packing Houses, and World War One Chicago's Ethnicities and the neutrality debate of World War I Charles
Dawes Plan for WWI Reparations
Fighting the Fight: The African American Soldier
Double V Campaign of World War II
John C. Murphy: Japanese Interpreter during WWII and Professor at CLC*
WWII & Chicago: Isolationists vs. Interventionists (respectively McCormick (Tribune) vs. Knox (Daily News)
Role of Chicago in Japanese Relocation
Manhattan Project at the University of Chicago
Entering World Conflicts...and Leaving World Conflicts Ben Hecht’s Mission to save European Jews from the Holocaust
Jewish Emigration to Chicago After WWII
Nazi March in Skokie, IL
COLD WAR DEBATES
Protecting America and the Nike Missile Bases of Lake County*
House Unamerican Activities Committee in Chicago The CSO, Jazz, as Ambassadors during the Cold War
Kennedy/Nixon Debates Adlai E. Stevenson and the Cuban Missile Crisis*
Clergy and Laity Concerned About Vietnam
Council on Foreign Relations—Cold War Alternative
Nuclear Freeze: Citizen Peace Action of the 1980s, -Ban Bomb
HUMAN RIGHTS DEBATE AND DIPLOMACY
Booker T. Washington Progressive Club (Zion)*
MLK Jr. in Chicago: Where and How to Focus the Struggle?
CORE and SCLC in Chicago: Which Road to Take
Chicago and Randolph's March on Washington in the '30s or '60s
Freedom Summer for Chicagoans?
Everett Dirksen and the 1964 Civil Rights Act
Equal Rights Amendment Debates Americans with Disabilities Act
Chicago Human Rights Ordinance and LGBT rights
WORKERS RIGHTS AND DIPLOMACY
Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters- A Philip Randolph
Pullman Strike and the Reformers: the American Railway Union and Eugene V. Debs
Coalition of Black Trade Unionists Women's Trade Union League: The Women's Arm of the Labor Movement or Labor Arm of the
Women's Movement? Women in the professions (such as lawyers or doctors) and Women in the trades (such building trades)
Women Workers and the 10-hr Day Fight in Illinois
Coalition of Labor Union Women
1937 Strike- Memorial Day Massacre- Chicago
"Don't Buy Where You Can't Work" campaigns
IMMIGRATION DEBATE AND DIPLOMACY
Hull House as diplomacy between elite and working classes (choose one topic)
The Bracero Program and Mexican Immigration During WWII
The Lager Beer Riot and Discrimination Against German Immigrants to Chicago
Victor Arrigo and the Creation of Columbus Day
RELIGIOUS DEBATE AND DIPLOMACY
Spirit Fruit Society: Work Ethic and Free Love*
A Christian Utopia in Zion: John Alexander Dowie and the Christian Catholic Apostolic Church*
Women as Religious Leaders
Chicago Catholic Worker
Jewish Labor Committee Opposing Nazi Germany
JOURNALISM DEBATES
Responses to Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle
Reporting or Advocating: The Role of the Black Press
Mainstream or Small Press: Gwendolyn Brooks Stakes her Claim
Era Bell Thompson and Ebony Magazine
EDUCATION DEBATES
Education in One Room School Houses of Lake County* (including Avon, Hainesville, Round Lake, etc.)
The Creation of the Grayslake School District*
Grayslake Homecoming: Then and Now*
What to do with kids on the streets: Off the Street Club
Willis Wagons and Equal Education
School Issues: reform, segregation, desegregation
Compulsory Education in Illinois
Vashti McCullom and Religion in Public Schools
The Merger of Loyola University and Mundelein College
LAW AND JUSTICE DEBATES
Juvenile Justice and Juvenile Court
Leopold and Loeb and capital punishment
Clarence Darrow and the American Civil Liberties Union
The Invention of “Diplomacy” (The Game) Jane Adams and Women at the Hague: Gendering Diplomacy
MEDICAL DEBATES
The Creation of the Lake County Hospital Association in 1891*
Lake County’s Response to the Flu Pandemic of 1918*
Sheppard-Towner Act: The First Attempt at a National Health Plan
To Poke or Not to Poke: Immunization Questions
Reproductive Health and Choice: the Development and Debate of the Pill
Birth control education and sex diseases education in Chicago
The Chicago Gay Community's Response to the AIDS Crisis
ART, CULTURE AND ENTERTAINMENT DEBATE
Edward Amet and 1890s Movie Making in Lake County*
Reima "Ray" Ratti: Local Artist for the Civilian Conservation Corps*
Anti-Trust Court Cases in the Early Film Industry: Selig & Spoor at Centerstage Jazz Age Culture/Morality Wars
Chess Records: America’s Greatest Blues Label?
Regulation of Public Amusements Is it Art? When Picasso came to the Daley Center Old Guard vs Avant Garde Artists
Jobs for Artists and Writers during the Depression? The WPA and other federal arts projects in Chicago
ENVIRONMENTAL DEBATES Ethel Untermeyer: Fighting for the Lake County Forest Preserve*
Saving the Indiana Dunes (and Paul Douglas)
SPORTS DEBATES Wrigley Field Lights
Harlem Globetrotters
The Chicago American Giants vs. White League Teams in Chicago
Ed Cicotte and the 1919 World Series Scandal
National Football League
ARCHITECTURE
Promoting the Burnham Plan for Chicago