Geoffrey Johnson

Russell Lewis, the executive vice president and chief historian at the Chicago History Museum, prefaces Historic Photos of the Chicago World’s Fair by noting that “[t]he World’s Columbian Exposition of...

The Windy City is 1,200 miles from Montana’s Little Bighorn River—so what’s its role in the story of the 7th Cavalry’s Last Stand? Having spent some time with the Pilgrims...

CHICAGO’S GOT GAME: Spanning more than 100 years, the city’s 40 most memorable sports moments mix thrilling victories with agonizing defeats

This month marks the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln winning the Republican nomination for president here in Chicago. That momentous event occurred on May 18, 1860, inside a large, two-story,...

Born in Chicago's Michael Reese Hospital in 1950, Edward Hirsch turned 60 this year—which means he had finally run out of excuses for not putting together a collection of verse...

As winter gave way to spring, Matisse: Radical Invention, 1913-1917 settled in at the Art Institute of Chicago for a three-month stay. The city immediately embraced the exhibit: its gala...

You wouldn’t expect Chicago to figure prominently in a book called Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815. And indeed the book—the latest entry in the Oxford...