I’m trying to find a picture of my dad that ran in a Chicago area newspaper (don’t know which one) sometime in the spring (I think) of 1970 (probably). Any idea how to find it?
The story is that he was a student at the University of Illinois and there was a rally of some kind, which he assured his parents he would stay away from to keep out of trouble. The next day, they (his parents) see in the newspaper a picture of him holding a microphone to record the speech. Needless to say, his parents weren’t happy with him.
This happened before he and my mom were together, so she only knows vague details, he and my grandparents are dead and none of his siblings remember the incident, but most of them were away at school themselves and wouldn’t have heard about it, so asking the family for details has turned out to be fruitless.
If the rally was on the university campus, you might try the university archives.
Try calling the Chicago public library and see if they have newspaper indexes for that time.
I’ve searched for “University of Illinois” in the online Chicago Tribune articles for that year. There were only a few hits about rallies (after Kent State).
Of the photos I found, there’s only one where he could be. However, it’s a crowd, and because of the poor quality of the photo scans, it’s impossible to find anyone fitting your description.
Here’s the page with the photo:
Chicago Tribune (1963-Current file); May 22, 1970; ProQuest Historical Newspapers Chicago Tribune (1849 - 1986)
pg. C16
Furthermore, this is later in the month, so the main unrest after Kent State had died down and the rally was poorly attended.
You’ll have to check your library’s microfilm of Chicago papers. My search was cursory, so you should redo it.
Step 1: Phone the reference desk at your dad’s university’s library and get a list of area newspapers that were in active publication during the time period you are looking for. Get the titles of the campus newspapers as well as the local dailies and weeklies. If you are near the university you’ll have a much easier time of it if you go there in person rather than phoning.
Step 2: Find out where each of these papers is indexed.
Step 3: Find entries in the indexes for rallies in the time period you are looking for. I’d start first with the major dailies and then work my way to the campus publications, assuming the parents were less likely to see the photo in a campus publication. You might find your dad’s name indexed, but newspaper photos aren’t always captioned with the subjects’ names.
Step 4: Armed with the citations, find microfilm for the publications in question. Microfilm is most accessible by going to the library that holds it. Libraries are often loathe to interlibrary loan it. It is possible that the only library with microfilm of the campus newspapers is at the university itself. You might get lucky and find the university has digitized the newspapers or microfilm for remote use, but probably not.
Which branch of U. of IL was he at?
In 1970 there were five daily newspapers in Chicago. Along with the Tribune and the Sun Times, there were also the Daily News, Chicago Today and the African-American daily paper, the Defender. There were also a bunch of smaller suburban papers like the Southtown and the Herald.
I fear you’ll have to go back to good old fashioned pre-Internet research. Start with the University of Illinois or Chicago Public Library, see if they have microfilm files of the newspaper you think the photo might have appeared, get the films for the spring of 1970 and spend hours running through the reels until you do (or don’t) find what you’re looking for.
That’s how we used to do it in the old days.
Regarding indexes, the stories will be indexed, but photos may or may not be.
Thanks for all the responses, sorry I haven’t gotten back sooner.
I called the U of I (Champaign-Urbana, samclem) library and talked to someone who looked through campus records of rallies, protests and the like and the only thing that he came back with was in the week or ten days following Kent State.
My mom found an article about mass arrests at U of I on May 10 (timing fits perfectly), but I haven’t bitten the bullet and paid for the article yet, mostly out of fear that the picture won’t be any good - as rowrrbazzle found.
Thanks for that list of dailies, kunilou. His parents lived in Chicago proper or one of the close-in suburbs, so I doubt it’d be from any of the Champaign or U of I papers. Thinking about it, I remember that my grandparents subscribed to the Sun Times. Of course, what they read in their 70s and 80s may not have been the same as in their 40s and 50s.
How likely is it that libraries out of the area (I’m in Austin) would have microfilm of 30+ year old Chicago papers? And can I make prints from microfilm?
The chances of finding mf of any Chicago paper outside of Illinois are probably next to zilch. But yes, there are microfilm printers. Imagine a photocopy of a newspaper and you’ll have some idea of the quality, or lack thereof.
kunilou: Waddya mean, in the old days? That’s still how we have to do it for newspapers more than 20 or 30 years old. 
Actually, as I think about it, there is an online outfit called Newspaper Archives or somesuch that has scanned in bunches of newspapers (presumably from microfilm). The stuff was indexed via OCR, so that is pretty hit-or-miss. Maybe a library near you has a subscription, or you can talk one into getting one (they have a “membership level” for libraries that allows them free access to out-of-state newspapers of a certain vintage).
Yep, that’s it: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/Default.aspx .
Now if I can just figure out why the cat had a manic episode a few minutes ago. . . .
I subscribe to Newspaper Archive.
I don’t know anything about cats.
Ender. There were protest at Champaign-Urbana as early as March 4-5-6, 1970. Hundreds of arrests. Originally, the protest were about General Electric recruiters, then because the trustees wouldn’t allow William Kuntsler to speak on campus. I did some searches, but no pictures.
Also searched a bunch of hits in early May, but nothing.