Pocket Guide to Hell started with a single walking tour in September 2008. Early on, the tours incorporated costumes, props, and music along with participant input to create more inclusive and interactive experiences. Walking tours done individually or for the Chicago History Museum have focused on many different stories over the years, but here are some of the more popular ones.
Crime of the Century: Leopold & Loeb and the Murder of Bobby Franks
In May 1924 in the Kenwood neighborhood of Chicago, two wealthy teenagers with unmerited opinions of themselves murdered a young boy to prove they could do it. Everyday objects and working people helped to solve their purported perfect crime. First Offered: September 2008.
Workingman’s Guide to the World’s Columbian Exposition
The 1893 World’s Fair marked Chicago’s emergence as a global city as a new century neared. While the “star”-chitects of the era designed the immense neoclassical buildings, who built them? How did the Fair reflect and respond to increased industrialization and growing economic and racial divides? A Columbian Guard takes participants across the grounds to places where the work of the World’s Fair was done. First Offered: May 2009.
The Secret History of the University of Chicago
When the University of Chicago opened its doors in 1892, the Gothic architecture evoked an ancient bastion of learning, but the names attached to the structures reflected Chicago’s prominence in the emerging industrial order. How can an institution preserve free thought when its existence depends upon a bunch of self-interested robber barons and merchant princes? Thorstein Veblen leads this tour looking at the first twenty-five years of the University’s history. First Offered: September 2009.
Haymarket!
In May 1886 a bomb went off in the area of Chicago known as the Haymarket, bringing to a bloody end a protest against police violence and a push for an eight-hour workday. Eight Chicago police officers lost their lives, and eight men, none of them the bomber, went on trial because of their political beliefs. One of them, Albert Parsons, returns participants to the Haymarket and an event that profoundly impacted the history of Chicago, the country, and even the world. First Offered: August 2010.
Hobohemia: A Walk Along the Main Stem
By the 1920s, close to forty railroad lines cut through Chicago, offering easy transportation to hundreds of thousands of itinerant laborers. In the winter months, these individuals congregated on West Madison street, where a subculture, hobohemia, emerged, complete with its own institutions, publications, and practices. Ben Reitman recreates the tours he once offered to sociology graduate students as participants encounter hobos, tramps, and bumps and learn about panhandling, chalk codes, and songs of the open road. First Offered: October 2010.
List of Upcoming Tours
To arrange a tour with Pocket Guide to Hell, please write pocketguidetohell@gmail.com