An exhibit at University Library aims to show how people have gotten around “Chicago, That Toddlin’ Town” throughout its history — but few students are pausing their transit through the library to check it out.
Northwestern’s Transportation Library, which houses one of the most extensive transportation collections in the world, presents “Chicago, That Toddlin’ Town: A History of Transportation in the City,” a look inside the evolution of Chicago transportation. It runs through February 22, 2007.
The exhibit contains mostly black-and-white documents and old photographs. Some material explains Chicago’s famous practice of “snow parking” (having dibs on a space that has been cleared of snow). Records of the second ever automobile race — from Chicago to Evanston and back, in 1895 — are displayed too.
Mary Kay Geary, the public services coordinator for the Transportation Library, fashioned the exhibit around a 1915 census that the library acquired several years ago. The census tracked both automobile and horse-drawn carriage traffic in Chicago.
“The purpose of the exhibit was to show the observer that Chicago is not a great city that became a great transportation center, but a great transportation center that became a great city,” Geary said. “From the times when Native Americans used Chicago as a portage area to the current status of O’Hare Airport as one of the largest airports in the world, Chicago has always been a great hub of transportation.”
The exhibit’s title references a well-known Frank Sinatra song: “Chicago (That Toddlin’ Town).” In the song, Sinatra sings, “Chicago, Chicago, that toddlin’ town; Chicago, Chicago, I’ll show you around … Bet your bottom dollar, you’ll lose the blues in Chicago.”
But unlike Sinatra’s lyrics, the exhibit lacks an audience to “show around.” Catherine Melka, a Weinberg senior who works behind the circulation desk across the hall from the display, said she has not seen much interest in the displays.
“I notice people walking by the exhibit and glancing over, but not necessarily stopping by,” Melka said. “Unless they’re a professor.”
Melka hasn’t shown interest in the exhibit either.
“Every once in a while I look at [other library exhibits] that catch my eye… but I haven’t stopped by this one yet,” she said.
Claudia Villamil, a McCormick junior, said she guessed that the students who work in the library would eventually take a look at the displays.
“They pass by the hallway enough going back and forth,” Villamil said. “Sooner or later they will glance over and see the common theme of transportation.”
Past University Library exhibits have included an African art display and a collection of famously old books. Villamil said she suspects the other exhibits may have drawn more attention because of the bright colors of the African art display or the novelty of seeing books from hundreds of years ago.