From Bookshelves to the City Streets: Church Histories and the Mapping of Chicago's Religious Diversity

Abstract

In 2013 the Dr. William M. Scholl Center for American History and Culture at the Newberry Library in Chicago undertook an initiative to expand the use of its collection of church and synagogue records through a new digital project titled Faith in the City: Chicago's Religious Diversity in the Era of the World's Fair. Though recent scholarship in the study of religion has highlighted the importance of such documents in understanding the contours of American religious life, the collection's origins as a genealogical resource have long shaped its use. By locating curated portions of the library's church histories on a digital map of the city alongside nearly two dozen essays on Chicago's religious history, Faith in the City aims to publicize the collection to new communities of users while also enhancing how local and family historians engage with the material. The following case study provides an overview of Faith in the City's development, the interventions it hopes to make, as well as challenges the platform faced. It concludes by briefly considering the potential of map-based presentations of cultural heritage collections.