Encyclopedia of Chicago, Online

Well, so much for my productivity at work. The full text of The Encyclopedia of Chicago is now available online, courtesy of the Chicago Historical Society, the Newberry Library and Northwestern University. As if having all the narrative with hyperlinks and search capability wasn't wonderful enough, the image database is nothing short of astounding, in terms of both quantity and resolution.

For example, check out this 1898 bird's eye view of downtown, and click on the magnifying glass icon to zoom in. You can actually count the number of building windows and railroad cars.

And if you zoom in on City Hall (the block bounded by Washington, Randolph, Clark and LaSalle) you can almost see the graft changing hands.