The Host Committee Welcomes You to SAA’s Hometown! by Steven Szegedi

Article originally published in the January/February 2024 issue of Archival Outlook.

Tell me, does this sound familiar? Often times when my mind is wandering, thinking idly perhaps about oat milk, sooner or later I’ll discover myself wondering “Who was the first person to drink oat milk anyway? When was oat milk even invented?” It’s not that I’m all that invested in the answer per se but my day is effectively over unless I can even nominally satisfy my curiosity. Perhaps my kind of curiosity is why I’m a professional archivist, after all?

This time it’s not my fault. See, I’m serving as a member of SAA’s 2024 Local Arrangements Committee, part of the team eagerly prepping Chicago and our local archival community for another visit from the annual ARCHIVES * RECORDS convention, the first time it’s been back to Chicago since 2011. Post COVID it still feels novel to meet up in person and, seeing as I missed last year’s archival fête in D.C., I’m especially excited for this one. In the past I’ve been fortunate to attend SAA’s annual meetings in Portland, Chicago, Austin, D.C. and Atlanta. So with ARCHIVES * RECORDS 2024 on my mind I started idly contemplating various other conventions I’d attended in the past. And then, as you may have already guessed, my daydreaming ground to a halt when I inevitably wondered “When was the first convention held in Chicago anyway?”

As a professional academic archivist I encounter many, many records from conventions past. These are often records related to presentations, poster sessions, scholarly articles and, amusingly often, their associated meals. So when I encounter such records and begin to think about attending conventions it’s often in relation to my own professional life. Yet something feels different this year and I find my mind wandering further afield. I’m picturing extravagant boat shows, partitions bursting with swatches of upholstery, and a long ago afternoon’s conversation with Debbie Harry. I am slightly startled to realize that conventions have played no small part in each & every decade of my life.  

Before the age of 10 my father, a mechanic who’d worked on small planes, semi-trucks, tractors, cars and busses, brought me along to auto parts extravaganzas, muscle car shows, and, yes, boat exhibitions. As a tween, as my interest turned towards Saga of the Swamp Thing and The Amazing Spider Man, I could be found in NYC & northern New Jersey at comic cons. As an awkward mulleted high school senior with a midnight blue ‘69 Camaro, my interests and social circles widened, leading me to WFMU’s record shows & LP swaps at a local Elk’s Lodges, and improbably a furniture & upholstery show with my brother-in-law where I found myself surrounded by antique table legs, rabbit skin glue, and obscure fabric samples to take home.

In retrospect I realize now how much conventions have taught me, about people, about the places the conventions are held, and about the general state of human affairs. These gatherings are never solely about the workshops, goods and exhibits. Instead they embody a constellation of ideas, individuals and histories, an up-to-the-moment environmental summary of a communities’ achievements past, present and future. Consider Chicago and its political Cons. 

Before moving to Chicago in 2006 I had heard about the 1968 Democratic National Convention, of course, and understood that Chicago had some history with political conventions. FDR was nominated thrice in Chicago! The 1^st DNC held here was convened in August of 1864, where George B. McClellan of New Jersey was nominated in a custom built forum called The Amphitheatre. Democrats weren’t the first political hopefuls to take advantage of Chicago’s burgeoning mid-19^th century cachet. No, four years earlier in 1860 Abraham Lincoln was nominated at Chicago’s 1^st ever Republican National Convention, held in The Wigwam on the corner of Lake Street and today’s Wacker Drive (then called Market Street). The last RNC so far in Chicago, in 1960, was at the International Amphitheater, site of the DNC’s 1952, 1956, and yes, 1968 conventions, a building that could be found at Halsted & 42^nd  before being demolished in 1999. In all, Chicago has hosted 11 DNCs and 14 RNCs so far. (Mere weeks after we archivists convene ourselves at Hilton Chicago next August, in fact, the United Center will host the 12^th DNC convened here.)

Also of some note was the 1912 Progressive National Convention, Theodore Roosevelt’s short lived political rebellion against the Republican Party (more commonly known perhaps as the “Bull Moose Party”). The Progressive Party in 1912 boasted the support of none other than Chicago’s Jane Addams, in part owing to Theodore’s support for women’s suffrage, a position which neither Taft (R) nor Wilson (D) endorsed. Yet none of these were even the first national political conventions held in Chicago. That honor belongs, I believe, to the Harbor and River Convention of 1847 – you can find its proceedings in the Internet Archive.  

All this leads me to imagine the walking tour I’m going to take myself on before next year’s ARCHIVES * RECORDS convention. The International Amphitheatre used to be at Halsted and 42^nd street in Canaryville…from there I could walk a few miles to Stony Island and visit 63^rd Street near Woodlawn where William Jennings Bryan delivered his 1896 “Cross of Gold” speech. Or perhaps I should start downtown on Lake Street where that first RNC convention was held. From there it’d be simple to visit one of my favorite Chicago institutions, the Art Institute, on Michigan Avenue. That’s the former site of the Interstate Exposition Building before it was razed in 1892 to make way for some of the Columbian Exposition’s upcoming construction projects.

Before allowing my mind to wander too far let me invite you to experience the pleasures and treasures of Chicago yourself. Look out next year for additional info about tours, archival site visits, and other recommendations for enjoying the city during your visit. We are truly looking forward to hosting all of you once again and I hope to have a chance to meet with you on the convention floor. 
Oh, and before I go – oat milk was invented by brothers Björn and Rickard Öste at Lund University in Sweden in the 1990s.  Not that you asked, but you’re welcome. As for Chicago’s first convention, I mean, that depends. Chicago was incorporated as a city in 1837…but then it was incorporated as a town in 1833…and the land was surveyed and platted in 1830…and Illinois became a state in 1818…and Jean Baptiste Point du Sable established Chicago’s first permanent settlement in the 1780s, so… As Hobie Doyle says in the Coen brothers’ movie Hail, Caesar!, “It’s complicated.” Let’s talk it over together next year then, while on a walking tour of the former downtown sites of Chicago’s national political conventions, shall we? Hope to see you soon in Chicago!

Photo taken by Thomas J. O’Halloran from the Democratic National Convention, July 1952, Chicago [Swing to Ewing acrobat act]. Courtesy of U.S. News & World Report magazine photograph collection (Library of Congress).