Want to hear something crazy? I’ve always felt connected to taverns. Not in the obvious college way, but in the genuine relationship way. I’ve always considered them a character capable of telling me stories about the past and the present. It was in early 2002 that I started making an effort to really get to know the taverns I encountered. I like to think the feeling became mutual.
Wanting to combine my love for pubs, history, and Chicago, I created Tales, Taverns, & Towns, a historic journey via the city’s amazing taverns.
You can find modern day reviews of any bar. But most reviews provide you information that you can find out on your own just by walking through the door. This website won’t do that for you. The main goal here is to give you a taste of the past and provide you with the kind of stuff you can’t pick up just by coming in and having a beer like any other patron. I have spent extensive time digging into the history of the bars of Chicago. I conduct research in libraries and history museums and set out to investigate the history of each specific address and location and anything else that can provide me with a historic, cultural, and educational perspective. I do my best to sit with bar owners, managers, regulars, and anyone else that can help me complete the pictured past.
While Chicago is my staple, I have also researched taverns around the country and around the globe. At some point, Tales, Taverns, & Towns will be a historic guide through taverns and cities of the world. The main goal? Quenching your thirst for the past – one tavern at a time!
Liz Garibay is a native Chicagoan with a love for history, travel, pubs, and craft libations. In 2007 her Tales, Taverns, & Towns project led to the creation of History Pub Crawls for the Chicago History Museum where she continues to write and lead these tours for the public. When she’s not off discovering new tales, taverns, and towns, she’s probably tucked away somewhere root, root, rooting for her beloved Chicago Cubs.
I am writing the first book from the American point of view about 19th century rotunda panoramas.These were the biggest paintings in the world,50 x 400=20,000 square feet, housed in their own rotundas which were 16-sided polygons.Chicago in 1893 had 6 panorama companies and 6 panorama rotundas. William Wehner (1847-1928) came to America as a vintner, made his living in glass and crockery, ran his panorama studio in downtown Milwaukee 1885-1888, and in autumn 1888 removed to San Jose to his wine ranch where he helped start the white wine industry. Am seeking info about William Wehner in Chicago.I have much to share.
Gene,
Check out the Research Center at the Chicago History Museum. That will give you some direction. They have TONS of information from the the 1893 Worlds Fair. Always my first go to. Another great resource is the Newberry Library. And what about the MIlwaukee Public Library or the Milwaukee Country Historical Society?
Good luck!
Liz