An Illustrated Map of Chicago

Charles Turzak and Henry T. Chapman, 1931

Rooted Forward and the Chicago Maritime Museum created this exhibit to explore the history behind a 1931 illustrated map of Chicago.

Published as Chicago prepared for its second world’s fair, the map presents a lively city of beaches, ballparks, and skyscrapers. But its jokes and drawings also include racial caricatures and references to housing restrictions that excluded Black families from certain neighborhoods. Our interactive guide explains these details and the discrimination and segregation they reflect.

Visit the museum in Bridgeport to see the map and explore it on the touchscreen beside it, or open the interactive map here on your phone.

Open the map

Built for a desktop screen. On a phone, open it in the Rooted Forward app.

See it in person

On the wall at the Chicago Maritime Museum

1200 West 35th Street, Chicago, river level of the Bridgeport Art Center, entered on the north side of the building from Racine Avenue.

Tuesday to Sunday, 10 am to 4 pm. Closed Monday.

Plan a visit The museum

An Illustrated Map of Chicago, 1931, by Charles Turzak and Henry T. Chapman, a bird's-eye view of the city from over Lake Michigan with north to the right

An Illustrated Map of Chicago, 1931. Charles Turzak and Henry T. Chapman. Houghton Mifflin, Boston. Norman B. Leventhal Map and Education Center, Boston Public Library.

The 1931 map of Chicago mounted on a wall at the Chicago Maritime Museum, with a touch screen showing the interactive guide in front of it and two people standing beside it

The map and its touch screen on the museum's wall in Bridgeport, September 2026. Photograph by Rooted Forward.