An Enchanting Tour of Chicago as Told Through the Oldest Known Footage of the Windy City

As part of their historical video series, the film production company Yestervid has compiled some of the oldest known footage of Chicago. The footage dates back to 1896-1935 and goes neighborhood by neighborhood with helpful maps to show the exact location of each clip.

The film features places such as the stockyards and Michigan Avenue as far back as 1896. It also shows early 20th century clips of Theodore Roosevelt, Al Capone and recently discovered footage of the SS Eastland disaster on the Chicago River in 1915. There are clips of the Cubs, the Chicago Maroons and Lake Michigan covered in ice.

Lori Dorn
Lori Dorn

Lori is a Laughing Squid Contributing Editor based in New York City who has been writing blog posts for over a decade. She also enjoys making jewelry, playing guitar, taking photos and mixing craft cocktails.