Early Chicago History through Art
INTRODUCTION
Jean Baptiste Point DuSable was Chicago’s first permanent settler. A black man born in Haiti, DuSable,
along with his Potawatomi wife, Catherine, established a farm and trading post along the banks of the
Chicago River around 1779. Fluent in several languages, DuSable served explorers in the area as an
interpreter, and prospered as a fur trader. He left the area in 1800.
In 1795, as a result of the Treaty of Greenville, Indians ceded a six-mile square parcel of land at the mouth of
the Chicago River, near DuSable’s settlement. The US military established Fort Dearborn in 1803 to secure
the area for the United States, which included the portage that linked the Great Lakes and the Mississippi
Valley. The area began to grow as army officials and traders established their homes and businesses north
and south of the fort. At the outbreak of war with Britain in 1812, the American force abandoned the fort
and planned to evacuate to Fort Wayne, but on their way Indians attacked a short distance outside the fort.
The battle became widely known among whites as the Fort Dearborn Massacre. Indians burned the fort,
which was left largely unused until 1816, when the US military rebuilt it. The second fort, which proved of
strategic importance during the Black Hawk War, was demolished in 1857.
The DuSable Bridge occupies the site of Fort Dearborn and DuSable’s settlement. The BF Ferguson
Monument fund erected a concrete sculpture in 1928 on the bridgehouse. The sculpture, titled Defense, by
Henry Hering commemorated the Battle of Fort Dearborn. The sculpture is on the southwest pylon of
DuSable Bridge, where Michigan Avenue crosses the Chicago River.
© 2012 by the Chicago Metro History Education Center
Early Chicago History through Art
LESSON: CHICAGO ORIGINS: THE STORY ART TELLS
KEY TOPICS
history, commemorative art, public art
OBJECTIVES
Students will be able to
a. recognize how images help us interpret events in American history
b. analyze a work of art to understand its meaning
c. identify key details in a text to support comprehension
d. identify key developments in Chicago’s early history by creating a graphic work of art that represents
events in Chicago’s past.
SUMMARY
Students will use active listening skills to gather information in order to complete a timeline. The timeline
will serve as the basis for a student-created comic strip that illustrates their understanding of Chicago’s first
permanent settler Jean Baptiste Point DuSable, Fort Dearborn, and the commemoration of Chicago’s early
history through the sculptures on the DuSable Bridge. Guiding questions for the lesson include:
 How can art help us understand the past?
 How have important events been remembered through art?
COMMON CORE STANDARDS MET BY UNIT
CC Grades 6-8: RH 1, 2, 4
CC Grades 6-8: RI 1, 2, 3
CC Grades 6-8: WHST 2, 9 CC Grades 6-8: W 2, 9
CC Grades 6-8: SL 1, 2, 3
CC Grades 6-8: L 1, 2, 3
STATE GOALS AND STANDARDS MET BY UNIT
IL 16:A, D
IL 25:A
IL 27: B
This detailed section of one of two bronze
tablets placed on the DuSable Bridge
honors early European exploration of the
area. This tablet, which is placed on the
bridge’s southwest corner commemorates
French explorer René-Robert Cavelier,
Sieur De La Salle’s and his friend, Italian
explorer Henri de Tonti’s journey through
the area to the Mississippi River. The Illinois
Society of the Colonial Dames erected the
tablets in 1925 under the auspices of the
Chicago Historical Society.
© 2012 by the Chicago Metro History Education Center
Early Chicago History through Art
GETTING STARTED
MATERIALS
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“Chicago Origins” PowerPoint (Link 1)
Computer and LCD Projector
ELMO Document Projector (optional)
Timeline Graphic Organizer (Worksheet A )
Comic Strip Rubric (Rubric A)
Readings on Jean Baptiste Point DuSable from the WTTW website, “DuSable to Obama: Chicago’s
Black Metropolis” (http://www.wttw.com/main.taf?p=76,4,3,2), and “Fort Dearborn” by Ann
Durkin Keating, from the Encyclopedia of Chicago (http://encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/
pages/477.html).
SUGGESTED TIME
Two days (40–50 minute class period)
VOCABULARY
Public art, commemorative art, pioneer, fort
ACTIVITY 1: ACTIVE LISTENING AND COMIC STRIP INTRODUCTION
Day 1
Activate students’ prior knowledge by showing the “Chicago Origins” PowerPoint. The teacher can review
information from the Encyclopedia of Chicago. The teacher should model active listening during read aloud
of the DuSable article. Teacher will show students how to complete the timeline after they read. The
timeline breaks down the history into topic, description, read aloud details, and art details categories so
that students will connect the history that they are reading and hearing with the art that they have seen.
Students will gather into small groups, read aloud the “Fort Dearborn” article, and complete the student
timeline. The teacher will review the timeline and provide a preview of the comic strip rubric. Students will
begin a draft of their comic strips using the timeline. Students can complete their comic strips for
homework.
This plaque appears under Hering’s
sculpture Defense on the DuSable
Bridge. The plaque commemorates
the spot where Fort Dearborn
stood and commemorates the battle that took place there in 1812.
© 2012 by the Chicago Metro History Education Center
Early Chicago History through Art
ACTIVITIES (cont.)
Day 2
Students will share their comic strips. The teacher can project the comic strips using the ELMO
Projector, place comic strips around the classrooms so that students can travel by the comics and read their
classmates’ work, or ask students to share their comics at the front of the class. Students will then write a
one-paragraph reflection on what was the most surprising thing they learned about DuSable, Fort Dearborn, or Chicago’s early history.
Sample student comic strip
© 2012 by the Chicago Metro History Education Center
Early Chicago History through Art
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES AND ENRICHMENT ACTIVITIES
James McCague, When Chicago Was Young, Garrad Publishing Company, 1971.
R. David Edmund’s article in the Encyclopedia of Chicago, “Chicago in the Middle Ground” provides an
overview of Chicago’s early history (http://encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/254.html). Expanding on the
theme of history and commemoration, the Encyclopedia of Chicago offers interactive primary source
documents to chronicle how Chicagoans have remembered significant people and sites of the past,
including Jean Baptiste Point DuSable (http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/410078.html)
and Fort Dearborn (http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/410079.html).
Students can visit the McCormick Bridgehouse and Chicago River Museum at the southwest bridge tower
of the DuSable Bridge. Three other works appear on the bridge’s pylon’s, including Hering’s Regeneration,
which shows Chicago’s rebuilding after the Great Fire of 1871. James Earle Fraser created The Discoverers,
and The Pioneers, which depict the exploration of the region by Marquette, Joliet, De La Salle, and DeTonti
as well as fur trader and early Chicago settler John Kinzie.
© 2012 by the Chicago Metro History Education Center
Early Chicago History through Art
LINK A
Have you ever walked down
Chicago’s famous Michigan Ave?
Did you
walk
across
this
bridge?
Did you really LOOK at
the bridge?
© 2012 by the Chicago Metro History Education Center
Early Chicago History through Art
WORKSHEET A
© 2012 by the Chicago Metro History Education Center
Early Chicago History through Art
RUBRIC A
Rubric for Comic Strips
Choice of
Scenes
Lists all the most
important events
that occur in the
book without
revealing the
conclusion.
Lists most of the
important events
in the book
without revealing
the conclusion,
but misses some
major events.
Lists most of the
important events
in the book, but
highlights
unimportant
points or reveals
the conclusion.
Lists some events
in the book, but
information is
incomplete or
focused on less
important points.
Captions
Captions are
related to the
scenes and the
book, and the
connections are
easy to
understand.
Captions are
related to the
scenes and the
book, and most
connections are
easy to
understand.
Captions are
related to the
scenes and the
book, but the
connections are
not all obvious.
Captions do not
relate well to the
scenes. There
seems to be no
connection or
connections are
general.
Characters
The main
characters are
clearly identified,
and their actions
and dialogue are
well-matched to
their actions and
dialogue in the
book.
The main
characters are
clearly identified,
and their actions
and dialogue
match actions
and dialogue in
the book.
The main
characters are
identified, but
actions and
dialogue are too
general to show
their relationship
to the book.
It is hard to tell
who the main
characters are, or
main characters
in the comic are
not the main
characters in the
book.
Landscape and
Props
Landscape and
props are directly
related to the
theme or purpose
of the book and
enhance
understanding of
the scene.
There are no
spelling,
punctuation, or
grammar errors.
Landscape and
props are directly
related to the
theme or purpose
of the book.
Landscape and
props are
generally related
to the theme or
purpose of the
book.
Landscape and
props seem
randomly chosen
or distract the
reader.
There are a few
spelling,
punctuation, or
grammar errors.
There are several
spelling,
punctuation, and
grammar errors.
There are many
spelling,
punctuation, and
grammar errors.
Spelling,
Punctuation,
and Grammar
© 2012 by the Chicago Metro History Education Center