This month, I researched a young man who spent time in a Chicago orphanage in the late 1800s. Through this process, I discovered the following excellent resources:

GENERAL RESOURCES

• Jane Addams Hull House: http://www.hullhousemuseum.org/
• Encyclopedia of Chicago – Orphanages:  http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/937.html 
• Social Welfare History project:  Chicago Orphan Asylum by Ruth Orton Camp:  http://www.socialwelfarehistory.com/organizations/chicago-orphan-asylum/

COLLECTIONS

Chicago Nursery and Half-Orphan Asylum aka Chapin Hall
These records are held at the University of Chicago Black Metropolis Research Consortium
http://bmrcsurvey.uchicago.edu/collections/1990-1

Chicago Child Care Society
The Chicago Child Care Society (CCCS) is the oldest child welfare organization in Illinois, founded in 1849 as the Chicago Orphan Asylum.
These records are also held at the University of Chicago Black Metropolis Research Consortium
http://bmrcsurvey.uchicago.edu/collections/1669-1

PUBLICATIONS

• Cmiel, Kenneth. 1995. A Home of Another Kind: One Chicago Orphanage and the Tangle of Child Welfare. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• McCausland, Clare L.  1976. Children of circumstance : a history of the first 125 years (1849-1974) of Chicago Child Care Society.
• Heenen, Kathleen Mackin. 2002. St. Vincent’s : an orphanage that shined. Gold Leaf Publications and Productions.

INSTITUTIONS

• University of Illinois at Chicago Daley Library Special Collections: http://library.uic.edu/home/collections/special-collections-university-archives
• Chicago Genealogical Society: http://www.chicagogenealogy.org/
• Newberry Library in Chicago: http://www.newberry.org/research