Skip to main content

Moo & Oink, The Union Stock Yards of Chicago






  
The Union Stock Yards were the largest stockyards in
 the U.S. and received about 45,000 cattle, 75,000
hogs and 50,000
sheep daily. Published by Gerson Bros.

Many of the animals arrive
 at the stockyards on railroad
cars. Publisher name unknown.





Cows graze under an elevated station
near the stockyards while people watch them. Publisher name unknown.



Depending on the direction of the wind, a dreadful stench from the animals at America’s largest stockyards would blow across certain parts of the city, even all the way to Cicero Avenue on the Southwest side, my grandparents told me. 

Chicago was often referred to as the “slaughterhouse of the world,” as millions of  livestock passed through the site each year. Conditions at the almost 500-acre stockyards at Exchange and Halsted Streets were terrible for both workers and animals. Immigrants and poor whites and blacks worked together in the packinghouses butchering thousand of animals a day in dangerous and gory conditions.

Journalist and author Upton Sinclair’s book The Jungle described the deplorable conditions there and helped influence policymakers to pass the federal Pure Food and Drug Act and Meat Inspection Act of 1906. The  Union Stock Yards, which opened on Christmas Day of 1865, were without a doubt built in an ideal Midwest location that was close to farm country and was at a crossroads for train traffic and vehicles.

The site also became a huge tourist attraction, with about 500,000 people visiting the stockyards and packinghouses in the middle of the 20th century, according to sources. The Union Stock Yards closed on August 1, 1971, after operating for over a century. The site is an industrial park today, but the famous limestone stockyard entrance still stands.  

Numerous postcards of the stockyards were printed for tourists. They make up a popular category for postcard collectors today. I currently have four postcards of the stockyards in my collection.
The three postcards with white borders (like all postcards with white borders) were printed from 1915 to 1930. Publishers decided to use white borders to help save ink. The other postcard is likely from the 1950s and was colored by a postcard artist. I hope you enjoy the images, and please share your stories about the stockyards and other similar postcards on this blog.


The Union Stock Yards extended from 37th Street and covered
a total area of about 500 acres. Published by Max Rigot Selling Co.



This postcard is from the 1950s.
"Chicago is the greatest meat-packing city in the world"
 is printed on the back. Published by Colourpicture.

The stockyards receive over 1,000 cars of stock per day from 22 states.
Published by Curt Teich & Co, Inc., of Chicago.






Comments

  1. Emily RuzichOctober 26, 2019 at 9:35 PM

    Brings to mind this classic Chicago commercial:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHUrHCOYGpA

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Marshall Field's at Christmas

  The aisle on the first floor of the State Street store is 358 feet long. Postcard publisher is unknown.  Many Chicagoans continue to miss visiting Marshall Field’s during the holiday season. Just talking about the famed Christmas windows and holiday decorations brings about memories of the department store’s glory days. Many of us can recall the strong smell of perfume that would greet visitors upon entering the flagship State Street store, along with the huge white Romanesque columns decorated with Christmas fare on the first floor. The real fun, however, was taking the elevator to the 7 th floor to get a glimpse of the giant Christmas tree inside the Walnut Room restaurant. The best place to view the tree was one floor up on a balcony area. Christmas decorations on the first floor. Postcard publisher is unknown.  Frango mint chocolates were piled high in various areas throughout the store, and many visitors couldn’t resist buying a box. Frango chocolates were once made in a kitc
2 comments
Read more

Sleeping and Bathing in Douglas Park

Young Bathers in Douglas Park. Postcard published by Acmegraph Co. of Chicago. Trying to sleep on hot and humid summer nights in the 1920s and 1930s was unbearable at times for my grandfather and his eight siblings who resided in a tenement house in Chicago’s Little Italy neighborhood. While some nights the family would sleep on the floor to cool down, other nights they would head to Douglas Park to sleep under the stars.  This wasn’t an uncommon practice at the time, as many other people would gather in the park on hot nights. It also offered an opportunity to have a little fun and play games outdoors before going to sleep.  My grandfather would also talk about a bathhouse at the park. At the time, I really didn’t understand what a bathhouse was, nor was I interested in learning more about it. I did, however, recently find some beautiful postcards of a Roman-style bathing area in the park. The first postcard here shows the bath and people bathing in the water. 
1 comment
Read more

Burlesque Dancer Sally Rand Took the Chicago World's Fair by Storm

Sally Rand danced at the Streets of Paris exhibit. Postcard printed by Curt Teich & Co, Chicago. Sally Rand was never supposed to perform her iconic “fan dance” at the 1933 Century of Progress World’s Fair in Chicago. The dancer’s requests to perform inside the Streets of Paris exhibit had been turned down several times. But Rand decided to take matters into her own hands by riding into a pre-opening party on the fairgrounds, uninvited, on a white horse wearing nothing but a velvet cape. The crowd loved it. Rand was arrested but released the next day, when she promptly accepted an offer to perform as the headliner in the Café de la Paix’s floor show for $90 per week. While her dancing broke boundaries and city decency ordinances at the time, her legacy was born and Rand made her cultural mark on the world. According to The 1933 Chicago World’s Fair by Cheryl Ganz, 29-year-old Sally Rand had previously worked as an acrobatic circus performer and film stuntwoman. She had also alread
Post a Comment
Read more