Chicago Ledger – “Look Children! Here’s fun for you!”

Front cover, Chicago Ledger, v. XLVI, no. 31, Saturday, August 3, 1918

The Chicago Ledger was a story paper published in Chicago, Illinois from 1872 until 1924. Available nationally on newsstands at time of publication, this color serial printed on lower quality paper has become one of the rarer items to find intact. Even incomplete and fragmentary issues are a rarity worth preserving, and containing fiction, advertisements, cartoons, cut-outs, and editorials. Digitization of these oft-times crumbling issues provides a way for researchers – both local and remote – to read and view this content without damage to the fragile original.

[1] p., Chicago Ledger, v. XLV, no. 50, December 15, 1917

Ongoing digitization efforts are making issues available, but especially noteworthy are the available issues published during World War I  years (1914 / 1916 / 1917 / 1918  /1919) Of course more issues are being regularly added.

After United States entry into the war, a regular feature was the inclusion of cutouts. “Look Children! Here’s fun for you!” (see below), is one of a set of color images designed to be cutout and assembled as paper toys, some of these include American tanks and fighting airplanes, and even a Red Cross ambulance! Today, digitized as high-resolution color scans, these pages can be downloaded, printed – and assembled by young and old alike  – (linked article lists many  available WWI-era cutouts).

p. 28, Chicago Ledger, v. XLVI, no. 31, Saturday, August 3, 1918

From p. 28, Chicago Ledger, v. XLVI, no. 26, Saturday, June 29, 1918

Cutout event