When this footage was taken, the average yearly income was just $800.
The kind folks at Yestervid have spliced together a video of Chicago’s oldest known film recordings ever taken, and it’s incredible. All of the clips take place from 1986-1935, showing unique glimpses of a very different (though remarkably similar) Windy City.
The video begins from a ship on Lake Michigan, showing the industrialized smoke stacks of Chicago off in the distance. From there, you’re taken straight to a much less populated Lake Shore Drive.
One of the strangest portions of the video comes from the Congress Hotel, which looks almost identical to the modern day landmark we’ve come to recognize.
Newly found footage of the SS Eastland Disaster is also documented. The passenger ship capsized while still tied to a dock on the Chicago River. The unexpected catastrophe killed 844 people.
Check out the oldest known footage of Chicago below:
Here’s a short summary from Yestervid:
“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.”
Subscribe to Yestervid’s Youtube Channel and check out their variety of clips from the past. They have astonishing footage from other cities, extinct animals, verified clips of the Titanic – all from the late 1800s and early 1900s.