22 November
Bessie Louise Pierce (1888–1974) was born in Caro, Michigan and grew up in Waverly, Iowa. She received a B. A. History at the State University of Iowa in 1910. She taught high school in Sanborn and Mason City, Iowa before returning to the University of Iowa in 1916 as instructor and head of the social studies department in its laboratory high school. In 2018, she received a M.A. in History through summer courses at the University of Chicago. In 1923, she received her Ph.D. from the UIowa working under Arthur Schlesinger, Sr. In 1926, she was promoted to Associate Professor. In 1929, at the request of University of Chicago political scientist, Charles Edward Merriam, Pierce joined Chicago’s Local Community Research Committee and the University of Chicago as an associate professor of history and head of the History of Chicago Project.
“This Project, originally conceived as a Centennial History of Chicago, was intended to integrate economic, political, and sociological studies already sponsored by the Committee and uncover new areas for further research. As recast by Pierce, the Project became a complex effort to survey all relevant historical records for a definitive four-volume account of Chicago’s growth from 1673 to 1915. Working with a staff of assistants drawn from her courses in urban history, Pierce supervised a carefully organized system that directed research from the initial taking of notes and verification of facts to the writing of preliminary manuscripts and editing of final chapter drafts. Part of the accumulating material appeared in As Others See Chicago, a collection of travel accounts issued in 1933″ (Guide to the Bessie Louise Pierce Papers).
Pierce devoted 44 of her 86 years to writing a multi-volume history of Chicago. She published A History of Chicago, Volume 1: The Beginning of a City, 1673-1848 (New York: Knopf) in 1937, A History of Chicago, Volume 2: From Town to City, 1848-1871 (New York: Knopf) in 1940, and A History of Chicago, Volume 3: The Rise of a Modern City, 1871-1893 (New York: Knopf) in 1957. She did not finish a fourth volume, which would have brought the history up to 1915. The three published volumes received wide praise and respect (including the city’s Distinguished Service Award in 1959).
Pierce also published Public Opinion and the Teaching of History (1926), Civic Attitudes in American School Textbooks (1930), and Citizens’ Organizations and the Civic Training of Youth (1933), which drew on her early schoolteaching and reflected her Yankee-Progressive outlook. She retired in 1953, returned to Iowa City in 1973, and died there on October 3, 1974.
Chicago Tribune Stories on Pierce and her writing on Chicago History:
“Chicago A Lusty Broth of a Boy, Historian Finds” (November 15, 1942)
“Foundation Helps Finance Woman’s History of Chicago” (May 13, 1956)
“Chicago’s Boswell: Bessie Pierce Chronicles Vivid Life of the City She Loves” (June 15, 1958)
“She Labors 36 Years to Write Chicago’s History” (August 29, 1965)
Bessie Louise Pierce-Gatekeeper to Chicago History (February 7, 2014)