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This newspaper article was published by the Cleveland Gazette in 1885

The City of Chicago has been known by many nicknames, but it is most widely recognized as The Windy City. Possible explanations for this particular nickname include Chicago's weather, politics, World's Fair, and rivalry with Cincinnati. Image File history File links Information_icon. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (600x986, 60 KB) Title: Cleveland Gazette Item Title: From the Windy City - Judge Footes Civil Rights Decision Author: Unknown Item Date: 09/19/1885 Item Location: Ohio Historical Center Archives Library Call Number: Newspaper Roll#4427 Vol. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (600x986, 60 KB) Title: Cleveland Gazette Item Title: From the Windy City - Judge Footes Civil Rights Decision Author: Unknown Item Date: 09/19/1885 Item Location: Ohio Historical Center Archives Library Call Number: Newspaper Roll#4427 Vol. ... Nickname: The Windy City, The Second City, Chi Town, City of the Big Shoulders, The 312, The City that Works Motto: Urbs In Horto (Latin: City in a Garden), I Will Location in Chicagoland and Illinois Coordinates: Country United States State Illinois County Cook & DuPage Incorporated March 4, 1837  - Mayor... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Worlds Fair is any of various large expositions held since the mid-19th century. ... Cincinnati, Ohio viewed from the SW, across the Ohio River from Kentucky. ...

The earliest known references to the "Windy City" are from 1876, and involve Chicago's rivalry with Cincinnati. A popular myth states that the term "Windy City" was first used by New York Sun editor Charles Dana in the bidding for the 1893 Columbian Exposition. The popularity of the nickname has endured, even after the Cincinnati rivalry and the Columbian Exposition both ended. The modern New York Sun is a daily newspaper published in New York City. ... Charles Dana Charles Anderson Dana (August 8, 1819 – October 17, 1897) was an American journalist, author, and government official, best known for his association with Ulysses S. Grant during the American Civil War and his aggressive political advocacy after the war. ... One-third scale replica of Daniel Chester Frenchs Republic, which stood in the great basin at the exposition, Chicago, 2004 The Worlds Columbian Exposition (also called The Chicago Worlds Fair), a Worlds Fair, was held in Chicago in 1893, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher...

Meaning

A strong Chicago wind blows around a newspaper

Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1024x683, 187 KB) Source/Author: evilgreg3000 File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Windy City, Origin of Name (Chicago) ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1024x683, 187 KB) Source/Author: evilgreg3000 File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Windy City, Origin of Name (Chicago) ...

Weather

Geographic conditions in the area (e.g., proximity to Lake Michigan, local prevailing winds, etc.) make Chicago a naturally windy area. Another contributing factor is how the city was rebuilt after the Great Chicago Fire. Planners modeled new streets on the grid system. This resulted in man-made wind tunnels in high density areas, such as the Loop, as the wind can travel down the columns and rows formed by the buildings and pick up speed. Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America, and the only one in the group located entirely within the United States. ... Artists rendering of the fire, by John R Chapin, originally printed in Harpers Weekly The Great Chicago Fire was a conflagration that burned from Sunday October 8 to early Tuesday October 10, 1871, killing hundreds and destroying about four square miles in Chicago, Illinois. ... Night view of the tollbooths as you enter Chicago from the Chicago Skyway // Chicagos streets primarily follow the grid system established by the Chicago Board of Aldermen in 1908 and implemented on September 1, 1909. ... A simple grid plan road map (Windermere, Florida). ... The Loop is what locals call the historical center of downtown Chicago. ...

This "windy" explanation is from the Freeborn County Standard of Albert Lea, Minnesota, November 20, 1892 (digitized citation available on Newspaperarchive.com}: Albert Lea is the name of two places in Minnesota, United States. ... Capital Saint Paul Largest city Minneapolis Area  Ranked 12th  - Total 87,014 sq mi (225,365 km²)  - Width 250 miles (400 km)  - Length 400 miles (645 km)  - % water 8. ... November 20 is the 324th day of the year (325th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1892 (MDCCCXCII) was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ...

Chicago has been called the “windy” city, the term being used metaphorically to make out that Chicagoans were braggarts. The city is losing this reputation, for the reason that as people got acquainted with it they found most of her claims to be backed up by facts. As usual, people go to extremes in this thing also, and one can tell a stranger almost anything about Chicago to-day and feel that he believes it implicitly.

But in another sense Chicago is actually earning the title of the “windy” city. It is one of the effects of the tall buildings which engineers and architects apparently did not foresee that the wind is sucked down into the streets. Walk past the Masonic Temple or the Auditorium any day even though it may be perfectly calm elsewhere, and you will meet with a lively breeze at the base of the building that will compel you to put your hand to your hat.

Chicago had long billed itself as an ideal summer resort because of its cool lake breeze. The Boston Globe of July 8, 1873 wrote that "a few years ago, Chicago advertised itself as a summer resort, on the strength of the lake breezes which so nicely tempered the mid-summer heats." The Chicago Tribune of June 14, 1876 discussed "Chicago as a Summer Resort" at length, proudly declaring that "the people of this city are enjoying cool breezes, refreshing rains, green fields, a grateful sun, and balmy air—winds from the north and east tempered by the coolness of the Lake, and from the south and west, bearing to us frequent hints of the grass, flowers, wheat and corn of the prairies." The Boston Globe is the most widely-circulated daily newspaper in Boston, Massachusetts and in the greater New England region. ... July 8 is the 189th day of the year (190th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 176 days remaining. ... 1873 (MDCCCLXXIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois and owned by the Tribune Company. ... June 14 is the 165th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (166th in leap years), with 200 days remaining. ... 1876 (MDCCCLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ...

The February 4, 1873 The Philadelphia Inquirer called Chicago "the great city of winds and fires."[1] February 4 is the 35th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1873 (MDCCCLXXIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... The Philadelphia Inquirer is one of a two Knight Ridder newspaper duopoly daily for the Philadelphia area. ...

Politics

A Chicago Protest In Action

Others say that the name comes from Chicago's political history. Specifically, they reference the "spectator sport" style of politics practiced in the last century, and the adage that when Chicago politicians speak they are "blowing a lot of wind".^{[citation needed]} It is meant to be a jab towards the Chicago Democratic Machine, which for the most part has been led by the Daley family for the past 50 years. Although machine politics has mostly fallen out of style elsewhere in the United States, it is for the most part alive and well in Chicago. Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1024x768, 168 KB) Source: http://www. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1024x768, 168 KB) Source: http://www. ... The Chicago Democratic Machine was a political machine led by former Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley. ... The Daley family is an Irish American political family from Chicago that is deeply entrenched in a vast political machine system of Illinois. ... This article is about the system of organization called a political machine. ...

World's Fair

The Columbian Exposition

It is a popular myth that the first person to use the term "Windy City" was the New York Sun editor Charles Dana. In 1893, Chicago won the bid to host the World's Fair, also known as the World's Columbian Exposition. This was a big deal because the French had just put the Americans to shame at the previous World's Fair with the building of the Eiffel Tower. The next world's fair was seen as a chance by many Americans to show the world that it too was a great country. File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... The modern New York Sun is a daily newspaper published in New York City. ... One-third scale replica of Daniel Chester Frenchs Republic, which stood in the great basin at the exposition, Chicago, 2004 The Worlds Columbian Exposition (also called The Chicago Worlds Fair), a Worlds Fair, was held in Chicago in 1893, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher... Eiffel tower on Bastille Day The Eiffel Tower (French: , ) is an iron tower built on the Champ de Mars beside the River Seine in Paris, France. ...

Another factor that made this bid competitive was the list cities competing for the right to host the fair. At the top New York, St. Louis and Washington D.C. all fought hard for the right and many New Yorkers thought they had a win guaranteed. In the end it came down to New York and Chicago. Chicago finally won in a run off vote and many prominent New Yorkers were extremely irritated that a "frontier town" could best them. NY redirects here. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Aerial photo (looking NW) of the Washington Monument and the White House in Washington, DC. Washington, D.C., officially the District of Columbia (also known as D.C.; Washington; the Nations Capital; the District; and, historically, the Federal City) is the capital city and administrative district of the United...

Charles Dana was New York's leading fair booster, but there is little evidence that he ever used the "Windy City" term. The first known attribution of Dana to the origin of "Windy City" was in the Chicago Tribune, "Chicago Dubbed 'Windy' in Fight for Fair of '93," June 11, 1933: The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois and owned by the Tribune Company. ... June 11 is the 162nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (163rd in leap years), with 203 days remaining. ... Year 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday. ...

“Don’t pay any attention,” wrote Charles A. Dana day in and day out in his New York Sun, “to the nonsensical claims of that windy city. Its people could not build a World’s Fair even if they won it."

Cincinnati rivalry

Cincinnati and Chicago were rival cities in the 1860s and 1870s. Cincinnati was well known in the meatpacking trade, and it was called "Porkopolis" from at least 1843. Starting from the early 1860s, Chicago surpassed Cincinnati in this trade and proudly claimed the very same "Porkopolis" nickname.[2]

The baseball inter-city matches were especially intense. The 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings were the pride of all of baseball, so Chicago came up with a rival team called the White Stockings to defeat them. "Windy City" often appeared in the Cincinnati sporting news of the 1870s and 1880s. A view of the playing field at Busch Stadium II St. ... The Cincinnati Reds are a Major League Baseball team based in Cincinnati, Ohio. ... Major league affiliations National League (1876–present) Central Division (1994–present) Current uniform Name Chicago Cubs (1902–present) Chicago Orphans (1898-1901) Chicago Colts (1890-1897) Chicago White Stockings (1870-1889) (a. ...

The first known citations of "Windy City" are three from 1876, and all involve Cincinnati:

1. Cincinnati Enquirer, May 9, 1876 headline: "THAT WINDY CITY. Some Freaks of the Last Chicago Tornado."
2. Cincinnati Enquirer, May 13, 1876: "Only the plucky nerve of the eating-house keeper rescued the useful seats from a journey to the Windy City."
3. Chicago Tribune, July 2, 1876: "The Cincinnati Enquirer, in common with many other papers, has been waiting with great anxiety for the fulfillment of its prophecy: that the Chicago papers would call the Whites hard names when they lost. Witness these scraps the day after the Whites lost to the Athletics: There comes a wail to us from the Windy City."

For the Cincinnati papers, "Windy City" had meant a Chicago that was full of bluster. The Cincinnati Enquirer is a daily morning newspaper published at Cincinnati, Ohio. ... May 9 is the 129th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (130th in leap years). ... 1876 (MDCCCLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ... The Cincinnati Enquirer is a daily morning newspaper published at Cincinnati, Ohio. ... May 13 is the 133rd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (134th in leap years). ... 1876 (MDCCCLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ... The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois and owned by the Tribune Company. ... July 2 is the 183rd day of the year (184th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 182 days remaining. ... 1876 (MDCCCLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ...

The Hawk, or Hawkins

Chicago's wind is often called "The Hawk." This term has long been popular in African-American English. A Baltimore Sun series of columns in 1934 attempted to examine the origin of the phrase "Hawkins is coming" for a cold winter wind. The first recorded Chicago citation is in the Chicago Defender, October 20, 1936: "And these cold mornings are on us—in other words “Hawkins” has got us."[3] African American Vernacular English (AAVE), also called African American English, Black English, Black Vernacular, Black English Vernacular (BEV), or Black Vernacular English (BVE), is a type variety (dialect, ethnolect and sociolect) of the American English language. ... The Baltimore Sun is the major newspaper in Baltimore, Maryland, with a daily press run of about 430,000 copies, and a Sunday run of 540,000 copies. ... The Chicago Defender announces President Harry S. Trumans order in 1948 desegregating the United States Armed Forces. ... October 20 is the 293rd day of the year (294th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 72 days remaining. ... 1936 (MCMXXXVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Sources

• NBierma.com - Nathan Bierma lists several references to the name compiled from sources at the Chicago Public Library stretching from 1890 to 1939.
• USA Today - The transcript of a letter from Barry Popik, who is an historian of American slang and a consultant to Oxford English Dictionary.
• The Straight Dope - Ongoing updates to the source of the name.