CHICAGO METRO HISTORY FAIR

2018 SUMMARY STATEMENT

Attach an annotated bibliography (AB) that is divided between primary and secondary sources.
Submit two copies of the SS and AB at the competition. Please type.


Student name(s): Abheek Mondal; Freitas Sabah; Yichen Li
___________________________________________________________________________

Title: Reversal of the Chicago River

Check if applicable (and respond to Question 3):

This project uses the 2018 National History Day theme, “Conflict & Compromise in [Chicago/Illinois]
History”

Project Category:

Exhibit Website Paper Documentary Performance

Student Composed Student Composed Total Word-Count
Word-Count: Word-Count:
Time: Time:
(excluding citations):
745
1. THESIS STATEMENT
Present the project’s argument or interpretation in two sentences. If you are using the NHD theme, you might want to make it
in your thesis statement.
evident
The Chicago River prior to 1871 was a cause of great conflict in the state Illinois as it had
resulted in the loss of hundreds of lives. Moreover, the compromise or the solution used to solve
this situation is one which changed the way of how humans lived and the natural ecosystem of the
river.
2. SUMMARY OF PROJECT
Briefly explain your project and its conclusion. Include: How and why did change happen and what was the impact? Why is it
historically significant? What historical meaning or importance can we learn from your findings?
 Our website is split up into three sections which identify and address the different
components regarding the topic which the viewer must read to comprehend the situation. It is a
common fact that the Chicago river has changed. The change was because the river was considered
as a dumpster for the city of Chicago and every citizen dumped their trash in the river. Moreover,
water only flowed into the river which meant that all the garbage would stay inland and never left
the city. Due to this, the trash accumulated and the polluted river became a breeding ground for
deadly diseases which killed a lot of people in the city. So, the people of Chicago decided to connect
the flow of the river with another river so that the garbage can flow outside the city and the city
can become clean again. As the solution came into effect, there were several side effects to the
solution. Not only did the solution cleanse the river, but it also provided water and energy to other
cities and, for a time being, it caused problems to the marine life. The reversal is historically
significant not only because it changed Illinois’ geographical map, but it was also named a Civil
Engineering Monument and has served to help other countries dig their own rivers thanks to the
engineering techniques used during this project. The historical importance of this monument is
that the reversal of the river is a symbol that, for other states, no matter how dire situation is, it
will have a solution in the most humorous way and even if the solution causes more problems, one
must trust that the solution is the right one and not give up.
3. Required for projects using the National History Day theme only.
Explain how this project integrates the NHD theme “Conflict & Compromise in [Chicago/Illinois] History” into its argument.

This project identifies a dire problem which had haunted Chicago for many years and claimed
many lives and then analyzes the solution and its impacts that the solution had on Chicago and
other states. It also identifies mini conflict-compromise situations that stemmed from the
general compromise.
4. PROCESS

A. What historical question did you start off with—and how did it change once you began doing your research?
We started our question with the question of “Why was the river reversal important?”
and then as we investigated further into the question, we realized that the compromise
didn’t simply affect the city of Chicago, but also other states and nature. Then, we
specified our question to “Why and how was the Chicago river changed and how did
the solution affect others?”
B. What kinds of sources did you use as evidence to develop your argument (for example, letters, photographs,
government documents, interviews, etc.)?
We mainly used online sources like online encyclopedias, online articles and online
newspaper publications.
C. Select one piece of evidence that you used and explain how it influenced your argument.
A highly influencing piece of evidence was the newspaper article from the Chicago
Tribune, number four in our annotated bibliography. This article was one of the few
articles that we had which addressed to all our needs. Moreover, it was the first article
which made us think about the aftermath of the river instead of talking about the
compromise and finishing our project there.
D. List libraries (other than school), museums, and other institutions that you visited to do your research.
We went to the Edgewater branch of the Chicago Public Library. However, there were
limited books and primary sources that we could find within the library and most of
them were incomplete articles which were a small part of a bigger topic. Since we
didn’t have the time to scour through every book we could find regarding our topic and
collect bits of information, we decided to base our research online.