Post by Admin on Nov 6, 2003 15:20:28 GMT -5
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Military topics march forward at new library
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By Jon Anderson
Tribune staff reporter
November 6, 2003
There are those who don't want to "study war no more." And, contrary to the old song, there are those who do.
For them, there is the Pritzker Military Library. The handsome, two-story, multimedia research facility opened last month in the Streeterville building that once housed the old Chez Paree nightclub.
"We don't have an agenda," explained Edward Tracy, the library's executive director, noting that the library sees itself as an open forum for all points of view on military matters.
Its guiding principles come from Norwich University in Vermont, the nation's oldest private military college, founded in 1819 by Capt. Alden Partridge, a former superintendent at West Point. The key theme there is the "citizen soldier," a concept that goes back to ancient Greece and Rome, where armies were drawn, to some degree, from the ranks of civilians.
James Nicholas Pritzker, 53, the library's principal backer, is a trustee of Norwich, an institution that trained civilian soldiers to lead troops in the Civil War and, in 1916, helped launch the Reserve Officers Training Corps.
An Army paratrooper who later became a colonel in the Illinois National Guard, Pritzker is a grandson of A.N. Pritzker, the late patriarch of one of Chicago's wealthiest families. At age 80, after a training flight, A.N. Pritzker claimed to be the oldest man ever catapulted off the deck of an American aircraft carrier, the USS Kitty Hawk.
"So many people are veterans or had a family member in the service," observed Jill Hamrin Postma, the Pritzker library's principal librarian. In addition to expanding its collection of 9,000 books on military matters, the library hopes to add armed forces records, first-person accounts and oral histories from veterans of combat.
The aim, other staffers said, is understanding--of military philosophies, strategies, experiences and needs.
"How can you expect Americans to vote on politics and military funding if they don't have someplace to learn about it? How many people have any idea what the priorities should be?" Pritzker said. "We need to put each sacrifice we make into context. That is the value of studying military history."
Sharing the library's quarters is the William E. Colby Military Writers' Symposium. A twice-a-year gathering of military authors, historians, journalists and filmmakers, the symposium, which sponsors forums and lectures, is named for the former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, who died in a mystery-shrouded canoeing accident in 1996.
Many of the library's programs will be beamed around the world via a Web site, www.pritzkermilitarylibrary.org.
One public event will feature a talk at 6 p.m. Nov. 17 by longtime war correspondent Joe Galloway, whose book, "We Were Soldiers Once ... and Young," was made into a 2002 movie starring Mel Gibson.
Those who become associates of the library, at $100 a year, get to use its many resources.
As Chicago historians recall, the building, at 610 N. Fairbanks Ct., has a sparkling past. From 1932 to 1960, the top-floor Chez Paree was a base for Louis Armstrong, Sophie Tucker, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis.
Later, the basement was the site of Dingbat's, a discotheque. Its best-known employee was a bouncer, Mr. T, who later became a member of TV's "A-Team," a group of problem-fixing soldiers of fortune.
Copyright (c) 2003, Chicago Tribune
Military topics march forward at new library
--------------------
By Jon Anderson
Tribune staff reporter
November 6, 2003
There are those who don't want to "study war no more." And, contrary to the old song, there are those who do.
For them, there is the Pritzker Military Library. The handsome, two-story, multimedia research facility opened last month in the Streeterville building that once housed the old Chez Paree nightclub.
"We don't have an agenda," explained Edward Tracy, the library's executive director, noting that the library sees itself as an open forum for all points of view on military matters.
Its guiding principles come from Norwich University in Vermont, the nation's oldest private military college, founded in 1819 by Capt. Alden Partridge, a former superintendent at West Point. The key theme there is the "citizen soldier," a concept that goes back to ancient Greece and Rome, where armies were drawn, to some degree, from the ranks of civilians.
James Nicholas Pritzker, 53, the library's principal backer, is a trustee of Norwich, an institution that trained civilian soldiers to lead troops in the Civil War and, in 1916, helped launch the Reserve Officers Training Corps.
An Army paratrooper who later became a colonel in the Illinois National Guard, Pritzker is a grandson of A.N. Pritzker, the late patriarch of one of Chicago's wealthiest families. At age 80, after a training flight, A.N. Pritzker claimed to be the oldest man ever catapulted off the deck of an American aircraft carrier, the USS Kitty Hawk.
"So many people are veterans or had a family member in the service," observed Jill Hamrin Postma, the Pritzker library's principal librarian. In addition to expanding its collection of 9,000 books on military matters, the library hopes to add armed forces records, first-person accounts and oral histories from veterans of combat.
The aim, other staffers said, is understanding--of military philosophies, strategies, experiences and needs.
"How can you expect Americans to vote on politics and military funding if they don't have someplace to learn about it? How many people have any idea what the priorities should be?" Pritzker said. "We need to put each sacrifice we make into context. That is the value of studying military history."
Sharing the library's quarters is the William E. Colby Military Writers' Symposium. A twice-a-year gathering of military authors, historians, journalists and filmmakers, the symposium, which sponsors forums and lectures, is named for the former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, who died in a mystery-shrouded canoeing accident in 1996.
Many of the library's programs will be beamed around the world via a Web site, www.pritzkermilitarylibrary.org.
One public event will feature a talk at 6 p.m. Nov. 17 by longtime war correspondent Joe Galloway, whose book, "We Were Soldiers Once ... and Young," was made into a 2002 movie starring Mel Gibson.
Those who become associates of the library, at $100 a year, get to use its many resources.
As Chicago historians recall, the building, at 610 N. Fairbanks Ct., has a sparkling past. From 1932 to 1960, the top-floor Chez Paree was a base for Louis Armstrong, Sophie Tucker, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis.
Later, the basement was the site of Dingbat's, a discotheque. Its best-known employee was a bouncer, Mr. T, who later became a member of TV's "A-Team," a group of problem-fixing soldiers of fortune.
Copyright (c) 2003, Chicago Tribune