Editor’s note: The Chicago History Museum welcomes first-time blogger Naomi Blumberg, who recently joined our curatorial staff.

When it was announced that the Hull House Association would be shutting down, I was struck by how many people were shocked and saddened by the news. Having worked for two years at the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, I was prepared to know a lot of people who would be emotionally affected by the closure of the organization, people dedicated to telling the stories of the revolution that had its humble beginnings in that very building on South Halsted Street.

The Hull-House complex at 800 S. Halsted Street, c. 1910. CHM, photograph by Barnes-Crosby, i19288

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After 58 years of publishing in Chicago, Playboy Enterprises recently announced the move of all editing, art, and photography operations to Los Angeles. Readers of the announcement, largely communicated through Facebook and other social media, could hardly believe their eyes—and needless to say, they weren’t looking at any centerfold. Say it ain’t so, Playboy!

The first issue of Playboy, December 1953
CHM collection

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New Year’s parade in Chicago’s Chinatown, 2011

Happy Chinese New Year, Chicago! Today, January 23, is the first day of 4710 according to the Chinese calendar. It’s the year of the dragon. If you can, check out the New Year’s parade in Chinatown this weekend. It kicks off at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday, January 29, on Wentworth Avenue south of Cermak Road. And, if you go, remember to wear something red for luck in the coming year and wish everyone, “Gung Hay Fat Choy,” or Happy New Year!

Footage from the 2011 Chinese New Year parade in Chinatown:

As we honor Martin Luther King, Jr., this national holiday weekend, I’d like to focus on his mentor and adviser Bayard Rustin (1912-1987), whose 100^th birthday we mark this year. For both African American men, Chicago served as important preparatory ground for grassroots activism and community building, and as preliminary training for national speeches and civil rights demonstrations.

Bayard Rustin outside the March on Washington office, around 1963. Photograph courtesy of Bennett Singer.

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