The Chicago Genealogical Society invites you to attend our first Saturday of the month program this Saturday, December 2nd. Our speaker will be Dominic A. Pacyga, author of “Slaughter House: Chicago's Union Stock Yard and The World It Made.”

Chicago Stock Yard and Transit Co was the meatpacking district in Chicago for more than a century. It opened 152 years ago on 25 December 1865 and was operated by a group of railroad companies.  

Slaughterhouse tells the story of the Union Stock Yard, chronicling the rise and fall of an industrial district that, for better or worse, served as the public face of Chicago for decades. Dominic A. Pacyga is a guide like no other—he grew up in the shadow of the stockyards, spent summers in their hog house and cattle yards, and maintains a long-standing connection with the working-class neighborhoods around them. Pacyga takes you through the packinghouses as only an insider can, covering the rough and toxic life inside the plants and their lasting effects on the world outside. He shows how the yards shaped the surrounding neighborhoods and controlled the livelihoods of thousands of families.

Dominic A. Pacyga is professor of history in the Department of Humanities, History, and Social Sciences at Columbia College Chicago. He is the 2014 Mieczyslaw Haiman Award winner for exceptional and sustained contribution to the study of Polish-Americans. He has authored or coauthored six books concerning Chicago’s history. Slaughterhouse being his newest book in 2015.

The program will be at the Newberry Library, 60 West Walton, Chicago, and begin at 1:30 p.m. The program is free.

We hope you can join us!