Fine Books & Manuscripts

Trasher, Frederic M. Chicago’s Gangland Prepared by Frederic M. Thrasher 1923-26. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1926. Offset lithograph thematic map printed in two colors documenting the distribution of gang activity in Chicago. 25 ½ x 17 x ½”. Originally issued to illustrate Thrasher’s seminal 1926 study The Gang: A Study of 1,313 Gangs in Chicago (The University of Chicago Press, 1927, first edition); which is also included. Map is with original housing envelope that would have been laid-in to the back of the text. Folds as issued with few small tears at fold centers, slightly toned. A rare map that is most often missing from the accompanying book. Trasher applied thematic mapping to depict organized criminal activity to help support his thesis that such activity thrives in urban spaces. His concern was that second-generation immigrant children evolved from “play groups” and into youth gangs. His central conclusion was the identification of a place called “Gangland,” “a geographically and socially interstitial area of the city”. Dozens of notations in red provide added information, such as “Hobohemia” in Gold Coast, “Jewish-Polish Frontier” in Douglas Park, and “Slave Town” in what is now Randolph Street Market.