Week 3

This week, I put together some of my initial research findings and began writing about the beginning of the Foundation.  I also made a list of some people to interview at some point this semester about their experiences with Washington Square.  Some of these people were involved in the creation of the foundation, some work for organizations that have received grants from WSHF in the past, and some of the individuals continue to have a working relationship with the foundation.  A few of the people on the list I have heard mentioned many times in the past couple years I have worked at WSHF, so I'm excited to finally get a chance to meet them!

Earlier this week, I was eager to begin writing about the foundation.  I encountered a few obstacles, however, that I had to work through, and probably will encounter again throughout the semester.  One of them was conflicting information from different sources.  I found a lot of information about Henrotin Hospital from various newspaper articles, and online books on the history of Chicago.  While most of the information I found matched up with the other sources, there were a few important facts that changed from source to source.  The year the hospital opened, whether it was named after Dr. Henrotin Junior or Senior, and the sale price of the hospital are a few of the facts that were not consistent.  I plan on checking these facts and sources with my boss, and trying to find more information using different written sources.  I also experienced a little writer's block initially, which I'm sure most other history majors have also had to deal with at one point or another.

While I've mostly been focused on learning about the sale of the hospital and start of the foundation for the first few weeks, I'm planning on researching more about the first projects that were funded by the foundation next week.