Evanston author Linda Gartz has donated family photos and correspondence to the Newberry Library. (Photo from Ms. Gartz)

Letters, diaries and photos documenting three generations of Linda Gartz’s family have found a new home at the Newberry Library.

“These archives were the inspiration for my book, Redlined: A Memoir of Race, Change, and Fractured Community in 1960s,” Ms. Gartz told the RoundTable.

The trove of 46 boxes contains, among other things, letters from Transylvania, the home of Ms. Gartz’s paternal grandparents; Ms. Gartz’s mother’s diaries, beginning in 1927; and more than 300 letters written during World War II to and from Ms. Gartz’s uncle Fred Gartz.

The family history is now an integral part of Chicago history.

Mary Gavin

Mary Gavin is the founder of the Evanston RoundTable. After 23 years as its publisher and manager, she helped transition the RoundTable to nonprofit status in 2021. She continues to write, edit, mentor...