I just spent a fascinating morning at the Center for Research Libraries on the University of Chicago campus. I never even knew this place existed, but it's such a comprehensive resource that the Library of Congress comes calling when it's stumped for material.

What brought me to the South Side was a quest for rare back issues of Local Agent — the predecessor of American Agent & Broker magazine. In recognition of our upcoming 80th anniversary, we're compiling material from the past for a special issue we're developing for next year. The Center was able to fill in the gap for issues from 1930 to 1947, which we don't have at our St. Louis offices.

While it's not on par with digging up a crystal skull somewhere in Peru, there is a certain excitement in leafing through ancient publications — at least for history buffs. It's interesting to see how our publication evolved from a black-and-white monthly of about 26 pages to its current ambitious format. (And I confess to finding guilty pleasure in the ads for mostly defunct insurers, some of which feature such cringe-inducing images as caricatured American Indians, Pullman train porters, dizzy dames, and, for some reason, one insurer whose mascot was a French poodle. Guess the “Mad Men” who thought that one up had one too many pre-lunch martinis that day.)