Chicago, Illinois, 1871 – Vintage Map Wall Art
(Originally scanned by the Library of Congress. Each image is professionally and digitally cleaned of artifacts such as color bars and extra borders prior to printing.)
Description
This antique map of Chicago, Illinois, 1871 brings a moment of history to your wall. Sourced directly from the Library of Congress, it represents an authentic piece of documented history.
Library of Congress record: The City of Chicago as it was before the great conflagration of October 8th, 9th, & 10th, 1871
Order it framed and ready to hang, or unframed to match a frame you already love. A conversation-starting piece for home, office, or as a meaningful gift. Free shipping in the lower 48 states. Snapshots of the Past has been bringing history to the wall since 2001, for tens of thousands of customers worldwide.
Chicago, Illinois, 1871
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Chicago in 1871 was a city of roughly 300,000 people, still raising its streets and sidewalks on the flat prairie shore of Lake Michigan. Its lumberyards and coal depots along the river supplied the wooden houses that covered much of the north, west, and south sides, and many of those buildings stood close together and dry. In early October a fire broke out on the southwest side, and it burned through the business district and into the residential neighborhoods for more than two days before rain brought it under control. The loss ran into the tens of thousands of homeless residents, and the city that rose from the ashes was built largely of brick and stone.
| Created / published | 1871 |
|---|---|
| Notes | An original bird's-eye view map of Chicago, Illinois, drawn in 1871. Bird's-eye view maps were drawn by travelling artists who walked a town street by street, sketching every building from an imagined vantage point in the air, then sold the finished lithograph door to door by subscription. Roughly five thousand American towns were recorded this way between the 1860s and the 1920s, and for many of them the panoramic map is the most complete picture of the place that survives. Reproduced from the original in the Library of Congress collections. Printed to order on archival paper. Free shipping on all US orders. |
| Subjects | Panoramic maps--Illinois |
| Source | Library of Congress, Panoramic Maps |
| Original scan | 6,472 × 4,616 px · prints to 22 × 15 in at 300 dpi |
| Library of Congress title | The City of Chicago as it was before the great conflagration of October 8th, 9th, & 10th, 1871 |
| Reference | AMZ-SOTP-OYK-488565 |
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