Chicago Fire, Illinois, 1871 – Historic Photo Reproduction
(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
Step back in time with Chicago Fire, Illinois, 1871, a historic image rich in period detail. It comes from the collections of the Library of Congress, scanned from the original and carefully restored.
Library of Congress record: Chicago, as seen after the great conflagration, embracing the whole of the burned district as seen from an elevation in the southern boundary thereof
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Chicago Fire, Illinois, 1871
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Chicago in 1871 was a booming lake port and rail hub, its population having grown from a few thousand in the 1840s to well over 300,000 by the time the city's lumber yards, grain elevators, and wooden buildings crowded the riverfront. On the night of October 8, 1871, a fire broke out on the city's West Side and spread across the drying, mostly wood-built city for roughly two days, destroying about three square miles, including the central business district. Thousands of residents lost their homes, and the disaster killed several hundred people. The rebuilding that followed drew investment and new construction, and within a few years Chicagoans were already measuring their recovery against the ruins that this view records.
| Created / published | 1871 |
|---|---|
| Creator | smith, joshua |
| Notes | Panoramic photograph. |
| Subjects | Panoramic photographs--Illinois |
| Source | Library of Congress, Panoramic Photographs |
| Original scan | 4,050 × 1,757 px · prints to 14 × 6 in at 300 dpi |
| Library of Congress title | Chicago, as seen after the great conflagration, embracing the whole of the burned district as seen from an elevation in the southern boundary thereof |
| Reference | IL Chicago Fire 1871 |
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