Chicago

Views of a city risen from the ashes.

This fascinating pair of views provides a sweeping assessment of Chicago’s successful rebuilding efforts in the years immediately following the Great Fire of 1871. The upper image shows a view of the city from the Water Works on the North Side – one of the few structures in the path of the blaze to survive. Immediately below is a glimpse of the entrance to the Chicago River, crammed with ships and overseen by the lighthouse (right side). Both scenes show the Interstate Industrial Exposition Building (future site of the Art Institute), early bridges, several large grain elevators, and a variety of merchant vessels and pleasure craft.

The view was drawn by Alfred Waud, an artist best known today for his illustrations made for Harper’s Weekly during the American Civil War. One of Waud’s descendants, Cornelius, would later become the mayor of Lake Forest, Illinois.

The print was included in Picturesque America, a popular two-volume publication issued in New York by D. Appleton & Company in 1872. The work’s numerous essays and hundreds of engravings had a profound impact on American cultural identity and conservation practices in the late 19th century.