Scenes in Chicago

Successful reconstruction efforts after the Great Chicago Fire (1871).

This attractive group of four separate scenes of Chicago, Illinois captures the frenetic economic activity of the Second City in the years immediately following the Great Fire (October, 1871). Three views of the Chicago River highlight the city’s vital economic artery filled with ships of all types. The main image shows the corner of Madison and Dearborn Streets. The intersection is filled with pedestrians and flanked with tall, stately edifices – notably the Chicago Tribune Building (predecessor to the Tribune Tower).

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.