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Untitled (Chicago after the Fire)

A sepia-toned panorama of the city of Chicago bisected by the highway with only a few tall buildings scattered on either side.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A sepia-toned panorama of the city of Chicago bisected by the highway with only a few tall buildings scattered on either side.

Date:

1871

Artist:

Attributed to George N. Barnard
American, 1819–1902

About this artwork

Chicago’s Great Fire of 1871 killed 300 people, left 100,000 homeless, and leveled four square miles of the city. Yet as the flames died, resolve replaced despair. This photograph was made perhaps one month after the fire, and it shows the makeshift homes, businesses, telegraph poles, and streetcar tracks that were in place even before the rubble was pushed into the lake. Within three years, Chicago would regain its position as the premier city of the Midwest.

This panorama was probably made by George N. Barnard, who documented the tremendous devastation of the South by the campaign of General William Tecumseh Sherman during the Civil War. Barnard had a studio in downtown Chicago, but, forced into the lake to flee the fire, he lost everything except the equipment he held aloft in the water. Like Chicago itself, he quickly recovered and joined colleagues who documented the rebuilding of the city.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Photography and Media

Artist

George N. Barnard

Title

Untitled (Chicago after the Fire)

Place

United States (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Made 1871

Medium

Albumen prints

Dimensions

22.8 × 155 cm (9 × 61 1/16 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Robert Jesmer

Reference Number

1979.1385

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/59281/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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