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Untitled (Chicago after the Chicago Fire)

George N. Barnard1871

The Art Institute of Chicago

The Art Institute of Chicago
Chicago, United States

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.

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  • Title: Untitled (Chicago after the Chicago Fire)
  • Creator: Attributed to George N. Barnard (American, 1819–1902)
  • Creator Lifespan: 1819 - 1902
  • Creator Nationality: American
  • Creator Gender: male
  • Date Created: 1871
  • Physical Dimensions: 22.8 × 155 cm (8 9/16 × 61 1/16 in.)
  • Type: Photograph
  • External Link: The Art Institute of Chicago
  • Media: Albumen prints
  • Credit Line: The Art Institute of Chicago, gift of Robert Jesmer, 1979.1385
  • Artist: Attributed to George N. Barnard (American, 1819–1902)
The Art Institute of Chicago

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