3-034-715 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Great Fire at Chicago: the University, 1871. The Old University of Chicago before the fire. 'The fire which destroyed, last week, the best part of one of the greatest commercial cities in the world is still the most engrossing topic of news. Telegraphic reports by the Atlantic submarine cable inform us of the extent of this disaster; but we must wait a few days yet for a complete description and narrative. In the meantime, it is convenient to look at the state of Chicago as it was before the fire; and the Illustrations engraved for this Number of our Journal will be viewed with a melancholy interest, as representing what has perished, though affording wonderful proofs of the energy and resources of Western America...Chicago, which began its existence as a town but forty years ago, on the swampy, south-western shore of Lake Michigan, contained, till the fire, a population of 300,000 souls. It had the largest export trade in grain and other provisions, and was the most bustling place of mercantile activity in the whole continent...It is reckoned that 70,000 people are deprived of the shelter of their homes. At least 250 lives were lost in the fire. Several plunderers were seized and hanged'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.