3-047-114 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Great Fire at Boston: view of the ruins, from Pearl-Street, 1872. Illustration of damage after '...the great fire, which destroyed nearly all the commercial business part of Boston, United States, on Saturday, the 9th, and Sunday, the 10th November...Pearl-street...was the greatest boot and shoe mart in the world, almost every house being occupied by importers or dealers in that class of goods. [The view], from photographs and sketches that have arrived by the last mail...is that looking down this street, towards Pearl-street Wharf and Liverpool Wharf. The other streets...were chiefly devoted to the trade in "dry goods" an American term, meaning the various wares of cloth or thread, woollen, cotton, linen, and silk, which we should call drapery and haberdashery. Their entire stocks were consumed, with the premises, to the value of nearly £20,000,000 altogether; but a large amount was insured, and some part belonged to foreign owners, so that the loss does not fall on Boston alone'. From "Illustrated London News", 1872.