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| The Fire Cyclorama |  Blazing Visions |
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Cycloramas have been a popular attraction in cities and at historic sites on both sides of the
Atlantic. Spectators stand in the middle of a large canvas that allows them to simulate the
experience of being in a particular place at a significant moment (other Chicago cycloramas
recreated the battles of Gettysburg and Shiloh, the confrontation of the Monitor and the
Merrimac, the city of Jerusalem and the Crucifixion, and the Siege of Paris,
and there was at least one other fire cyclorama). This
particular extravaganza was mounted in the early 1890s, no doubt to take advantage of the
increase in tourism spurred by the Columbian Exposition of 1893, as well as local interest
in the fire. In a pamphlet that accompanied the exhibit, complete with a fire memoir by the
prominent minister David Swing, promoters Isaac N. Reed and Howard H. Gross billed
themselves as "the foremost men in the world for the production of this class of work."
Above is pictured both sides of a piece of promotional literature, which may also have been
an admission ticket. It includes testimonials from Swing, Episcopal Bishop Samuel
Fallows, and Great Rebuilding pioneer W.D. Kerfoot, along with fire statistics. The
figures Reed and Gross cited relating to the fire were almost eclipsed by those pertaining to
the cyclorama itself. The five interconnected scenes stretched over nearly 20,000 square feet. An
international team of ten artists with different specialties divided the work between them
and spent twenty man-years of labor applying two tons of oil paint to the six tons of
canvas, at what was said to be a total cost of $250,000.
The Rand McNally Company's 1898 Bird's-Eye Views and Guide to Chicago noted that the reported attendance was 144,000 visitors a year. The fifty-cent charge was the same as admission to the Columbian Exposition. After the cyclorama closed, the canvas was put in storage on South Indiana Avenue before it was finally sold in 1913 to a junk dealer for two dollars. The point of view is "an elevated position on the site of old Fort Dearborn--the cradle and birth-place of Chicago--and immediately south of the Rush Street Bridge," at the northern edge of the South Division. "When it was determined to produce the great Cyclorama of Chicago," the promoters explained in the pamphlet, "the artists realized that there would be at least three things that the people visiting it would like to see, viz: the ruins of Chicago, the Fire of Chicago, and some of the unburnt portion of the old city, showing the style of architecture and familiar street scenes of the ante-fire days." The look of photographs of the cyclorama is so realistic that it is hard to tell at first glance that they are not of the actual event. Captions for the five scenes that follow are from the pamphlet. |
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