 Bird's-Eye Views of the
Developing City
Hesler Panorama
Pre-Fire Landmarks
Bygone Days in Chicago
Chicago as It Was
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Chicago just before the fire was much like the catastrophe that befell it. The
city struck many as a titanic natural force in itself, unpredictable,
unstoppable, all-consuming, and impossible to ignore. To try to get a precise
sense of what pre-fire Chicago was like, however, is in some ways to miss the
point, not only because that depended a great deal on one's point of view,
but also because what the city embodied above all else was change.
As people would soon remark about the fire, there was no readily
available way to "see" Chicago, to get a fix on it with words or
pictures, since it was itself so much a work-in-progress constituted of
such a volume and variety of experience. It is tempting, then, to
attempt what several artists and photographers did and go back in time
for a bird's-eye view. To do so, however, provides no single image,
since, even putting aside the question of what you might be looking for,
what you would see depends on how high you fly and how broad the
perspective.
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