Chicago in 1820

Chicago in 1820

Chicago in 1820
(Lithograph, J. Gemmel,
published by D.F. Fabronius) Bird's-Eye Views of the City

This charming if unlikely visual reconstruction was prepared in the late 1850s in an attempt to evoke what the city had been like in the frontier period between the Fort Dearborn massacre of 1812 and the settlement that began in earnest in the 1830s. It was available in at least two versions, this one and another without the trees. The Chicago River, along with the lake, was (and remained) in such bird's-eye views the key identifying natural landmark in the undifferentiated lakeshore prairie landscape. The fort can be seen just south of the main branch of the river, which was more directly opened to the lake when an artificial channel was dug in 1834 across the sand bar on which the Indians in the center of the lithograph are standing.


	Chicago in 1820 (Lithograph, J. Gemmel, published by D.F. Fabronius)	Bird's-Eye Views of the City
	This charming if unlikely visual reconstruction was prepared in the late 1850s in an attempt to evoke what the city had been like in the frontier period between the Fort Dearborn massacre of 1812 and the settlement that began in earnest in the 1830s. It was available in at least two versions, this one and another without the trees. The Chicago River, along with the lake, was (and remained) in such bird's-eye views the key identifying natural landmark in the undifferentiated lakeshore prairie landscape. The fort can be seen just south of the main branch of the river, which was more directly opened to the lake when an artificial channel was dug in 1834 across the sand bar on which the Indians in the center of the lithograph are standing.