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McDonald, R. H.; Albert L. Rawson, draftsman.

R. H. McDonald’s Map of Chicago, With a Correct Outline of the Great Fire, From a Careful Survey by Sharp & Thain, of Chicago. [Cover title: R. H. McDonald’s Illustrated History and Map of Chicago and the Great Fire]. 

New York: R. B. Thompson & Co., 735 Broadway, 1872. Sm 8vo (7.625” x 5”), original pebbled black cloth over boards, gilt title. 24 pp., 10 full- and partial-page wood engravings, folding map, 19.875” x 16” plus margins. Early ownership inscriptions in pencil and ink at front pastedown. CONDITION: Very good, some spots of soiling at upper cover, Japanese tissue repairs along inner margins of several leaves and along verso edges and folds of map.

A dramatic visual and cartographic document of the city of Chicago, published in the wake of the Great Fire of 1871.

The first images in this volume contrast “Chicago in 1820” with “Bird’s-eye View of Chicago in 1871—before the fire,” and are followed by a history of the city and vivid accounts of the Great Fire, including buildings and institutions destroyed and a compilation of eyewitness accounts detailing hair-raising incidents throughout the two terrible days of flames: parents saving—and being unable to save—their children, near and failed escapes from suffocating smoke, the appearance of the “kangaroo”-like fire as it jumped from building to building, and so on. These accounts are accompanied by views of important buildings, most of which were “completely destroyed” in the conflagration. A section at the end of the text provides brief sketches of “the Great Fires of the World,” from Ancient Troy to the Great Fire of Portland, Maine, in 1866.

The map, drawn by Albert L. Rawson from a survey by Chicago’s Sharp & Thain, depicts the region burned during the fire, which raged from October 8th to the 10th, 1871. The burned area here appears in red, overprinted on a map of the city showing street names, rivers, parks, blocks, numbered wards, railroads, and other features. A commemorative depiction of the old City Hall (the city’s fourth, which was destroyed in the fire) appears in the upper right.

The fire originated at a barn in the city’s southwest (started by a cow kicking over a lantern, according to the apocryphal story). Strong winds caused the flames to spread northward, destroying most of the downtown core on both sides of the Chicago River, along with much of the North Side district. The conflagration claimed 300 lives, destroyed 3.5 square miles, and caused roughly $200 million in damage. In spite of the devastation, the rebuilding process was swift. Modern skyscrapers filled the void, and the city grew at a faster rate than ever before. 

Albert L. Rawson (1829–1902) was a draftsman, artist, and noted member of the Theosophical Society, a religious movement founded in 1875 in New York by Helena Blavatsky. Born in Chester, Vermont, Rawson studied law, art, and theology, following which he traveled extensively around the world. He provided maps and illustrations for numerous books on religion, history, languages and the Middle East.

REFERENCES: “The Chicago Fire of 1871 and the ‘Great Rebuilding’” at National Geographic online; “Rawson, Albert Leighton” at Theosophy World online; “Rawson, A.L.” in Scott, Valerie, ed. Tooley’s Dictionary of Mapmakers, Vol. Q–Z, p. 21, citing his Map of Palestine, the Holy Land and all Bible Lands (NY, 1869); “Albert Leighton Rawson (1828 - 1902)” at wikitree online.

Item #9589

Price: $950.00

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