It was a little cottage at 137 DeKoven Street in Chicago with nothing distinctive about it until October 8, 1871, when it became infamous as the point of origin for one of the most well known conflagrations in American history. It had taken nearly forty years for Chicago to grow into the city it was in 1871. Within a couple of days the city had quite literally gone up in smoke.
      One of the finest sites of its kind on the World Wide Web pays tribute to the memory of this great fire. In 1996 on the 150th anniversary of the disaster, the Chicago Historical Society and the Trustees of Northwestern University launched their site known as “The Great Chicago Fire and the Web of Memory.” (GCF & WOM) This site contains an enormous amount of information and has shown the ability to expand over time without too many growing pains. Yet, this huge and growing site is also a site crying out for good maps. In fact describing the site in a 1998 issue of “Perspectives Online” its curator, Carl Smith, wrote, “The site includes approximately 300 images (photographs, broadsides, lithographs, paintings, books, periodicals, newspapers and manuscripts, plus dozens of artifacts.)”1 Indeed there are maps among the lithographs and paintings, but they do not warrant specific mention by Smith.
      The GCF & WOM uses maps in a couple of ways. One way the site uses maps is for illustrating the tale of the Fire. As the Web narrative proceeds an image will be dropped in to shows and outline of the “burnt district,” O’Leary homestead, or something. In the main section, visitors are given the option of going to one of five sections: the “Pre-Fire,” the “Conflagration,” the ruins, the “Rescue and Relief,” and the re-building. In the “galleries” for each section, maps appear alongside illustrations and photos. Beyond a brief caption, there is no other descriptive information about the content of the maps.

      So what could be learned from the addition of maps to such an otherwise comprehensive site. Although it doesn’t contain an exhaustive collection, the GCF & WOM site does contain a number of panoramic maps. These are wonderful maps and could be an excellent source of historical evidence if presented properly. Using JT Imaging technology, the designers of that site could allow visitors to really examine these maps in detail. This technology allows web servers to deliver incredibly large images on the Web. Users would then have the ability to examine small areas of the map as though they we standing in front of the original with a magnifying glass. The detail of these large panoramic maps is rich with historical information that goes untapped without a proper way to access that information.
      Information culled from these large maps could be matched up with information from other sources describing race or economic conditions in order to create a composite picture of the lost portion of Chicago. Still, the angles and perspectives of the panoramic maps varies from source to source. A lot could be learned if it were possible to overlay maps of various kinds. Sometimes map overlays can be done with great effect, but the Great Chicago Fire has its own difficulties. One thing restricting the use of maps is the vast area covered by the fire. In all it covered a 4.5 miles stretch that was 2/3 of a mile wide and accounted for 200 million dollars in property loss including 18,000 buildings.2 While it is possible to create maps containing different information that have been formatted to show the same spatial area for every city block in the “burnt district,” it would take considerable resources of money and labor to produce them.
      What could historians possibly learn from the experience. Cities grow and develop in fits and starts. Development often occurs with regard to the existing environment in certain areas of the city. It is not often that cities get the chance to wipe the slate clean and remake themselves. In October 1871 Chicago had the unfortunate opportunity to do just that. W. W. Evert, pastor of Chicago’s First Baptist Church asserted that “The conflagration swept away the rubbish to prepare the way for a magnificent temple.”3 Although buildings throughout the burnt district were gone, the streets opened quickly and the rebuilding began almost immediately. The pre-existing grid of streets provided the opportunity for residents and city officials to rebuild the city anew.
      The project envisioned here is to observe how a section of Chicago remade itself after the fire. The city made a remarkably rapid recovery after the devastation. By 1893 when Chicago hosted the World’s Fair, the primary attraction was the city itself. As William Cronon has written, “the mythic lesson that linked the Great Fire to the White City had less to do with destruction than with resurrection.”4 Some developers saw the destruction as unfortunate opportunity. An opportunity to revitalize the city.

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