Chicago Fire Newspaper Collection, 1871-1909

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Chicago and Illinois

This collection is open for research.

When quoting material from this collection, the preferred citation is: Chicago Fire Newspaper Collection, [Box #, Folder #], Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library

The Great Chicago Fire of October 8-10, 1871 left approximately 300 people dead and 100,000 homeless (of a population of 300,000). It began west of the South Branch of the Chicago river on the evening of Sunday, October 8, swept across the South Branch and the Chicago River to the main business district and the North side on Monday, October 9, and finally stopped early on Tuesday, October 10. It burned 2,000 acres and 18,000 buildings, destroying the entire downtown business district and many thousands of homes and small businesses.

The Chicago fire was unprecedented in scale, but devastating fires were common in Chicago and the wider region. A far more deadly October 8 fire killed 2000 people and destroyed the entire town of Peshtigo, Wisconsin. The October 8-10 Chicago fire was preceded on October 7 by another major fire, which also started on the southwest side of Chicago and is reported in the newspapers dated October 8 in this collection. The extreme devastation of the October 8 Chicago fire is thought to have resulted from a combinations of factors, including a prolonged drought, a strong southwesterly wind, the wooden construction of the city, and a fire department exhausted by the previous night’s efforts.

Accounts of the fire focus on the shocking scale of the devastation and the amazing recovery of the city. The event is a turning point in many nineteenth century narratives about the development of Chicago: it rose quickly from the empty prairie, was even more quickly destroyed by the fire, and was miraculously rebuilt in the years following the fire.

The Chicago Fire Newspaper Collection consists of newspapers, a newsprint magazine, and a newsprint flyer, mainly related to the 1871 Chicago fire. Publications included in the collection are Western Rural Times, Chicago Times, Chicago Daily Tribune, Chicago Illustrated, and Chicago Tribune. The collection includes articles printed on the eve of the fire, in the fire’s immediate aftermath, and a year after the fire. It also contains illustrations of buildings planned and constructed between October 1871 and October 1872. One anomalous item is dated 1909 and makes no reference to the fire.

The following related resources are located in the Department of Special Collections:

• SubjectNewspapers -- Chicago
• Geographic Coverage
  • Chicago (Ill.) -- Fire 1871
  • Chicago (Ill.) -- History