Items | Digital Collections at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library

McVicker's Theatre
Image | 1869 | Picture Chicagoand will accommodate about 2,000 people. The exterior, of which an engraving is presented on another page, presents a handsome front on Madison street. The interior arrangements are most complete and admirable. The seats are handsomely furnished, easy, and comfortable, affording an excellent view of the stage from all parts of the house. The stage is of an immense size, allo...
Entrance to vault
Image | 1902 | Picture ChicagoFrom text: "The portal of this treasure house is guarded by a double set of eight-ton doors similar to those in position in the business vaults of the bank on the floor above. A sentinel stands always at either door, although during business hours the eight-ton door is of course swung open and a heavy bronze and steel-grated door bars the entrance on the inner side of the ve...
Chicago For the Tourist
Image | 1912 | Picture ChicagoBook cover. Full text: "Chicago For The Tourist Reached by the Illinois Central R. R." Image depicts Grant Park, with the Logan Statue in the foreground, and the Illinois Central Station at 11th Street and S. Michigan Avenue behind.
View south on Michigan Avenue
Image | 1920 | Picture ChicagoCaption: "The Lakeside Glory of Chicago." View is looking south on Michigan Avenue from Randolph Street.
Central YMCA Building
Image | 1906 | Picture ChicagoLocated at 19 S. LaSalle Street. Designed by Jenney & Mundie and built in 1893.
Ferguson Fountain of the Great Lakes
Image | 1913 | Picture ChicagoCaption: "The Ferguson Fountain of the Great Lakes."
Jackson Boulevard
Image | 1906 | Picture ChicagoCaption: "Another of Chicago's famous streets. It is paved with asphalt and lined with substantial buildings. The striking facade of the Chicago Board of Trade and the new Post Office Building adorn this thoroughfare. Some portions of Jackson Boulevard resemble the great canyons of lower Manhattan."
Post Office
Image | 1906 | Picture ChicagoCaption: "The Post Office The new Post Office Building, one of the most magnificent postal structures in the United States, is located in a square formed by Adams, Clark and Dearborn streets and Jackson Boulevard. The delay in its completion caused many spirited controversies. From this great central station radiate forty-seven carrier stations, four stations without carrier...
Public Library
Image | 1906 | Picture ChicagoCaption: "Chicago's Public Library building bears the reputation of being one of the finest library structures in the world. The interior is exquisitely finished in marble, mother-of-pearl and onyx. It is situated on Michigan Avenue between Randolph and Washington streets, and commands a view of Lake Michigan. Upon its shelves are more than three hundred thousand volumes. He...
Art Institute
Image | 1906 | Picture ChicagoCaption: "This structure stands on the lake front facing Michigan Avenue, near the foot of Adams Street and was erected in 1893 at a cost of $785,000. It contains a rare collection of paintings, statuary and other objects of art. Many wealthy Chicagoans take especial pride in this institution and have enriched it by their liberal gifts. It is open to the public on Wednesdays...
Dearborn Street
Image | 1906 | Picture Chicagoat the other, the Chicago River. Further to the north the street becomes Dearborn Avenue, a popular residential street ending at Lincoln Park."
Washington Street, west from Dearborn
Image | 1910 | Picture ChicagoCaption: "Street scenes in the "Bygone Days" Washington Street, Looking West from Dearborn By Courtesy of the Chicago Historical Society". Photograph is undated but appears to be from the 1860s.
Masonic Temple
Image | 1906 | Picture ChicagoCaption: "The Masonic Temple, situated at the corner of Randolph and State streets, is two hundred and sixty-five feet high. The number of its tenants would be sufficient to populate a fair sized village. Although not owned by the Masonic Order, several lodges meet here, paying an annual rental for the privilege. It contains fourteen passenger and two freight elevators." Bui...
Looking northeast from near Terrace Row
Image | 1910 | Picture ChicagoCaption: "Looking Northeast from near Terrace Row The Lake Front By Courtesy of the Chicago Historical Society"
Northwestern Sanitary Fair of 1865
Image | 1910 | Picture ChicagoCaption: "The Northwestern Sanitary Fair of 1865 (The Building was Erected on Dearborn Park, now Occupied by the Chicago Public Library, with Bryan Hall as an Adjunct)"
Interior of the Wigwam
Image | 1910 | Picture ChicagoCaption: "Interior of the 'Wigwam' during the Republican Convention of 1860"
Proposed South Water Street improvements
Image | 1919 | Picture ChicagoCaption: "View of proposed South Water Street and river front improvements by E. H. Bennett, consultant architect. From the collection of the Chicago Plan Commission." From text: "To complete Chicago's great central district, the greatest in the world, South Water Street must be reclaimed for all the people. South Water Street can be made into the second finest thoroughfare ...
New Chamber of Commerce
Image | 1883 | Picture ChicagoFrom text: "The corner-stone of the new Chamber of Commerce was laid with appropriate ceremonies Dec. 13, 1882, and since then the walls of the magnificent building have gone up with marvelous rapidity, but this new temple of trade is on such a grand scale that it will be another year before it is brought to completion and ready for the machinery of commerce."
State Street
Image | 1875 | Picture ChicagoCaption: "State Street, south from Washington."
Central group of Ferguson Fountain
Image | 1913 | Picture ChicagoCaption: "The Ferguson Fountain of the Great Lakes: Central Group."
Auditorium Building
Image | 1891 | Picture ChicagoFrom text: " Auditorium Tower, the highest building in Chicago. The balcony is 260 feet high, and the observatory tower carries the height up to 275 feet. The flagstaff surmounting this is the highest thing in town--300 feet."
Chicago Public Library
Image | 1911 | Picture ChicagoCaption: "The Chicago Public Library". From text: "The Chicago Public Library is a free public institution, established under the Illinois library law of 1872, and maintained by the city as part of its public educational system. It derives its revenue from an annual library tax of approximately four-tenths of a mill, and is governed by a Board of Directors of nine members ap...
Business office in Tacoma Building
Image | 1893 | Picture ChicagoCaption: "[Engraved for The Standard Guide Company.] Business Office, New York Mutual Life Insurance Co., Tacoma Bldg [Charles H. Ferguson, Agent.]". From text: ""Elsewhere is presented in this volume an engraving of the interior of the counting room of Charles H. Ferguson, general agent of the New York Mutual Life Insurance Company for the State of Illinois. The offices are...
Looking north on State from Madison St.
Image | 1893 | Picture ChicagoCaption: "[Engraved for The Standard Guide Company.] Looking north on State From Madison St. [See "Guide."]". From text: "[W]e will endeavor to do the great retail avenue of Chicago, or at least a portion of it, before the day closes. This thoroughfare ... is one of the grandest commercial arteries in the world. By looking up "State Street" in the Index, you will learn that ...
Owings Building
Image | 1891 | Picture ChicagoCaption: "Corner of Adams and Dearborn Sts". From text: "Tower of the quaint Owings Building, fourteen stories, corner Adams and Dearborn Streets, unique in design, and a cloud disturber of the first order--225 feet."
Dearborn Street
Image | 1875 | Picture ChicagoCaption: "Dearborn Street, south from Monroe".
Reading room
Image | 1911 | Picture ChicagoFrom text: "The Reading Room for current periodicals is one of the largest rooms in the building occupying the entire north front on the fourth floor. Nearly twelve hundred publications are regularly received and kept on file here, comprising all the popular American and English periodicals, reviews, and weeklies, a selection of the best publications in German, French, and o...
Fort Dearborn
Image | 1869 | Picture ChicagoFrom text: "About this time the first fort was erected--a common frontier block-house, which was situated near the site of Rush street bridge, on the south side of the river."
Peristyle at the lake front
Image | 1920 | Picture ChicagoFrontispiece. Color enhanced print showing peristyle at Randolph Street and the Michigan Avenue streetwall buildings, including the Montgomery Ward Building, at center.
View west on Adams Street
Image | 1920 | Picture ChicagoPeoples Gas Building, at right.
Old Fort Dearborn
Image | 1856 | Picture ChicagoCaption: "Old Fort Dearborn with surroundings in 1856. By courtesy of Chicago Historical Society."
Commercial Insurance Company's Building
Image | 1869 | Picture ChicagoLettering in illustration reads: "Commercial Insurance Company's Building 160 & 162 Washington St. Chicago." Text reads: "We have become so accustomed to look eastward for successful and reliable insurance companies, that we often overlook those at our own doors, which, in all the essentials of solvency, are the peers of any in the land. Among these the Commercial Insurance ...
First National Bank Building
Image | 1869 | Picture ChicagoThe First National Bank was located at the southwest corner of State and Washington streets.
Group of revenue assessors
Image | 1863 | Picture ChicagoCaption: ""A. C. Hesing, Martin Kimbell, Fred H. Rolschausen, H. W. Scoville, Reuben Taylor, George Dunlap, John Forsyth, W. R. H. Gray, J. C. Brown, George H. Anderson, Chester L. Root, Peter Page, C. R. Field, William James, C. N. Holden, Bernhard H. Bruns, Andrew Nelson, H. N. Heald, Fred Becker,* Albert W. Weber, Henry N. Stevens, Edward Page, Charles G. Smith, C. B. Sam...
Main banking room
Image | 1902 | Picture ChicagoFrom text: "Beyond the rooms of the savings bank … the visitor steps into the great spacious bank-room. It is a delight to the eye of even the veriest tyro in things artistic. Standing there in that magnificent doorway and viewing the splendid spectacle gleaming in the flood of light, which pours through the glass-paneled ceiling, the observer finds it difficult to realize t...
View north on LaSalle Street
Image | 1920 | Picture ChicagoCaption: "The Wall Street of Chicago." View is looking north up LaSalle Street from West Jackson Blvd.
Ruins of Chicago Postoffice
Image | 1871 | Picture ChicagoCaption: "Ruins of the interior of the Chicago Postoffice after the Great Fire of 1871. By permission of Chicago Historical Society."
Dearborn Street
Image | 1906 | Picture Chicagoat the other, the Chicago River. Further to the north the street becomes Dearborn Avenue, a popular residential street ending at Lincoln Park." View is looking north from present-day Congress Parkway.
Palmer House
Image | 1906 | Picture ChicagoCaption: "This famous hotel, at the corner of State and Monroe streets, was built shortly after the great fire by Potter Palmer, to whose estate it now belongs. Many great political deals were consummated within its walls, and its name is known from the Atlantic to the Pacific."
Sherman House
Image | 1910 | Picture ChicagoCaption: "The Sherman House By Courtesy of the Chicago Historical Society". The Sherman House was located at northwest corner of Randolph and Clark Streets. (Source: Early Chicago Hotels, by William R. Host and Brooke Ahne Portmann (2006).

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