Join us for a vivid overview of the Great Chicago Fire with Carl Smith, the Franklyn Bliss Snyder Professor of English and American Studies and Professor of History, Emeritus, at Northwestern University, and the author of Chicago’s Great Fire: The Destruction and Resurrection of an Iconic American City. Smith will draw on his research to present an overview of those fateful October days in 1871 when Chicago watched as a third of its city burned and afterwards, learned the hopeful lessons that ensured its broad-shouldered future. It will then focus in particular on how people in the Driehaus Museum neighborhood, which was completely destroyed, experienced the fire. The talk will be richly illustrated with a wide selection of contemporary images.

Carl Smith is Franklyn Bliss Snyder Professor of English and American Studies and Professor of History, Emeritus, at Northwestern University. His books include Chicago and the American Literary Imagination, 1880-1920; Urban Disorder and the Shape of Belief: The Great Chicago Fire, the Haymarket Bomb, and the Model Town of Pullman; The Plan of Chicago: Daniel Burnham and the Remaking of the American City; and City Water, City Life: Water and the Infrastructure of Ideas in Urbanizing Philadelphia, Boston, and Chicago.

General Public: $15
Members: $12
Location: Driehaus Museum

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