Extinguishing the Myths of the Great Chicago Fire

Name: Extinguishing the Myths of the Great Chicago Fire
Start: 2021-11-03T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2021-11-03T01:00:00-05:00
Location: Extinguishing the Myths of the Great Chicago Fire

Carl Smith, Adam Green, Julius Jones, and Liesl Olson

Nov 03, 2021

Four acclaimed specialists on Chicago reconsider the myths of the Great Chicago Fire, including the narrative of the city rising from the ashes of an epic disaster.

Photograph showing the aftermath of the Great Chicago Fire. From the Oliver Barrett-Carl Sandburg Papers at the Newberry Library.

This program will be held virtually on Zoom. Please register for free in advance here.

NOTE: You can also watch a live stream of the program on the Newberry Facebook page or YouTube channel.

Remarkably, no carefully researched popular history of the Great Chicago Fire had been written until now.

To celebrate Carl Smith's book Chicago's Great Fire: The Destruction and Resurrection of an Iconic American City and the Chicago History Museum's milestone exhibition, City on Fire: Chicago 1871, this program brings together four acclaimed specialists on Chicago history for an important conversation at the fire's 150th anniversary.

Smith will be joined by US historian Adam Green, Chicago History Museum Assistant Curator Julius Jones, and the Newberry's Liesl Olson to unpack the geographical and social inequalities that doomed Chicago to burn and to reconsider the myth of the city rising from the ashes.

This event is cosponsored by the Chicago History Museum and the Chicago Collections Consortium.

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