Books & Manuscripts, including Americana

CDVs on cardstock mounts in various sizes documenting the aftermath of the Great Chicago Fire, including examples by Chicago-based photographers and publishers Shaw, Lovejoy & Foster, Greene, Pierce & Co. Some with printed or manuscript title on mount recto or verso.

Content includes various views of landmarks, residences, businesses, churches, and other structures in ruins. Images of Mrs. O'Leary's cow, the purported origin of the Chicago fire (after a lithograph/engraving), Stephen Douglas, and the Douglas Monument are included as well.

Also enclosed are two views reportedly showing the first house built in Chicago following the fire, uncredited but attributed to William Shaw. The images feature a newly constructed building, and one includes numerous signs. among them "W.D. Kerfoot's Block [indecipherable];" "Real Estate Office Wm. D. Kerfoot;" and "89 Washington Street." Several men, including Kerfoot, stand before the building. Ruins and rubble are visible in the background (vertical crease to print and mount, loss to top edge of print, significant edge wear to mount). The second image appears to show the same structure, with several men standing on a platform in front of the building adorned with several signs.

William D. Kerfoot (1837-1918) was a real estate agent and operator who lost nearly everything in the October 9th fire. The following day, he set to work building a structure in which to conduct business, and by noon there was a 12 x 16 foot wooden board shanty as seen in the image here. On one of the signs surmounting the building, he wrote, "W.D. Kerfoot. / Everything gone but wife, children, and energy." 

[With:] 12 glass slides documenting the aftermath of the Chicago fire, each approx. 3 1/4 x 4 1/4 in., with applied paper labels including manuscript title and publisher's imprint, most from the McIntosh Battery & Optical Co.