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Source Description
Most bird's eye views were not designed to depict a specific date. However, this view is tied to an actual event, similar to Fuchs' view dated July 4, 1870. Three weeks after Boston's great fire of November 9 and 10, 1872, Harpers Weekly published this view illustrating the extent of the burned district. In their haste to provide graphic images of the disastrous event in their weekly news magazine, the editors borrowed sketches of the city compiled by Charles R. Parsons before the fire. These materials were generated during the preparation of a magnificent bird's eye view which was to be published by Currier and Ives, as was acknowledged in the bottom marginal notes and an accompanying article. In this journalistic presentation, the city is viewed from the east with the burned district highlighted by shading. The designated area includes that portion of today's Financial District bordered roughly by Summer, Washington, Milk, and Broad Streets. The most destructive of several great fires that occurred in Boston, the disaster engulfed more than 60 acres of some of the most valuable real estate in the city, destroying 930 businesses valued at approximately $100,000,000 (about $3.5 to $4 billion in current dollars).
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
x059cb44q
label
Bird's-eye view of Boston, showing the burned district
core
obj
dtoType
map
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
x059cb44q
contentType
map
stage
normalized
title
Bird's-eye view of Boston, showing the burned district
description
Most bird's eye views were not designed to depict a specific date. However, this view is tied to an actual event, similar to Fuchs' view dated July 4, 1870. Three weeks after Boston's great fire of November 9 and 10, 1872, Harpers Weekly published this view illustrating the extent of the burned district. In their haste to provide graphic images of the disastrous event in their weekly news magazine, the editors borrowed sketches of the city compiled by Charles R. Parsons before the fire. These materials were generated during the preparation of a magnificent bird's eye view which was to be published by Currier and Ives, as was acknowledged in the bottom marginal notes and an accompanying article. In this journalistic presentation, the city is viewed from the east with the burned district highlighted by shading. The designated area includes that portion of today's Financial District bordered roughly by Summer, Washington, Milk, and Broad Streets. The most destructive of several great fires that occurred in Boston, the disaster engulfed more than 60 acres of some of the most valuable real estate in the city, destroying 930 businesses valued at approximately $100,000,000 (about $3.5 to $4 billion in current dollars).
date
["[1872]"]
year
1872
rights
No known copyright restrictions.
rightsUri
No known restrictions on use.
reuseAllowed
no restrictions
language
English
identifierLocal
06_01_001909
creators
Parsons, Charles R. (Charles Richard), 1844-1918
institution
Boston Public Library
collections
Urban Maps
Boston and New England Maps
Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center Collection
subjects
Great Fire, Boston, Mass., 1872--Aerial views
Boston (Mass.)--Aerial views
subjectsGeographic
Boston
Massachusetts
North and Central America
Suffolk (county)
United States
genreBasic
Maps
typeOfResource
Cartographic
Still image
country
United States
state
Massachusetts
county
Suffolk
city
Boston
thumbnailUrl
largeImageUrl
pageCount
1
source
import
pubPlace
New York
publisher
Harper's Weekly
Source extras
institutionArkId
sf268508b
collectionArkId
9s1621613
schema:latitude
42.35
schema:longitude
-71.05
extent
1 view : col. ; 35 x 52 cm.
notes
Appears in Harper's Weekly. November 30, 1872. Pages 936-937.
Gift of Bank of America.
hasTranscription
no
dcId
x059cb44q
type
map
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
fbd0861ffcfc2df8