1820 Chicago Lithograph

Created in 1867 by the Chicago Lithographing Co. Obviously produced from memory, the image shows Native Americans engaged in fur trading on the banks of a river or lake at the settlement of Chicago. 

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Digitized at the Library of Congress, the original paper print was 19x24 inches. The LOC posting says: "Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1867 by H. Heinke, in the clerk's office of U. S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois."

Presumably, based on the presence of a section of wall, the structure in the middle of the image is Fort Dearborn, originally built around 1803. Destroyed during the War of 1812, it was rebuilt in 1818 -- two years before the time portrayed by this lithograph.

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D.