Aurora, Ill. 1875 from Jennings Seminary.
14 ½ x 29 ¾ inches. Colored lithograph. Some light toning, else excellent. Very rare: only one copy in OCLC of this detailed and attractive bird’s-eye view of Aurora, Illinois, about 36 miles southwest of Chicago. The northern-oriented view portrays Aurora as it was in 1875, just 6 years before the electrification of the city’s streets that would earn the city its nickname. Here the streets are broad, lined with trees, uncrowded with horse carts but nevertheless boasting sidewalks for pedestrians. The Fox River can be seen dividing the city between its eastern and western portions, with East Aurora clearly portrayed as the more industrialized part of the city. The roundhouse and locomotive shop of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (Aurora’s biggest employer at the time) is noted, and a passenger train can be seen rolling in from the west. The map also labels hotels, churches and municipal buildings. In the foreground stands the Jennings Seminary named in the title of the view. Near the river a large quarry is shown: Aurora, historically, seems to have been known for the quality of its stone for building.
* Not in Deak or Rumsey; Reps, John William. Views and Viewmakers of Urban America: Lithographs of Towns and Cities in the United States and Canada. University of Missouri Press, 1984. # 778
Sold