Chicago's 'loop' in 1893, as seen by Rand McNally's
artists
In honor of the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, and in
anticipation of the huge crowds that were to come to the Fair, the Chicago
mapmaking and publishing firm of Rand McNally produced a series of lavish
bird's-eye views of the downtown "loop", still the object of envy
throughout the world for its energy, its capital base, and its rapid
growth. The views themselves focused on something more subtle, and more
central, to the history of American urbanization and its architecture:
the way that buildings themselves were coming to symbolize, singularly and
in the aggregate, urban power and prestige.
