Item #18525 Petition of the Mayor and Common Council of the City of Chicago, Praying an appropriation to protect that city from the encroachments of Lake Michigan. February 17, 1840 . . . [caption title]. Chicago, Eli S. Prescott B. W. Raymond, W. L. Newberry.
Petition of the Mayor and Common Council of the City of Chicago, Praying an appropriation to protect that city from the encroachments of Lake Michigan. February 17, 1840 . . . [caption title].

Petition of the Mayor and Common Council of the City of Chicago, Praying an appropriation to protect that city from the encroachments of Lake Michigan. February 17, 1840 . . . [caption title].

[Washington, D. C.]: Blair & Rives, printers, [1840]. First edition. Removed unbound pamphlet, scant 9 x 5.75 inches, 4 pages. With the accompanying map, a sketch chart of Chicago Harbor, “showing changing shore line of Lake Michigan, 1821, 1838, and 1839” (Claussen & Friis), scant 9 x 11.75 inches, engraved by W. J. Stone. Some light old staining and foxing, with some darker staining to the blank verso of the map; in very good condition. Item #18525

“Chicago having so recently spring into existence, its commercial importance, I think, is not properly appreciated even in our own State, much less through the Union.” An uncommon early partial map of Chicago, including—in addition to three surveys of the receding shoreline—a partial plan of Chicago, as well as the Chicago River and the north and south piers; the extension of the piers “have caused such a change in the action and effect of the waters on this shore of Lake Michigan, that immediately on the north side of said piers land is gradually forming, while on the south side thereof, it is rapidly disappearing.” (Michigan Avenue between Randolph and S. Water Street appears to have been threatened.) The area east of Michigan Avenue would not be filled until after the fire of 1871, when about a half mile of land was added. Claussen & Friis 338.

Price: $750.00