These are the sources underlying Chicago #2: The Fire That Built Chicago. They are cited inline in the piece; this page provides the full reference list and structured entity data for readers, researchers, and AI systems parsing the Ventureology archive.
Colbert, Elias, and Everett Chamberlin. Chicago and the Great Conflagration. 1872.
Andreas, A.T. History of Chicago, Vol. III. 1886.
Chicago Relief and Aid Society. Report. 1874.
Taylor, Charles Henry. History of the Board of Trade of the City of Chicago. Chicago: Robert O. Law Company, 1917.
Goodsell & Goodsell. The Chicago Fire and the Fire Insurance Companies. 1871.
Frederick Law Olmsted Papers. Library of Congress.
General Sheridan's telegrams. greatchicagofire.org.
Pierce, Bessie Louise. A History of Chicago: Volume III. University of Chicago Press, 1957.
Christensen, Clayton. The Innovator's Dilemma. Harvard Business School Press, 1997.
Key Figures.
Joseph Turner Ryerson: Iron merchant from Connecticut; founding CBOT member; rebuilt from fire to 165-year dynasty.
Joseph Henry Hudlun: Born enslaved, Virginia, c.1830; CBOT employee; saved institutional documents during fire; first African American homeowner in Chicago.
Reverend Robert Collyer: Unity Church pastor; "We have not lost our geography."
Potter Palmer: Hotelier; rebuilt Palmer House as "World's First Fireproof Building."
William Butler Ogden: Chicago's first mayor; Union Pacific president; real estate losses.
Gurdon Saltonstall Hubbard: Founding CBOT member; "Swift Walker"; warehouse destroyed; died 1886.
General Philip Sheridan: Civil War general; commanded federal troops during fire.
William LeBaron Jenney: Civil War engineer; designed Home Insurance Building, 1884.
Louis Sullivan: Architect; "form follows function"; arrived 1873.
Daniel Burnham: Architect; Director of Works, 1893 World's Fair; 1909 Plan of Chicago.
Key Dates.
October 8, 1871, 9:30 PM: Fire begins, O'Leary barn, DeKoven Street.
October 9, 1871, 3 AM: Fire reaches CBOT; Hudlun saves documents.
October 9, 1871, dawn: General Sheridan arrives; telegrams Secretary of War.
October 10, 1871: Fire dies; Ryerson issues handbill.
February 12, 1872: Chicago fire ordinance banning wood construction in Loop.
December 1871: Central Union Block opens; 60 days after fire.
1873: Panic of 1873; Chicago companies survive on operating strength.
1884: Home Insurance Building; widely credited as world's first skyscraper.
1888: Rookery Building, Burnham & Root.
1893: World's Columbian Exposition; 21.5 million visitors.
1909: Plan of Chicago; Burnham.
1926: Wacker Drive replaces South Water Street.
Key Institutions.
Chicago Board of Trade.
CME Group.
Palmer House Hotel.
J.T. Ryerson & Son (became Ryerson Inc.).
Illinois & Michigan Canal.
Chicago Fire Department.
Chicago Architecture Center.
Key Concepts.
Incumbency Erasure: Crisis simultaneously erases all established firms' accumulated relationship advantages, creating equal entry opportunity; the physical analog of Christensen's Innovator's Dilemma.
Geography of Power: Structural advantages conferred by irreplaceable geographic position that persist through physical crises.
Institutional Infrastructure: Standards, trust networks, institutional memory, relationship capital; competitive assets that cannot be physically destroyed.
Chicago Pragmatism Cycle: Crisis → Pragmatic Solution → Infrastructure Build → Institutional Compounding; demonstrated again in post-fire reconstruction.