original october 10th, 1871 chicago evening post extra covering the great chicago fire of 1871

the chicago evening post extra edition, “chicago in flames,” published on tuesday, october 10, 1871, is one of the best-known and most historically significant artifacts of the great chicago fire. it delivered urgent updates as rain finally began to bring the multi-day disaster under control. october 10 marked the fire’s third day: it had begun on sunday evening, october 8, burned through monday, devastated the central business district, and subsided on tuesday.

the front page carried the striking headlines “chicago in flames” and “the great fire: night of horror,” conveying the fear and chaos of a city that had lost more than 17,000 structures.

because the downtown offices of major newspapers—including the evening post, tribune, and times—were destroyed in the fire, publishers had to rely on makeshift facilities at the city’s edges or on surviving presses in nearby neighborhoods to produce these “extras.”

original copies of this edition are now highly prized historical artifacts. institutions such as the newberry library and the chicago history museum preserve surviving copies for the study of firsthand accounts. because of the edition’s iconic status, original printings are valuable to collectors, though many high-quality facsimiles and reproductions have also been made and sold over the years, including in museum gift shops and online marketplaces.