Together with Whitehair, CAC is commissioning an original work that dramatizes the universal lessons of the Great Chicago Fire. Through meticulous research and spirited performance, Whitehair will relate tales of Chicagoans who lived through the inferno in a way that illustrates how Chicago’s can-do spirit was forged and continues to thrive today. This event is part of the CAC’s Great Chicago Fire program suite that is made possible by Underwriters Laboratories. Presenter: Scott Whitehair.

Scott Whitehair is a performer, teacher and producer from Chicago. He is the host of This Much is True, one of the city's longest running personal narrative series, creator of Story Lab Chicago, which has put 700+ new tellers on stage, and founder of Do Not Submit, a citywide network of ten pressure-free open mics every month. He has told stories anywhere somebody will listen, including at Steppenwolf Theatre, Second City, The Green Mill and The Woodstock Opera House, and for NPR, the Risk! podcast and Sirius XM. Scott’s festival appearances include The KC Storytelling Celebration, The San Diego Storytelling Festival and Exchange Place at The National Storytelling Festival. He was the featured instructor at Hong Kong Story Worthy Week, headlined by David Sedaris, and is a two-time Moth Slam winner. Scott has taught sold-out monthly classes since 2012, and has done training for organizations, companies and individuals around the country. He has been a frequent guest instructor at universities and colleges in Chicago and beyond and formerly served on the Board of Directors for the National Storytelling Network.

Public: $25 in person; $17 Virtual
Members: $17 in person; $7 virtual
Students: $10 in person; FREE virtual

Click here to learn more and to purchase tickets.

Remarkably, no carefully researched popular history of the Great Chicago Fire had been written until now. To celebrate Carl Smith's book Chicago's Great Fire: The Destruction and Resurrection of an Iconic American City and the Chicago History Museum's milestone exhibition, City on Fire: Chicago 1871, this program brings together four acclaimed specialists on Chicago history for an important conversation at the fire's 150th anniversary.

Smith will be joined by US historian Adam Green, Chicago History Museum Assistant Curator Julius Jones, and the Newberry's Liesl Olson to unpack the geographical and social inequalities that doomed Chicago to burn and to reconsider the myth of the city rising from the ashes.

This event is cosponsored by the Newberry Library. Click here to RSVP.

In 1879, the Chicago Daily Tribune headline announced, “Something New in Houses— A Fire-Proof Residence.” The article showcased the Nickerson’s new residence, now home to the Driehaus Museum. Built on the ashes of the Great Chicago Fire, this historic landmark is a living reminder of the important stories and lessons that emerged from the most devastating event in the City’s history.

This 90-minute walking tour will begin inside the Museum, with a look at the engineering innovations that made this Marble Palace fire-proof, and continue with a stroll around the neighborhood. You will hear about life in the Chicago of 1871 as we trace the path the fire blazed through the North Division, as the area north of the Chicago River was once known, and learn about how the neighborhood experienced and responded to such tragic loss by fire. Of course, it wouldn’t be Chicago if we didn’t also celebrate the spirit and resilience of the people who sought to rebuild this neighborhood into the fashionable and architecturally significant district that endures today.

Special note: The tour begins at the Driehaus Museum and then travels about two miles in a loop that ends back at the Museum. Comfortable walking shoes are highly recommended! Tours will take place rain or shine.

Location: Driehaus Museum
$30 - Each ticket includes one free pass to the Museum during our public hours

Click here to learn more and to purchase tickets.

In 1879, the Chicago Daily Tribune headline announced, “Something New in Houses— A Fire-Proof Residence.” The article showcased the Nickerson’s new residence, now home to the Driehaus Museum. Built on the ashes of the Great Chicago Fire, this historic landmark is a living reminder of the important stories and lessons that emerged from the most devastating event in the City’s history.

This 90-minute walking tour will begin inside the Museum, with a look at the engineering innovations that made this Marble Palace fire-proof, and continue with a stroll around the neighborhood. You will hear about life in the Chicago of 1871 as we trace the path the fire blazed through the North Division, as the area north of the Chicago River was once known, and learn about how the neighborhood experienced and responded to such tragic loss by fire. Of course, it wouldn’t be Chicago if we didn’t also celebrate the spirit and resilience of the people who sought to rebuild this neighborhood into the fashionable and architecturally significant district that endures today.

Special note: The tour begins at the Driehaus Museum and then travels about two miles in a loop that ends back at the Museum. Comfortable walking shoes are highly recommended! Tours will take place rain or shine.

Location: Driehaus Museum
$30 - Each ticket includes one free pass to the Museum during our public hours

Click here to learn more and to purchase tickets.

In 1879, the Chicago Daily Tribune headline announced, “Something New in Houses— A Fire-Proof Residence.” The article showcased the Nickerson’s new residence, now home to the Driehaus Museum. Built on the ashes of the Great Chicago Fire, this historic landmark is a living reminder of the important stories and lessons that emerged from the most devastating event in the City’s history.

This 90-minute walking tour will begin inside the Museum, with a look at the engineering innovations that made this Marble Palace fire-proof, and continue with a stroll around the neighborhood. You will hear about life in the Chicago of 1871 as we trace the path the fire blazed through the North Division, as the area north of the Chicago River was once known, and learn about how the neighborhood experienced and responded to such tragic loss by fire. Of course, it wouldn’t be Chicago if we didn’t also celebrate the spirit and resilience of the people who sought to rebuild this neighborhood into the fashionable and architecturally significant district that endures today.

Special note: The tour begins at the Driehaus Museum and then travels about two miles in a loop that ends back at the Museum. Comfortable walking shoes are highly recommended! Tours will take place rain or shine.

Location: Driehaus Museum
$30 - Each ticket includes one free pass to the Museum during our public hours

Click here to learn more and to purchase tickets.

In 1879, the Chicago Daily Tribune headline announced, “Something New in Houses— A Fire-Proof Residence.” The article showcased the Nickerson’s new residence, now home to the Driehaus Museum. Built on the ashes of the Great Chicago Fire, this historic landmark is a living reminder of the important stories and lessons that emerged from the most devastating event in the City’s history.

This 90-minute walking tour will begin inside the Museum, with a look at the engineering innovations that made this Marble Palace fire-proof, and continue with a stroll around the neighborhood. You will hear about life in the Chicago of 1871 as we trace the path the fire blazed through the North Division, as the area north of the Chicago River was once known, and learn about how the neighborhood experienced and responded to such tragic loss by fire. Of course, it wouldn’t be Chicago if we didn’t also celebrate the spirit and resilience of the people who sought to rebuild this neighborhood into the fashionable and architecturally significant district that endures today.

Special note: The tour begins at the Driehaus Museum and then travels about two miles in a loop that ends back at the Museum. Comfortable walking shoes are highly recommended! Tours will take place rain or shine.

Location: Driehaus Museum, 40 E. Erie St., Chicago, IL 60611
$30 - Each ticket includes one free pass to the Museum during our public hours

We invite you to join us for the official release of Angel of Fire, the 8th cultural collaborative beer spearheaded by the Chicago Brewseum and made in partnership with the Chicago History Museum and Alarmist Brewing.

For more information, visit the Chicago Brewseum website.

Guess who’s coming to the Marble Palace for tea? Chicago’s own Mrs. Catherine O’Leary and the Nickersons’ neighbor, Mrs. Anna Tree! History comes alive during Story Time as kids meet these historical figures to hear a personal account of their experiences in 1871 and about the fire that changed everything. Mrs. Tree will recall one unforgettable incident through a reading of Fiery Night: A Boy, His Goat, and the Great Chicago Fire, by Sally M. Walker and Kayla Harren - a true story of strength, courage, and love that is part of the history of the Driehaus Museum neighborhood.

Tickets
$15 for one adult and one child; $5 for each additional child

Location:
Driehaus Museum

Find out more on the Driehaus Museum website.

Join us for a vivid overview of the Great Chicago Fire with Carl Smith, the Franklyn Bliss Snyder Professor of English and American Studies and Professor of History, Emeritus, at Northwestern University, and the author of Chicago’s Great Fire: The Destruction and Resurrection of an Iconic American City. Smith will draw on his research to present an overview of those fateful October days in 1871 when Chicago watched as a third of its city burned and afterwards, learned the hopeful lessons that ensured its broad-shouldered future. It will then focus in particular on how people in the Driehaus Museum neighborhood, which was completely destroyed, experienced the fire. The talk will be richly illustrated with a wide selection of contemporary images.

Carl Smith is Franklyn Bliss Snyder Professor of English and American Studies and Professor of History, Emeritus, at Northwestern University. His books include Chicago and the American Literary Imagination, 1880-1920; Urban Disorder and the Shape of Belief: The Great Chicago Fire, the Haymarket Bomb, and the Model Town of Pullman; The Plan of Chicago: Daniel Burnham and the Remaking of the American City; and City Water, City Life: Water and the Infrastructure of Ideas in Urbanizing Philadelphia, Boston, and Chicago.

General Public: $15
Members: $12
Location: Driehaus Museum

Click here to purchase tickets.

The conflagration that tore through Chicago in October 1871 is often credited with rewriting our city’s history. Like most everything from that era, the Great Fire’s aftermath was an opportunity for those on the make. But was it really so clear-cut?

In this special 90-minute virtual event, we’ve assembled a broad panel of historians to answer your every question about the true impact of the Great Chicago Fire and the popular myths that continue to drive the city’s sense of self. We will consider a mix of stories examining:

The process of how those iconic Great Chicago Fire images came to be, how they penetrated the media landscape at the time of the Fire, and how the images continue to inform future generations’ thoughts about Chicago.

The real derivation of the many building safety improvements we often attribute as a direct response to the Great Chicago Fire.

The displacement of Black and minority populations from downtown Chicago in the Fire’s aftermath, and its eventual role in shaping the Great Migration in Chicago.

The many Chicago commemorations, festivals, and political maneuverings that seized upon the Great Chicago Fire to build citizens’ pride of place.

$25 public
$17 for members
FREE for students

Click here for tickets.