The lost panoramas : when Chicago changed its river and the land beyond / Richard Cahan & Michael Williams.

Author: Cahan, Richard.

Edition: 1st ed.

Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : CityFiles Press, c2011.

ISBN: 9780978545000 (hbk.)
0978545001 (hbk.)
9780978545079 (hbk.)
0978545079 (hbk.)

Description: 160 p. : ill., maps ; 24 x 32 cm.

Subject: Chicago (Ill.) History.
Chicago (Ill.) Pictorial works.
Chicago River (Ill.) History.
Chicago River (Ill.) Pictorial works.
Des Plaines River Valley (Wis. and Ill.) History.
Des Plaines River Valley (Wis. and Ill.) Pictorial works.
Illinois River (Ill.) History.
Illinois River (Ill.) Pictorial works.
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal (Ill.) History.
Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal (Ill.) Pictorial works.
Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (Ill.).

Notes: "Over 175 duotone photographs"--Front jacket flap.

Summary: "This unique history book is more about what was lost when the Chicago River was reversed than it is about what was gained. The book is based on the discovery of glass negatives that had been overlooked for a century. The photographers carefully documented Illinois waterways and neighboring land before, during, and after this massive project. It is unexpected and thrilling to see pre-reversal views largely unchanged from the ones that explorers Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette would have seen as they paddled up the Illinois River in 1673. The reversal of the Chicago River remains one of the civil engineering wonders of the world, but this important and beautiful book, and the photographs that made it possible, will be of great assistance in reappraisals of that project in our own more environmentally-sensitive world."--Amazon.com.