The Baltimore Fire

Frederick W. Mueller, photographer
Cycloramic View of the Burned
Area of Baltimore's Big Fire
Gelatin silver print, February 1904
Prints & Photographs Division (142.1)
Copyright deposit, 1904

Jack Hemmett
The Baltimore Fire Through a Camera.
New York: Illustrated Press Syndicate, 1904
Prints & Photographs Division (143.3)
Copyright deposit, 1904

Throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, cities were plagued by devastating fires. These disasters were memorialized in panoramas, stereographs, and souvenir booklets as well as official documents like topographical maps. In 1904 a blaze spread through downtown Baltimore and took thirty hours to extinguish. More than 1500 buildings in eighty-six city blocks were destroyed; $150 million in damages was incurred, but no loss of life.