1930 Varin View of the Post Office Building, Chicago, Illinois

A 1927 Raoul Varin aquatint view of the Post Office and Customs House, formerly on the northwest corner of Dearborn and Monroe Streets in Downtown Chicago. It depicts the building and its surroundings in 1865, before being destroyed in the 1871 Great Chicago Fire.

A Closer Look

As the title indicates, this view is oriented towards the northwest corner of Dearborn and Monroe Streets in Downtown Chicago, focusing on the large and impressive Post Office and Customs House that opened in 1855. The buildings on either side of the Post Office belonged to Benjamin F. Lombard, a very successful lawyer and banker, and were designed to match the Post Office Building in style and ambition. A tea shop at right and additional buildings at left are also depicted. The bustling street scene includes pedestrians, animals, horseback riders, and a variety of carts and carriages.

The Chicago Post Office and Customs House

Erected in 1855, the Chicago Post Office and Customs House was a grand statement of the city's growing importance and future aspirations. The first floor consisted of the public-facing Post Office, while the second and third floor contained offices for the Postal Service and Customs Service. The building's Neoclassical style incorporated marble on both the exterior and interior and other fine furnishings, including drainage and sewage pipes. Employing a staff of more than one hundred, it was thought to immediately rank among the top post offices in the country in terms of importance. Unfortunately, the building was one of the many casualties of the Great Chicago Fire in October 1871.

Aquatint

Aquatint is a printmaking technique that has been used since the 18th century. In aquatint, the artist creates an image by marking the surface of a copper or zinc plate. The marks hold the ink, which is then transferred to paper when the plate is passed through a printing press. One of the innovations of the aquatint process was the ability to create tonal variation depending on how the image was etched onto the printing plate.

Publication History and Census

This view was created by Raoul Varin and published by Sidney Lucas in Chicago in 1927. Varin produced a series of thirty-one views of Chicago between 1926 and 1932, which focused on the appearance of historical buildings and other structures, including the many destroyed in the 1871 fire. Each of Varin's views was issued in a limited edition of 125 prints, many of which have suffered from poor framing and are generally not in the best condition. Lucas attained the rights to this print from A. Ackermann and Son, publishers of most of Varin's other prints. The Art Institute of Chicago is the only institution known to hold an example of this print.