Chicago00: 1871 Great Chicago Fire is an interactive and immersive experience of a gigantic 360° painting of the Great Chicago Fire. The painting was created as a preliminary study for a cyclorama experience of the Chicago Fire, exhibited in 1892 and 1893 in downtown Chicago. In this web portal, users can zoom and move through the painting through gigapixel webVR technology. There are narrated tours of the painting, and annotations to bring up more information.

Created for the 150th anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire, this Chicago00 experience tries to reproduce the immersive experience of 19th century cycloramas through new technology.

Made with the support of the Future Museum Media Innovation Studio (fmmis.org)

  

Web portal

  

  

Chicago00: 1893 World's Columbian Exposition is a VR experience of 16 sites along Midway Plaisance and Jackson parks, and archival photography that shows the world's fair that happened there over a century ago. The experience focuses on the fair's Midway, where millions of our nation of immigrants came together to gawk at a pageant of luxury, entertainment and exoticism.

We follow a path from the White City (today, the site of Jackson Park), along the Midway Plaisance, and up onto the Ferris Wheel. The experience has been released as a web portal with 16 VR sites, and a gallery of almost 90 historic images, never before brought together in this way. The centerpiece is a reconstruction of the 1893 Ferris Wheel experience using VR drone videography, 3D architectural animations, and over a dozen photos taken from the wheel in 1893.

This Chicago00 episode is funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (views expressed do not necessarily represent those of the NEH).

  

Our Process

As part of the 1893 project, we conducted an extensive evaluation of the Chicago00 virtual reality experiences, and created a rubric to be shared with other institutions and creative producers.

You can read more about this process in the executive summary, here: Our Process

  

Web portal

  

  

Released on the 50th anniversary of the events, this episode reveals the history of Chicago's Grant Park on August 28th, 1968, when protestors violently clashed with police during the final night of the Democratic National Convention.

Chicago00: The 1968 DNC Protests is a virtual reality experience of Grant Park on August 28th, 1968 when protestors and police violently clashed. Now, 50 years later, audiences can see historical film and photos taken that day superimposed on new 3D virtual reality photos of the site, with narration by Dr. David Farber, author of "Chicago '68."

The 15 minute 3D VR tour with narration has to be viewed on Youtube or on Facebook 360. On iPhone use the YouTube app; on desktop the Chrome browser. 360 stills can be explored in Google Street View.

  

Videos	Web portal

  

  

Chicago00: A Century of Progress is a virtual reality experience of Chicago's 1933 World’s Fair. Using historical photos taken from the fair's 628 foot Sky Ride and new drone photography, audiences are transported along the route of the Sky Ride cable cars high above the fair.

A unique tour of the fleeting and sensational city within a city that attracted nearly 50 million visitors to the shores of Lake Michigan in the midst of the Great Depression, the VR tour can be viewed in Youtube or with the free app which includes a gallery of more than 60 captioned photographs. 360 stills can be previewed in Google Streetview.

  

  

The award winning VR experience, Chicago00: St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, brings photographs and documents from the Chicago History Museum's archive to the site of the 1929 St. Valentine’s Day Massacre through virtual reality. The photos collected here, some well-known, some rare, tell this familiar Chicago story in a new and compelling way.

Featuring selections from the Chicago History Museum, Chicago Tribune Archive, John Binder Collection, and Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office, the narrated immersive, interactive experiences work with or without a virtual reality viewer, and put the user in the shoes of the photographers who captured this infamous moment in Chicago history. The app offers the ability to zoom-in to examine individual photos and learn more with extensive text captions.

  

  

On July 24, 1915, the passenger ship SS Eastland capsized in the Chicago River between Clark and LaSalle streets: the single largest loss of life in Chicago history. Chicago00: The Eastland Disaster is an on-site augmented reality tour using over 70 historical photographs and newsreel films to tell the disaster.

The app, a free download for iPhone and Android, provides an AR tour specifically designed to be used along Chicago’s riverwalk, and a VR Gallery of images that can be viewed anywhere. Together they reveal the story of the disaster in a new and visceral way.

  

  

Created for display on the Media Stream 150— the largest screen in Chicago, spanning 3,000+ square feet in the lobby of the 150 North Riverside Tower— Chicago00: Spaces is a visualization of the Chicago History Museum’s archive of Hedrich Blessing photographs— thousands of images captured by the world-famous architectural photography firm between 1929 and 1979.

Five decades of Chicago architectural history are pulled apart and then stitched back together into ever-morphing composites of the city’s remarkable architectural legacy, forming a 20 minute UUHD video installation.

  

CHICAGO ØØ

    

Conceived by
Geoffrey Alan Rhodes and John Russick

Designed by
Geoffrey Alan Rhodes

Major Funding
The National Endowment for the Humanities
The National Endowment for the Arts
The Princess Grace Foundation USA

Additional Support
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago

    

Chicago00: 1871 Great Chicago Fire (2021)

    

Lead Historical Researcher
Carl Smith

Narrated by
Geoffrey Alan Rhodes

Script and Captions
Carl Smith

Historical Photographs
Chicago History Museum

Other Historical Research
Jojo Galvan Mora

Digital Painting Restoration
Li Lu Yun (李绿云)

webXR Platform
krpano.com

Special thanks to
Library of Congress
University of Detroit Mercy archives
Heidi Samuelson
Esther Wang
Angela Hoover
Katie Levi

    

Chicago00: 1893 World's Columbian Exposition (2020)

    

Episode Specific Funding
The National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the human endeavor

Partner Institution
Chicago Public Library

Historical Photographs & Documents
Chicago History Museum
Chicago Public Library, Special Collections
The Art Institute of Chicago, Ryerson and Burnham Archives
Brooklyn Museum Archives, Goodyear Archival Collection

Historical Audio
Benjamin Ives Gilman 1893 World's Columbian Exposition collection, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University

Aerial Drone Operations
Aerovista Innovations

Panoramic Photography & Compositing
Geoffrey Alan Rhodes

Web Portal Engineer
Oliver Popadich

Ferris Wheel 3D Model & Animation
Jacob Waas

Render Farm Support & Services
RebusFarm

Web Portal Support
Google For Non-Profits

Archival Research
Kayla McCarthy

Text
Kayla McCarthy
Geoffrey Alan Rhodes
Julius Jones
Trevor Cunnien

Project Evaluation
HG&Co

Advising Scholars
Christopher Reed
Marie Hicks
Adam Mack
Kyle Roberts

Special Thanks to:
Megan Clark
Angela Hoover
Timothy Paton
Jake Silby
Brigid Kennedy
Rosemary Adams
Kevin Ryan

    

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this video/web resource, do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

    

Chicago00: 1968 DNC Protests (2019)

    

Narrated by
Dr. David Farber,
Roy A. Roberts Distinguished Professor, Modern America, University of Kansas
Author of, "Chicago ’68" (University of Chicago Press, 1988)

Historical Photographs
Chicago History Museum

Historical Audio
"American Revolution 2: Battle of Chicago (Part 1)"
(Chicago Film Group, 1969, 16mm., B&W, Sound)
&
"Urban Crisis and the New Militants: 'Social Confrontation: The Battle of Michigan Ave.'"
(Chicago Film Group, 1968, 16mm., B&W, Sound)
Courtesy of Chicago Film Archives.

Music
By E. Robert Velazco, from:
"The Distant Drummer: A Movable Scene,"
Arlie Pictures & The U.S. National Institute of Health (1970).
Courtesy of, The Prelinger Archives

Panoramic Photography & Compositing
Geoffrey Alan Rhodes

Web Portal Engineer
Oliver Popadich

Lead Historical Researcher
Trevor Cunnien

Other Historical Research and Gallery Captions
Kayla McCarthy

Research Fellows
Charlotte Rosen
Alvita Akiboh

Project Intern
María Camila Palacio

Additional Support
Chabraja Center for Historical Studies
Studs Terkel Center for Oral History

Special Thanks to:
Julius Jones
Angela Morris
Timothy Paton Jr.
Maxine Frendel

    

Chicago00: A Century of Progress (2018)

    

Historical Photographs
Chicago History Museum

Music
"Shuffle Your Feet,"
Don Redman Orchestra with Harlan Lattimore
Brunswick Race Records, 1933.

Script
Geoffrey Alan Rhodes

Aerial Photography
AeroVista Innovations

Panoramic Photography & Compositing
Geoffrey Alan Rhodes
Te Bao

Archival Image Research
Trevor Cunnien

Special Thanks to:
Angela Hoover
Joseph Campbell
Julius Jones

    

Chicago00: St. Valentines Day Massacre (2017)

    

Historical Photographs & Documents
Chicago History Museum
Chicago Tribune Archive Photo/TNS
The John Binder Collection
Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office

Music
"Pharoah's army got drowned,"
(unknown performer)
Edison Diamond Disc, recorded July 9, 1924.

"Prelude in C sharp minor op. 3"
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Edison Diamond Disc, recorded March 12, 1920.

Text
Trevor Cunnien
Geoffrey Alan Rhodes
John Russick
Rosemary Adams

Panoramic Photography
Geoffrey Alan Rhodes
Xiaoting Che

Special Thanks to:
Angela Hoover
Joseph Campbell
John Binder

    

Chicago00: The Eastland Disaster (2016)

    

Graphic Design
Tifa Ting Zhou

UI/UX Design
Tifa Ting Zhou
Xiaoting Che

Text
Rosemary Adams
David Hale
Geoffrey Alan Rhodes
John Russick

Panoramic Photography
Geoffrey Alan Rhodes

Computer Science Research
Marco Cavallo and the Creative Coding Research Group,
University of Illinois-Chicago

Historical Photographs
Chicago History Museum

AR Framework
Kudan

Special Thanks to:
Randy Adamsick
Joseph Campbell
Angus Forbes
Angela Hoover
Paulina Ramirez
Magdalena Wistuba
Rodrigo Zuloaga

Project Interns:
Trevor Cunnien
Yi Luan
Ayesha Wadhawan
Lucy Wang
David Hale