Without Bounds or Limits: Images of the Plan

The Plan of Chicago is as well known for its images as its ideas. The maps and illustrations throughout the text depict proposed improvements, highlight key points, and lend a distinctive aesthetic to the Plan. The visual charm was intentional. In his speeches, letters, and writings, Burnham appealed to what he believed was a person's sense of the beautiful and the desire to dwell in harmonious surroundings.

To that end, Burnham often used lantern slides to display images of the Plan during his promotional talks. The precursors to modern-day projection technology, lantern slides were glass plates with paint or photo emulsion that, when hit with direct light, cast a larger image.

This section contains digital reproductions of several lantern slides Burnham and the Commercial Club used to market the Plan and arouse public interest. Most of them correspond to the text of the Plan, some of them based on watercolor paintings by the artist Jules Guerin. From these images, it is easy to see the influence of European culture, the City Beautiful movement, and romanticism on the Plan, as well as the planners' unique ideas for a re-imagined Chicago landscape.

	TITLE: DATE: PLATE / PAGE NO.: RBA DIGITAL FILE NO.:	Plan of Chicago, Plan of the street and boulevard system present and proposed. c.1908 Plate 86 / After p. 80 7627
	TITLE: DATE: PLATE / PAGE NO.: RBA DIGITAL FILE NO.:	Plan of Chicago, Plan of the city, showing the general system of boulevards and parks existing and proposed. c.1908 Plate 103 / p. 93 7694
	TITLE: DATE: PLATE / PAGE NO.: RBA DIGITAL FILE NO.:	Plan of Chicago, Plan of the complete system of street circulation; railway stations; parks, boulevard circuits and radial arteries; public recreation piers, yacht harbor, and pleasure-craft piers. c.1908 Plate 110 / after p. 100 15102
	TITLE: DATE: PLATE / PAGE NO.: RBA DIGITAL FILE NO.:	Plan of Chicago, View looking north on the south branch of the Chicago River, showing the suggested arrangement of streets and ways for teaming and reception of freight by boat, at different levels. c.1908 Plate 107 / after p. 96 15113
	TITLE: DATE: PLATE / PAGE NO.: RBA DIGITAL FILE NO.:	Plan of Chicago, "Michigan Avenue, looking towards the south." 1909 Plate 118 / p. 106 80253
	TITLE: DATE: PLATE / PAGE NO.: RBA DIGITAL FILE NO.:	Plan of Chicago, "Chicago. View of the city from Jackson Park to Grant Park, looking towards the west." Jules Guerin, renderer. c.1909 Plate 49 / after p. 50 80307
	TITLE: DATE: PLATE / PAGE NO.: RBA DIGITAL FILE NO.:	Plan of Chicago, View looking south over the lagoons of the proposed park for the south shore. Jules Guerin, renderer. c.1908 Plate 51 / after p. 50 80323
	TITLE: DATE: PLATE / PAGE NO.: RBA DIGITAL FILE NO.:	Plan of Chicago, Plan of a complete system of street circulation and system of parks and playgrounds, presenting the city as an organism in which all the functions are related to one another. c.1908 Plate 85 / after p. 80 80371
	TITLE: DATE: PLATE / PAGE NO.: RBA DIGITAL FILE NO.:	Plan of Chicago, View looking west over the city, showing the proposed Civic Center, the grand axis, Grant Park, and the harbor. Jules Guerin, renderer. c.1909 Plate 87 / after p. 80 80372
	TITLE: DATE: PLATE / PAGE NO.: RBA DIGITAL FILE NO.:	Plan of Chicago, Diagram of the city center, showing the proposed arrangement of railroad passenger stations, the complete traction system, including rapid transit, subway, and elevated roads, and the circuit subway line. c.1908 Plate 80 80373
	TITLE: DATE: PLATE / PAGE NO.: RBA DIGITAL FILE NO.:	Plan of Chicago, Proposed Twelfth Street boulevard at its intersections with Michigan Avenue and Ashland Avenue. Jules Guerin, renderer. c.1908 Plate 121 / after p. 108 80377
	TITLE: DATE: PLATE / PAGE NO.: RBA DIGITAL FILE NO.:	Plan of Chicago, Bird's-eye view at night of Grant Park, the facade of the city, the proposed harbor, and the lagoons of the proposed park on the south shore. Jules Guerin, renderer. c.1908 Plate 127 / after p. 112 80378
	TITLE: DATE: PLATE / PAGE NO.: RBA DIGITAL FILE NO.:	Plan of Chicago, View, looking west, of the proposed Civic Center plaza and buildings, showing it as the center of the system of arteries of circulation and of the surrounding country. Jules Guerin, renderer. c.1908 Plate 132 / after p. 112 80380
	TITLE: DATE: PLATE / PAGE NO.: RBA DIGITAL FILE NO.:	Plan of Chicago, Alternate railway station scheme west of the river between Canal and Clinton Streets. c.1908 Plate 123 80392
	TITLE: DATE: PLATE / PAGE NO.: RBA DIGITAL FILE NO.:	Plan of Chicago, Paris, Avenue des Champs ?lys?es, from the Place de la Concorde, showing the Arc de Triomphe in vista; view west; from a published source. c.1900-1908 Plate 94 80511
	TITLE: DATE: PLATE / PAGE NO.: RBA DIGITAL FILE NO.:	Plan of Chicago, The transformation of Paris under Hausmann: plan showing the portion executed from 1854 to 1889. The new boulevards and streets are shown in yellow outlined with red. n.d. Plate 17 80544
	TITLE: DATE: PLATE / PAGE NO.: RBA DIGITAL FILE NO.:	Plan of Chicago, Cleveland Group Plan. View looking toward the Lake from the proposed civic center, aerial view of proposed Municipal Building and Railway Station. c.1908 Plate 28 80367
	TITLE: DATE: PLATE / PAGE NO.: RBA DIGITAL FILE NO.:	Plan of Chicago, Sketch diagram of docks suggested at the mouth of the Calumet River for bulk freight steamers; access had to be without opening bridges. c.1908 Plate 72 80369
	TITLE: DATE: PLATE / PAGE NO.: RBA DIGITAL FILE NO.:	Plan of Chicago, Diagram of the city and surrounding country, showing railroad circuits, B, C, D, and E, which are, or may become, tangent to the inner circuit (A). c.1908 Plate 73 80370