1. Mapping the Chicago Board of Trade
A Digital Architectural & Urban History Project
Gretta Tritch Roman
PhD Candidate, Art History

2. Dissertation Title
The Reach of the Pit:
Negotiating the Multiple Spheres of the
Chicago Board of Trade Building in the
Nineteenth Century
Chicago Board of Trade Building
William W. Boyington, architect
1880-85
Background map: Robinson’s Atlas of the City of Chicago, 1886 (tiled images of individual plates
 Adobe Photoshop)

3. Rialto Building
Burnham & Root, architects
1883-86
Commerce Building
Burnham & Root, architects
1885-86
The Rookery
Burnham & Root, architects
1885-88
Calumet Building
Burnham & Root, architects
1882-84
Insurance Exchange Building
Burnham & Root, architects
1884-85
Counselman Building
Burnham & Root, architects
1883-84
Home Insurance Building
William Le Baron Jenney, architect
1883-85
Phenix Building
Burnham & Root, architects
1885-87
Traders’ Building
Burnham & Root, architects
1884-85
Map drawn using Robinson’s Atlas as a base
 AutoCAD and Adobe Illustrator

4. Research Questions:
But also:
Who occupied Chicago’s early skyscrapers? Why were they built?
Why were they built in a particular location?
But also:
How did these buildings relate to one another in the context of the city?
Who designed the building? For whom was it built?
How did these buildings relate to other buildings
designed by [insert architect]? Or, relate to other
buildings constructed at the time?
How did the people inside these buildings relate to one another?

5. Data compiled from CBOT annual reports  Microsoft Excel
1878 1885

6. Data compiled from Robinson’s Atlas, 1886 & Frank Randall’s History of the Development of Building Construction in Chicago
 Microsoft Excel

7. Related the members to the buildings with a unique number  Microsoft Excel

8. Omeka Exhibit using the Neatline Plugin

9. “Georeferencing” an image of a historic map
Georeferencing points on the tiled atlas plates  QGIS (open-source GIS software)

10. Conclusions about the project so far:
• The programs I have used at this point do not help me to
analyze the information I have collected in order to answer
the research questions I pose
• The questions I ask, rather, pertain to analyzing networks
Value of the work completed:
• The Chicago Board of Trade members’ office locations may be
read as a measure of the city – concentration of business
types, quality of building’s rental space, locus of business
district over time
• The historic maps (vector drawings) of Chicago help to
reimagine the city 130 years ago