Climax in Steel

Morris Gurrie

1920s–30s · Gelatin silver print · Photographs

In the 1920s, photographers eagerly captured rising skylines across the country, especially in Chicago and New York, where change and presumed “progress” were most dramatic. The Chicago-based photographer Gurrie created this inventive view of his city’s skyline by framing the forty-floor skyscraper at 35 East Wacker, known as the Jewelers Building, by powerful steel girders adorned with rivets. The photograph’s vertical orientation effectively echoes the upward reach of the structures in the distance. Built between 1925 and 1927, the Jewelers Building was the tallest structure west of New York when it was completed. It was also notorious—the mobster Al Capone reportedly ran the restaurant in the building’s cupola as a speakeasy during Prohibition (1920–33).

Artist

Morris Gurrie

Date

1920s–30s

Medium

Gelatin silver print

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Ford Motor Company Collection, Gift of Ford Motor Company and John C. Waddell, 1987