Seattle’s Great Fire occurred on June 6, 1889, in a carpenter shop at 1st Avenue and Madison Street. The story goes that a workman, John Back, was melting glue in a pot that boiled over onto the floor, igniting wood shavings and sawdust. The fire quickly grew and flames swept out through the shop’s open doors and windows, spreading to adjacent buildings. The hot, dry day made matters worse, and soon the fire completely overwhelmed firefighting efforts. Within 24 hours, the entire commercial heart of town from 3rd Avenue west to the wharves had burned to the ground. The artist, Rudolph Franz Zallinger (1919-1995) researched historic photos to document every detail from buttons on the firemen’s uniforms to elements of urban architecture, in order to capture the reality of the event.