In the summer and autumn of 1860, Albert Edward, Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VII), visited Canada and the United States. The Canadian section of the tour took him from St John’s in Newfoundland to Windsor, Ontario, from where he crossed to Detroit for the start of the US leg of the tour.  His itinerary included Halifax, Quebec, Ottawa, where he laid the foundation stone for the Parliament buildings, Toronto and Hamilton. Another of his duties came during his visit to Montreal, when he inaugurated the Victoria Bridge carrying the Grand Trunk Railway over the St Lawrence River, an event for which a commemorative medal was struck.

The author was Private Secretary to Henry Pelham-Clinton, 5th Duke of Newcastle, who was head of the Prince of Wales’s entourage during his tour of Canada and the United States of America in 1860. His account of the visit to Chicago records the rapid growth of the city, established only 27 years earlier in 1833, and the vast undertaking of raising the buildings to improve sanitation, including the six-storey Tremont House Hotel, which was raised six feet while guests remained oblivious.