Editing Daniel Burnham (section)

==Early life==
[[Image:DBurnhamChildhoodHome HendersonNY2.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.25|[[Norton–Burnham House|Burnham's childhood home]] in [[Henderson, New York]]]]

Burnham was born in [[Henderson, New York]], the son of Elizabeth Keith (Weeks) and Edwin Arnold Burnham.<ref name="nps.gov">[https://www.nps.gov/nr/feature/places/pdfs/16000034.pdf Norton-Burhnam House], National Register of Historic Places Registration, National Park Service, January 8, 2016</ref> He was raised in the teachings of the [[The New Church|Swedenborgian]], also called "The New Church"<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newchurch.org/ |title=Website |publisher=New Church |date=June 20, 2014 |access-date=June 24, 2016}}</ref> which ingrained in him the strong belief that man should strive to be of service to others.<ref>Carl Smith, ''The Plan of Chicago: Daniel Burnham and the Remaking of the American City'', p. 56</ref> At the age of eight, Burnham moved to [[Chicago]]<ref name="nps.gov"/> and his father established there a wholesale drug business which became a success.<ref name=larson19>Larson (2003), p.19</ref>

Burnham was not a good student, but he was good at drawing. He moved to the eastern part of the country at the age of 18 to be taught by private tutors in order to pass the admissions examinations for [[Harvard University|Harvard]] and [[Yale University|Yale]], failing both apparently because of a bad case of test anxiety. In 1867, when he was 21 he returned to Chicago and took an apprenticeship as a [[draftsman]] under [[William LeBaron Jenney]] of the architectural firm Loring & Jenney. Architecture seemed to be the calling he was looking for, and he told his parents that he wanted to become "the greatest architect in the city or country".<ref name=larson19 />

Nevertheless, the young Burnham still had a streak of wanderlust in him, and in 1869 he left his apprenticeship to go to Nevada with friends to try mining gold, at which he failed. He then ran for the Nevada state legislature and failed to be elected. Broke, he returned again to Chicago and took a position with the architect L. G. Laurean. When the [[Great Chicago Fire]] hit the city in October 1871, it seemed as if there would be endless work for architects, but Burnham chose to strike out again, becoming first a salesman of plate glass windows, then a druggist. He failed at the first and quit the second. He later remarked on "a family tendency to get tired of doing the same thing for very long".<ref name=larson19 />