A description of Dedication Day from Shepp’s World’s Fair Photographed by James W. Shepp and Daniel B. Shepp (Globe Bible Publishing Co., 1893):

DEDICATION OF EXPOSITION, OCTOBER 22, 1892

Never in the history of the world has a sight more thrilling been presented to the gaze and understanding of man than that of the Dedication of the World’s Columbian Exposition, October 20, 21, and 22, 1892. Great crowds flocked toward the Exposition grounds, making a continuous stream of humanity that surged in one great sentient, unbroken wave, only to divide around the magnificent structures that proudly lifted their ivory proportions skyward. A dream city was before them. The marvels of the Arabian Nights seemed removed from the realm of fiction and brought within the scope of sober reality. The impression then made on the minds of the people can never fade. The first day was devoted to a parade of the United States troops at Washington Park and to the inaugural reception in the Auditorium, at which Vice-President Morton was the guest of honor in President Harrison’s place, whom recent bereavement prevented from attending. Members of the Cabinet, the Supreme Court, the Diplomatic Corps, and the Governors of the States were present. The second day was celebrated by a great civic parade, 80,000 men in line, and a reception to the military. The last day was the grand climax. Representatives of every civilized nation on the globe, many in the brilliant costumes of their native country, citizens from all the States of the Union, and even Indians from the plains, were present to behold the dedication of the great buildings of the Fair, and with astonished eyes to view the highest realization of development yet given to man, and that by a nation that had only 118 terraces of the great mountain of national progress. One hundred and fifty thousand persons gathered in the vast hall of the Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building. We cannot describe the exercises here, but when at the close the mighty multitude united in singing “America,” when that marvellous volume of sound ascended from a grateful people to a listening God, tears glistened in thousands of eyes, and myriad hearts were full to bursting with the great strain of sustained enthusiasm. The evening was devoted to merry-making. Chicago put on her most brilliant appearance; almost every street was illuminated, and there was a magnificent display of fire-works, which would have delighted the population of a Chinese city, those master-hands at pyrotechnics.