Charles Dudley Arnold served as the official photographer of the 1893 World’s Fair. Between 1891 and 1894, he documented the construction of the fairgrounds and operation of the Exposition, capturing spectacular views of architecture, events, and visitors. Some of the most iconic images of the Columbian Exposition came from C. D. Arnold’s camera. Sets of his beautiful large-size platinum prints can be found in several library collections, and many of Arnold’s photographs are reproduced in Stanley Appelbaum’s The Chicago World’s Fair of 1893: a Photographic Record (Dover, 1980) and Spectacle in the White City: The Chicago 1893 World’s Fair (Calla Editions, 2009).

On November 10, 2017, LECLERE Maison de ventes auction house in Marseille, France will offer Otto von Bismarck’s bound set of 20 C. D. Arnold prints of the Columbian Exposition in their PHOTOGRAPHS auction.

C. D. Arnold’s photograph of the South Canal and Obelisk, from the LECLERE Auction House

Lot #86, estimated to sell for 1,500-2,000 euros, is described as: “Folio album (42 x 34 cm), Havana morocco with long grains, back with nerves, clasps. Vintage binding signed by the binder Albert Feucht in Stuttgart, some wear. Book of present presented to Prince Bismarck by the German community of Chicago. Beautiful illuminated gothic title page in honor of Bismark with several autograph signatures.  20 Gelatin-silver prints mounted on cardboard, stamp of the photographer on the proofs, legends handwritten in ink on the montages. images: 31.5 x 25.5 cm – montages: 40 x 31 cm.”

In 1870, Otto von Bismarck (1815–1898) wrote to General Philip Sheridan of the U. S. Army, saying: “I wish I could go to America if only to see that Chicago.” By the time of the Columbian Exposition, he claimed that “the great distance, and many other reasons counsel me not to visit the exhibition.”