My reading copy of PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS has a broken binding and many ripped and tattered pages.  In order to preserve the images and text for further enjoyment, I have decided to scan and post the images with captions. I’ll do my best to remove any folds, foxing, rips and tears, fading and damage that has occurred in the past 124 years and upload them over the next few months. Please comment or email us if you enjoy the images or would like a larger version! – Randy

Front Cover

PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR.
AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS

PUBLISHED WITH THE ENDORSEMENT AND APPROVAL OF GEORGE R. DAVIS,
Director-General of the World’s Columbian Exposition.

COMPRISING ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE GREATEST FEATURES OF THE WORLD’S EXPOSITION AND MIDWAY PLAISANCE
Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Scenic and Ethnological.

THE MAGNIFICENT WATER AND LANDSCAPE EFFECTS AND CHARMING VISTAS MADE REALISTIC BY AUTHENTIC REPRODUCTION
IN ALL OF THE COLORS OF NATURE AND ART.

Under the direction of the celebrated Landscape Artist, John R. Key.

From Photographs made by authority of the Director-General, for the United States Government, and by Special Artists employed expressly for this work.

EACH VIEW ACCOMPANIED BY A GRAPHIC AND ACCURATE DESCRIPTION.

PUBLISHED BY W. B. CONKEY COMPANY,

OFFICIAL PUBLISHERS OF THE WORLD’S EXPOSITION CATALOGUE, ETC.

INTRODUCTION.

The publishers of “Picturesque World’s Fair,” in presenting these exquisite views, feel justified in congratulating themselves upon the success that has attended their efforts to place within the reach of all classes of people an artistic realistic reproduction of the great Exposition. Not only do the publishers feel gratulation in their own behalf, but they believe that through the perfection of the printers’ art, by means of the application of labor-saving machinery, and through the enterprise of the progressive press of the United States, a work so rare, so interesting, so accurate and so invaluable, at so insignificant an expense, will be a benefaction to all classes of people.

That the handsomely colored views contained in this volume, true in every respect to the design of the decorator and the unrivaled charm of nature, have received the most enthusiastic indorsement of the Director-General, the Executive Officer of the Exposition, who from the beginning to the close was its center figure and its controlling and guiding force, affords the publishers little opportunity for comment upon the pictorial features of this work. No production of a similar character has received the sanction of the Director-General; no enterprise of a contemporaneous period has received a higher compliment.

Accompanying the views will be found a brief but vivid description of the buildings; their contents and the environments, together with much condensed valuable sympathetic information. In fact, it has been the intention of the publishers to present to the public a review and pictorial presentation of the great Fair that will rejoice and refresh those who had the good fortune to be among its visitors, and impart satisfactory reproduction in line and letter, that will in a great measure compensate those whose unavoidable absence would perhaps without this work have debarred them from an intimate and intelligent appreciation of the Exposition’s manifold wonders.

Standing upon the little Spanish Caravel, the Santa Maria, so small a craft as to seem a vessel in miniature, and looking above, about and beyond the mooring, it was impossible to realize that the grandeur, the brilliancy and the sweeping proportions of the Columbian Exposition were inspired and produced by the commemoration of the great event this little ship, by the guiding hand of the great Navigator, was the instrumentality in achieving. As the success of the voyage of a Genoese sailor marked the era of endless and boundless advance of civilization, so the commemorative Exposition will for all time stand as an epochful event, glorious in its effect upon this generation, and momentous in its influence upon those to follow.

As these beautiful and expressive illustrations set forth the greatness of the Exposition in the full blast of achievement, they must call into grateful remembrance the thousands who in humble, but no half-hearted way have done their share in the mighty task of its preparation; the tiller of the soil who sent from every clime the yellow grain; the nurserymen who from every sunny slope have given the richest product of the tree and vine; the miner in every mountain who has wrested tribute from the treasure vaults of nature to delight the wondering visitor. The worker in the forest; the worker in the mill who have sent the product of the axe and the loom; the fisherman who seined and hooked in the depths of the sea; the inventor, the mechanic, the artisan and artist, all with incomparable energy and skill gave their full measure to this colossal testimonial of the prodigality of nature and the genius of mankind.

Let us be ever mindful, too, of the great influences of and for good that have found their source and inspiration in this great Exposition. The fellowship and sympathy established within these grounds among all people, of all classes, from all lands, are indeed significant of the day not far distant when peace and good-will throughout all the world shall be as common a portion of every man’s heritage as the air he breathes. In how far the great truths be drawn from this Fair may influence the future of other people, either in an individual or political sense, it would be difficult to hazard an opinion. Doubtless, too, within the life of the present generation, the uplifting influence of this Exposition will become manifest among many, and the broadening civilization growing from it be emphatically felt in every land. To our own homogeneous people, the good has already begun. They have caught the inspiration from this monument of art and industry, and as they extend it over the face of this progressive and ambitious country enlightenment will be spread broadcast and a yet higher standard of knowledge and beauty be established among our people.

With the compliments of Geo. R. Davis, Director General