WBEZ’s Curious City podcast “How The 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition Played Into Chicago’s Rivalry With New York” answers the question Where does Chicago’s inferiority complex toward New York come from and when did it start?
Recorded live at the Museum of Science and Industry (MSI) in Chicago during their “Night at the Fair” After Hours event on June 15, 2018, this episode of Curious City exposes the roots of the rivalry between the two cities to be the fierce competition to host the 1893 World’s Fair. Performing a volley of insults that appeared in newspapers prior to the February 1890 Congressional vote (“Don’t pay any attention to the nonsensical claims of that Windy City …”) were an actor portraying a hog butcher who represented Chicago and an actor portraying, well … a New Yorker, who represented New York.
Chicago Wins! “Uncle Sam Awards the World’s Fair to the Fairest of all his Daughters” [Colorized image based on cartoon in the February 25, 1890, Chicago Daily Tribune.]