The McHenry County Historical Society & Museum will kick off its 33rd annual Sampler Lecture Series on Monday, March 11 with a look at the 1893 World’s Fair with “The Vanishing City: Excavating the World’s Fair.”

Rebecca Graff, assistant professor of anthropology and chair of the American studies at Lake Forest College, divulges what is hiding beneath the future Obama Presidential Center site in Chicago. Jackson Park at one time housed the 1893 World’s Columbia Exposition. After the fair, parts of buildings simply were tossed into a ditch and buried – only to be unearthed by Graff and her team years later. While the ephemeral “White City” lasted for just six months before its structures were destroyed or disappeared, it’s impact on society is undeniable.