The Montclair Library (Montclair, NJ) is hosting a series of events relating to the 1893 World’s Fair as part of their programming for Montclair Reads The Devil in the White City, focused on Erik Larson’s best-selling book (soon to be a miniseries) about the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition and a nearby killer, H. H. Holmes. Events include:
Montclair in the Gilded Age. Monday, March 4 at 6:30 pm, Main Library Auditorium. Learn about life in Montclair in the late 1800s with Montclair Township Historian Mike Farrelly.
Facebook Book Club. Thursday, March 7 at 7 pm, Library’s Facebook. Join us from the comfort of your own home for a chat about The Devil in the White City.
Book Discussion of The Devil in the White City. Friday, March 8 at 1 pm, Main Library Isabel Rose Café.
Expo: Magic of the White City Documentary Screening. Monday, March 18 at 2 pm, Main Library Auditorium. Experience the world of 1893 through a cinematic visit to Chicago’s Columbian Exposition, narrated by Gene Wilder.
From the White City to the Emerald City: Frank Baum and the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. Tuesday, April 2 at 6:30 pm, Main Library Auditorium. Ryan Bunch will talk about how the 1893 World’s Columbian Exhibition in Chicago served as inspiration for the Emerald City in L. Frank Baum and W. W. Denslow’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900). In addition to discussing the likely influences of the fair’s White City architecture on the depiction of the Emerald City in Baum’s words and Denslow’s illustrations, Ryan will suggest some ways in which the fair’s exhibits in arts and science were part of a cultural and technological landscape that fired Baum’s imagination, influenced his Oz books, and informed utopian visions of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Make No Little Plans: Daniel Burnham, Frederick Law Olmsted, and the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. Tuesday, April 9 at 6:00 pm, Main Library Auditorium. The presentation will tour a history of world’s fairs, making its longest stop in Chicago, 1893, and meeting Daniel Burnham, Frederick Law Olmsted, the firm of McKim, Mead & White, and a belly dancer named “Little Egypt,” among many others.
Make No Little Plans: Daniel Burnham and the American City Documentary Screening. Thursday, April 11 at 2 pm, Main Library Auditorium. A timely, intriguing story in the American experience, this documentary explores legendary architect and city planner Daniel Hudson Burnham’s impact on the development of the American city as debate continues today about what urban planning means in a democratic society.
H. H. Holmes: America’s First Serial Killer Documentary Screening. Monday, April 22 at 6:30 pm, Main Library Auditorium. At the height of his criminal career, the infamous Dr. H. H. Holmes designed his castle of horrors in Chicago, where he rented rooms to unsuspecting victims visiting the 1893 World’s Fair. This documentary follows Holmes’ entire life as a criminal mastermind.
The Montclair Library is located at 50 South Fullerton Avenue in Montclair, NJ.
W. W. Denslow’s illustration of the Emerald City, from L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900).