The Chicago 00 Project has released a sneak peek of their upcoming an augmented and virtual reality experience, The 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, to be published in early 2020.
A partnership between the Chicago History Museum and filmmaker Geoffrey Alan Rhodes, the Chicago 00 Project has been producing a series of interactive multimedia experiences using historical images of important sites and events in Chicago. Their augmented reality app allows participant to overlay historic photos with real-time views at the site of the 1915 SS Eastland disaster on the Chicago River. Other projects showcase film, photo, and sound archival materials for a virtual reality experience of Chicago’s 1933 World’s Fair and the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.
Chicago00: World’s Columbian Exposition will focus on the Midway Plaisance, site of the entertainment district of the 1893 World’s Fair, where millions of visitors explored international villages, thrill rides, and displays of science and cultures.
They report that the experience “will follow this path, from the White City (today, the site of Jackson Park), along the Midway Plaisance, and up onto the Ferris Wheel, while a narrator contextualizes the then-and-now of this third star on the Chicago flag.”
Chicago 00 recently posted two previews on their Facebook page. The first image shows a 360-degree view from 210 feet above Jackson Park in 2019 combined with a famous view from the roof of the Manufacturers and Liberal Arts Building in 1893. The second 360-degree vista looks out from a car on the original Ferris Wheel high above the Midway Plaisance.
Chicago00: World’s Columbian Exposition is funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
A now-and-then view from the roof of the Manufacturers and Liberal Arts Building from the Chicago 00 Project.
A view from the Ferris Wheel (looking north) from the Chicago 00 Project.
A view from the Ferris Wheel (looking south) from the Chicago 00 Project.
HI, was wondering if there is anything left of the Ferris Wheel. I.ve seen a picture of an excavation where the Wheel was exploded in St Louis. The men in the picture are holding pieces of metal including a large nut
Also I just read in an old online newspaper that Ferris was going to build a model of the Chicago Exposition for the Cotton States Exposition in Atlanta in 1895. Do you have any idea if a model was made?
In 1906, the Ferris Wheel was dismantled in St. Louis. The Chicago House Wrecking Company dynamited the structure and sold the metal and other components for scrap. Rumors have circulated for many years that the enormous axle was buried in St. Louis’ Forest Park. Ample evidence, however, indicates that the axel was shipped back to Chicago, where it sat in a salvage yard for more than a decade before advances in torches allowed it to be cut up for scrap iron. Some scrap glass allegedly found its way into a (now gone) greenhouse in a Michigan residence. Finally, there is a false tale of the Ferris Wheel being used to build a bridge in Indiana. All that is left of the Ferris Wheel are many hundreds of spectacular images and accounts. https://worldsfairchicago1893.com/tag/ferris-wheel/