“Farthest North”: An Arctic Tableau at the 1893 World’s Fair

Seventy five years ago today, arctic explorer David L. Brainard (1856–1946) died at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington D.C. He was the last survivor of the famous Lady Franklin Bay Expedition of 1881–84 under the command of Lieutenant Adolphus W. Greely (1844–1935), whose final resting place is close to that of Brainard in Arlington National Cemetery. [Levy 346] Sergeant Brainard and Lieutenant James B. Lockwood (1852–1884), broke the world’s record for an expedition to the “Farthest North” into the Arctic when they reached a latitude of 83°23′ 30″, less than 400 miles from the North Pole.

An exhibit in the United States Government Building at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition honored Brainard, Lockwood, and Greely. Installed by the Signal Service Bureau in the War Department section of the building, southeast the rotunda, an arctic tableau recreated a scene from 1892 of Greely greeting Lockwood and Brainard as they returned from their expedition that had brought them closer to the North Pole than any previous Arctic explorers. The Signal Corps was headed, interestingly enough, by Adolphus Greely, who has been appointed to the post in 1887 by President Cleveland. [Levy 338]

The most striking of all the displays

The Arctic panorama conveyed to fairgoers this important achievement of United States Army in the field of exploration. One World’s Fair chronicle described the theatrical medium this way:

“This white scene was perhaps the most striking of all the displays in the wonderful museum which the United States opened at the World’s Fair. The exhibit was built in the manner made familiar to residents of cities through what are called cycloramas, where lay figures and actual properties take stated positions before the painting, and become an inseparable portion of the scene.” [Dream City] Positioned in the foreground of a great icy field were life-size wax figures of the Army officers dressed in their heavy Arctic garments. Greely stands at the right shaking hands with Lockwood while Brainard stands behind him further to the left. Lieutenant Greely is accompanied by an orderly. An Inuit guide squats behind the three officers, busily attending to his dogs.

“At the side of Lockwood and Brainerd,” records one Columbian Exposition history, “is the dog sledge which bore their supplies on their marvelous trip and harnessed to it a team of half a dozen canine companions. Some are lying on the snow resting, and others are standing in their traces patiently waiting the word to continue the journey, and taking little interest in the welcome which is being extended to their masters, or in the achievement which they have assisted in making.” [White 468]

On the sled was a small United States flag, made by Mrs. Greely, that the explorers had carried to the point “Farthest North.” Two signs placed in the scene provided visitors with a brief history of the momentous event of the Greeley expedition.

A sublimely thrilling incident in Arctic exploration

Serving as a backdrop was “a large painting showing the awesome cape as it extends into the sea, the northernmost discovered land.” [Dream City] The base camp at Fort Conger can be seen in the distance, and the members of the Arctic expedition “standing on the land in the background, waving their hats with joy, add a bit of spirit to the scene.” [“Uncle Sam’s Big Show”] The space between the figures in the foreground and the immense canvas at the rear was filled with an icy Arctic landscape. Plaster snow drifts and icebergs created “a realistic Arctic scene with its bleak desolation of tumultuous ice packs and boundless fields of snow glaring under a sun that dazzles but does not heat.”[Magic City]

Italian-born artist Albert Operti (1852-1927) created the panoramic painting. His canvas intended to show “with all the fidelity that realistic art can afford, a sublimely thrilling incident in Arctic exploration.” [“From Chicago”] Operti had served as a scenic artist for the Metropolitan Opera House in the 1880s. Operti accompanied the explorer Admiral Peary in an Arctic expedition in the summers of 1896 and 1897 and prepared numerous oil paintings of the Arctic. Later, he served as an exhibit artist for the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Operti designed a set of trading cards for cigarette packs that printed his colorful images of the Arctic and notable explorers.

No one can fail to be impressed

Historians White and Igleheart described the Arctic tableau as “one of the most entertaining [exhibits] of all in the building… The scene is so perfectly constructed that no one can fail to be impressed by it, and to receive a better idea than ever before of the exact circumstances and conditions surrounding Arctic exploration.”[White 468] Another historian noted that “everything in the picture is lifelike.” [Cameron 482]

“The figures of Greely, Lockwood and Brainard are well executed,” wrote one newspaper reporter, “and the animals are exceedingly life-like, being the stuffed skins of Esquimaux dogs. The imitation of ice all around is realistic enough to deceive many visitors.” [“Uncle Sam’s Big Show”]

“By the aid of mirrors and artificial light,” wrote one news report, “an effect is promised which will exceed all previous attempts at wax portraiture, and the spectator will with difficulty persuade himself that he does not look upon a living group and an Arctic Sea.” [“From Chicago”]

One young girl visiting the fair described her encounter with the Arctic scene:

“We next visited the Government Building, where we saw life-size figures of the Greely party, as they appeared while hunting the North pole. You could scarcely tell they were not real. Two men were shaking hands and one dog lay dead at their feet and others were standing around. This is represented in front of a mountain of snow. The icicles are hanging all around.” [“Seen by a Young Girl”] The entire display presented a “vivid reproduction of Arctic scenery” [Truman 399] and “an artistic centrepiece showing that the Stars and Stripes have been further north than the flag of any other country …” [Northrop 345]

A beautiful combination of model and painting

The 1893 World’s Fair offered several panoramic attractions to entertain and educate visitors, including a Volcano of Kilauea Cyclorama and Panorama of Bernese Alps on the Midway Plaisance. The Arctic tableau sponsored by the U.S. War Department provided “a beautiful combination of model and painting that exhibited such an excellent reproduction of this memorable incident, that it drew immense crowds, who thronged in front of it almost continually, and whose interest and admiration was unbounded.” [Magic City]

The Boston Globe reported in May, when attendance at the Exposition was lagging, that “the centre of attraction [in the U.S. Government Building] for some reason seemed to be the icy scene …” [“Big Crowds”] As the weather got hotter, fairgoers kept coming for the cool view. “This Farthest North panorama is always surrounded by large crowds of visitors,” reported a syndicated story in June. [“Uncle Sam’s Big Show”]

“While this scene gives a glimpse of the romance and triumph of the Arctic field,” wrote one journalist, “but a few feet away is a collection of articles which speak eloquently of the suffering and death which sometimes follow effort in the frozen north.” [“Uncle Sam’s Big Show”]

The most remarkable episode of its kind in history

Of the original twenty-five men in the Greely Arctic Expedition, only seven survived the brutal conditions to return home. They were rescued in July of 1884, two years after their expected supply ship failed to reach them with essential provisions. (For more on the tragedy of this expedition, see “The Greely Expedition“, Season 23 Episode 5 of The American Experience on PBS or “Abandoned in the Arctic on Vimeo” on Vimeo.)

Next to the panorama was exhibited a framed painting detailing the rescue scene, “probably the most remarkable episode of its kind in history,” according to The Dream City. “As may be seen, the few survivors are within hut a few hours of death by starvation, after trials and privations which were carefully suppressed from the public reports.” Other paintings of Arctic scenes by famous artists and a large collection of enlarged photographs and portraits of famous Arctic explorers also accompanied the tableau.

Across the aisle, display cases housed souvenirs and material used in Arctic expeditions made by both military officers and civilian explorers. One glass case was filled with “an interesting collection of Greeley relics.” [Bancroft 106] One item was a boot leg “from which the survivors made soup during the last days of their sufferings.” [Dream City] Other items included “kettles, pans, cooking stoves, sleeping bags and other paraphernalia of Camp Clay, that dreadful spot where two-thirds of the Greely party perished by starvation.” [“Uncle Sam’s Big Show”] Also among the relics was “a most interesting collection” from the expedition of British explorer Captain Sir John Franklin, which were recovered by Lieutenant Frederick Schwatka of the U.S. Army a few years before the ill-fated Greely Expedition. [Cameron 482]

Both Greely or Brainerd continued to serve in the U.S. Army in 1893, and it does not appear that either of them visited the great fair in Chicago to see their representations on display.

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SOURCES

Bancroft, Hubert Howe The Book of the Fair. The Bancroft Company, 1893.

“Big Crowds at the Fair” Boston Globe May 14, 1893, p. 2.

Buel, J. W. The Magic City, A Massive Portfolio of Original Photographic Views of the Great World’s Fair and Its Treasures of Art, Including a Vivid Representation of the Famous Midway Plaisance. Historical Publishing Company, 1894.

Campbell, James B. Campbell’s Illustrated History of the World’s Columbian Exposition, Volume II. M. Juul & Co., 1894.

Cameron, William E. The World’s Fair Being a Pictorial History of the Columbian Exposition. P.D. Farrell, 1893.

The Dream City. A Portfolio of Photographic Views of the World’s Columbian Exposition. N. D. Thompson, 1893.

“From Chicago” The Pacific Commercial Advertiser (Honolulu, HI) March 4, 1893, p. 5.

Hamilton, W. E. The Time-Saver. W. E. Hamilton, 1893.

Levy, Buddy Labyrinth of Ice: The Triumphant and Tragic Greely Polar Expedition. St. Martin’s Press, 2019.

Northrop, Henry Davenport The World’s Fair as Seen in One Hundred Days. Ariel Book Co., 1893.

Official Catalogue of Exhibits, World’s Columbian Exposition U. S. Government Building. W. B. Conkey, 1893.

Plans and Diagrams of All Exhibit Buildings in the World’s Columbian Exposition. Conkey, 1893.

“Seen by a Young Girl” The Weekly Clarion Ledger (Jackson, MS) Sept. 14, 1893, p. 1.

Truman, Benjamin Cummings History of the World’s Fair. Mammoth, 1893.

“Uncle Sam’s Big Show” Buffalo (NY) Evening News June 10, 1893, p. 7.

White, Trumbull; Igleheart, William World’s Columbian Exposition Chicago, 1893. J. W. Ziegler, 1893.