Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi’s Visit to the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Part 2

Continued from Part 1

“I come to see the American side of the Fair”

On September 10, 1893, Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi and his wife Jeanne-Émilie arrived in Chicago and settled into the Hotel Metropole. This hotel stood on Michigan Avenue at 23rd Street, just south of the tony Prairie Avenue District called home by many of Chicago’s elite citizens, including Marshall Field, George Pullman, Ferdinand (“Ferd”) W. Peck, and John Jacob Glessner.

Bright and refreshed, the Frenchman met the press at his hotel the next morning. He reminded them that this was his first visit to Chicago since 1871 and acknowledged that the city was a much greater and grander place than he could have conceived. Having been surprised by the City of Chicago, he resisted any attempt to imagine what beauty awaited him in the White City.

“Of course, I come to see the American side of the Fair. What Europe has on exhibition in the way of architecture and art I have seen many times. What I come for is to see what America has developed in these branches and in others. I will say that I confidently expect a great deal. I have no fear of being disappointed.” [“M. Bartholdi in Town”]

A gift for business

More than a casual tourist, Bartholdi was in town to sell his artwork and so he gently shifted the topic to ring his own bell:

“Another thing I have noticed is that to hear the Fair talked about one must go outside of Chicago. If the Fair is discussed at all in this city, the parties to the discussion are generally visitors from out of town. For instance, in the case of my exhibit. The finest thing it contains is a group representing Washington and Lafayette in the act of shaking hands. Now, I have received letters of praise and congratulations from persons who have seen and admired it living in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, St. Louis and many other large American cities, but from Chicago? not a word.” [“M. Bartholdi in Town”] .

The astute Frenchman knew just how to initiate an inter-city competition for his artwork. An art critic for the Chicago Tribune offered this take on Bartholdi’s business sense:

“Artists in France and elsewhere sneer at M. Bartholdi’s business abilities, for it is a sort of axiom among artist everywhere that members of their craft should be destitute of the commercial sense. They generally are. But that M. Bartholdi has a gift for what is known among the Philistines as ‘business’ will be no discredit to our visitor among so practical a people as the Americans.” [“Art at the World’s Fair”]

Looked like a distinguished Parisian

During his first visit to the 1893 World’s Fair, Bartholdi rang another bell. Tuesday, September 12, was “Colorado Day,” “Maryland Day,” and “Star Spangled Banner Day” on the fairgrounds. The latter celebration marked the (approximate) anniversary of when Francis Scott Key wrote his 1814 poem the “Defence of Fort M’Henry” (set to song, it would not become the U.S. National anthem until 1931). In honor, Bartholdi was invited to ring the Columbian Liberty Bell (commonly called the “New Liberty Bell”).

Promptly at noon, his carriage pulled up to the bell in front of the west entrance to the Administration Building. Bartholdi jumped out and grabbed the rope attached to the tongue of the bell and pulled. While pealing this first note, the sculptor may not have understood Newton’s Third Law, allowing the rope to jerk him all around as the bell swung. Despite the awkward initiation, Bartholdi continued to peal a total of thirteen rings, at half-minute intervals, for the stars of Old Glory, another three for the state of Colorado, and a final three to honor the signing of the declaration of independence in Switzerland in 1848. (Other reports indicate that he only rang the bell twice.) Over on the east side of the Administration Building, the sound of Bartholdi’s ringing commenced a separate ceremony that officially transferred the Columbus Caravels from the Spanish government to the United States.

One news report offered this somber description of the Bartholdi’s bell ringing:

“The famous sculptor was not recognized even by those who crowded so close they touched his coat. He simply looked like a distinguished Parisian and was dressed in the faultless garb of the capital. On his head was a gray Fedora hat with black band and his two deft hands were hidden in jet black gloves. His frock coat was black and his trousers conventional checks. The bell act was impromptu and he did not go at it with a very alarming enthusiasm.” [“Bartholdi Rings Liberty Bell”]

Such a dream of beauty

The next day, Chicago Mayor Carter Harrison stopped by the Hotel Metropole to greet Bartholdi and present him with a copy of his 1889 memoir about his travels in Europe, A Race with the Sun. That evening, Bartholdi sat down for an interview with a reporter from the Chicago Inter Ocean. The Frenchman expressed honor and humility that Americans knew his name and fame, stating that it is “a very fine thing to feel that one has achieved the regard of a great nation. It does not move me to vanity, but rather to gratitude toward a people that is kind enough to think well of me.” [“Mr. Bartholdi Talks”]

The sculptor was tickled by observations of awe-struck Americans visiting the fairgrounds:

“It amuses me much to listen to the remarks of country people who have, perhaps, never visited a great city before. I was riding in one of the electric boats to-day. A young woman said to her escort: ‘John is this woman made of solid gold?’ meaning the Statue of the Republic. John thought a moment, looked the work over carefully and finally said: “Of course. How else could they make her? She is too big to be plated and must have been moulded [sic].

In the Transportation Building I heard some folks wondering among themselves how people could ever have traveled across the country in ‘those little box cars,’ meaning ancient railway coaches. It was as if the speakers could not conceive of a time when the luxuries of travel were unknown. Your country is of so recent growth it would seem almost impossible for the people not to remember one time hardships.”

Bartholdi spoke with unlimited enthusiasm about the Exposition’s architecture and adorning sculpture, and of the relation of the buildings to one another:

“It was not expected of you. We of Europe knew you had poetry but did not think you could find the time to bring to such realization such a dream of beauty. Of expositions, I have seen many, and perhaps will see more, but this is an artistic creation never to be duplicated.” [“Mr. Bartholdi Talks”]

Cowboys and Engineers

On Thursday, September 14, Bartholdi attended Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show just outside of the fairgrounds in Jackson Park. As he took a seat in his box, draped with the French and American flags, the band played the “Marseillaise.” Also in attendance for the show were Assistant Secretary of the Navy William Gibbs McAdoo and Cardinal James Gibbons accompanied by fifteen bishops and church dignitaries.

That evening, Bartholdi rejoined the visiting French engineers for a reception given in their honor. Several hundred members of the Associated Engineering Societies of the United States and Canada hosted the French colleagues in their club rooms on Van Buren Street downtown. Among the members of the Reception Committee was French-American engineer Octave Chanute, who served as president of the Society. On Monday, the French engineers had visited the fairgrounds, where they inspected and rode the Ferris Wheel, the intramural railway, and the movable sidewalk.

“Represented at the entrance to the country”

Having no official capacity as either guest or judge, Bartholdi found that the spotlight soon moved off him. “I would have been a judge of sculpture [at the Fair],” he had shared with the press back in New York, “if it had not been for the one-man system of awards adopted, in consequence of which France withdrew from the competition. So I shall go entirely unofficially.” [“He Thinks Miss Liberty is Too Dark”]

While visiting the fairgrounds, Bartholdi planned to see his Washington and Lafayette sculpture in the Palace of Fine Arts and his silver statue of Columbus on display in the Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building.

The former is a colossal group of General George Washington greeting the Marquis de Lafayette, who brings welcome news of aid from France for the American Patriots in their war for independence. Both men stand almost double life size and wear regimental garb and spurs on their boots. The composition expresses slight movement, with Lafayette leaning into his left foot as he shakes hands with Washington while holding both the American and French flags.

The work was finished three years earlier (the date 1890 is inscribed in its base) and exhibited at the Champs Elysées Salon in 1892. Bartholdi reportedly designed the group with the intension of leaving it America, but New Yorkers had expressed little interest in the artist’s idea of installing it as part of an “American Pantheon” underneath the Statue of Liberty.

When speaking with the Chicago press soon after arriving in town, Bartholdi took the opportunity to promote this work. About the emphatic assertion of friendship and fraternal regard in the allegorical setting, he said: “I think it adequately expresses what has been my feeling toward this country for many years.” He would love to see the sculptural group stay in Chicago, because then he “would be represented at the entrance to the country.” [“Mr. Bartholdi Talks”]

One description of its display in the Palace of Fine Arts, noted that the twelve-foot-tall Washington and Lafayette stood in “a place of honor and towers to the gallery edge at the main entrance of the French section of marbles and casts. It is wider than the big doors which open out to the lagoon approach and higher by half than all its associates.” [“To Stay in Chicago”]

Rather theatrical

In the Gorham Manufacturing Company pavilion inside the Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building stood a striking silver statue of Columbus designed by Bartholdi. He had sent a plaster model to the company in Providence, Rhode Island, where they cast it in solid silver on May 7, 1893. They unveiled it with little ceremony at the World’s Fair on June 7.

Standing six-and-a-half feet tall and made of over 2,000 pounds of silver, it was believed to be the largest silver piece in existence and valued at $25,000. Bartholdi depicted the Italian navigator catching his first sight of land as he points to the horizon.

Critics seemed split in their opinions of this figure. “As a work of art it excels anything that has appeared in this country purporting to represent Columbus, and no other work of this size produced in silver is to be compared with it,” states one report, [Pierce 378] while another notes that “in general effect it was rather theatrical and can scarcely be ranked among the best by the same sculptor.” [Report of the Committee on Awards 112]

Statue of Liberty exhibits at the Fair

Had he made a thorough tour of the fairgrounds, Bartholdi could have spotted a few (presumably unauthorized) displays of his Liberty Enlightening the World. In the Mines and Mining Building, Great Britain exhibited a twelve-foot tall Statue of Liberty made of rock salt. Another English firm, Goldsmiths & Silversmiths Company, exhibited in the Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building a more dignified reproduction of Lady Liberty, surmounting their exquisite “Exposition Clock.” It would be interesting to know if the French sculptor saw either of these representations of his famous work.

After Bartholdi had departed these shores, the Fair held “Manhattan Day” on October 21, 1893. Leading the procession and specially designed for the occasion, was a float representing Liberty surrounded by figures of people of the world with their national flags. Bartholdi’s colossus had become an iconic image, even if the artist went largely unrecognized on American streets.

Humiliations too deep to be borne

Bartholdi made the papers again when the press began reporting on September 20 about his primary mission in America—to sell his Washington and Lafayette statue. Bartholdi indicated that he wanted this work to stay in Chicago, and Mayor Harrison immediately launched a popular subscription to raise the $15,000 needed to keep the Revolutionary War heroes in his city. Within days, Ferd Peck, meatpacking titan Philip Armour, and grocery store owner William M. Hoyt had each pledged $500. Soon after, another $400 was pledged by Union Stock Yards president Timothy B. Blackstone, food merchant Albert A. Sprague, and real estate developer Samuel E. Gross; a few smaller sums came in from unnamed donors. Bartholdi assured the mayor that the price tag only covered his costs for the bronze and transportation; his artistry would be a gift.

Perhaps to stoke the flames of Chicago civic pride, newspapers reported that St. Louis also wanted this work and had raised all but a few thousand dollars. “St. Louis also wishes it,” warned Carter Harrison in his fund-raising letter requesting subscriptions from Chicago citizens. [“Carter Harrison has undertaken…”] “St. Louis must not get the Bartholdi statue of Washington and Lafayette though we have to mortgage City Hall to keep it in this city,” begged the Chicago Inter Ocean. “There are some humiliations too deep to be borne.” The Chicago Daily News pleaded that “even St. Louis, which is popularly a little slow, has invested liberally” in obtaining treasures from the Art Palace in Chicago. “If [Chicago] does not wish to be restricted to remnants it must bestir itself,” the paper warned. [“Competition for Art Treasures”]

The Inter Ocean also alerted Chicagoans about an attempt from New York to grab Washington and Lafayette. New York “has also been anxious to obtain possession of it,” [“To Keep the Group”] despite already having a statue of Lafayette by Bartholdi in Union Square, not to mention his copper colossus on Bedloe’s Island.

Chicago had won the World’s Fair from both New York and St. Louis, and she was intent on winning this Bartholdi statue, too.

“I am so astonished, so pleased and so overwhelmed”

The Union League Club of Chicago hosted a luncheon for Bartholdi on Friday, September 22, with a group of fifteen prominent citizens of Chicago led by Ferd Peck. Sitting around the table were Mayor Harrison, former mayor and Tribune editor Joseph Medill, author Eugene Field, Chicago Inter Ocean editor William Penn Nixon and co-owner H. H. Kohlsaat, newspaperman Slason Thompson, department store magnate Harry Gordon Selfridge, Judge John Barton Payne, lawyer John H. Hamline, along with A. H. Revell, Walter H. Wilson, Col. J. S. Cooper, Frederick T. Haskell, and William A. Bond. Also joining the luncheon was Rev. Edward Everett Hale, who was in town from Boston to deliver a speech at the Parliament of Religions.

Following a sumptuous meal, the gentlemen lit their cigars. To highlight the point of this gathering, Ferd Peck introduced the guest of honor as “the Lafayette of this age” and spoke fondly of meeting Bartholdi years earlier in Paris. “This modern Frenchman holds opinions, ideals, and sentiments so compatible with the liberty-loving citizens of this country,” said Peck, “that we welcome him to Chicago as one of us.” [“Honor to Bartholdi”]

Carter Harrison pronounced Bartholdi as possessing “the genius of one who has placed the works of art of the world before the people of this country.” The mayor then presented his vision to the Union League members: “I have observed the statues of Washington and Lafayette in the Art Palace at the World’s Fair, and it would give me pleasure to see these works of art a fixed ornament for this city.” [“Honors Paid to August Bartholdi”] Harrison confessed that he would prefer to see the monument placed in his own West Side neighborhood but conceded that a more fitting home would be in or near the new Art Institute building downtown. Misters Hale, Medill, and Thomson also paid their tributes to the sculptor.

As if to cinch the deal, sculptor Bartholdi praised the World’s Fair and gushed about its host city:

“I am much pleased with the reception I have had in this country and it makes me feel that I would like to remain here until I become acquainted with every portion of it. The World’s Fair has been much talked of in Paris, and I am gratifying a strong desire by seeing it. I have procured 200 or 300 views of the various parts of the Exposition and am going to take them back with me to show those who have not been fortunate enough to come in person. It has been a great undertaking and I am pleased to see that no·one individually is claiming all the honor for what has been accomplished.” [“Honors Paid to August Bartholdi”]

“I came to Chicago to see if the World’s Fair was a success. I had read that it was, but I wanted to behold it with my own eyes and report it to my friends. Now I am satisfied. It is a success; a grander one than has ever been before achieved, and to a much greater degree than it has ever been reported. I am so astonished, so pleased and so overwhelmed that I want to tell everyone The Fair is more than a success.

But it could not have otherwise from its location. Fortunate, indeed, was it that The Fair was placed in Chicago. This city is the heart of the continent. It is the center of your great country. I have been North, South, East and to the Pacific slope, and Chicago seems undoubtedly the future city of the continent. New York will always be the face, looking out abroad and being looked upon first, but Chicago is the bone and sinew, where ultimately all must come.”

While at The Fair I have met many persons from various quarters of the country. Some of those would have known nothing of the benefits of The Fair had it been elsewhere than here. They would never have gone to New York, but they all came to Chicago. Already you see my prophesy is being fulfilled, and I call upon you all to join with me in drinking to the health of this great metropolis.” [“Honor to Bartholdi”]

Demands made upon a suffering public

With plans now rolling along to place the sculpture either in the Art Institute or on a giant pedestal in Lake-Front Park as a splendid introduction to the treasures the Art Palace would contain, all Chicago had to do was to secure the remaining funds. The local press did not make that easy.

While praising Bartholdi’s heroic bronze as a “striking and dignified decoration for the Lake-Front,” the Tribune jokingly asked “… will there not be danger that some fine night Washington and Lafayette may quietly get down from their pedestal and show their resentment at the presence of that big barbarian posing as Columbus by seizing him and chucking him into the lake?” [“Washington and Lafayette”]

The “barbarian” mentioned here was a statue of Columbus designed by Chicago sculptor Howard Kretschmer. The bronze had been installed in Lake Front Park for the opening of the Columbian Exposition with funds also raised by Ferd Peck. Kretschmer’s Columbus was so disliked by the public and strongly condemned by art critics that the city removed it in 1897. The statue eventually was melted down and the metal used to cast a statue of President William McKinley, which stands today in McKinley Park. (For more on this story, see “As Chicago Debates Columbus Statues, Here’s A Look at the One We Melted Down” from The Reader.)

An author of an anonymous letter to the Tribune also cited the much-derided Columbus statue, described as an “ungainly, sprawling figure discovering State Street.” Signing the missive as “A. Doubter,” the author implored the mayor to slow down and negotiate a better deal to secure Washington and Lafayette. The letter also cautioned against young Chicago having “as many statuary horrors as New York and Boston” and making its lakefront a “repository for sculptural mediocrity,” stating that

“… no additional demands should be made upon a suffering public by erecting another statue or statue group there which may be inartistic and commonplace, and imposing only by its heroic size and a certain dignity of the figures. Before consummating the purchase would it not be well for the Mayor to invite opinions from prominent sculptors and critics as to the artistic merit of this work?” [“Bartholdi Statuary Group” Sept. 24, 1893] An editorial response the next day assured “A. Doubter” that the question of artistic merit “can be left safely to the gentlemen who are contemplating its purchase.” [“Bartholdi Statuary Group” Sept. 25, 1893]

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The New York Times seemed to agree that Chicago was moving in haste, writing that Carter Harrison “jumps to the conclusion, because New-York has a Lafayette by Bartholdi, that Chicago ought to have one, too; but does not stop to ask whether the new Lafayette by the noted sculptor is worth erecting or not.” [“Monument for Chicago”] Criticizing several aspects of Bartholdi’s creation—Washington’s stance is too conventional, his stature not authentically large enough—the paper asserted that the sculptural group “requires radical remodeling before it can be called worthy of his best work.” Throwing shade at Chicago, the New York paper quipped: “It is obviously unfair to Chicago to take advantage of the lack of knowledge of fine art on the part of her Mayor and foist on her another poor piece of sculpture.”

A letter to the Times written using the nom de plume “Sculptor Franco-Americanus” was even more harsh, characterizing Bartholdi as a third-class artist and describing his Washington and Lafayette as “bad from every standpoint of artistic execution.” Another unnamed French sculptor reportedly exclaimed “Aha! still another ‘turnip’ for America. Unfortunate country!” [“Bartholdi’s Group Analyzed”]

Not received by Chicago’s haut ton

The unfortunate Bartholdi seemed to be receiving little more than criticism from New Yorkers and indifference from Chicagoans.

Although one news story reported that “Chicago enthused over Bartholdi and emphasized its enthusiasm with unceasing hurrah of hospitality,” [“To Keep the Group”] others divulged that despite being honored by the invitation to ring the Columbian Liberty Bell and to dine with the Union League Club, Bartholdi was underwhelmed by his Chicago reception. A Chicago newspaper asserted that “had it been a prince, duke, or count instead of the eminent man who gave the best years of his life to the creation of the Statue of Liberty, and for which he received no remuneration, Chicago Society would have fallen over itself in the endeavor to greet him.”

“When M. Bartholdi and his wife came to visit the White City by the Lake,” reported an Ohio newspaper with an inside scoop, “they were not received by the haut ton as was benefitting them, for the aristocracy had been surfeited with royal and noble visitors.” [“Bartholdi Lindley”] In the World’s Fair milieu, the Parisian sculptor was simply too common to be feted.

Chicago attorney Harry Bartlett Lindley befriended Bartholdi when he arrived in the city. Lindley later hosted a dinner for him, “succeeding in making him widely acquainted in a circle of friends and citizens who hated snobbishness and were Americans of the true sort and recognized brains, genius and talent.” [“Bartholdi Lindley”]

Mr. Lindley even asked the French sculptor to serve as the godfather of his eighteen-month-old son, whom he would christen “Bartholdi Lindley.” On morning of Saturday September 23, Rev. John Henry Barrows, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church and Chairman of the General Committee on the Congress of Religions at the 1893 World’s Fair, performed the christening at the Hotel Metropole. The French sculptor was moved to tears during the ceremony. Mr. and Mrs. Bartholdi, who had no children of their own, presented their godson with magnificent presents.

“The name of Bartholdi will live as long as bronze endures,” assured a Chicago newspaper. “His works can be considered his children.” [“Mr. Bartholdi Talks”]

Continued in Part 3.

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SOURCES

“Art at the World’s Fair” Chicago Tribune Sept. 17, 1893, p. 35.

“Bartholdi’s Group Analyzed” New York Times Oct. 12, 1893, p. 10.

“Bartholdi Leaves for Home” Chicago Tribune Sept. 25, 1893, p. 6.

“Bartholdi Lindley” Chillicothe (OH) Gazette Nov. 16, 1893, p. 1.

“Bartholdi Rings the Bell” Chicago Times Sept. 13, 1893, p. 5.

“Bartholdi Rings Liberty Bell” Topeka (KS) Daily Capital Sept. 15, 1893, p. 1.

“Bartholdi Statuary Group” Chicago Tribune Sept. 24, 1893, p. 12.

“Bartholdi Statuary Group” Chicago Tribune Sept. 25, 1893, p. 4.

“The Bartholdi Statue” Chicago Tribune Sept. 27, 1893, p. 4.

“Chicago Wants a Bartholdi Statue” Brooklyn (NY) Standard-Union Sept. 20, 1893, p. 5.

“Competition for Art Treasures” Chicago Daily News Sept. 20, 1893, p. 4.

“Go to See the Rough Riders” Chicago Times Sept. 15, 1893, p. 5.

“He Thinks Miss Liberty is Too Dark” New-York Tribune Sept. 4, 1893, p. 7.

“Honors Paid to August Bartholdi” Chicago Tribune Sept. 23, 1893, p. 4.

“Honor to Bartholdi” Chicago Inter Ocean Sept. 23, 1893, p. 4

“M. Bartholdi in Town” Chicago Daily News Sept. 11, 1893, p. 1.

[“M. Bartholdi …”] Chicago Tribune Sept. 12, 1893, p. 3.

“Mr. Bartholdi Talks” Chicago Inter Ocean Sept. 14, 1893, p. 5.

“Monument for Chicago” New York Times Sept. 24, 1893, p. 20.

Pierce, James Wilson Photographic History of the World’s Fair and Sketch of the City of Chicago. Lennox Publishing Company, 1893.

Report of the Committee on Awards of the World’s Columbian Exposition. Vol. I. Government Printing Office, 1901.

“To Buy the Statue” Chicago Tribune Sept. 20, 1893, p. 7.

“To Keep the Group” Chicago Inter Ocean Sept. 27, 1893, p. 5.

“To Stay in Chicago” Indianapolis (IN) News Sept. 23, 1893, p. 7.

“Transferred the Caravels” Chicago Daily News Sept. 12, 1893, p. 2.

[“Carter Harrison has undertaken…”] Boston Globe Sept. 24, 1893, p. 20.

“Washington and Lafayette” Chicago Tribune Sept. 23, 1893, p. 12.