A new exhibition explores the history of race and the built environment in Chicago through archaeology connecting the “White City” of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition to the material, spatial, and social histories of two 1892 structures—the Charnley-Persky House and the Mecca Flats—located respectively on Chicago’s privileged Near North and disinvested Near South Sides.
The City Beyond the White City: Race, Two Chicago Homes, and their Neighborhoods, sponsored by the Charnley-Persky House Museum Foundation and Society of Architectural Historians Present the Exhibition has two components. A physical exhibition at the Charnley-Persky House runs from November 3, 2022–October 28, 2023, while a virtual exhibit is available online at beyondthewhitecity.org.
Over 30 individual artifacts excavated from the Charnley-Persky House (Adler & Sullivan, 1891–92) and from the former Mecca Flats (Edbrooke & Burnham, 1891–92) are on display in this exhibition, co-curated by Dr. Rebecca Graff, associate professor of anthropology at Lake Forest College, and the late Pauline Saliga, former executive director of the Society of Architectural Historians and the Charnley-Persky House Museum Foundation.
The exhibition is organized thematically in four sections. The first section, “Race and the World’s Fair Marketplace,” looks at the 189 Word’s Fair as a literal marketplace for commodities and an ideological marketplace for schemes on race. The second section highlights “Consumption, Health, and Sanitation” in turn-of-the-century Chicago.
Remnant of a bottle of Johan Hoff Malt Extract. This patent medicine received a medal and acclaim at the 1893 World’s Fair.
The third section, “Women, Children, and the Domestic Sphere,” focuses on six notable women, including Nancy Green (who portrayed “Aunt Jemima” in the Agricultural Building) and Sophia Hayden (architect of the Woman’s Building). In the final section, “Urban Renewal and Racial Ideology,” viewers confront the lingering inequities built into American cities like Chicago.
Adler & Sullivan’s Transportation Building is depicted on one side of Victor E. Farrall, Jr., Chicago Box: Entrances (2007).
An added bonus is the display of Chicago Box: Entrances, a 2007 wood sculpture by Victor E. Farrall, Jr., which depicts famous Chicago buildings including Adler & Sullivan’s (destroyed) Transportation Building from the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition.
The exhibition at the Charnley-Persky House (1365 N. Astor St. in Chicago) is open on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm. No reservations are required.