Chicago is losing its Malört over the announcement that Cardinal Robert Prevost was elected to be the first pope from the United States. Born in the Bronzeville neighborhood and raised in Chicago’s south suburbs, Prevost has taken the name Leo XIV.
Back in 1893, Pope Leo XIII had a varied—and rather unusual—presence at the World’s Columbian Exposition, held in Chicago’s Jackson Park.
Pope Leo XIII loaned many Vatican treasures to be exhibited at the World’s Fair.
One theme of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition was commemorating Christopher Columbus’s 1492 arrival in the Americas. United States officials sought to assemble rare artifacts about Columbus and the voyage of discovery from various collections in Europe. Pope Leo XIII was enthusiastic to assist and generously authorized the Vatican Museums loan numerous treasures. Visitors to the Exposition could see these Columbian relics on display in the reproduction of the Convent of La Rabida.
La Convent of La Rabida at the 1893 World’s Fair housed treasures from the Vatican Museums loaned by Pope Leo XIII, who reportedly had taken the greatest interest in the reproduction being erected in Jackson Park. [Image from Picturesque World’s Fair. An Elaborate Collection of Colored Views (W. B. Conkey, 1894).]
Pope Leo XIII recorded a greeting using a phonograph and sent it to the Fair.
In March of 1893, Pope Leo XIII used an Edison Phonograph to record a short message to the American people. The plan—not very well conceived—was to play the recording during the Opening Ceremony of the World’s Columbian Exposition on May 1. This was not even attemped because, with no means of amplification, only one person at a time could have heard the recording play on a phonograph. Hundred of thousands of people attended Opening Day, meaning that would be a very long line.
His Holiness Pope Leo XIII recording his greetings to the American people using an Edison phonograph with Monsignor Satolli listening. [Image from The Phonogram March-April 1893.
A wax figure of Pope Leo stood inside a funhouse on the Midway Plaisance.
The likeness of Pope Leo XIII could be found in paintings and sculptures on display around the fairgrounds. Visitors could view a life-size representation of His Holiness on the second floor of the Moorish Palace. This concession—sponsored by businessman from Chicago, Germany, and Austria—was one of the strangest attractions on the Midway. After being lost in a mirror maze, mystified by optical illusions, terrorized by a scene of Satan and the “Cave of Devils,” visitors went upstairs to view a wax museum from Germany. Among the more than sixty wax figures (ranging from Mozart to Pres. Garfield) was Pope Leo XIII. One visitor described him as being “dressed in a rich red robe, wearing the skull cap, about his neck a long gold chain, attached to it a solid gold cross, his hands extended to pronounce blessings.” Take that, Satan.
The Moorish Palace concession on the Midway Plaisance was a funhouse with a wax museum that included a figure of Pope Leo XIII. [Image from The Columbian Album (Rand McNally & Co., 1893).]
Pope Leo XIII blessed a statue of Columbus that is still in Chicago … somewhere.
A statue of Christopher Columbus by sculptor Moses Ezekiel was installed above the entrance to the Columbus Memorial Building in downtown Chicago in 1893. Ezekial cast the sculpture in Rome, where it reportedly was blessed by Pope Leo XIII before coming to Chicago. Since 1966, the blessed statue stood in Arrigo Park but was put in storage in 2020. On May 1, 2025, the City of Chicago announced it would be loaned to a new Chicago Museum of Italian Immigrants.
Moses Ezekiel’s Christopher Columbus (1891) was blessed by Pope Leo XIII before coming to Chicago for the 1893 World’s Fair. After more than fifty years in Chicago’s Arrigo Park, the statue may be moving to a new home. [Image from waymarking.com]