A visitor to the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition sent a letter home to Augusta, Maine, reporting about many sights on the fairgrounds and in Chicago. Author “E. H. J.” concludes with these thoughts:

“Our notebooks are full, our pocketbooks are empty, and we’re going home to rest and think. We are tired. Not by the hot weather, or walking, or sight-seeing, but by the souvenirs. You can not buy anything in Chicago now that is not a ‘souvenir of the World’s Fair.’ I am going to have an auction when we get home. We have had World’s Fair drinks and lunches, carried souvenir canes, looked at souvenir albums, coins, spoons, glasses, bags, badges, paper-weights, pocket books and pens, until we feel as if we had grown into living souvenirs of the World’s Fair of 1893.”

Visitors to the 1893 World’s Fair could buy souvenirs in many shops along the Midway Plaisance, including the Japanese Bazaar. [Image from Midway Types: A Book of Illustrated Lessons about the People of the Midway Plaisance, World’s Fair, 1893. Chicago: The American Engraving Company, 1894.]

SOURCE

“How He Saw It” Augusta (ME) Kennebec Journal Jun. 27, 1893, p. 2.