Fourth at the Fair, Part 15: Around the Fairgrounds

[Continued from Part 14]

Several formal Fourth of July exercises—held in the Administration Plaza and the Woman’s Building in the morning, on the Midway Plaisance at noon, and in the Delaware and Pennsylvania buildings in the afternoon—offered visitors to the 1893 World’s Fair ample opportunities to experience patriotic speeches and songs. Those wishing to explore on their own could find many exhibits from the colonial and Revolutionary War era scattered around the fairgrounds. “No more fitting stage for the jubilee could be chosen than Jackson Park. On every side are priceless relics of colonial times,” offered the Chicago Inter Ocean (Jun. 21, 1893). “These exhibits, these carefully guarded treasures from the nursery of the Nation, make the blood of patriotism burn in the hearts and glow in the faces of true Americans.”

“Faithful reproductions”

The state buildings, located on the north edge of the fairgrounds, swarmed with visitors all day. Some simply sought shelter under protective porch awnings during the midday rain, but others flocked inside to explore displays of Revolutionary War and early-American artifacts.

Simply walking through the campus could provide visitors with object lessons in American architectural history. Here stood five “faithful reproductions of structures cherished at home for historic memories and associated with events of undying honor in the national records,” according to Columbian Exposition historian Rossiter Johnson. In addition to the Pennsylvania State Building, which reproduced Philadelphia’s Independence Hall, several other state homes copied structures important to the Revolutionary War.

The Massachusetts State Building was a three-story colonial structure modeled after the old John Hancock mansion that stood on Beacon Hill in Boston until 1867. “While every endeavor was made by the architects, Messrs. Peabody & Stearns, of Boston, to retain the air of distinction and the comfortable appearance characteristic of the historic mansion, the greater size of the building made additional features necessary.” The house contained a reproduction of the bedroom of John Hancock and a cradle that rocked two presidents from the Adams family. “Most of the furniture was made specially for the building, after designs of pieces used in pre-Revolutionary times.” Several parlors held historic treasures loaned by the Essex Institute of Salem. Visitors could inspect an original engraving by Paul Revere in its original frame, a large mahogany secretary used by George Washington while he was in headquarters in Cambridge, a lottery ticket issued by the U. S. government in 1776 to recoup war expenses, and papers from the Continental Congress signed by John Hancock.

The Virginia State Building was an exact representation of George Washington’s Mount Vernon mansion, where he lived and died. “Within the building the utmost care was taken to reproduce as exactly as possible the fittings and furnishings of the old mansion.” While the “Old Dominion” did not appropriate as much money as some of the other large states, the home it constructed was “doubtless quite as attractive as a more conspicuous building would have been,” offered Johnson. On display in many of the twenty-five rooms were rare relics of Colonial times and the Revolutionary War. Visitors could see the original will of George Washington. “in the Lafayette chamber were several articles that belonged to Thomas Jefferson—a prayer book bearing his autograph, a watch that he carried for many years, and the telescope through which he watched the raid in Albemarle County.”

The New Jersey State Building was a partial reproduction of the historic building at Morristown which served as General Washington’s headquarters during the winter of 1779 and 1780. The home was said to have sheltered more people in colonial times than any building in America, among them Alexander Hamilton and Generals Greene, Knox, Lafayette, Steuben, Kosciusko, Schuyler, “Light Horse” Harry Lee, “Mad Anthony” Wayne, Israel Putnam, and Benedict Arnold. “The reproduction of this landmark at Jackson Park could not fail to be of interest to all visitors to the Exposition,” wrote Johnson, “and that it served as a comfortable and convenient headquarters for the State there was abundant testimony.”

The first Europeans who occupied land in what would become the United States spoke Spanish. The Florida State Building—a reproduction in miniature of Castillo de San Marcos (called “Fort Marion” in 1893) served as reminder that the Spanish settlement of St. Augustine was the oldest continuously inhabited European settlement in the U.S. “This structure probably outranks any other building at the Fair in the antiquity of its historic interest,” commented a Rand, McNally guidebook.

State buildings lacking the architecture or historical exhibits to attract patriotic visitors did so using festive ornamentation. “There was active rivalry between the various states in the matter of appropriate decorations,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Jul. 4, 1893) reported. Some of the youngest states in the Union made the greatest efforts. California decorated her building with 175 American flags. Not to be outdone, the managers of the Washington State Building took impressive steps to decorate one of their already remarkable displays. Standing in front of the handsome building stood one of the tallest flagstaffs in the world. Cut from a single red fir from the Puget Sound, the staff was five or six feet in diameter and reached 238 feet into the air, making it visible from many parts of the fairgrounds. At 6 o’clock that morning, a lineman from the Exposition’s electrical department climbed the full height (which took him half an hour) and then wrapped 768 yards of red, white, and blue bunting around the length of the pole. Inside the building, workers decorated a wooly mammoth skeleton, hanging from its tusks an oil painting of George Washington along with an inscription “Father of his Country.”

Empire State commissioners took a more refined approach, holding their own Fourth of July exercises in the Ladies’ Parlor of the New York State Building at 10 am. Donald McNaughton (1830–1893), former State Senator and the Executive Officer of the New York State World’s Fair Commission, presided and made a speech. This was one of his final official acts, as he died of peritonitis in the building at the end of the month. Speeches were given by John C. Wyman, Executive Commissioner of Rhode Island, A. B. Farquhar, Executive Commissioner of the Pennsylvania Commission, and Edward C. Hovey, Secretary of the Board of World’s Fair Managers for Massachusetts and Vice-President of the National Association of Executive Officers.

State pride and local boosterism was always on display at the Exposition, though “it was the general feeling that this day belonged to the nation and that everybody would observe it as individual Americans rather than as citizens of any particular states,” conceded the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Jul. 4, 1893).

“They knew exactly where they wanted to go”

Of all the great exhibition palaces, the center of interest on the Fourth of July certainly was the U.S. Government Building, which housed exhibits by the official sponsor of the Columbian Exposition. Designed by Willoughby Edbrooke of Washington, D.C., the federal government’s hall was among the least admired from the outside but held many treasures within.

The Chicago Record (Jul. 5, 1893) reported that the government building was “crowded with patriotic visitors” all day. “Capt. Russell’s company of United States marines, in full dress uniform, were on guard and directed the strangers to points of interest. Most of the people, however, needed little guidance. They knew exactly where they wanted to go.” Visitors passed by the Smithsonian Institution exhibit, the Model Post Office, and its curious Dead Letter Office exhibit, and headed to the big dome at the center of the building. There, the mammoth California sequoia known as the “Big Tree” standing in the center of the vast rotunda always attracted visitors, but on July 4th crowds swarmed around the exhibit encircling the perimeter.

“The most interesting historical features of the Exposition”

The Colonial Exhibit, housed in six of the eight arched alcoves of the rotunda, was the center of attraction. A sub-committee of the Board of Lady Managers organized the exhibit. Assisting them was Elizabeth Duane Gillespie (1821–1901), the great-granddaughter of Benjamin Franklin who established the Women’s Pavilion at the 1876 Centennial Exposition. The commissioners secured the aid of President Cleveland and the cabinet officials to secure space for their exhibit in the Government Building. The call for donations of items having both historic value and potential interest to visitors yielded contributions from nine of the original thirteen states—New York, North Carolina, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. The Woman’s Columbian Exposition Committee of Massachusetts boasted the greatest collection, consisting of 138 numbered items for their display. Some of the artifacts had never before been exhibited.

Visitors on the Fourth of July inspected “original grants, ancient marriage licenses, old-fashioned dueling pistols and rusty sabers, intermingled with silver cups, spoons and snuff boxes, found many admirers, but the admiration was largely mixed with curiosity,” reported the Chicago Record (Jul. 5, 1893). Mrs. Mark Stevens commented on seeing the original copy of Francis Scott Key’s “Star-Spangled Banner.” Historian Henry Davenport Northrop recorded the display having “rare old laces, snuffboxes, miniature letters, books, swords, shoe-buckles, and silver plate,” while Hubert Howe Bancroft described an array of artifacts of American history:

Next to the pipe which Miles Standish loved to smoke, lie the spurs and epaulets of Burgoyne, and near them the fife of Benedict Arnold and the visiting card of Aaron Burr. There are also the proclamations of Governor Hancock, and the ring which he wore while signing the Declaration of Independence.

Object lessons of the American Revolution filled the rotunda walls, including:

• a lock of hair from the head of a young George Washington
• a copy of the Stamp Act of 1765
• tea, allegedly from the Boston Tea Party
• a cannon ball fired at the Battle of Lexington on April 19, 1775
• the sword of Col. James Barrett, commander of American forces at the Battle of Concord
• an old drum beaten at the battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775
• part of the original flag that waved over the Liberty Tree on Boston Common in 1775
• the watch that lay on the table when the Declaration of Independence was signed
• a silver spoon brought from the Battle of Saratoga and thought to have belonged to General Burgoyne

“The Washington relics were surrounded by reverent crowds, and the weapons carried by the revolutionary heroes also attracted attention,” noted the Chicago Record (Jul. 5, 1893). Rossiter Johnson described the Colonial exhibit as “one of the most interesting historical features of the Exposition; and there was perhaps no other that so forcibly emphasized, by comparison and suggestion, the progress and development of the United States.”

In the two remaining alcoves of the rotunda, and a portion of the aisle adjacent, were exhibits sponsored by the State Department. One document, in particular, received great attention on America’s birthday.

“A patriotic pleasure”

The Chicago Record described the scene:

One exhibit conspicuously placed in a prominent part of the Rotunda attracted more attention than all the rest combined. There fathers led their sons and mothers their daughters. Little family parties stood for a half hour at a time, sometimes with uncovered heads, but always with awe and reverence, before this little glass case. Under the cover was a fine photographed reproduction of the Declaration of Independence, now on file in the archives of the nation. The faded parchment, browned, wrinkled and creased by age, is faithfully reproduced in the photograph. Few of the names are distinguishable, and the crowd seemed to take a patriotic pleasure in trying to decipher them, as well as the words in the body of the declaration. Letter by letter and word by word the liberty loving people read the words which dedicated their country to the cause of freedom.

Along with a photographic copy of the original Constitution of the United States, “no two objects within the Exposition attract more attention than these, nor are more closely guarded, consequently the owners of the Colonial relics may feel particularly assured that their treasures are under the government’s protection,” stated Conkey’s guidebook. Johnson records that the State Department’s exhibit included

… a collection of documentary mementoes of the birthday and youth of the republic—the petition to George III, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Federal Constitution; relics, autographs, and portraits of the fathers, among them the diaries and other papers of George Washington, purchased by act of Congress, and letters of Benjamin Franklin; and many of the more important of the treaties entered into by this Government with foreign powers.

As early as January 1893, the State Department planned to bring to Chicago the original handwritten parchment copy of the Declaration, made by Timothy Matlack between July 19 and August 2, 1776. This national treasure, today on display in the National Archives, was widely known to be in poor condition, after years of neglect. With a change in administration in March, along with pressure from groups such as the Sons of the American Revolution, the new Secretary of State Walter Q. Gresham rescinded permission for the fragile document to travel. Instead, a photographic copy of the Declaration was exhibited. Many visitors to the World’s Fair did not seem to know, or care.

“All day long visitors were startled”

Tributes to American history could be found sprinkled about several other exhibit halls. Inside the Agricultural Building, visitors could see a creative and curious display at the Dreydoppel Soap pavilion—a sixteen-foot-tall, five-ton sculpture made of soap, depicting Betsy Ross sewing the original American flag.

Another patriotic display combined America’s past with cutting-edge technology. Visitors to the Shoe and Leather Building, on the southeastern edge of the fairgrounds, could see—and hear—a symbol of the American Republic peddling shoes. A strange, beardless Uncle Sam “talking” automaton carried a horn from which emanated a human voice. An Edison phonograph hidden nearby delivered a recorded speech promoting Hub Gore Makers’ elastic shoes “Hello! Here I am again. Do you want me to tell you something about Congress Shoes? …”[1] The tedious sales pitch continued, reciting the manufacturer’s name (and sometimes spelling it) fourteen times. After a ten-second pause, the automaton repeated the recorded speech. “Hello! Here I am again …” The curiosity reportedly drew large crowds, but one can only pity any exhibitors stationed nearby in the building.

In the Electricity Building, the Westinghouse Company celebrated the holiday with a novel and shocking display. The Chicago Record (Jul. 5, 1893) described the electrical show:

All day long visitors were startled by heavy discharges of electricity and the play of vivid lightning before the company’s exhibit. The effect was produced by means of a large electrical condenser suspended upon the front of the pavilion. It was a plate of glass 4 or 5 feet long and 2 feet wide, coated with tinfoil and connected with a transformer supplied with a low-tension current. When the plate was charged with electricity it was discharged as a Leyden jar, and the entire plate became luminous with jagged sparks much like summer lightning. Against this blaze of light in red letters was relieved the inscription, “JULY 4TH.” Crowds of people watched the phenomenal exhibit from morning until night and asked innumerable questions about it without learning anything tangible.

This electric experiment, attempted for the first time that day, “fairly split the ears of the multitude by the production of lightning,” reported the Chicago Herald (Jul. 5, 1893). The apparatus generated flashes fifteen-to-thirty-inches in length with crackling sounds and the smell of ozone. Spectators standing too close feared being struck by lightning. The illuminated sign was inscribed with four-inch letters reading “July 4th” cut out of tin and mounted to plate glass having a tin foil backing. When a current of 20,000 volts reached the plate, electrical discharges zig-zagged all over the glass with dazzling brilliance.

Visitors wishing to get away from the sales pitch of an Uncle Sam automaton or the ear-shattering crack of the Westinghouse electrical display could find many spots on the fairgrounds to enjoy Fourth of July musical concerts.

[Continued in Part 16]

NOTES

[1] To see the full transcript of the recording and read much more about the display, consult Allen Koenigsberg’s excellent research article “‘Rest 10 Seconds Between Speeches:’ 1893’s Uncle Sam Revisited” in the Antique Phonograph 2023.

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SOURCES

“All Honor the Nation” Chicago Times Jul. 5, 1893, p. 2.

“All Nations Pay Respects” Chicago Record Jul. 5, 1893, p. 5.

“At State Headquarters” Chicago Record Jul. 5, 1893, p. 5.

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

Conkey’s Complete Guide to the World’s Columbian Exposition. W. B. Conley, 1893.

“Fourth at the Fair” Chicago Inter Ocean Jun. 21, 1893, p. 7.

Johnson, Rossiter A History of the World’s Columbian Exposition Held in Chicago in 1893, Volume 2: Departments. D. Appleton and Co., 1897.

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

“Old Glory” St. Louis Post-Dispatch Jul. 4, 1893, pp. 1–2.

Rand, McNally & Co.’s Handbook of the World’s Columbian Exposition. Rand, McNally & Co., 1893.

Stevens, Mrs. Mark Six Months at the World’s Fair. Detroit Free Press Printing Co. 1895.

“Will Live in History” Chicago Herald Jul. 5, 1893, p. 1.