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Fair of the Future—Chicago’s International Exposition, A.D. 2000: First Prize

By |2024-03-30T09:20:25-05:00March 29th, 2024|Categories: REPRINTS|

Fair of the Future—Chicago’s International Exposition, A.D. 2000: First Prize “Chicago’s World’s Fair, A.D. 2000” by Percival Owen Continued from: Introduction The exposition was held on Lake Michigan. It was at first proposed to stand Lake Michigan on end, as was done with Lake Cayuga at the Ithaca fair of 1992.[1] The sail to Mackinaw would then have been a feature, as Hudson’s Bay and the Rocky Mountains would have been in sight; but space for buildings would then [...]

Fair of the Future—Chicago’s International Exposition, A.D. 2000: Introduction

By |2024-03-30T09:19:50-05:00March 28th, 2024|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , , |

Fair of the Future—Chicago’s International Exposition, A.D. 2000: Introduction “If you don’t think about the future, you cannot have one.” —English novelist John Galsworthy To celebrate the upcoming opening of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, the American Press Association solicited prognostication by notable people as they looked one hundred years into the future. The series, which ran in newspapers in early 1893, included essays by distinguished thinkers of the day such as populist politician William Jennings Bryan, industrialist George [...]

The Flying Dutchman Enlightens the World’s Fair of 1893

By |2023-09-15T08:38:26-05:00September 12th, 2023|Categories: HISTORY|Tags: , |

Visitors to the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago who found their way into the southwest corner of the Agricultural Building Annex encountered a most curious figure. Rising above a display of farm plows stood a twelve-foot-tall, pot-bellied man flamboyantly dressed and having a pair of huge wings. He stood on a tree stump holding a luminous ear of corn, striking a pose that lampooned the famous Liberty Enlightening the World (aka the Statue of Liberty) by Frédéric Auguste [...]

146. Picturesque World’s Fair – Birds-Eye View of State Buildings – Looking Northeast

By |2022-12-03T13:53:46-06:00December 3rd, 2022|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , , , , , , |

BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF STATE BUILDINGS—LOOKING NORTHEAST.—Very popular was the Fifty-seventh street entrance, at the northwest corner of the Exposition Grounds, situated as it was close to a railroad station and at the end of a street car cable system, and hundreds of thousands of people became, in consequence, familiar with the view given in the illustration. The scene is that presented looking to the northeast from a point near the entrance to the grounds, and is that of the [...]

State Buildings

By |2022-10-02T10:14:17-05:00April 13th, 2022|

The State Buildings The state buildings stood in a sweeping crescent across the northern end of the Columbian Exposition fairgrounds. Thirty-six states and one group of territories each sponsored a state building at the 1893 World's Fair. (The only states in 1893 that did not erect a building were Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Wyoming.) These architecturally diverse structures often were built of materials native to that state, and several were replicas of [...]

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People

By |2024-03-08T09:12:46-06:00April 7th, 2022|

Notable People at the 1893 World’s Fair Among the millions of people attending the Columbian Exposition were countless famous or soon-to-be famous names. The list below is an attempt at counting. What constitutes famous? Having a Wikipedia page today is the reasonable requirement used to assemble most entries in this list. Posts for some people are provided as links in their name. A person’s role in the Exposition is identied in brackets: [A] = artists (architects, painters, sculptors, musicians) [...]

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Timeline

By |2022-10-26T11:05:21-05:00March 13th, 2022|

Timeline Events and Dates of the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago The Columbian Exposition (May 1-Oct. 30, 1893) May 1893 Tuesday, May 1 (Opening Day) Tuesday, May 8 (Catholic Knights of America Day) Wednesday, May 17 (Norway Day) Tuesday, May 23 Wednesday, May 24 (Maine Day) Thursday, May 25 Friday, May 26 Saturday, May 27 Sunday, May 28 Monday, May 29 Tuesday, May 30 (Decoration Day) June 1893 Monday, June 5 (Denmark Day) Thursday, [...]

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128. Picturesque World’s Fair – The Falls of the Columbian Fountain

By |2021-10-27T04:42:44-05:00October 27th, 2021|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , , , |

THE FALLS OF THE COLUMBIAN FOUNTAIN.—Viewed from its front, and at a point not remote, the overflow of the Columbian Fountain afforded the spectacle of one of the most charming of'cataracts. The mass of water tumbled down from level to level in a great foaming semi-circle, until, finally, it plunged into the Grand Basin, a white sheet impress-ive in its beauty. Wider than the famous Falls of Minnehaha, though with not quite so much descent, the falls of the [...]

Remembering Nancy Green, Aunt Jemima, and the 1893 World’s Fair

By |2024-01-15T07:42:58-06:00September 9th, 2020|Categories: HISTORY|Tags: , , , |

Though relatively unknown at the time, one participant in the 1893 World’s Fair later became a famous fixture of food advertising and a part of many people’s kitchens for more than a century. For the past ninety-seven years, the final resting place of the real woman behind the character was an unmarked plot of grass in a cemetery on Chicago’s South Side. A sign welcoming guests to the September 5, 2020, headstone ceremony for Nancy Green. On [...]

Echoes of the White City Postscript: “One of the Funniest and Best Things of the Kind”

By |2019-11-30T09:28:17-06:00November 30th, 2019|Categories: HISTORY|Tags: |

Midway-themed charity bazaars and fairs were a trend sweeping across America throughout 1894 and beyond. Echoes of the White City could be heard from coast to coast.

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