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Ignacy Paderewski Battles the Midway Camel

Twenty-two-year-old Ignacy Jan Paderewski (November 18, 1860 – June 29, 1941) was already a rock star when he performed a concert for the opening of the 1893 World’s Fair. The Polish pianist’s adoring fans—enchanted as much by his luxuriant red locks as by his charismatic keyboard performance—succumbed to “Paddymania.” His distinguishing coiffure made Paderewski a common subject of caricatures and cartoons. One example places him back at the World’s Columbian Exposition, where one denizen of the Midway Plaisance was [...]

By |2024-11-05T10:07:15-06:00November 18th, 2024|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , |0 Comments
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“It’s Ugly.” But worth $150,000! Tiffany Love Cup from 1893 World’s Fair Featured on “Antiques Roadshow”

It may be ugly, but it’s a treasure from the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. A silver loving cup made by Tiffany & Company for the World’s Fair was brought in for appraisal on Antiques Roadshow Season 28 Episode 20 “Vintage Madison 2024, Hour 1” on PBS. The sterling silver cup is decorated with enameling embedded with turquoise and other stones. The owner inherited the vase from a family member who lived near the Midway Plaisance in Chicago, though admitted [...]

By |2024-11-09T16:31:09-06:00November 10th, 2024|Categories: ANTIQUES, NEWS|Tags: |0 Comments
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Tale of a Canceled Pass at the 1893 World’s Fair

From the September 30, 1893, issue of Boot and Shoe Recorder comes this verse about whiskers, an entrance pass, and love on the World’s Columbian Exposition fairgrounds. An 1893 patent fot a farm lifting gate. TALE OF A CANCELED PASS I. Cervantes Burton was patentee Of a lifting gate called the “A. B. C.” “It is built in such a simple way That a child can work it,” he would say. Mr. Burton had shown this wondrous [...]

By |2024-11-05T18:15:11-06:00November 8th, 2024|Categories: REPRINTS|0 Comments
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Dec. 6-28, 2024: Joffrey Ballet’s “Columbian Nutcracker” (Chicago)

A festive Ferris Wheel, a Dream City, a flurry of snow, dancing dragons, dancing nuts, and dancing rats! It's that time of the year for Chicago’s Joffrey Ballet to stage their spectacular annual production of The Nutcracker, with story set on the fairgrounds of 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. Performances run from December 6-28, 2023, at the Lyric Opera House (20 N. Wacker Dr. in Chicago) This ballet by choreographer Christopher Wheeldon, which premiered in 2016, invites the audience to [...]

By |2024-11-02T17:43:47-05:00November 6th, 2024|Categories: EVENTS, THEATER|Tags: , |0 Comments
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Nov. 9, 2024: “H. H. Holmes & New Links to Chicago & the White City” (Hazel Crest, IL, and online)

The South Suburban Genealogical and Historical Society (SSGHS) will host a presentation on “H. H. Holmes & New Links to Chicago & the White City” at their meeting on Saturday, November 9, 2024. Guest speaker Ray Johnson, known as “The History Cop,” will discuss his research into new links between killer H. H. Holmes and Thomas B. Bryan and Daniel H. Burnham, and a possible link to a swindle in England. The society meeting will take place from 10–11 [...]

By |2024-11-02T17:38:21-05:00November 3rd, 2024|Categories: EVENTS|Tags: , , |0 Comments
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The Amusement Zone of the 1893 Columbian Exposition featured on WTTW’s “Chicago Stories”

“The 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition proved that Chicagoans had a healthy appetite for amusement—and that fun could be monetized.” —WTTW’s Chicago Stories An episode of WTTW’s Chicago Stories airing on October 4, 2024, takes viewers on a ride through the history of regional amusement parks such as The White City, Riverview, and Kiddieland. “Amusement Parks” opens with a visit to the 1893 World’s Fair and some dazzling digital animation of vintage photographs. “The 1893 Columbian Exposition was a BIG [...]

By |2024-10-24T10:16:25-05:00October 24th, 2024|Categories: NEWS|Tags: , , |0 Comments
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1893 World’s Fair buildings were “a counterfeit and a sham”

The excerpt below comes from a profile of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition published in the Pittsburg Dispatch in the summer of 1891, near the start of construction on the fairgrounds. The writer questions the use of staff as the main material for the facades of buildings. At this time, the decision had to yet been made to have all the buildings in the Court of Honor painted white. A bird’s eye view of the proposed fairgrounds of the [...]

By |2024-10-22T14:30:49-05:00October 23rd, 2024|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: |0 Comments
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Nov. 17, 2024: “MEET ME AT THE FAIR!: Music from the Great World’s Fairs” (Overland Park, KS)

Paragon Ragtime Orchestra will present MEET ME AT THE FAIR!: Music from the Great “World’s Fairs” on November 17, 2024, in Overland Park, KS. This concerts is a spectacular musical celebration of the legendary world’s fairs, including the 1876 Centennial Exhibition, the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, and the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition. Music played a key role in these international festivals, launching both hit songs and the illustrious careers of many American musicians. This [...]

By |2024-10-17T09:12:04-05:00October 17th, 2024|Categories: AUDIO, EVENTS|2 Comments
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Oct. 23, 2024: Columbian Exposition food and lecture (Sewickly, PA)

The Sewickly Valley Historical Society (SVHS) in Sewickly, Pennsylvania, will host an evening of 1893 World’s Fair events on October 23, 2024. “A Bite of History: Chicago Columbian Exposition Edition” and a lecture on “From the Steel City to the White City” are part of their 2024–2025 Program Series. The evening will start at 5:30 pm with SVHS Executive Director, Amanda Schaffer as she introduces the foods being offered and their history with the 1893 Fair and beyond. Attendees [...]

By |2024-10-27T12:24:54-05:00October 15th, 2024|Categories: EVENTS|0 Comments
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Oct 15, 2024: “Tiffany Chapel: 25 Years at the Morse” (Winter Park, FL)

The Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company (1892–1902) exhibited a magnificent chapel interior as the centerpiece of its display for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Since 1999, the chapel has been on view at the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art in Winter Park, FL. In celebration of the chapel’s 25th anniversary at the Museum, the Morse will exhibit Fathers of the Church, a glass mosaic on long-term loan from The Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass in [...]

By |2024-10-10T14:32:12-05:00October 11th, 2024|Categories: EXHIBITS (current), NEWS|Tags: |2 Comments
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