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Nov. 3, 2022–Oct. 28, 2023: “The City Beyond the White City” (Charnley-Persky House Museum, Chicago)

A new exhibition explores the history of race and the built environment in Chicago through archaeology connecting the “White City” of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition to the material, spatial, and social histories of two 1892 structures—the Charnley-Persky House and the Mecca Flats—located respectively on Chicago’s privileged Near North and disinvested Near South Sides. The City Beyond the White City: Race, Two Chicago Homes, and their Neighborhoods, sponsored by the Charnley-Persky House Museum Foundation and Society of Architectural Historians [...]

By |2023-11-05T17:55:16-06:00November 19th, 2022|Categories: EVENTS (past), EXHIBITS (past)|Tags: , , |0 Comments
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“A blazing, colorful panorama.” Edith Ogden Harrison remembers the 1893 World’s Fair

As the daughter-in-law of Chicago Mayor Carter Harrison, Sr., Edith Ogden Harrison had a front-seat view of the 1893 World’s Fair. Born in New Orleans on November 16, 1862, Edith married Carter Harrison, Jr. in 1887. While he walked in his father’s footsteps, serving as mayor of Chicago from 1897–1905 and 1911–1915, Mrs. Harrison was prolific author of children’s fairy tales. Fifty-six years after the close of the Fair (and the tragic assignation of her father-in-law in his home), [...]

By |2022-11-24T08:17:43-06:00November 16th, 2022|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: |0 Comments
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Arkansas exhibits at the 1893 World’s Fair

A female architect designed the Arkansas State Building for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. The state’s displays at the Fair included a fountain made of crystals (also designed by a woman) and a 14,000-pound piece of zinc and inspired the writing of the song “My Happy Little Home in Arkansas.” Read more in “Arkansas A–Z: From middling to mighty — State’s hand in World’s Fairs” by Guy Lancaster, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (November 13, 2022)

By |2022-11-14T20:16:33-06:00November 15th, 2022|Categories: NEWS|Tags: |0 Comments
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Hiding the pickle at the 1893 World’s Fair

The dramatic merchandizing showcased at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition included a quirky subset of exhibits that might be described as “a blank made out of blank.” Much of it involved playing with food. Visitors could admire a Liberty Bell made out of citrus fruit, a Knight on horseback made out of prunes, a landscape painting made out of cereals and grasses, and a Venus de Milo statue made out of chocolate. One tasty display that was promised to [...]

By |2022-11-16T15:32:42-06:00November 14th, 2022|Categories: HISTORY|Tags: , |0 Comments
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Childe Hassam painting of the 1893 World’s Fair sells for $44,000

American impressionist painter Childe Hassam (1859–1935) created several paintings of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition fairgrounds. He visited Chicago for the first time in 1892 to prepare his works that depicted what the World’s Fair would look like when open the following year. He also exhibited five oil paintings and five watercolors in the Palace of Fine Arts. An original 1893 World’s Fair painting by Hassam sold for $44,000 in the Heritage Auctions American Art Signature Auction #8099 on [...]

By |2025-01-30T08:37:05-06:00November 13th, 2022|Categories: ANTIQUES, NEWS|Tags: , , , |0 Comments
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Singles Night at the 1893 World’s Fair

In the era before dating apps, how were singles to meet? One Chicagoan in 1893 proposed a special day on the fairgrounds of the World’s Columbian Exposition for not-so-young-and-still-unattached visitors. The October 21, 1893, issue of the Chicago Inter Ocean carried the following Letter to the Editor, signed “A. LS.” (presumably one of the “autumn lassies” mentioned in the letter?). Although the Fair held many “special days”—for groups ranging from North Dakotans to Nicaraguans, French Engineers to Fishermen—the author’s [...]

By |2022-10-12T12:11:30-05:00October 30th, 2022|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , |0 Comments
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When hunger overtakes visitors on the 1893 fairgrounds, they are in danger

We’re all feeling the pain of soaring food prices today. They did back in 1893, too. Visitors to the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition were shocked by the cost food on the fairgrounds and frustrated by not being able to find a bill of fare before ordering in the restaurant concessions. The complaints pilled up thick in the first few weeks of the Exposition in May, especially at the White Horse Inn on the south end of the fairgrounds. At [...]

By |2022-10-24T09:25:29-05:00October 25th, 2022|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , |0 Comments
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1893 World’s Fare in Downtown Chicago

The 1893 World’s Fair is the puported theme of three new food and drink establishments in downtown Chicago in September 2022. Kinsley, a new restaurant and bar in the One North Wacker building, promises to evoke a “spirit of innovation and diversity, inspired by the ultimate Fairgrounds of old, the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition and its gleaming White City.” The name comes from famed Chicago restaurateur Herbert M. Kinsley, who (according to the owners) was hired by architect Daniel [...]

By |2022-11-17T07:09:45-06:00October 24th, 2022|Categories: NEWS|0 Comments
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“It will take two years to see it all”

When Barney Fredendall from Guilderland, New York, returned home from his visit to the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago, he commented that “it will take two years to see it all.” In her article "In 1892, Columbus was celebrated in big Chicago fair and by school children locally," Mary Ellen Johnson describes other impressions of the Columbian Exposition from the pages of the Altamont Enterprise newspaper. “The matter of a visit to the World’s Fair is becoming an [...]

By |2022-10-21T09:24:55-05:00October 22nd, 2022|Categories: NEWS|Tags: |0 Comments
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Nov 3, 2022: “MEET ME AT THE FAIR!: Music from the Great World’s Fairs” (Williamsport, PA)

Paragon Ragtime Orchestra will present MEET ME AT THE FAIR!: Music from the Great “World’s Fairs” on November 3, 2022. 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 the success of all these international festivals, launching both hit songs and the illustrious careers of many American musicians (including Scott Joplin and Sousa). [...]

By |2022-11-11T09:04:34-06:00October 12th, 2022|Categories: AUDIO, EVENTS (past)|0 Comments
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