About Scott

This author has not yet filled in any details.
So far Scott has created 781 blog entries.

This Way to the Egress of the Midway Plaisance

Had he lived to see it, many aspects of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition would have delighted P. T. Barnum. Visitors to the World’s Fair in Chicago could encounter various displays of “the biggest”—a golden colossus, a mammoth squash, a gigantic cactus, a huge walk-in flour barrel, massive chocolate statues, and an immense rotating wheel … to name but a few. A rather pedestrian object on the Midway Plaisance led to a funny scene that likely would have amused [...]

By |2023-11-28T09:01:39-06:00August 28th, 2022|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , |0 Comments
Read More

Jackson Park oak trees uprooted and destroyed (redux)

Some Chicago residents are expressing outrage about the number of mature trees being cut down in Jackson Park due to construction of the Obama Presidential Center (and possibly more for coming down for a planned golf course). More people than you think, perhaps, will be sorry that it has been destroyed. Many years ago, some Chicagoan were distressed by all the trees being chopped down in Jackson Park in order to construct the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition fairgrounds. This [...]

By |2022-12-10T09:57:14-06:00August 26th, 2022|Categories: NEWS, REPRINTS|Tags: , |0 Comments
Read More

Baggage for 1893 World’s Fair Visitors

In our modern era of frustrating travel, here is a reminder that the more things change the more they stay the same. This complicated advice for train travelers heading to the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago comes from April 1893 issue of The Station Agent: “General Passenger Agent De Haven of the Chicago & West Michigan and Detroit, Lansing & Northern railroads has issued a poster to all agents on this subject, which is as well adapted to [...]

By |2022-08-23T08:43:11-05:00August 25th, 2022|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: |0 Comments
Read More

Oct. 6-20, 2022: “Olmsted in Chicago: Iconic Greenspaces and the 1893 White City” (online seminar)

To mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of renowned landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr, the Newberry Library is hosting a seminar on "Olmsted in Chicago: Iconic Greenspaces and the 1893 White City." The online seminar will run for three Thursday sessions from 6-8pm on October 6, 13, and 20. Hosting the sminar will be Julia Bachrach, consulting historian and preservationist and author of The City in a Garden: A History of Chicago’s Parks, and Rebecca S. Graff, Associate [...]

By |2022-12-10T09:57:13-06:00August 24th, 2022|Categories: EVENTS (past)|Tags: , |0 Comments
Read More

Aug. 20-Dec. 22, 2022: An exhibit of Korean Fashion from the 1893 World’s Fair (Washington, D.C.)

After centuries of relative isolation, Korea opened its borders to international trade and diplomacy in 1876, but for years the country remained little known outside of Asia. Korea’s participation in the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893 changed that. Visitors to the Korean pavilion were dazzled by the colorful displays of traditional clothing (hanbok), such as embroidered silk jackets and robes made for the Joseon royal court. South Korea's emergence as a pop culture powerhouse and one of the most [...]

By |2023-01-17T17:47:22-06:00August 23rd, 2022|Categories: EVENTS (past), EXHIBITS (past)|Tags: |0 Comments
Read More

Sept 10, 2022: 1893 Chicago’s Columbian Exposition doc film premiere (Chicago)

A new full-length documenary film 1893 Chicago's Columbian Exposition will have it theatrical premier on September 10th, 2022, at 5 pm. The event is in coordination with the Design Museum of Chicago and will be held at Chicago Filmmakers (1326 W. Hollywood Ave. in Chicago). A $10 donation is requested. Following the screening will be a demonstration on the patio of a World's Fair augmented reality project. For more information on the film, related book and music, and the [...]

By |2022-10-10T08:06:40-05:00August 22nd, 2022|Categories: EVENTS (past), NEWS, VIDEO|0 Comments
Read More

Daniel Burnham on Architecture and “The Intellectual Reflex of the Exposition”

What influence would the White City erected for the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago likely have on the development of American architecture in the years to come? Pondering that question, architectural critic Montgomery Schuyler noted that Daniel Burnham, Director of Works for the Columbian Exposition, offered a vision that was able to “crystallize into a lucid and specific form a general hazy expectation.” Burnham’s made his comments in this passage for a Chicago newspaper, and Schuyler reprinted them in [...]

By |2022-08-14T06:57:13-05:00August 14th, 2022|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , |0 Comments
Read More

Keanu Reeves Heads to the White City as Builder not Killer

After nearly two decades in development, a long-awaited screen drama about the 1893 World’s Fair may be coming at last. Hulu announced on August 4, 2022, that Keanu Reeves has officially joined the cast of the streaming service’s upcoming limited series The Devil in the White City. Back in January, rumors circulated that Reeves was in talks for an unidentified role. The show will be an adaptation of Erik Larson’s best-selling 2003 non-fiction book that interweaves the true stories [...]

By |2022-12-10T09:55:56-06:00August 13th, 2022|Categories: NEWS, VIDEO|Tags: |0 Comments
Read More

Sept. 11, 2022: “Walking the White City” tour (Chicago)

The Glessner House is offering a "Walking the White City" tour of the former fairgrounds of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition on Sunday, September 11, 2022, from 10 AM to noon. Architect and historian John Waters will guide participants on a walking tour of Jackson Park to see the sites of landmarks of the 1893 World's Fair, explore the fascinating vestiges, and learn how the Fair influenced the design of Jackson Park as we know it today. The tour [...]

By |2022-10-10T08:06:54-05:00August 11th, 2022|Categories: EVENTS (past)|Tags: , |0 Comments
Read More

Aug. 19-21, 2022: “Sangamon Songs” Musical Play Tells of Illinois Boy Who Visited the 1893 World’s Fair (Skokie, IL)

A diary written by a 16-year-old Illinois boy who visited the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago is the source material for Sangamon Songs: A Musical Play by Tom Irwin and John W. Arden. The show will be performed at the Skokie Theatre for Performing Arts on August 19-21, 2022. After discovering Harry Glen Ludlam’s journal in his family farmhouse, Tom Irwin began composing an acoustic song cycle about late-nineteenth-century life of a teenager in a small town in Central [...]

By |2022-08-23T08:06:14-05:00July 24th, 2022|Categories: AUDIO, EVENTS (past), THEATER|0 Comments
Read More
Copyright 2024 WorldsFairChicago1893 | All Rights Reserved |
Go to Top