Chicago "history detective" Ray Johnson will offer a virtual tour of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition fairgrounds at 4 pm (Central) on May 15, 2020. The webinar, offered by Vamonde, is free but registration is required.
Forty years after the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago again hosted the world for the Century of Progress. Chicago Architecture Center (CAC) docent Ellen Shubart will compare the two—and explain why one is talked about so much more often than the other today—in a video lecture "A Tale of Two Fairs" at 7 pm on Wednesday, May 20, 2020. The program will be hosted on Zoom; registered guests will receive an email directly from Zoom on the day of [...]
“The Electric Button” [Image (colorized) from Frank Leslie’s Illustrated, May 18, 1893.] Opening Day at the World's Columbian Exposition, May 1, 1893, brought “the greatest crowd Chicago has ever seen or probably ever will witness” into Jackson Park. The tally of total visitors inside the fairground, was close to 400,000, with 242,000 people buying tickets at the gate and another 150,000 arriving with pre-purchased souvenir tickets. The event may have been the greatest crowd Chicago had ever seen, [...]
This event has been cancelled. The Chicago History Museum is offering a “Ride Like the Devil: a Devil in the White City Bike Tour” on Saturday, May 30, 2019, from 9:45 am to 12:45 pm. Cycle back to 1893, pedal past sites related to the World’s Fair, and discover its lasting influence on Chicago. Along the way, tour guide Greg Borzo, author of Where to Bike Chicago, will uncover Daniel Burnham’s grand plans and the devilish doings of H. [...]
April 26, 2022, marks the bicentennial of the birth of Frederick Law Olmsted, landscape architect of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. A celebration is being planned in honor of the author, journalist, city planner, landscape architect, public official, and creative genius who transformed the modern American landscape. Olmsted 200 will be a coordinated national and local celebration, engaging wide and inclusive audiences in examining the foundational principles of Olmsted’s democratic vision, values, and resilient designs. The Bicentennial will bring [...]
Equaling or surpassing the grandeur of the White City palaces were the awesome scenic grounds of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. The eminent landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, who had laid out New York's Central Park and the Chicago suburb of Riverside, transformed Jackson Park (“the least park-like ground within miles of the city”) into a garden of stunning beauty enjoyed by tens of millions of visitors. In this report to the American Institute of Architects (published The American [...]
Forty years after the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago again hosted the world for the Century of Progress. Chicago Architecture Center (CAC) docent Ellen Shubart will compare the two—and explain why one is talked about so much more often than the other today—in a video lecture "A Tale of Two Fairs" at 7 pm on Wednesday, April 29, 2020. The program will be hosted on Zoom; registered guests will receive an email directly from Zoom on the day of [...]
Several women played significant roles in making the 1893 World’s Fair a spectacularly grand affair. Chicago Architecture Center (CAC) docent Kathleen Carpenter will introduce you to these remarkable women artists, activists, and achievers in a video lecture "Women of the 1893 World's Fair" at 7 pm on Wednesday, May 6, 2020. The program will be hosted on Zoom; registered guests will receive an email directly from Zoom on the day of the program with details about how to access [...]
Popular Science magazine offers a "shockingly sad (and short) origin story" of the Ferris Wheel in their article "There was only ever one true Ferris Wheel, and we blew it up"
On April 18, 1919, the former president of the World’s Columbian Exposition met a tragic death. Harlow N. Higinbotham was visiting New York to “meet the boys” of Illinois who had recently returned from serving in the U.S. military during the Great War. The eighty-year-old Chicagoan set out from his residence at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel on Central Park to the New York headquarters of the Illinois Soldiers' Welcome Committee at 107 East 34th Street. Along the way, he stepped [...]
