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Frederick Law Olmsted and the Spark of Genius

The Wooded Island in the fairgrounds of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. On the anniversary of the death of Frederick Law Olmsted (April 26, 1822 – August 28, 1903), we endeavor that the memory of his name and personality is not dimmed in the passage of years. This tribute to Olmsted’s design of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition comes from the May 3, 1893, issue of Garden and Forest, written just after Opening Day on the fairgrounds. In [...]

By |2019-08-17T13:03:52-05:00August 28th, 2019|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , |1 Comment
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World’s Columbian Exposition Secretary Howard O. Edmonds’ Presentation Set Sells for $21,600

The Howard O. Edmonds presentation set sold by Heritage Auctions in August 2019. [Image from Heritage Auctions.] Heritage Auctions offered a rare Columbian Exposition presentation set at their August 2019 “ANA World's Fair of Money US Coins Signature Auction.” The group consisting of a medal, pin and two ribbons that had once belonged to Howard O. Edmonds, secretary of the Exposition, sold for $21,600. The Numismatic Guaranty Corporation (NGC) had certified the medal set in the spring of [...]

By |2022-03-05T10:54:47-06:00August 23rd, 2019|Categories: ANTIQUES, NEWS|Tags: , , , |0 Comments
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Tiffany Clock from the 1893 World’s Fair Sells for $150,000

(Left) The “Louis XV Clock” on display in the Tiffany Pavilion within the Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building. [Image from Bancroft, Hubert Howe The Book of the Fair. The Bancroft Company, 1893.] (Right) The Tiffany clock today. Note the plain lower panel, compared to the image of the clock from 1893. [Image from Sotheby’s.] A magnificent clock manufactured by Tiffany & Company and exhibited at the 1893 World’s Fair sold by Sotheby's at their June 4, 2019, auction [...]

By |2022-03-05T10:53:23-06:00August 22nd, 2019|Categories: ANTIQUES, NEWS|Tags: , |0 Comments
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All the World is Beer

A HAPPY PROSPECT. Sing a song of wondrous things A city full of sights: Common folks and queens and kings Enjoying the delights. When the fair is opened, And all the world is here, We'll have a jolly time throughout the Exposition year. (from The Illustrated World’s Fair, May 1892) For a jolly time throughout the current year, consider a taste of “All the World is Here,” a new beer inspired by the 1893 World's Fair from Temperance Beer [...]

By |2019-08-18T10:21:42-05:00August 21st, 2019|Categories: NEWS, PRODUCTS|Tags: , , |1 Comment
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The Best Potato Display Ever Made

In honor of National Potato Day, here is a look at “the best potato display ever made,” which was exhibited the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The agricultural exhibit from New York State occupied 4,000 square feet on the south side of the main aisle of the Agricultural Building, near the eastern entrance. For the autumn season, the exhibit featured potato varieties grown all around New York State--from Chittenango to Chateaugay and from East Aurora to Westbury Station. [...]

By |2023-04-09T08:59:32-05:00August 19th, 2019|Categories: HISTORY|Tags: , |2 Comments
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The (Im)Perfection of Rude Simplicity: Davy Crockett’s Descendant Visits the Hunter’s Cabin at the 1893 World’s Fair

Many visitors to the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago on June 9, 1893, were eagerly trying to spot the Infanta Eulalia, the visiting Princess from Spain, as she toured the White City and Midway Plaisance. Meanwhile, just off the south end of the Wooded Island, a direct descendant of the legendary pioneer Davy Crockett (August 17, 1786 – March 6, 1836) visited the quaint Hunter’s Cabin. Sponsored by Theodore Roosevelt and his Boone and Crockett Foundation and designed by prolific [...]

By |2019-07-31T15:36:39-05:00August 17th, 2019|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , , , , |0 Comments
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Sept. 8, 2019: “Walking the White City” Tour in Jackson Park

The Glessner House is sponsoring "Walking the White City," a walking tour of Jackson Park on Sunday, September 8, 2019, from 10 am to noon. Led by architect and historian John Waters, the tour will locate the sites of landmarks of the fair, explore the fascinating vestiges of the fair that still remain, and show how the fair influenced the design of Jackson Park as we know it today. The tour costs $25 per person ($20 for Glessner House [...]

By |2022-03-05T10:53:20-06:00August 8th, 2019|Categories: EVENTS (past)|0 Comments
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Summer 2019 Trivia Question

Our seasonal newsletter includes a “Palmer Puzzler” exclusive to those who subscribe. (You can sign up here.) The first person to send us the correct answer wins a small prize. Gondola on the North Pond, featuring a traditional fero da prora. [Image from Johnson, Rossiter A History of the World's Columbian Exposition Volume 1 - Narrative. D. Appleton and Co., 1897.] The Summer 2019 Trivia Question The prow of a traditional Venetian gondola has a metal plate [...]

By |2019-07-31T16:05:19-05:00August 6th, 2019|Categories: TRIVIA|Tags: |0 Comments
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Night and Day Differences at the 1893 World’s Fair

The October 2019 release of the film The Current War will offer many people their first view of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. A recent trailer offered a tantalizing peak at how the special effects team has recreated the White City. In an attempt to provide some historical background, BBC History recently published an article on the “real history” of the World’s Fair in Chicago that included this description of the Opening Ceremony: “Grover Cleveland had one of the more straightforward [...]

By |2019-07-30T13:02:14-05:00August 2nd, 2019|Categories: NEWS|Tags: , , |0 Comments
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Richard Morris Hunt (1827-1895), dean of American Architecture

Today marks the anniversary of the death of Richard Morris Hunt, on July 31, 1895. Among the most revered architects working in the U.S. at the time of the World’s Columbian Exposition, Hunt was invited to contribute a design for the Administration Building, which stood in a position of honor at the west end of the Grand Basin. The magnificent classical Beaux-Arts building, capped by a gleaming gold dome, was considered one of the finest structures on the fairgrounds. [...]

By |2019-07-30T12:24:40-05:00July 31st, 2019|Categories: HISTORY|Tags: , , , |0 Comments
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