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“The crush was terrible”: A firsthand account of Opening Day at the 1893 World’s Fair

A correspondent to the Russell Record in Russell County, Kansas, offered this account of Opening Day of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. Despite having a rather unpleasant time adrift in the “Surging Sea of Humanity” assembled in Jackson Park for the ceremony, and despite the World’s Fair being far from complete in early May, this Kansan advised that “No one, who can conveniently see it, should fail to do so.” Thousands and thousands of people collected on the grounds [...]

By |2024-05-01T06:11:39-05:00May 1st, 2024|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: |0 Comments
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Curiosities from the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair

The University of Illinois has shared some interesting artifacts from the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition that are held in the University Archives and campus libraries. The article by Nicole Cazley and Kim Schmidt features the University of Illinois Guest Register, a pass book for a member of John Philip Sousa’s band, a guidebook, a Certificate of Visitation [read more about these rare souvenirs here], a topographic map display, and stereograph cards. Read the article here: https://storied.illinois.edu/curiosities-1893-chicago-worlds-fair/ [...]

By |2024-04-28T07:01:36-05:00April 28th, 2024|Categories: NEWS|Tags: |0 Comments
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May 14, 2024: “L Car No. 1 First Look” (Chicago)

The Guild of the Chicago History Museum will host an exclusive first look at the newly renovated elevated train car that took visitors to the 1893 World’s Fair. Attendees will peruse World’s Fair artifacts with curators, meet historic figures who made headlines at the Fair, and hop aboard the L car for a tour as it reopens after its restoration. Period musicians, 19th-century costumes, and a luncheon straight from 1893, will offer Guild members a glimpse of the wonder [...]

By |2024-06-04T09:22:28-05:00April 27th, 2024|Categories: EVENTS (past)|Tags: , |0 Comments
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May 10, 2024: “MEET ME AT THE FAIR!: Music from the Great World’s Fairs” (Clarks Summit, PA)

Paragon Ragtime Orchestra will present MEET ME AT THE FAIR!: Music from the Great “World’s Fairs” on May 10, 2024, in Clarks Summit, PA. 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 new Paragon Ragtime [...]

By |2024-06-04T09:22:46-05:00April 26th, 2024|Categories: AUDIO, EVENTS (past)|0 Comments
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May 7, 2024: DREAM CITY musical (Chicago)

A new musical about the 1893 World’s Fair takes the stage at Theater Wit in Chicago for one night only. Dream City, with book and lyrics by June Finfer and music by Elizabeth Doyle, will be offered as a staged reading on May 7, 2024, at 7:30 PM. Finfer and Doyle’s musical is a revision of Burnham’s Dream: The White City, staged in 2018. This new version featured five new songs, two new characters (including a villain), and no [...]

By |2024-06-04T09:23:08-05:00April 22nd, 2024|Categories: EVENTS (past), THEATER|Tags: , , , , , , |0 Comments
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Greetings from a Transportation Angel

We were delighted to hear from several readers about the lovely images featured in our recent post “Angels in the Spandrels: The Winged Decorations of Louis Sullivan’s Transportation Building” We’ve made the image available on greeting cards (single, pack of 10, and pack of 20) and a few other items through our Café Press shop at https://www.cafepress.com/worldsfairchicago1893. We greatly enjoy sharing what we learn about the 1893 World’s Fair with other researchers and enthusiasts. This non-profit, educational website is [...]

By |2024-05-29T14:27:40-05:00April 17th, 2024|Categories: PRODUCTS|Tags: , |0 Comments
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Angels in the Spandrels: The Winged Decorations of Louis Sullivan’s Transportation Building

Critics glorified and reviled Louis Sullivan’s renegade design for the Transportation Building at the 1893 World’s Fair. The polychromatic color scheme and the grand Golden Door received the most commentary at the time of the Columbian Exposition, and both elements continue to fascinate students of architecture today. Louis Sullivan’s striking design for the Transportation Building featured a polychromatic façade and majestic “Golden Door” entrance on the east side. [Image from Picturesque World’s Fair. W.B. Conkey, 1894; digitally edited [...]

By |2024-09-06T10:41:43-05:00April 14th, 2024|Categories: HISTORY, RESEARCH|Tags: , , |1 Comment
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“Sick of the picturesque”: Hamlin Garland oversells the 1893 World’s Fair

Note: Hamlin Garland will be inducted into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame at a ceremony on Tuesday, April 16, 2024, from 5:30—8 pm at the Chicago History Museum. Further information about Hamlin Garland can be found at the Hamlin Garland Society website https://www.garlandsociety.org/ “Sell the cook stove if necessary and come. You must see this fair.” This oft-repeated quote, brimming with enthusiasm and promise for the 1893 World’s Fair, was Hamlin Garland’s enticement for his parents to visit [...]

By |2024-04-10T18:43:39-05:00April 12th, 2024|Categories: HISTORY, REPRINTS|Tags: , , , , , , |0 Comments
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25 Impressions of the 1893 World’s Fair

Toward the close of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, The Critic invited twenty-five notable scholars, writers, and leaders of the day to offer their brief impressions of the World’s Fair. At such a monumental event with so many novelties … what impressed them the most? It is interesting how frequently these contributors sing the same notes as they rhapsodize about the fairgrounds at night and the illumination of the Court of Honor, praise (except for Henry Fuller!) [...]

By |2024-04-05T08:27:41-05:00April 10th, 2024|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |0 Comments
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Seeing the Solar Eclipse of 1893 at the World’s Fair

Did you see it? Viewers on April 8, 2024, snapped countless millions of photographs of the solar eclipse. For the total solar eclipse of April 16, 1893—visible in South America and Africa—only a handful of photographs were taken. At least one made it into a display at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. A photograph of the April 1893 solar eclipse, exhibited in the California State Building at the 1893 World's Fair. [Image from Bancroft, Hubert Howe [...]

By |2024-04-08T08:34:28-05:00April 8th, 2024|Categories: HISTORY|Tags: , |0 Comments
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