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May 3-5, 2019: Chicago Antiquarian Map, Book & Ephemera Fair

The Chicago Antiquarian Map, Book & Ephemera Fair, to be held from May 3-5, 2019, at the Newberry Library (60 W. Walton St. in Chicago), will gather over thirty exhibitors offering a wide array of maps, books, and ephemera for sale. Among the tables may be some treasures from the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, according to the fair’s featured item’s page. The Abraham Lincoln Book Shop offers a fascinating souvenir World's Columbian Expo Myriopticon for $1,850. The wooden box, [...]

By |2022-10-17T08:58:22-05:00March 7th, 2019|Categories: EVENTS (past)|0 Comments

Virginia Claypool Meredith, the “The Queen of American Agriculture” on the Board of Lady Managers

“It is not likely that there will ever again be any distinction so artificial as that of sex between the skill of men and women--unlikely that there will ever again be a woman’s department in any World’s Fair.”  --Virginia Meredith, from a speech given at the Indiana Union of Literary Clubs meeting, May 1892. [reprinted in Whitford, et al. The Queen of American Agriculture: A Biography of Virginia Claypool Meredith] Virginia Claypool Meredith, Vice President of the Board [...]

By |2019-03-02T08:20:14-06:00March 2nd, 2019|Categories: HISTORY|Tags: , |0 Comments

Woman’s Part at the World’s Fair, Part I

March is Women’s History Month and a fitting time to reflect on women’s valuable contributions to the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. Reprinted here is Part 1 of “Woman’s Part at the World’s Fair” from the May 1893 issue of The Review of Reviews. “The Work of the Board of Lady Managers” was written by one of its Vice Presidents, Virginia C. Meredith of Indiana. Parts 2 and 3 will follow later this month. Section headers and additional images have [...]

Mar. 11, 2019: The Vanishing City–Excavating the World’s Fair (McHenry County Historical Society & Museum)

The McHenry County Historical Society & Museum will kick off its 33rd annual Sampler Lecture Series on Monday, March 11 with a look at the 1893 World’s Fair with “The Vanishing City: Excavating the World’s Fair.” Rebecca Graff, assistant professor of anthropology and chair of the American studies at Lake Forest College, divulges what is hiding beneath the future Obama Presidential Center site in Chicago. Jackson Park at one time housed the 1893 World’s Columbia Exposition. After the fair, [...]

By |2022-03-05T10:39:57-06:00February 25th, 2019|Categories: EVENTS (past)|0 Comments

Mar. 23, 2019: Devil in the White City Bus Tour

Experience the murder, magic, and madness at the fair that changed America on a 4-hour bus tour offered by the Chicago History Museum on Saturday, March 23, 2019. (A second tour will be offered on April 13, 2019.) Inspired by Erik Larson’s best-selling book (soon to be a miniseries), this tour will take you back to 1893 with historian Al Walavich, to follow the trails of Daniel Burnham and the devilish doings of H. H. Holmes. Visit the historic fairgrounds, the Garden [...]

How Should Chicago be Governed?

Chicago City Hall. [Image from Butterworth, Hezekiah Zigzag Journeys in the White City (Estes and Lauriat, 1894).] With the election for a new Mayor of Chicago on the horizon, citizens are demanding cleaner streets, a crackdown on crime and vice, and safer public transportation. The year was 1893. The mayoral election of the spring of 1893 would decide who would become the “World’s Fair Mayor” as the city prepared for the May 1 opening of the World’s Columbian [...]

By |2019-01-30T19:43:21-06:00February 19th, 2019|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: |0 Comments

Fair Floor Faces Foggy Future

A parquet floor in the William Witten Home in Highland Park, Illinois, came from the 1893 World’s Fair. [Image from the William Witten Home Facebook page.] Will an impending wrecking ball spare a rare craftsman floor from the 1893 World’s Fair? Following a story last year from the Chicago Tribune, CBS-2 Chicago reports that the William Walter Witten Home, at 1014 Central Avenue in Highland Park, Illinois, could be torn down soon. William Witten "was a talented woodworker," notes [...]

By |2024-11-21T09:25:21-06:00February 15th, 2019|Categories: NEWS|0 Comments

“Frederick Douglass’s Defiant Stand at Chicago’s World’s Fair”

February 14 is often listed as the birthday of Frederick Douglass, who late in life served as the Commissioner of the Haitian Republic. Daniel Hautzinger writes in “Frederick Douglass's Defiant Stand at Chicago's World's Fair” (WTTW, February 14, 2018) that “Frederick Douglass never knew the date of his own birth, or even how old he was … But the famous abolitionist and orator eventually chose to celebrate his birthday on February 14, determining that he was probably born 200 [...]

By |2019-01-26T18:24:29-06:00February 14th, 2019|Categories: HISTORY|Tags: |0 Comments

“Devil in the White City” to be a Hulu Mini Series

One man built a dream city on the shores of Lake Michigan, attracting tens of millions of visitors from around the world. Another built a nightmare hotel in a neighborhood near the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Erik Larson entwined the true stories of architect Daniel H. Burnham and serial killer H. H. Holmes into a fascinating narrative in his 2003 bestseller The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair That Changed America. [...]

Finding the Fair at the Field

In terms of quantity and quality, one of the greatest collections of objects from the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition resides in the Field Museum in Chicago. The permanent collection is a treasure trove of unique and fascinating items from the 1893 Exposition. We visited the museums several times recently to take in some of the temporary exhibits having World’s Fair materials on display and share a few photos here. Beyond Bollywood: Indian Americans Shape the Nation ran from July [...]

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