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THE LADY OF THE LAKE by Julian Hawthorne Part IV: The Incomparable Loveliness of the Illuminations

Author Julian Hawthorne visited the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Like so many other visitors who recorded their impressions of visiting the World’s Fair, he offered some of his highest praise for the electrical lighting of the night scene in the Dream City, a “banquet of royal beauty.” Reprinted below is the fourth and final part of Julian Hawthorne’s “The Lady of the Lake” about his June visit to the fairgrounds and published in the August 1893 issue [...]

THE LADY OF THE LAKE by Julian Hawthorne Part III: Curiosities of the Midway Plaisance

Author Julian Hawthorne visited the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Reprinted below is the third part of Julian Hawthorne’s “The Lady of the Lake” about his June visit to the fairgrounds and published in the August 1893 issue of Lippincott’s Magazine. The previous installments can be found in Part I and Part II. [NOTE: By today’s standards, some of Hawthorne’s remarks about the Midway Plaisance and citizens of the international villages sound racist. It was not uncommon for commentators [...]

THE LADY OF THE LAKE by Julian Hawthorne Part II: A Pure Delight of the Soul

Author Julian Hawthorne visited the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Reprinted below is the second part of Julian Hawthorne’s “The Lady of the Lake” about his June visit to the fairgrounds and published in the August 1893 issue of Lippincott’s Magazine. Part 1 can be found here. THE LADY OF THE LAKE by Julian Hawthorne The Palace of Fine Arts depicted in “Art Palace from the Southwest” by the Poole Brothers. [Image from Vistas of the Fair [...]

By |2019-05-26T16:34:21-05:00February 3rd, 2019|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , |1 Comment

THE LADY OF THE LAKE by Julian Hawthorne Part I: Sculpture in the Grand Basin

Julian Hawthorne (June 22, 1846 – July 21, 1934) was the only son of novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne and himself a journalist and author. Julian Hawthorne’s biographer notes that “as an author, he far exceeded the literary production of his famous father, composing no less than twenty-six novels and romances, over sixty short stories, almost a hundred essays, and several lengthy works of history, biography, and autobiography.” [Bassan, Maurice Hawthorne’s Son: The Life and Literary Career of Julian Hawthorne. Ohio [...]

Ice and Snow on the Midway Plaisance

Here's some cool news from the July 8, 1893, Chicago Dispatch: Yesterday the thermometer nearly reached the one hundredth degree mark, and to-day is not much cooler, yet amidst this sultry heat of midsummer many thousands of visitors to the Midway Plaisance can, and many did, enjoy the enviable pleasure of a genuine sleigh ride on pure white snow. Not imitation snow, but the pure crystal itself. It is in itself worth a trip to Chicago and to the [...]

The World’s Fair in a Cup of Cocoa

An advertisement for Blooker's Cocoa from Harper's Weekly in 1893. This is a good day to enjoy a cup of hot cocoa and think about the 1893 World’s Fair. In a contemporary magazine advertisement promoting their distribution of Blooker’s Dutch Cocoa, the Franco-American Food Company offered this copy: “The Columbian Exposition will soon be a thing of the past. Thousands of people who have visited the White City will remember the Blooker exhibit as they sip their [...]

Chicago Magazine Recalls the “Indecent Undulations” on the Midway Plaisance

A photograph of "Egyptian Dancing Girls" from Picturesque World’s Fair shows more modest attire than is often described for the "belly dancer" show on the Midway. The February 2019 issue of Chicago Magazine offers a historical survey of baring skin in the Windy City. “Unbuttoning Chicago’s History of Covering Up” opens with the 1893 World’s Fair, summarizing how the “belly dancers” in the Street in Cairo exhibit on the Midway Plaisance shocked some viewers, raised ire of the [...]

By |2022-03-05T10:40:24-06:00January 26th, 2019|Categories: NEWS|Tags: , , , , |0 Comments

A Plan to Build Robert Burns’ Cottage at the 1893 World’s Fair

Each January 25th, Scots celebrate the life and works of their national poet, Robert Burns, by joining together for “Burns Night” or “Burns Supper.” The December 1892 issue of World’s Columbian Exposition Illustrated offered this brief report on a planned structure for the upcoming 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago: Robert Burns’ cottage will be shown at the World’s Columbian Exposition. A concession for this purpose was granted to the Scottish Industrial Association. The building will be constructed of material [...]

By |2022-03-05T10:39:12-06:00January 25th, 2019|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , |0 Comments

University of Notre Dame will cover its Christopher Columbus murals

The painting used as the source for a Columbian Issue U.S. postage stamp will be removed from public view at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. The basis of the engraving design for 10-cent Columbian stamp titled “Columbus Presenting Natives” is Return of Columbus and Reception at Court (1880-84), the largest of twelve murals about the life and voyages of Christopher Columbus by Italian painter and Notre Dame art professor Luigi Gregori. The painting depicts Columbus’ [...]

By |2023-10-20T21:25:50-05:00January 24th, 2019|Categories: ANTIQUES, NEWS|Tags: , |0 Comments

Louis Sullivan’s Transportation Building … in Green

Adler & Sullivan’s Transportation Building. [Image from The World’s Columbian Exposition Portfolio of Views by C. D. Arnold and H. D. Higinbotham (C. B. Woodward Co., 1893).] Finding references to the 1893 World’s Fair--especially in unexpected places--can be a delight. All the more so when images of the White City show up in the context of another personal passion. A few weeks ago, the yellow brick road led to the White City. The Paramount Theater in Aurora, Illinois, [...]

By |2019-01-20T19:07:41-06:00January 20th, 2019|Categories: NEWS, THEATER|Tags: , , , |0 Comments
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