“Haunts of the White City” Offers a Few World’s Fair Ghost Stories

Haunts of the White City: Ghost Stories From the World's Fair, the Great Fire, and Victorian Chicago by Ursula Bielski. History Press, 2019. ISBN: 9781467139656. Softcover, 272 pages. $21.99. Even those of us who don’t believe in ghosts can enjoy a good ghost story. And Chicago is full of them. Ursula Bielski collects many of the more famous spectral tales, and few lesser-known phantoms, in Haunts of the White City. Spawning these claims of the supernatural are the expected [...]

By |2024-02-17T10:01:37-06:00February 1st, 2020|Categories: PRODUCTS, RESEARCH|Tags: , |0 Comments
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World’s Columbian Exposition Rat Traps

Although little has been written about them, rats must have been present on the fairgrounds of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. Rats also contributed to a unique Columbian Exposition product. The excerpt below, from “Traps Suited to the Rat’s Taste” published in the November 4, 1894, issue of the Philadelphia Times, describes commercial rat traps having themes related to the Midway Plaisance: It seems like rats are like persons. Some like one kind of trap and some another; just [...]

By |2024-10-22T05:57:40-05:00January 25th, 2020|Categories: ANTIQUES, REPRINTS|0 Comments
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“Chicago’s Lollapalooza Days: 1893-1934” Explores the Windy City’s Raucous Roots

Chicago's Lollapalooza Days: 1893-1934 by Jim Edwards. Arcadia Publishing, 2019. ISBN: 9781467103701. Softcover, 128 pages. $21.99. Partying ruled in the years between Chicago’s two World's Fairs, writes historian Jim Edwards in his introduction to Chicago's Lollapalooza Days: 1893-1934. The collection of 169 annotated images form a loose theme around the titular “lollapalooza” (a ball in the notorious First Ward, not a modern music festival). Edwards curates a visual review of many of the characters, fetes, and vice that enlivened [...]

By |2022-12-10T10:08:53-06:00January 21st, 2020|Categories: PRODUCTS, RESEARCH|Tags: , , , , , , , |0 Comments
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1893 World’s Fair Safe Bank Featured on “Antiques Roadshow”

Antiques Roadshow on PBS featured a rare 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition safe bank on their show “Meadow Brook Hall, Hour 2” (Season 23 Episode 2; aired January 14, 2019) shot in Rochester, Michigan. The nickel-plated cast iron “still bank” (not a mechanical bank) with combination lock features the northern hemisphere on top with copper inlays portraits depicting Christopher Columbus, U.S. President Grover Cleveland, and World’s Columbian Exposition President Thomas W. Palmer of Michigan on the sides. A video clip can [...]

By |2020-01-20T08:31:48-06:00January 20th, 2020|Categories: ANTIQUES|0 Comments
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Season’s Readings: World’s Columbian Exposition Books from 2019

2019 brought several additions to the World’s Columbian Exposition bookshelf.

By |2022-04-15T09:06:05-05:00December 11th, 2019|Categories: FICTION, NEWS, PRODUCTS, RESEARCH|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , |0 Comments
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Oct. 22, 2019: World’s Fair Auction #35 closes

Columbian Exposition collectors may be interested in World’s Fair Auction #35, now open for preview. Online bidding closes on Tuesday, October 22, 2019. The auction catalog can be viewed at: http://www.worldsfairauction.com/cgi-bin/catalog.cgi. Lots 17 through 55 are items related to the 1893 World’s Fair, and include several products commemorating various building of the White City: a lovely "Columbus Panorama" tri-fold book that depicts "American Declaration of Independence July 4th, 1776," the "Discovery of America," and "The Proclamation of Emancipation of [...]

By |2019-10-28T21:17:30-05:00October 5th, 2019|Categories: ANTIQUES, EVENTS (past)|Tags: |0 Comments
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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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Watch a Vintage Ferris Wheel Poster Be Restored

Happy Ferris Wheel Day! On June 21, 1893, the Ferris Wheel on the Midway Plaisance at the 1893 World’s Fair took its first visitors for a ride in the sky. While the original wheel is long gone, its iconic image graces collectibles too numerous to count. A glass paperweight showing the Ferris Wheel from World’s Fair Auction. Collectors of antiques ponder and debate an important question: Should items be restored or preserved as is? Unrestored antiques may [...]

By |2019-06-21T14:52:59-05:00June 21st, 2019|Categories: ANTIQUES|Tags: |0 Comments
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