Aug. 11, 2018 Ride Like the Devil in a “Devil in the White City” Bike Tour (Chicago)

The Chicago History Museum is offering a “Ride Like the Devil: a Devil in the White City Bike Tour” on August 11, 2018, from 9 am to noon. Cycle back to 1893, pedal past sites related to the World’s Fair, and discover its lasting influence on Chicago. Along the way, tour guide Greg Borzo, author of Where to Bike Chicago, will uncover Daniel Burnham’s grand plans and the devilish doings of H. H. Holmes. The route will take riders [...]

By Scott|2022-07-08T09:59:44-05:00July 11th, 2018|Categories: EVENTS (past)|Tags: , , , , , |0 Comments
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Chicago History Museum Members Open House 2018

We are enthusiastic supporters of the Chicago History Museum here at WorldsFairChicago1893.com. The museum (formerly known as the Chicago Historical Society) owns a collection filled with interesting and rare items pertaining to the 1893 World’s Fair. The museum’s regular displays of WCE artifacts can be viewed in the “Chicago Crossroads” exhibit, and a stunning miniature view of the Court of Honor on the Grand Basin resides in the Chicago Dioramas room. The CHM Research Center provided access to one [...]

By Scott|2018-07-07T12:46:15-05:00July 7th, 2018|Categories: EVENTS (past), NEWS|Tags: , , , , |0 Comments
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July 12, 2018: National Automobile Museum talk on 1893 World’s Fair Products

The National Automobile Museum in Reno, Nevada, will be hosting a talk and discussion on popular products introduced during the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. Clothing historian Carolyn Runnells will present a 30-minute talk followed by a Q&A as part of the Museum’s “Second Thursday Talks” series. The event will be held on Thursday, July 12, 2018, from 1:30-2 p.m. in the Museum's theater. Last April, the Museum held an 1893 World’s Mini-Fair.

By Scott|2024-09-22T12:16:44-05:00July 5th, 2018|Categories: EVENTS (past)|Tags: , |0 Comments
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June 21, 2018: Celebrating the 125th Anniversary of the Ferris Wheel in Chicago and Santa Monica

UPDATE 6/21/2018: Navy Pier has cancelled this event: https://navypier.org/event/125th-anniversary-ferris-wheel/ The great Ferris Wheel opened to the public on Thursday June 21, 1893, at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Marking this anniversary will be celebrations of the Ferris Wheel at two of America’s most famous piers. Chicago’s Navy Pier and Santa Monica Pier will each commemorate George Washington Gale Ferris Jr.’s famous feat of engineering, which reached 264 feet into the sky above the Midway Plaisance. The festivities at Navy [...]

By Scott|2022-03-05T10:25:51-06:00June 8th, 2018|Categories: EVENTS (past)|Tags: , |0 Comments
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June 16, 2018: It’s Your Park Day (with tour) on Midway Plaisance

June 16, 2018, is "It's Your Park Day" in Chicago, the the Chicago Parks Foundation's annual citywide volunteer day, celebrating Chicago's beautiful green spaces and the communities who support them. One site includes Midway Plaisance Park, site of the great Midway attraction of the 1893 World's Fair. In addition to a park clean-up (all morning), there will be a free historical walking tour to mark the 125th anniversary of the World's Columbian Exhibition and the first Ferris Wheel located [...]

By Scott|2018-07-02T16:02:32-05:00June 2nd, 2018|Categories: EVENTS (past)|Tags: , |0 Comments
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June 15, 2018: “Night at the Fair” MSI After Hours (Chicago)

The Museum of Science and Industry (MSI) in Chicago occupies one of the few remaining buildings from the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. To honor the 125th anniversary of the building and the fair, the museum is hosting “Night at the Fair” for their latest MSI After Hours event on June 15, 2018, from 7 to 10 pm. MSI invites you to “don your best fair attire” (a glass dress, perhaps?) to travel back in time and become one of the [...]

By Scott|2025-03-20T12:42:32-05:00May 24th, 2018|Categories: EVENTS (past)|Tags: |0 Comments
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June 5, 2018: Leading Ladies of Chicago’s Columbian Exposition at Driehaus Museum (Chicago)

The Richard H. Driehaus Museum is sponsoring a lecture “Leading Ladies of Chicago’s Columbian Exposition: Celebrating 125 Years” by Chicago historian Sally Sexton Kalmbach. Although the right to vote was still over 20 years away, the leading ladies of Chicago’s Gilded Age began exerting their power as leaders of social society and cultural tastemakers. Historian Sally Kalmbach will discuss how these women also played an integral leadership role in creating the World’s Fair and cultivating Chicago’s successful future. The event [...]

By Scott|2022-03-05T10:24:45-06:00May 23rd, 2018|Categories: EVENTS (past)|Tags: |0 Comments
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May 4-Nov. 25, 2018: “Celebrating Libbey Glass, 1818-2018” at Toledo Museum of Art

The Toledo Museum of Art (TMA) currently has an exhibit commemorating the 200th anniversary of the Libbey Glass Company. Celebrating Libbey Glass, 1818-2018 features several pieces showing the Toledo glassmaker’s contributions to the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago. The Libbey Glass Works building on the Midway Plaisance. [Image from Views of the World's Fair and Midway Plaisance (Conkey, 1894).] The Libbey Glass Works building, located at the east end of the Midway Plaisance at the Columbian Exposition, served [...]

By Scott|2024-01-15T07:40:52-06:00May 20th, 2018|Categories: EVENTS (past), EXHIBITS (past)|Tags: , , , , , |3 Comments
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June 1-July 1, 2018: “Burnham’s Dream: The White City” musical

The world premiere of a new musical about the Director of Works for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition opens on June 1 for a one-month run in Chicago. “Burnham’s Dream: The White City,” written by June Finfer with music by Elizabeth Doyle, tells “the tale of ambition of a city and of an architect … Chicago’s Dream City that lived for only a few months, then vanished.” In her 2010 play, “The Glass House,” Finfer explored the life and [...]

By Scott|2018-07-02T16:02:43-05:00May 13th, 2018|Categories: EVENTS (past), THEATER|Tags: |0 Comments
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May 20: Auction of original columns from Ceylon Building

Columns from the Ceylon Building [Image from Clars Auction Gallery.] Remnants from an original 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition building come up for auction on May 20, offering a rare opportunity to own a piece of the Fair. Clars Auction Gallery (5644 Telegraph Ave., Oakland, California) will auction a set of hand-carved pillars that were part of the original Ceylon Building on the fairgrounds. Their auction 598 “Art, Furniture, Jewelry, Asian” on Sunday, May 20, starts at 11:30 AM [...]

By Scott|2024-01-28T11:58:25-06:00May 11th, 2018|Categories: ANTIQUES, EVENTS (past)|Tags: , , |0 Comments
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July 21, 2018: 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, July 21, 2018. (A second tour will be offered on August 25, 2018.)Inspired by Erik Larson’s best-selling book, 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 of the Phoenix in Jackson Park, and [...]

By Scott|2022-07-08T09:59:35-05:00May 9th, 2018|Categories: EVENTS (past)|Tags: , , |0 Comments
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May 11, 2018: Columbian Exposition Talk in St. Louis, MO

“Meet me in St. Louis, Louis. Meet me at the fair …” St. Louis hosted their own World’s Fair in 1904--an exposition with a Grand Basin with white palaces of Fine Arts, Electricity, Agriculture, Machinery, Liberal Arts, and Mines; statuary by Daniel Chester French; a Lagoon, international villages, a midway, and even the original Ferris Wheel. In May, the focus in that city will be on the World’s Fair held in Chicago a decade earlier. On Friday, May 11, [...]

By Scott|2022-03-05T10:19:33-06:00April 28th, 2018|Categories: EVENTS (past)|Tags: , |0 Comments
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May 19-20, 2018: “Revel in the White City” virtual simulation at MSI (Chicago)

To mark the 125th anniversary of the 1893 World’s Fair, the Museum of Science and Industry (MSI) in Chicago is hosting “Revel in the White City” on May 19 and 20, 2018. Visitors will experience the Columbian Exposition grounds and buildings as a virtual computer simulation, presented by Dr. Lisa M. Snyder, of UCLA’s Institute for Digital Research and Education, and Tim Samuelson, cultural historian for the City of Chicago. A scene of the Lagoon from the virtual [...]

By Scott|2022-03-05T09:53:41-06:00April 7th, 2018|Categories: EVENTS (past), VISUAL ARTS|Tags: , |1 Comment
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April 16, 2018: World’s Fair Auction in Cleveland

A large collection of 1893 World’s Fair antiques and collectibles will be going under the hammer on Monday, April 16. Gray’s Auctioneers “World's Fair Memorabilia and Collectibles” live auction in Cleveland, Ohio, starts at 11 AM (EDT) and features more than thirty Columbian Exposition items. Lots 20 through 51 include … • numerous pieces of decorative glassware, pottery and porcelain, including set of beautiful Libby glass peachblow rose bowls and a pair of ornate vases featuring images of the [...]

By Scott|2025-03-25T14:55:29-05:00April 3rd, 2018|Categories: ANTIQUES, EVENTS (past)|Tags: , , , , |0 Comments
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April 10-14, 2018: Food of the Fair Week at the Union League Club of Chicago

Members of the storied Union League Club of Chicago (ULCC) will be celebrating the 125th anniversary of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition with “Food of the Fair” week from April 10-14, 2018. Chef de cuisine Doug D’Avico will take diners in the Club’s Wigwam restaurant “on a culinary journey through the World’s Fair of 1893,” creating a three-course dinner of foods from the Columbian Exposition “with a ULCC twist.” What fair foods might the chef offer? Aunt Jemima pancakes, Quaker [...]

By Scott|2018-04-22T15:25:29-05:00April 2nd, 2018|Categories: EVENTS (past)|Tags: , |0 Comments
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April 22, 2018: World’s Fair Memorabilia Show

The 24th annual World's Fair Memorabilia Show will be held on Sunday, April 22, 2018 from 10 am to 4 pm at the Holiday Inn at 1000 Busse Road (Rt. 83 and Landmeier Rd.) in Elk Grove Village, Illinois. Collectors and dealers will meet to buy, sell and trade items related to World's Fairs from 1876 to the present. Although the main focus will be on the 1933/34 Chicago World's Fair, there will also be items from the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago and other Chicago-related [...]

By Scott|2023-12-17T08:05:42-06:00March 22nd, 2018|Categories: ANTIQUES, EVENTS (past)|Tags: |0 Comments
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March 23/25, 2018: Lecture on Composer Amy Beach (Boston)

Composer and pianist Amy Beach (1867-1944) made significant musical contributions to the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago. The Board of Lady Managers of the World's Columbian Exposition commissioned Beach to compose her Festival Jubilate (Op. 17) for the dedication of the Woman’s Building in October of 1892. This was her first commissioned work and reportedly is the first known work of an American woman composer commissioned in the U.S. “Why Amy Beach Matters” is the title of a lecture and [...]

By Scott|2023-01-12T20:31:04-06:00March 19th, 2018|Categories: EVENTS (past)|Tags: , , , , , , |0 Comments
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Mar. 16, 2018-Apr. 28, 2019: World’s Fair “Mummies” at the Field Museum

Mummies that were on display at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition are back in Chicago after a 6-year national tour. The exhibition "Mummies" opens at the Field Museum on Friday, March 16, 2018, and showcases artifacts from ancient Egypt and ancient Peru. Some of the ancient mummy artifacts on display at the 1893 World's Fair. [from The Catalogue of the Cliff-Dwellers Exhibit (H. Jay Smith Exploring Company, 1893).] After the close of the 1893 World’s Fair, mummies that had [...]

By Scott|2023-04-09T08:51:13-05:00March 11th, 2018|Categories: EVENTS (past), EXHIBITS (past), NEWS|Tags: , , |0 Comments
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April 25, 2018 (Reno, NV): 1893 World’s Mini-Fair at the National Automobile Museum

The 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition is coming to Reno, Nevada, for three days in April. The National Automobile Museum, is holding its 14th annual History Symposium on April 25, 26, and 28, with a theme of “The 1890s: Peril and Power.” The Museum will host national and local authors and historians who will address the winds of change that marked the 1890s. A special highlight of this year’s symposium is a mini-version of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. The [...]

By Scott|2022-03-05T10:08:22-06:00March 2nd, 2018|Categories: EVENTS (past)|Tags: , |1 Comment
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March 16, 2018: 1893 Scavenger Hunt in the Chicago Loop

If you love learning about the history of the 1893 World’s Fair, are passionate about Chicago architecture, enjoy puzzles, and want to stretch your legs, then don’t miss out on “Glitz, Glamour…and Panic! A Hunt for the History of 1893 in Chicago.” Atlas Obscura Chicago Field Agent Patti Swanson is once again hosting her "Google-proof" scavenger hunt in the Chicago Loop on Friday, March 16, 2018. You will meet on the steps of the Art Institute of Chicago (née [...]

By Scott|2022-03-05T10:07:57-06:00February 25th, 2018|Categories: EVENTS (past)|Tags: , , , |0 Comments
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