Sept. 11, 2022: “Walking the White City” tour (Chicago)

The Glessner House is offering a "Walking the White City" tour of the former fairgrounds of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition on Sunday, September 11, 2022, from 10 AM to noon. Architect and historian John Waters will guide participants on a walking tour of Jackson Park to see the sites of landmarks of the 1893 World's Fair, explore the fascinating vestiges, and learn how the Fair influenced the design of Jackson Park as we know it today. The tour [...]

By |2022-10-10T08:06:54-05:00August 11th, 2022|Categories: EVENTS (past)|Tags: , |0 Comments

Aug. 19-21, 2022: “Sangamon Songs” Musical Play Tells of Illinois Boy Who Visited the 1893 World’s Fair (Skokie, IL)

A diary written by a 16-year-old Illinois boy who visited the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago is the source material for Sangamon Songs: A Musical Play by Tom Irwin and John W. Arden. The show will be performed at the Skokie Theatre for Performing Arts on August 19-21, 2022. After discovering Harry Glen Ludlam’s journal in his family farmhouse, Tom Irwin began composing an acoustic song cycle about late-nineteenth-century life of a teenager in a small town in Central [...]

By |2022-08-23T08:06:14-05:00July 24th, 2022|Categories: AUDIO, EVENTS (past), THEATER|0 Comments

Limited-time 1893 World’s Fair menu at Next Restaurant (Chicago)

The award-winning Next restaurant in Chicago’s West Loop explores gourmet cuisine with menus and dining experiences that change completely a few times a year. Their Spring 2022 epicurean offering is a World’s Fair menu that explores the world of impossible innovations. “Light bulbs and Ferris wheels. Confidence and gumption—the pillars to the global ingenuity of 1893.” For a visual sampling, check out their video. Next (953 W. Fulton Market in Chicago) offers prix fixe meals ($165–$275 per person) by [...]

By |2022-10-10T08:07:25-05:00May 31st, 2022|Categories: EVENTS (past)|0 Comments

June 17-18, 2022: Celebrate Olmsted 200 in Chicago

April 26, 2022, marks the bicentennial of the birth of Frederick Law Olmsted, social reformer and visionary founder of American landscape architecture. In June, the Olmsted 200 celebration reaches Chicago with a Olmsted Bicentennial Gala from 7– 9 PM on Friday, June 17, at the Glessner House (1800 S Prairie Ave. in Chicago). On Saturday, June 18, at 10 AM, an "Inspired by Olmsted" carillon concert at the Rockefeller Memorial Chapel (5850 S. Woodlawn Avenue in Chicago) and the [...]

By |2022-08-11T15:26:31-05:00May 30th, 2022|Categories: EVENTS (past)|Tags: |0 Comments

June 25, 2022: Devil in the White City Bus Tour (Chicago)

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, June 25, 2022. 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 of the Phoenix in Jackson Park, and discover what has [...]

Feb. 25-Jun. 25, 2022: “Crossings: Mapping American Journeys” (Newberry Library, Chicago)

A map of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition fairgrounds is part of a new exhibit at the Newberry Library in Chicago. Maps, guidebooks, travelogues, postcards, and more from the Library’s collection recreate travelers’ experiences along the northern and southern borders of the US, across the continent’s interior, and up and down the Mississippi River. “Crossings: Mapping American Journeys” includes an enlarged print of the Indexed Guide Map and Key to the World’s Fair Buildings, Grounds, and Exhibits from the [...]

By |2022-10-10T09:01:49-05:00April 16th, 2022|Categories: EVENTS (past), EXHIBITS (past)|Tags: , |0 Comments

Apr. 28, 2022: “From Fair to Field: The Field Museum’s Roots in the Columbian Exposition” (Northfield, IL)

Thursday, April 28, 2022, the Winnetka-Northfield Library District will host Mark Alvey, speaking on "From Fair to Field: The Field Museum's Roots in the Columbian Exposition." Mr. Alvey of the Field Museum will present a talk on the origin of the Field Columbian Museum, which opened in June 1894, with approximately 50,000 objexts from the 1893 World's Fair. The event runs from 7-8 PM in the Northfield Library (1785 Orchard Lane in Northfield, IL) and is free and open [...]

By |2024-01-07T08:47:12-06:00April 8th, 2022|Categories: EVENTS (past)|Tags: , |0 Comments

Mar 29, 2022: “Daniel Burnham: Make No Little Plans” (Council Bluffs, IA)

Historical dramatist R.J. Lindsey will become Daniel Burnham, Director of Works for the 1893 World's Fair, in a living history program at the Council Bluffs Public Library on March 29, 2022. In "Daniel Burnham: Make No Little Plans," the famed Chicago architect narrates a slide program, including many photographs, detailing the Chicago Fire of 1871, the building of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exhibition, and the Chicago Development Plan of 1909. He will also discuss several of his innovative buildings: [...]

By |2023-08-05T08:36:54-05:00March 27th, 2022|Categories: EVENTS (past)|Tags: |0 Comments

Mar. 27, 2022: “Sophia Hayden Deserves Better” play reading (Barrington, IL)

In 1891 a brilliant 23-year-old woman won an architecture contest to design the Woman’s Building for the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. What should have been the start to a flourishing career in architecture became career-ending. Throughout the two-year process of building the Woman’s Building, the architect quietly endured bullying, micromanaging, and undermining until she finally spoke up. In a time when women were defined as physically and intellectually weaker than men, her concerns were not only not heard, [...]

By |2022-04-07T13:07:03-05:00March 24th, 2022|Categories: EVENTS (past), THEATER|Tags: , |0 Comments

Apr. 14, 2022: “The Fire at the Fair” (Northfield, IL)

Thursday, April 14, 2022, the Winnetka-Northfield Library District will host "Chicago History Cop" Raymond Johnson, speaking on "The Fire at the Fair." Mr. Johnson will present his research on tragic fire at the Cold Storage Building at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition and his  surprising discovery at the memorial at Chicago’s Oakwoods Cemetery. The event runs from 7-8 PM in the Northfield Library (1785 Orchard Lane in Northfield, IL) and is free and open to the public. Registration is [...]

By |2024-01-07T08:47:03-06:00March 19th, 2022|Categories: EVENTS (past)|Tags: |0 Comments
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