Mar. 23, 2020: History of Postcards at the McHenry County (IL) Historical Society and Museum

The 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago was home to many firsts, including the first postcard printed as a souvenir in the United States. The McHenry County Historical Society and Museum will offer a program on the history of postcards on Monday, March 23, 2020, at 4 pm. Katherine Hamilton-Smith, former director of cultural resources for the Lake County Forest Preserves in Libertyville and founding curator of the Curt Teich postcard archive, will provide a talk on “Picture Postcards: [...]

By Scott|2022-03-05T10:59:41-06:00March 14th, 2020|Categories: EVENTS (past)|Tags: |0 Comments
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CANCELLED Apr. 11, 2020: 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, April 11, 2020, starting at 1 pm. 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, [...]

By Scott|2025-01-30T18:40:08-06:00March 11th, 2020|Categories: EVENTS (past)|Tags: , , |0 Comments
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POSTPONED Apr. 11, 2020: Chicago History Book Group Discusses Three Columbian Exposition Titles

At their meeting on Saturday, April 11, 2020, the Chicago History Book Discussion Group will discuss three important research books about the 1893 World’s Fair: An Early Encounter with Tomorrow by Arnold Lewis (University of Illinois Press, 1997) The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson (Crown, 2003), and The Fair Women by Jeanne Madeline Weimann (Chicago Review Press, 1981). The discussion, sponsored by the Edgewater Historical Society and [...]

By Scott|2020-04-11T09:58:51-05:00March 6th, 2020|Categories: EVENTS (past)|Tags: |0 Comments
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POSTPONED March 29, 2020: 26th Annual World’s Fair Memorabilia Show (Elk Grove Village, IL)

This event has been postponed. The 26th Annual World's Fair Memorabilia Show will be held on Sunday, March 29, 2020, 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 [...]

By Scott|2022-03-10T18:43:38-06:00March 1st, 2020|Categories: ANTIQUES, EVENTS (past)|Tags: |2 Comments
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Mar. 4, 2020: Toast Chicago’s Birthday with a (virtual) trip to the 1893 World’s Fair at the Chicago History Museum

The Chicago History Museum will toast Chicago's Birthday on Wednesday, March 4, 2020, with another opportunity to experience a virtual-reality visit to the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. The Chicago 00 Project will exhibit their spectacular 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition virtual reality experience. Guests will be taken on an immersive tour of the world’s fair, known for its dazzling White City and eclectic Midway Plaisance, experiencing Chicago’s past and present in 360 degrees and flying 264 feet in the air [...]

By Scott|2022-07-08T10:00:40-05:00February 28th, 2020|Categories: EVENTS (past)|Tags: |0 Comments
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Mar. 3, 2020: World’s Fair Auction #36 closes

Columbian Exposition collectors may be interested in World’s Fair Auction #36, now open for preview. Online bidding closes on Tuesday, March 3, 2020. The auction catalog can be viewed at: http://www.worldsfairauction.com/cgi-bin/catalog.cgi. Lots 22 through 59 are items related to the 1893 World’s Fair, and include several products commemorating various building of the White City: a handsome powder jar made of milk glass and featuring a color image of an unusual vista of the Administration Building. a rare Parker Brothers [...]

By Scott|2020-03-14T11:44:22-05:00February 22nd, 2020|Categories: ANTIQUES, EVENTS (past)|Tags: |0 Comments
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CANCELLED Mar. 19, 2020: “The Archaeology of Garbage and Consumerism at Chicago’s 1893 World’s Fair” Urban History Seminar (Chicago History Museum)

The Chicago History Museum's Urban History Seminar on March 19, 2020, will be on “The Archaeology of Garbage and Consumerism at Chicago’s 1893 World’s Fair." Rebecca Graff, associate professor of anthropology at Lake Forest College (IL), will offer a scholarly presentation, followed by lively discussion.  Reception with cash bar at 5:45 p.m. Dinner at 6:15 p.m. Presentation at 7:00 p.m. Reservations required. $25, price includes dinner and parking. The Chicago History Museum is located at 1601 N. Clark Street [...]

By Scott|2022-03-05T10:59:25-06:00February 19th, 2020|Categories: EVENTS (past)|Tags: |0 Comments
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Sept. 7, 2019-Mar. 22, 2020: “Eternal Light: The Sacred Stained-Glass Windows of Louis Comfort Tiffany” at the Driehaus Museum (Chicago)

“Eternal Light: The Sacred Stained-Glass Windows of Louis Comfort Tiffany” at the Driehaus Museum features items exhibited at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition.

By Scott|2020-04-11T09:58:17-05:00February 8th, 2020|Categories: EVENTS (past), EXHIBITS (past)|Tags: |0 Comments
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Feb. 8, 2020: Talking Trash About the 1893 World’s Fair (West Bend, WI)

The Museum of Wisconsin Art (MOWA) in West Bend, Wisconsin, is hosting a talk on "The Vanishing City: Excavating the World’s Fair of 1893" on Saturday, February 8, 2020, from 2-3:30 pm. Rebecca Graff, associate professor of anthropology at Lake Forest College (IL), divulges what is hiding beneath the surface of Jackson Park. Professor Graff will discuss her archaeological and archival research focused on the Fair’s ephemeral “White City” and Midway Plaisance. The results of the excavation in Jackson [...]

By Scott|2022-03-23T20:49:41-05:00February 6th, 2020|Categories: EVENTS (past)|0 Comments
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Jan. 28, 2020: World’s Fair History Happy Hour at the Chicago History Museum

The Chicago History Museum will host History Happy Hour with an 1893 World’s Fair theme on Tuesday, January 28, from 6-9 pm. The Chicago 00 Project will offer a preview of their 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition virtual reality experience. Guests will be taken on an immersive tour of the world’s fair, known for its dazzling White City and eclectic Midway Plaisance, experiencing Chicago’s past and present in 360 degrees and flying 264 feet in the air on a virtual ride [...]

By Scott|2022-07-08T10:00:57-05:00January 19th, 2020|Categories: EVENTS (past)|Tags: |0 Comments
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Jan. 11-12, 2020: “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 a new musical. Sangamon Songs: A Musical Play by Tom Irwin and John W. Arden will be performed at Skokie Theatre for Performing Arts on Jan. 11 and 12, 2010. 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 [...]

By Scott|2022-07-24T10:28:28-05:00January 6th, 2020|Categories: AUDIO, EVENTS (past), THEATER|2 Comments
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Jan. 20, 2020: John Mark Hansen Discusses “The City in a Garden” (Chicago)

For a short time in 1893, the Hyde Park and Kenwood neighborhoods of Chicago bordered the capital of the world, as millions visited the World’s Columbian Exposition in Jackson Park and the Midway Plaisance. The City in a Garden, a new book by John Mark Hansen explores the history of these neighborhoods: Chicago suburb, world’s fair grounds, college town, the city’s first stably integrated community, Hyde Park and Kenwood have many distinctions. The City in a Garden tells the [...]

By Scott|2020-01-31T14:11:34-06:00January 1st, 2020|Categories: EVENTS (past)|0 Comments
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Jan. 10, 2020: James Hagy Presentation on Magicians at the Columbian Exposition (Chicago)

The January 10 luncheon of the Caxton Club of Chicago features James Hagy, co-author with Sage Hagy of Fair Tricks: The Magicians at the Columbian Exposition, Chicago 1893. Recent scholarship has confirmed the long-assumed basic presence of a young Howard Thurston and an even younger Harry Houdini, both then unknown but who would soon become the two most recognized magicians of the vaudeville era. But how extensive were conjurors’ contributions to the “Magic of the White City”? Fair Tricks pulls [...]

By Scott|2022-03-05T10:59:13-06:00December 31st, 2019|Categories: EVENTS (past)|0 Comments
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Nov. 30-Dec. 29, 2019: Joffrey Ballet’s “Columbian Nutcracker” (Chicago)

Chicago’s Joffrey Ballet once again will stage their spectacular production of The Nutcracker, with story set on the fairgrounds of 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. Performances run from November 30 to December 29, 2019, at the Auditorium Theater. This ballet by choreographer Christopher Wheeldon, which premiered in 2016, invites the audience to … “journey inside Chicago’s 1893 World’s Fair with Wheeldon’s critically acclaimed holiday masterpiece. When young Marie and her mother, a sculptress who is creating the fair’s iconic Statue [...]

By Scott|2019-12-31T09:32:14-06:00November 29th, 2019|Categories: EVENTS (past), THEATER|Tags: , |0 Comments
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Oct. 31, 2019: “Devil In The White City” Halloween party (Chicago)

Flight Club, a social darts club with bar and restaurant, will re-imagine the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair for Halloween with a "Devil In The White City" party. For $49, partiers can toss back darts, drinks & dinner amidst the madness, magicians, fortune-tellers & murder mysteries. Flight Club is located at 111 W. Wacker Drive in Chicago.

By Scott|2024-04-10T16:46:08-05:00October 30th, 2019|Categories: EVENTS (past)|Tags: |0 Comments
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Oct. 24, 2019: “A History of Illinois Ferris Wheels and the 1893 Columbian Exposition” (Assumption, IL)

Macon County Historian Mark Sorensen will speak about the 1893 World’s Fair at the Oct. 24 meeting of the Assumption Historical Society in Assumption, IL. His illustrated talk on “A History of Illinois Ferris Wheels and the 1893 Columbian Exposition” starts at 6:30 p.m. at the Bromwell Lodge (225 N. Chestnut St. in Assumption) and is free and open to the public.

By Scott|2022-03-05T10:55:36-06:00October 16th, 2019|Categories: EVENTS (past)|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 Scott|2019-10-28T21:17:30-05:00October 5th, 2019|Categories: ANTIQUES, EVENTS (past)|Tags: |0 Comments
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Sept. 13-Nov. 4, 2019: DEADLY, a New Musical Set at the 1893 World’s Fair (Los Angeles)

A new musical set at the 1893 World’s Fair makes its world premiere at the Sacred Fools Theater Company of Los Angeles this fall. Deadly, written by Vanessa Claire Stewart, with music by Ryan Thomas Johnson, explores the chilling events of the “murder castle” operating near the grounds of the Columbian Exposition. The twin stories of the Fair and the serial killer, which were the subject of Erik Larson’s dramatic non-fiction book The Devil in the White City (2003), have [...]

By Scott|2019-11-10T12:25:01-06:00September 25th, 2019|Categories: EVENTS (past), THEATER|Tags: |0 Comments
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Oct. 21, 2019- May 2021: American Medina-Stories of Muslim Chicago (Chicago History Museum)

Some of the earliest Muslim communities in Chicago came for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition and on the Midway Plaisance were several of the first mosques in the city. The Chicago History Museum opens a new exhibit “American Medina: Stories of Muslim Chicago” on October 21, 2019. CHM notes that “the intention of this exhibition is to record the diverse stories and life experiences of Muslim people living in Chicago in order to build connections in our communities through [...]

By Scott|2020-05-04T15:15:55-05:00September 21st, 2019|Categories: EVENTS (past), EXHIBITS (past)|Tags: , , |0 Comments
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Oct. 19-20, 2019: Open House Chicago Features 1893 World’s Fair Connections

Vestiges of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition can be found scattered around the globe … if you know where to look. Several sites related to the World’s Fair are included in the 2019 Open House Chicago, held on October 19-20, 2019: Decorators Supply Corp. (3610 S. Morgan St.) manufactured cast ornamental plaster that helped create the mouldings for the buildings of the "White City" at the 1893 World's Fair. St. John Cantius Roman Catholic Church (825 N. Carpenter St., Chicago) features [...]

By Scott|2019-10-28T21:17:44-05:00September 19th, 2019|Categories: EVENTS (past)|Tags: , , |0 Comments
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