Chicago’s Alligator Problems

“One day spent among the curious works of nature found in the Fish and Fisheries building was worth a whole year’s reading about them.”  -- “Exposition as an Educator” in Campbell's Illustrated History of the World's Columbian Exposition. A new resident to a Chicago city park has been (occasionally) making waves and making international news. An alligator spotted earlier this week swimming the lagoon of Humboldt Park is now drawing large crowds hoping to catch a glimpse of the [...]

By Scott|2022-03-05T10:33:55-06:00July 12th, 2019|Categories: HISTORY, NEWS|Tags: , , , |0 Comments
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Maillard’s Mammoth Chocolate Statues

July 7 is World Chocolate Day (by some accounts), so let’s celebrate ... 1893 style! Chocolate and cocoa could be found in many locations on the fairgrounds of the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago. Blooker’s Dutch Cocoa Windmill and House was one lovely display where visitors could sample some hot cocoa, but a set of mammoth chocolate statues exhibited by Maillard’s chocolates in the Agricultural Building must have been one of the most amazing sights. Maillard's Chocolate advertising [...]

By Scott|2025-04-27T09:59:35-05:00July 7th, 2019|Categories: HISTORY|Tags: , , , |1 Comment
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A Map of Libraries for the 1893 World’s Fair

At the 1893 World’s Fair, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts displayed “an ingenious map prepared for the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago, showing at a glance which of the towns in the state have free public libraries and the number of volumes in each library at the beginning of 1893,” according to the March 1894 issue of The Library Journal. The "Free public libraries of Massachusetts" map by George H. Bartlett was on display at the 1893 World's Fair., [...]

By Scott|2019-03-23T18:47:33-05:00April 6th, 2019|Categories: HISTORY|Tags: , |1 Comment
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Fool of the Fair

We should expect to encounter a fool on April 1st, and visitors to the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition could have met a striking fool hanging in the Palace of Fine Arts. Thomas Shields Clarke's oil painting A Fool's Fool (1887) was on display at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. [Image from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.] A Fool's Fool (1887) was a work by artist Thomas Shields Clarke (1860–1920) on display in Gallery 7. The 39 [...]

By Scott|2022-03-05T10:51:39-06:00April 1st, 2019|Categories: HISTORY|Tags: , , , |2 Comments
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Clara Doty Bates, Hostess of the 1893 World’s Fair Children’s Library

“There are some crusty old bachelors and a few childless women who make a pretense of disliking children, but it's a flimsy sort of sour-grape antipathy, and rarely rings true. Even those people who do not like children's society will find a great deal to enjoy in their domicile.” —Emma. B. Dunlap, writing about the Children’s Building at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. Clara Doty Bates. [Image from A Woman of the Century edited by Frances E. Willard [...]

By Scott|2023-12-08T08:50:27-06:00March 21st, 2019|Categories: HISTORY, Uncategorized|Tags: , , , |0 Comments
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Ellen Martin Henrotin, Vice-President of the Women’s Branch of the World’s Congress Auxiliary

“To her belongs much of the credit for the strong feminist emphasis that characterized the Columbian Exposition.” --James, et al. Notable American Women, 1607-1950, p 182. Ellen M. Henrotin [Image from Pictorial Album and History of the World’s Fair and Midway. Harry T. Smith & Co., 1893.] Socialite and social reformer, Ellen Martin Henrotin (1847-1922) served as Vice President of the World’s Congress Auxiliary of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Educated in Europe, Ellen Martin moved [...]

By Scott|2023-12-20T13:27:12-06:00March 14th, 2019|Categories: HISTORY|Tags: , , , |0 Comments
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Virginia Claypool Meredith, the “The Queen of American Agriculture” on the Board of Lady Managers

“It is not likely that there will ever again be any distinction so artificial as that of sex between the skill of men and women--unlikely that there will ever again be a woman’s department in any World’s Fair.”  --Virginia Meredith, from a speech given at the Indiana Union of Literary Clubs meeting, May 1892. [reprinted in Whitford, et al. The Queen of American Agriculture: A Biography of Virginia Claypool Meredith] Virginia Claypool Meredith, Vice President of the Board [...]

By Scott|2019-03-02T08:20:14-06:00March 2nd, 2019|Categories: HISTORY|Tags: , |0 Comments
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“Frederick Douglass’s Defiant Stand at Chicago’s World’s Fair”

February 14 is often listed as the birthday of Frederick Douglass, who late in life served as the Commissioner of the Haitian Republic. Daniel Hautzinger writes in “Frederick Douglass's Defiant Stand at Chicago's World's Fair” (WTTW, February 14, 2018) that “Frederick Douglass never knew the date of his own birth, or even how old he was … But the famous abolitionist and orator eventually chose to celebrate his birthday on February 14, determining that he was probably born 200 [...]

By Scott|2019-01-26T18:24:29-06:00February 14th, 2019|Categories: HISTORY|Tags: |0 Comments
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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 [...]

By Scott|2023-11-04T19:08:38-05:00January 31st, 2019|Categories: HISTORY|Tags: , , , , , |1 Comment
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Pillars of the Fair: John Root and Henry Codman

Two pillars of the 1893 World’s Fair died unexpectedly before they could complete their work on the fairgrounds. Even the preliminary architectural contributions of both men, however, played a monumental role in the success of the Columbian Exposition. So, it was fitting that a small monument to the memory of these two leading designers graced the fairgrounds. John Wellborn Root (left) and Henry Sargent Codman (right). Glorious achievements January 13 marks the anniversary of the death of [...]

By Scott|2022-12-10T10:11:00-06:00January 13th, 2019|Categories: HISTORY, LOST & FOUND|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , |2 Comments
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Sonneberg’s Santa Claus Visits the 1893 World’s Fair

Although the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition ran during the warm months of May through October, a touch of Christmas could be found on the fairgrounds. Nestled in the northwest corner of the German Pavilion inside the Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building (Section F, 77-79), the toy manufacturers of Sonneberg, Germany, featured a lovely display of toys and dolls filling an ornate carriage and topped by a Christmas tree. A photograph of the German toy exhibit in the Manufactures [...]

By Scott|2022-12-29T18:45:06-06:00December 24th, 2018|Categories: HISTORY|Tags: , , , |0 Comments
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Veteran’s Days at the 1893 World’s Fair

Today marks the one-hundredth anniversary of the end of the Great War, when hostilities ceased on the "eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month" of 1918. This anniversary is now commemorated in the United States as Veteran’s Day, a time to honor American veterans, both living and dead. The day was originally known--and still is to many--as Armistice Day, for reflecting on how we can achieve peace. Among the scores of “special days” at the World’s [...]

By Scott|2018-11-25T10:48:17-06:00November 11th, 2018|Categories: HISTORY|Tags: , |0 Comments
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Tchaikovsky’s Tribute to Children for the 1893 World’s Fair

“Earth hold no music half so sweet as the laughter of a happy child.” -- Bertha Palmer in Fame's Tribute to Children (1893) On this day the world remembers the great Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (May 7, 1840 -- November 6, 1893), who died 125 years ago. Although he did not attend the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, he did provide a small musical gift to help build it. The Children's Building. [Image from Bancroft, Hubert [...]

By Scott|2022-03-05T10:37:56-06:00November 6th, 2018|Categories: HISTORY|Tags: , , , , , |1 Comment
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Remembering William Eleroy Curtis, chairman of the Latin American Department

Today marks the anniversary of the birth of William Eleroy Curtis, born on November 5, 1850, in Akron, Ohio. Curtis served the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition as the chairman of the Latin American Department and representative of the State Department for the U.S. Government Exhibit. Curtis was a journalist and traveling correspondent for the Chicago Inter-Ocean and the Record-Herald newspapers and authored more than thirty books, many about his travels and research in South America. For the Exposition, Curtis [...]

By Scott|2018-11-25T10:48:38-06:00November 5th, 2018|Categories: HISTORY|Tags: , , , |0 Comments
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What was Chicago’s official color for the Columbian Exposition?

Frank Lloyd Wright was known for his Cherokee red, and Maxfield Parrish had his own blue. Diana Vreeland was known for wearing red, and Shelby Latcherie’s colors were "blush" and "bashful" (a.k.a “pink” and “pink”). Icons often have a signature color. In October of 1892, Chicago excitedly prepared for her coming out ball. The world soon would arrive to see the Fair, and downtown businessmen decided to decorate their city for the occasion. Chicago needed a signature color. An object [...]

By Scott|2022-04-29T18:39:49-05:00October 21st, 2018|Categories: HISTORY|Tags: , , , , , , , , |0 Comments
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Inside the Administration Building Dome: “The Glorification of the Arts and Sciences” by William Dodge (Part II)

[Part I of this article describes Dodge’s commission to paint a mural for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition and his work to create The Glorification of the Arts and Sciences.] PART II: THE PROCESSION BEFORE THE THRONE OF APOLLO “… illuminated by the opal-like circle of light at the summit, Dodge’s great picture crowns the whole, with its circling procession of arts and sciences, gods and muses, nymphs and graces, and Apollos radiant in the midst.” —Lawrence L. Lynch in [...]

By Scott|2024-08-31T17:56:03-05:00September 23rd, 2018|Categories: HISTORY|Tags: , , , , , , , , , |0 Comments
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Remembering Robert Swain Peabody, architect of Machinery Hall

Robert Swain Peabody (February 22, 1845-September 23, 1917) died on this day at his summer home in Marblehead, Massachusetts. Cofounder of the renowned Boston architectural firm of Peabody & Stearns, he was one of the select east-coast architects invited by Daniel Burnham to contribute to the design of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Despite his pessimistic statement in 1891 about the prospect of constructing the World’s Fair on the rough grounds of Jackson Park (“It can’t be done”), [...]

By Scott|2018-09-21T09:44:17-05:00September 23rd, 2018|Categories: HISTORY|Tags: , , , |0 Comments
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Inside the Administration Building Dome: “The Glorification of the Arts and Sciences” by William Dodge (Part I)

PART I: DECORATING THE DOME OF THE ADMINISTRATION BUILDING “Fame comes only after death to those who have slaved during life.” —William de Leftwich Dodge The gem and crown of the Exposition Along with the Ferris Wheel and the Statue of the Republic, this magnificent structure is one of the most iconic images of the 1893 World’s Fair. With its grand and golden dome, the Administration Building towered over the fairgrounds from a commanding position of honor at the [...]

By Scott|2022-03-05T10:33:42-06:00September 2nd, 2018|Categories: HISTORY|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , |1 Comment
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Germany’s “Glory of Germania” Tile Painting in the Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building

Within the enormous Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building on the fairgrounds of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition stood the imposing German Pavilion. Along with the other world powers of the era—Great Britain, France, and the United States—Germany displayed her national output in a prominent location around the central clock tower along the middle stretch of Columbia Avenue. Floorplan of the Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building [Image from Diagrams of World's Fair Buildings. Rand McNally, 1893.] Occupying a section [...]

By Scott|2022-03-05T10:30:10-06:00August 7th, 2018|Categories: HISTORY|Tags: , , , , , |0 Comments
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John Singer Sargent at the World’s Columbian Exposition

John Singer Sargent (1856–1925) was one of the most talked-about American artists whose works were displayed at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. “Mr. Sargent easily leads the portrait painters,” wrote Ernest Knaufft in his review of art at the Exposition. “We should dislike to pick out any separate example, but taking him in the aggregate, he becomes the ideal painter for painters.” Another contemporary review of the Columbian Exposition art display observed that: Nine out of ten of our [...]

By Scott|2024-01-07T08:46:22-06:00July 22nd, 2018|Categories: HISTORY|Tags: , , |1 Comment
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