An Endless Ride on the Intramural Railway at the 1893 World’s Fair

One challenge for the designers of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition was finding ways to transport visitors around the enormous fairgrounds. Walking the main grounds—almost a mile and a half from north to south and three-quarters of a mile wide across the south end, and a mile-long Midway Plaisance—exhausted many fairgoers. Rolling chairs offered a personal mode of transportation around the grounds, while watercraft such as electric launches and Venetian gondolas provided scenic routes through the waterways. The fastest [...]

By |2023-10-02T19:44:40-05:00July 31st, 2021|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: |0 Comments
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123. Picturesque World’s Fair – The Boiler-Room of Machinery Hall

THE BOILER-ROOM OF MACHINERY HALL.—Never before was such a boiler-room as that which delighted engineers in Machinery Hall. It must needs be enormous, for it supplied the force for all the lights and machinery of the great buildings, but those who had never seen it were none the less astonished when they entered the great room. It extended north and south in the annex, and to look down it was like looking down a street the end of which [...]

By |2021-07-27T06:51:41-05:00July 27th, 2021|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , |0 Comments
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122. Picturesque World’s Fair – South Front of the Manufactures Building

SOUTH FRONT OF THE MANUFACTURES BUILDING.—While not its greatest frontage, the south end of the Manufactures Building was most familiar to Exposition visitors, facing as it did to the Court of Honor and affording between it and the Grand Basin a vantage point for seeing the fountains at play and the illumination of the buildings at night. The illustration above shows this frontage as well as that on the west, adjacent to the canal and the East Lagoon. The [...]

By |2021-07-07T05:36:10-05:00July 7th, 2021|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , , , , |0 Comments
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121. Picturesque World’s Fair – The Grand Basin at Night – Showing Search-Lights

THE GRAND BASIN AT NIGHT—SHOWING SEARCH-LIGHTS.—One of the charms of the night view over the Grand Basin was that it was always new, atmospheric or other causes producing varied effects, and the scene on one occasion being entirely different from that presented on another. And not only were atmospheric conditions fluctuating, but the artificial ones produced were made still more so, a new experience to the sight-seer after dark being thus assured beyond all peradventure. Here the great element [...]

By |2021-06-25T05:22:10-05:00June 25th, 2021|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , , , |0 Comments
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“One feels inclined to make his peace with God and man”: A Ride on the Ferris Wheel

The great Ferris Wheel on the Midway Plaisance of the World’s Columbian Exposition opened to the public on June 21, 1893. A North Carolina visitor to the 1893 World’s Fair sent this correspondence to the Charlotte Observer about his experience riding the famous Ferris Wheel: Yesterday we spent the day in the Midway Plaisance. Among the first of our experiences was a ride on the great Ferris Wheel. This immense structure, consuming in its various parts over 4,000 tons [...]

By |2021-04-30T08:43:48-05:00June 21st, 2021|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: |4 Comments
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120. Picturesque World’s Fair – A Load of Michigan Pine Logs

A LOAD OF MICHIGAN PINE LOGS.—The lumber industry in Michigan is conducted on a grand scale, and something of the methods pursued was illustrated by a firm which contributed a single load of logs to the Exposition. Twenty-five saw logs were shown in a single load at the Centennial Exposition. Michigan simply doubled this. Never before was seen such a load of logs. It consisted of fifty magnificent lengths of white pine, borne on a single sled, containing forty-six [...]

By |2021-06-14T08:09:17-05:00June 14th, 2021|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , |0 Comments
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119. Picturesque World’s Fair – The Transportation Building

THE TRANSPORTATION BUILDING.—The Transportation Building was unique among the great structures of the Columbian Exposition in that it was the single departure from a general rule, the contrast and the foil to all the others. It was distinct in its style of architecture, and alone was decorated exteriorly in colors. It was not of those buildings which won for the Exposition the title of "The White City." The main building, located just west of the south end of the [...]

By |2021-06-08T09:23:03-05:00May 30th, 2021|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , , , |0 Comments
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A Room with a View … of Diana

In late November of 1892, Moses P. Handy moved into his new office inside the Administration Building on the Columbian Exposition fairgrounds in Jackson Park. As Chief of the Department of Publicity and Promotion, Handy had a staff of between four and forty-five, including local newspapermen Paul Hull and Sam V. Steele, both well-known among Chicago’s writers. The Chicago Times (November 29, 1892) reported on the move-in and on the Publicity Chief’s impressive view of Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ marvelous statue [...]

By |2021-05-24T10:15:31-05:00May 24th, 2021|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , |0 Comments
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Feral Feline Fights for Food on the Fairgrounds

Several media outlets, including the Guardian and People, are reporting on Chicago’s use of feral cats to beat back our nationally recognized rat population. It’s old news. We’ve been relying on our feline friends since at least the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. “Not many people are aware that the World’s Fair has a cat,” wrote the Chicago Tribune in September 1893. “This ignorance on the part of visitors is largely due to the fact that the cat does not appear [...]

By |2021-05-16T12:56:25-05:00May 17th, 2021|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , |0 Comments
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118. Picturesque World’s Fair – The Great Steam Hammer

THE GREAT STEAM HAMMER.—One exhibit in the Transportation Building always attracted curious inspection. To many unfamiliar with the heavy machinery used in the vast manufactories of today, its use was not apparent, but to those informed in such fields it was an object of decided interest. This was the model of the monster steam hammer in use by the Bethlehem Iron Company, of Pennsylvania, the largest steam hammer in the world. Though painted to represent iron, the model was [...]

By |2021-05-09T09:55:57-05:00May 9th, 2021|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , , |0 Comments
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