Workers Escaping Death at the 1893 World’s Fair

The excerpt below, from The Chicago Record’s History of the World’s Fair, reminds us of the dangerous work that thousands of laborers (mostly immigrants) faced as they built the White City of 1893. The Medical Bureau of the Columbian Exposition officially reported only thirty-two deaths during construction of the fairgrounds. Luckily, the workers mentioned below escaped that fate. [Note: Although the article mentions the first accident happening at the Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building, the location likely was the [...]

By |2024-08-21T15:43:39-05:00September 2nd, 2024|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , , |0 Comments
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The Chicago Fair of 1893 Will Remain Unexcelled

In the aftermath of World War II—facing staggering military casualties, the atrocities of the Holocaust, and the specter of nuclear weapons—some people sought solace in fond memories of better times. The following reminiscence of visiting the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago as a young boy appeared in the July 6, 1946, issue of the Windsor Star (Windsor, Ontario). The author had grown up in the small town of Morenci, Michigan. The "electric bulbs which outlined the dome [...]

By |2024-08-23T14:22:10-05:00August 24th, 2024|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |0 Comments
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A City of Realized Dreams

The 1893 World's Columbian Exposition showcased harmony of architectural design and sculpture, advanced technologies to serve humanity, and education to guide moral progress. These themes are featured in the essay reprinted here, from the July 1893 issue of Catholic World. This depiction of the “East Lagoon by Moonlight” typified the dreamy quality of “the great white ephemeral city.” [Image from Picturesque World’s Fair. W.B. Conkey, 1894; digitally edited.] A CITY OF REALIZED DREAMS Wandering through the spacious [...]

By |2024-08-14T15:43:05-05:00August 15th, 2024|Categories: REPRINTS|0 Comments
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166. Picturesque World’s Fair – The Rhode Island Building

THE RHODE ISLAND BUILDING.—The smallest state in the Union made by no means the smallest showing at the Columbian Exposition. She contributed $50,000 toward a state exhibit, and her pretty building, which cost $10,000, was presented to Chicago at the close of the Fair. It was a graceful structure, in the style of a Greek mansion, its columns and pilasters enriched by decorated moldings and a balustrade surrounding the roof. The interior contained rooms for the commissioners, for guests, [...]

By |2024-07-23T20:53:41-05:00July 21st, 2024|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , |0 Comments
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Horace Spencer Fiske’s odes to Daniel Chester French’s Columbian Exposition sculptures

The great sculptural works of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition have been memorialized in photographs, paintings, and prose. Poetry, too, honors some of the famous sculptures from the Fair. Horace Spencer Fiske (1859–1940) taught English at Beloit College and Wisconsin State Normal School before a long career on the faculty and administration of the University of Chicago beginning in 1894. He stablished the John Billings Fiske Prize in Poetry (in honor of his father) for University students in 1919 [...]

By |2024-07-11T06:07:08-05:00July 11th, 2024|Categories: REPRINTS, Uncategorized|Tags: , , , , , |0 Comments
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Eyewitness to the Cold Storage Building fire

Mr. Bryan and Mr. King could not have imaged the infernal tragedy about to unfold at the Columbian Exposition on the afternoon of Monday, July 10, 1893. Thomas Barbour Bryan was a leading figure in the effort to bring the World’s Columbian Exposition to Chicago and had been its First Vice-President. William Fletcher King served as the president of Cornell College from 1863 until 1908. Their conversation was interrupted by smoke billowing from the cupola of a building in [...]

By |2024-07-03T08:41:57-05:00July 10th, 2024|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , |0 Comments
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“Ring the Bells!” by Richard Lew Dawson

Essayist, story writer, song writer, critic and poet, Richard Lew Dawson (1852–1921) wrote for many popular newspapers and magazines, including the Indianapolis Sentinel, Indianapolis Journal, Chicago Current, Saturday Herald, and Century Magazine. He was a founding member of the Western Association of Writers in 1886. A few years before his death on April 23, 1921, the Hoosier writer moved to San Francisco, where he departed this world on the anniversary of Shakespeare’s birthday. Dawson’s poem “Ring the Bells!,” celebrating [...]

By |2024-07-03T08:29:08-05:00July 4th, 2024|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: |0 Comments
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165. Picturesque World’s Fair – The Texas Building

THE TEXAS BUILDING.—The Texas Building, a fine structure, was a credit to the patriotism and energy of the ladies of that state and equally a rebuke to the legislature of the great commonwealth which failed to make the needed appropriation in time. It was to the women alone that praise for Texas' representation at the Fair was due. The building occupied a fine site near the northern extremity of the grounds, not far from the Fifty-seventh Street entrance. The [...]

By |2024-06-16T11:53:56-05:00June 16th, 2024|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , |0 Comments
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164. Picturesque World’s Fair – The North Canal – Looking South

THE NORTH CANAL—LOOKING SOUTH —From a point near the west approach to the bridge connecting the Electricity and Manufactures Buildings a view was afforded southward down the South Canal, which had many interesting features. The always thronged bridge between the plaza in front of the Administration Building and the south front of the Manufactures cuts off, it is true, a portion of the view but adds in itself an interesting feature. The photograph from which the illustrations were made [...]

By |2024-05-12T09:49:55-05:00May 12th, 2024|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , , , , , , , |0 Comments
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Reaching the fairgrounds by cable car, cattle car, steamboat, or L?

Visitors to the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition had many options for transportation to (and within), the fairgrounds. The poem below, about various transportation modes, may have been a sly advertisement for the company mentioned in the final line. “The Crowd Entering the Grounds from the Elevated Railway,” drawn by T. de Thulstrup after a sketch by T. Dart Walker. [Image from Harper’s Weekly June 10, 1893.] Some reached The Fair by steamboat, .....Some ride upon the “L;” Some bump [...]

By |2024-04-27T10:31:58-05:00May 2nd, 2024|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , |0 Comments
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