Laborers working to landscape Jackson Park in 1891. In the rear left of the frame is the bridge connecting the Lagoon and the North Pond. It still stands today as the Clarence Darrow Memorial Bridge. [Image from World's Columbian Exposition Illustrated June 1891.]
The Wooded Island in the fairgrounds of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. On the anniversary of the death of Frederick Law Olmsted (April 26, 1822 – August 28, 1903), we endeavor that the memory of his name and personality is not dimmed in the passage of years. This tribute to Olmsted’s design of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition comes from the May 3, 1893, issue of Garden and Forest, written just after Opening Day on the fairgrounds. In [...]
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS Page 85 – A VIEW THROUGH THE FERRIS WHEEL A VIEW THROUGH THE FERRIS WHEEL.—Imposing as was the Ferris Wheel seen from a distance, a great object towering aloft and showing the location of the Fair from a distance of miles away, it was scarcely less impressive when its monster parts were examined from one of the cars which revolved with it, carrying their hosts of passengers. It was not [...]
Many visitors to the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago on June 9, 1893, were eagerly trying to spot the Infanta Eulalia, the visiting Princess from Spain, as she toured the White City and Midway Plaisance. Meanwhile, just off the south end of the Wooded Island, a direct descendant of the legendary pioneer Davy Crockett (August 17, 1786 – March 6, 1836) visited the quaint Hunter’s Cabin. Sponsored by Theodore Roosevelt and his Boone and Crockett Foundation and designed by prolific [...]
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS Page 84 – LOOKING NORTH FROM THE SOUTH COLONNADE LOOKING NORTH FROM THE SOUTH COLONNADE.—In the opinion of many people the most striking extended view to be had upon the Fair grounds was from the Obelisk, at the southern extremity of the South Canal, or better still, from the Colonnade immediately in its rear. From this point opened a vista nearly a mile in length terminated only by the beautiful [...]
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS Page 83 – THE BRAZIL BUILDING THE BRAZIL BUILDING.—The structure erected by the greatest of the South American Republics was what might have been expected from that great country. Brazil appropriated for the Columbian Exposition no less than $600,000, and of this sum $50,000 was expended on the building where all visitors were entertained and where were the official head-quarters of the commission. The edifice was in the form of [...]
Swedes from Chicago and around the world celebrated Sweden Day at the World’s Columbian Exposition on July 20, 1893. Many of the festive events took place at the beautiful Swedish Building. Nearby stood the Swedish Restaurant, which served as another site for Swedes to gather on the fairgrounds and as a concession to showcase Scandinavian fare to visitors from around the world. The Swedish Restaurant (also called the Swedish Café) was run by Robert Lindblom (1844-1907), a prominent Swedish-born trader [...]
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS Page 81 – THE MICHIGAN BUILDING THE MICHIGAN BUILDING.—Of all the State buildings on the Fair grounds none was more popular than the Michigan Building. Standing near the Fifty-seventh street entrance, its handsome front catching the eye of visitors, its doors always hospitably open, not to Michigan people alone but to the multitude, and its spacious rooms and luxurious appointments inviting all to their enjoyment, it was generally the resting [...]
The Fourth of July was one of the great “Special Days” of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The passage below comes from “The World's College of Democracy” by John Brisben Walker, published in the September 1893 issue of The Cosmopolitan, of which he was the owner and editor. Of all the wonders of the Fair around him, Walker boasts most about the conduct of the visitors on Independence Day. It was my good fortune to be present [...]
The 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago exposed visitors to a new world. Many experienced what has been described as the "shock of the new” when facing awesome technological advances and the rich variety of human cultures on exhibition. Others felt a shock just from seeing the human form openly displayed. “No one can help noticing the frankness and more than pagan un-reserve with which contemporary artists are treating the nude, both in painting and in sculpture.” wrote Julian Hawthorne in his [...]
