Remembering Harlow Higinbotham, President of the World’s Columbian Exposition

Today we mark the birthday of Harlow Niles Higinbotham (October 10, 1838 – April 18, 1919), who served as the third President of the World’s Columbian Exposition Company, following terms of Lyman J. Gage and William T. Baker. The quote below, reprinted in Harriet Monroe’s Harlow Niles Higinbotham: A Memoir with Brief Autobiography and Extracts from Speeches and Letters (R.F. Seymour, 1920) came from a speech that Higinbotham made years after the 1893 World’s Fair, at a banquet for [...]

By |2018-10-09T08:07:53-05:00October 10th, 2018|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , |0 Comments
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October 9, 1893. Could it be possible that 754,000 were assembled together to celebrate a peaceful event?

October 9, 1893, was “the greatest gathering in history” and the “grandest spectacle in modern times.” Chicago Day at the 1893 World’s Fair shattered all previous attendance records with 713,646 paid admissions to the Fair and over three-quarters of a million of people inside the gates of the White City. The event commemorated the night of October 9, 1871, when the Great Fire ripped through downtown Chicago. Having risen from the ashes and rebuilt, Chicago served as host to [...]

By |2018-10-09T06:17:08-05:00October 9th, 2018|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: |0 Comments
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PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR – The Santa Maria (p. 66)

PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS Page 66 – THE SANTA MARIA THE SANTA MARIA.—The duplicate of the flagship of Columbus, the famous  "Santa Maria,” had many thousands of visitors as she lay in Lake Michigan, just in front of the grounds, one of the most interesting of all the Exposition's attractions. The hosts who boarded her and examined her every part, accustomed as they were to the big ships of today, were surprised at her [...]

By |2018-10-06T05:30:35-05:00October 6th, 2018|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , , , , |0 Comments
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Hopes of the Coming Humanity: Remembering Frances E. Willard

“The world is wide, and I will not waste my life in friction when it could be turned into momentum.” – Frances E. Willard Today marks the anniversary of the birth of Frances E. Willard (September 28, 1839 – February 17, 1898), a member of the Lady Board of Managers of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition and the president of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. The profile of this notable women’s rights activist comes from the October 1891 issue of [...]

By |2018-09-28T08:10:05-05:00September 28th, 2018|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , |0 Comments
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PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR – Entrance to Woman’s Building (p. 65)

PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS Page 65 – ENTRANCE TO WOMAN'S BUILDING ENTRANCE TO WOMAN'S BUILDING.—The view given in the accompanying illustration is of the east portal to the transept of the Woman's Building, and it may be said of it, as might be said of other portion , of the edifice, that it appeared best upon a close inspection. The building, accidentally, no doubt, but none the less certainly, had a feminine character, lacking [...]

By |2018-09-28T05:41:16-05:00September 28th, 2018|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , , , |0 Comments
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Swami Vivekananda’s Speech at the Opening of the World’s Parliament of Religions in Chicago, September 11, 1893

Swami Vivekananda (center) and other East India Delegates to Congress of Religions at the 1893 World’s Fair. [Image from Pictorial Album and History of the World’s Fair and Midway (Harry T. Smith & Co., 1893).] Sisters and Brothers of America, It fills my heart with joy unspeakable to rise in response to the warm and cordial welcome which you have given us. I thank you in the name of the most ancient order of monks in the world; [...]

By |2018-09-11T06:49:46-05:00September 11th, 2018|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , |1 Comment
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PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR – The Columbian Fountain (p. 63)

PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS Page 63 – THE COLUMBIAN FOUNTAIN THE COLUMBIAN FOUNTAIN.—The Columbian Fountain was generally recognized as a triumph of artistic work on a splendid scale and beyond simplicity in its significance. The prominent object in the Court of Honor, directly in front of the Administration Building was a great circular basin, one hundred and fifty feet in diameter, in which Columbia sat in a Barge of State, drawn by sea-horses and [...]

By |2018-09-10T04:53:10-05:00September 10th, 2018|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , , , , , |0 Comments
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Rolling-Chair Romances

Recruit eight-hundred young college men to the fairgrounds of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition and assign them to work as escorts for young, attractive women. The situation is fraught with danger, advised the Chicago Record in an article appearing in May of 1893. The annotated news story reprinted below aimed to expose the “rolling romances” formed at the World’s Fair between the wheel-chair pushers—young men with a “very attentive attitude”—and their pert payload. Victorian-era readers (even those in gritty [...]

By |2018-09-02T10:31:09-05:00September 4th, 2018|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , , , |0 Comments
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Pushing for a Labor Strike at the Fair

The American labor movement and the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition share an intertwined history. Labor Day became an official U.S. federal holiday in 1894. The official histories of the World’s Fair rarely recognize the back-breaking labor of the working class and largely immigrant labor force that carved the lagoon, constructed the White City, operated the concessions. The following article from the August 16, 1893 issue of the Chicago Inter Ocean, describes one instance of labor unrest at the Fair [...]

By |2018-09-02T11:21:38-05:00September 3rd, 2018|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , , |0 Comments
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