Japanese Vase from 1893 World’s Fair Was Hiding in Plain Sight

A rare Japanese vase made especially for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago has been hiding in plain sight in a California restaurant, reports the Chicago Tribune. The beautiful piece of World's Fair history will go up for auction next month. The recently identified Japanese vase from the 1893 World’s Fair, showing a dragon (symbolizing China) over waves. The vase decorated Spenger’s Fish Grotto in Berkeley, California, for many years. [Image courtesy Clars Auction Gallery.] Dragon [...]

By Scott|2022-04-29T18:39:46-05:00January 9th, 2019|Categories: ANTIQUES, NEWS|Tags: , |1 Comment
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White City Archaeologist Featured in January 2019 issue of Chicago Magazine

The January 2019 issue of Chicago magazine features an article about the first official archaeological dig at the site of the 1893 World’s Columbian exposition. In “Stories in the Dirt,” Anne Ford interviews Rebecca Graff, Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Chair of the American Studies Program at Lake Forest College. Graff reflects on her personal connection to the 1893 World’s Fair and surmises on the historical artifacts possibly buried beneath the future site of the Obama Presidential Center. [...]

By Scott|2019-01-03T16:48:45-06:00January 3rd, 2019|Categories: NEWS|Tags: , |0 Comments
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“The Fairest of Them All” in the Fall/Winter issue of The Newberry Magazine

The Fall/Winter 2018 issue of the Newberry Magazine, a publication of the Newberry Library in Chicago, features an article on the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. “The Fairest of Them All” by Alex Teller describes impressions of the 1893 World’s Fair by visitors and the use of images to promote and remember the Fair, as featured in the Library’s fall exhibition, “Pictures from an Exposition: Visualizing the 1893 World’s Fair.” The Newberry Magazine is sent to members of the Library [...]

By Scott|2022-12-10T09:55:26-06:00January 2nd, 2019|Categories: NEWS|Tags: |0 Comments
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Native Americans, the 1893 World’s Fair, and Chicago As We Know It

The Red Man’s Greeting, 1494-1892 (C. H. Engle, 1893) from the collection of the Newberry Library. “Without native Americans, would we have Chicago as we know it?” asks Jesse Dukes in an interactive “Curious City” feature for WBEZ-Chicago. One part of this fascinating look at the histories of Native Americans and the settlers of Chicago is the story of Simon Pokagon, a prominent member of the Pokagon Band of the Potawatomi who spoke at the 1893 World’s [...]

By Scott|2018-12-16T18:10:41-06:00December 16th, 2018|Categories: NEWS|Tags: , , |0 Comments
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Happy Turkey Day to our readers!

We wish you and yours a joyous Thanksgiving! We give thanks for the wonderful friends and Columbian Exposition enthusiasts whom we have met through worldsfairchicago1893.com this past year and look forward to continued exploration of the fairgrounds with you in the coming months. Speaking of turkey ... our monthly newsletter puzzle for November asked readers: Which of the Great Buildings in the White City featured a ring of ornamental turkey sculptures on its roof? The answer can be found [...]

By Scott|2018-11-25T10:46:35-06:00November 22nd, 2018|Categories: NEWS|Tags: |0 Comments
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Election Day is Tuesday, November 6. Remember to Vote.

Just a friendly reminder from worldsfairchicago1893.com to exercise your right to vote this election day, November 6, 2018. "Miss Chicago Up to Date" showing a suffragette posing as the Statue of the Republic from the 1893 World's Fair. [Image from the August 11, 1913, issue of The Chicago Examiner.]

By Scott|2018-11-04T20:33:35-06:00November 5th, 2018|Categories: NEWS|Tags: |0 Comments
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“World’s Fairs and the Death of Optimism”

Darran Anderson’s essay “World’s Fairs and the Death of Optimism” (citylab.com, October 3, 2018) addresses the fading luster of World’s Fairs and uses some examples from the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago to illustrate his point. “World’s Fairs fell from grace,” writes Anderson. “Who could blame nostalgia towards witnessing the Crystal Palace, the head of the Statue of Liberty in a Parisian park, the extra-terrestrial Trylon and Perisphere, or the Tower of the Sun? This was bolstered by [...]

By Scott|2018-10-19T16:14:35-05:00October 20th, 2018|Categories: NEWS|Tags: , , , , , , , , |1 Comment
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Pictures from “Pictures from an Exposition”

“Pictures from an Exposition: Visualizing the 1893 World’s Fair” has opened at the Newberry Library. “Pictures from an Exposition: Visualizing the 1893 World’s Fair” has opened at the Newberry Library in Chicago. The exhibition of nearly two hundred items from the World’s Columbian Exposition fills two galleries in the Library’s newly renovated main floor. Displays are organized into sections on: • Introduction • Construction • Maps and Bird’s Eye Views • Staff and Sculpture • Publicity and [...]

By Scott|2022-10-10T09:01:00-05:00September 30th, 2018|Categories: NEWS|Tags: , , , , , , , , , |0 Comments
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Why Couldn’t New York Build the White City for Real?

“History is happening in Manhattan and we just happen to be In the greatest city in the world!” --"The Schuyler Sisters” from Hamilton The White City of the World’s Columbian Exposition was the undeniable center of the world for six months in 1893, but it was also a theatrical illusion -- a Dream City. Behind the scenes, a famous rivalry played out between the real cities of Chicago and New York to lay claim to title of the greatest [...]

By Scott|2018-09-23T08:14:08-05:00September 26th, 2018|Categories: NEWS|Tags: |0 Comments
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History and Change in Jackson Park

The 2018-2019 class of Obama Foundation Scholars recently convened in Chicago. On one beautiful summer day, the scholars -- coming from places as far flung as Cameroon, India and Vietnam -- were provided with a history tour of Chicago’s South Side that included a visit to the former fairgrounds of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Jackson Park. The Obama Presidential Center hopes to move into the western side of the Lagoon. An Obama Foundation Scholar viewing a [...]

By Scott|2023-08-05T08:33:58-05:00September 24th, 2018|Categories: NEWS|Tags: , |0 Comments
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“From the Midway” a new 1893 World’s Fair podcast from the Chicago Tribune

The Chicago Tribune recently launched a new podcast series called “From the Midway” that explores the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition on its 125th anniversary year. Host Colleen Connolly, digital news editor at the Trib, promises to offer listeners stories about “the legacy left behind by the fair, including the remnants that can still be viewed today, the cultural legacy of the fair, the evolution of the Ferris wheel and products that made their debut at the exposition, and still [...]

By Scott|2022-04-29T18:39:22-05:00September 22nd, 2018|Categories: AUDIO, NEWS|Tags: , , , |0 Comments
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A look at some “Treasures from the White City” at the Driehaus Museum

Treasures from the White City: Chicago World’s Fair of 1893 opened on Saturday, September 8, at the Richard H. Driehaus Museum in Chicago, and we were the first visitors to see the exhibit. Treasures from the White City at the Driehaus Museum in Chicago The mansion is a breathtaking example of Gilded Age Chicago, and Treasures and the other current exhibit on Gilded Age portraits complement the gorgeous space. Two third-floor rooms showcase artifacts and art from the [...]

By Scott|2018-09-09T09:57:06-05:00September 9th, 2018|Categories: NEWS|Tags: |0 Comments
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Sept. 25, 2018: World’s Fair Auction #32 closes

Columbian Exposition collectors may be interested in World’s Fair Auction #32, now open for preview. Online bidding closes on September 25th, 2018, at 10:00 PM EDT. The auction catalog can be viewed at: http://www.worldsfairauction.com/cgi-bin/CATALL.CGI. Lots 14 through 57 relate to the 1893 World’s Fair, and include: a rare 14-by-11-inch poster of the Viking Ship; a milk glass tumbler depicting the Illinois State Building; a jig-saw puzzle picturing Horticultural Hall; a "Chicago Exposition 1893" globe inkwell; an ornate "Columbian Fair Souvenir" [...]

By Scott|2021-05-05T14:19:42-05:00September 7th, 2018|Categories: ANTIQUES, EVENTS (past), NEWS|Tags: , , , |0 Comments
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Wooded Island Well Suited for Climate Change

It is not easy to find good news in reports about climate change. A news story in the August 17, 2018, Chicago Tribune offered one small encouraging note in an otherwise distressing description of the impacts of climate change on the Chicago region. “The birches in the corner of your kid’s favorite park, the towering spruce in your suburban backyard, that graceful linden on your block — all are likely to disappear from Chicago’s landscape over the next few decades,” [...]

By Scott|2022-04-29T18:39:04-05:00August 21st, 2018|Categories: NEWS|Tags: , |0 Comments
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Yerkes Observatory Faces Uncertain Future

Perched on a hilltop above Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, stands a magnificent structure having two significant connections to the 1893 World’s Fair. After more than 120 years of operation, this important legacy of the Columbian Exposition faces an uncertain future. Architect Henry Ives Cobb. (Image from The Graphic History of the Fair. (Graphic Co., 1894).] Henry Ives Cobb, born on August 18, 1859, in Brookline, Massachusetts, had become one of Chicago's most distinguished architects by the time of the [...]

By Scott|2023-04-16T18:07:26-05:00August 19th, 2018|Categories: NEWS|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , |0 Comments
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How The 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition Played Into Chicago’s Rivalry With New York

WBEZ’s Curious City podcast “How The 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition Played Into Chicago’s Rivalry With New York” answers the question Where does Chicago’s inferiority complex toward New York come from and when did it start? Recorded live at the Museum of Science and Industry (MSI) in Chicago during their “Night at the Fair” After Hours event on June 15, 2018, this episode of Curious City exposes the roots of the rivalry between the two cities to be the fierce [...]

By Scott|2025-03-20T12:42:14-05:00August 1st, 2018|Categories: NEWS|Tags: , , |0 Comments
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Take a Seat … Back to the Fair

Most people riding on municipal trains or buses don’t want to think too much about the surface their butt is planted on. For good reason. If you are a fan of the 1893 World’s Fair, however, the seat underneath your backside probably has a direct lineage to the World’s Columbian Exposition. Chicago Magazine offers a surprising report that the company that makes about eighty percent of the seats for transit agencies in the United States—including most buses, subway trains, and airport [...]

By Scott|2018-08-03T07:18:21-05:00July 26th, 2018|Categories: NEWS|Tags: |0 Comments
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The Long Journey of the Norway Building

Tucked among some willow trees in the foreign building section in the northeast corner of the World’s Columbian Exposition grounds stood a striking structure made of massive pine beams. Built in the style of a medieval stave church, its gabled roof with carved dragons evoke the prow of a Viking ship. One of only a few surviving structures from the 1893 World’s Fair, the Norway Building has journeyed some 10,000 miles over the past 125 years. The building was [...]

By Scott|2022-03-05T10:28:08-06:00July 15th, 2018|Categories: NEWS|Tags: , , , , , , |1 Comment
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Chicago History Museum Members Open House 2018

We are enthusiastic supporters of the Chicago History Museum here at WorldsFairChicago1893.com. The museum (formerly known as the Chicago Historical Society) owns a collection filled with interesting and rare items pertaining to the 1893 World’s Fair. The museum’s regular displays of WCE artifacts can be viewed in the “Chicago Crossroads” exhibit, and a stunning miniature view of the Court of Honor on the Grand Basin resides in the Chicago Dioramas room. The CHM Research Center provided access to one [...]

By Scott|2018-07-07T12:46:15-05:00July 7th, 2018|Categories: EVENTS (past), NEWS|Tags: , , , , |0 Comments
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“Nicodemus” in Las Vegas is a Virtual Reality Fair Fright

Electricity at the World's Fair, on the set of the new virtual-reality adventure "Nicodemus" in Las Vegas. The demon Nicodemus is on the loose in the old fairgrounds of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. That is, if you are inside of a new virtual-reality attraction in Las Vegas. The VOID at Grand Canal Shoppes in the Venetian/The Palazzo resort (3377 South Las Vegas Boulevard) in Las Vegas has opened an immersive walk-around adventure game called Nicodemus Demon of [...]

By Scott|2022-03-05T10:27:07-06:00June 13th, 2018|Categories: NEWS|Tags: |0 Comments
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