Jackson Park Prints to Support Block Club Chicago

Block Club Chicago—a nonprofit news organization dedicated to delivering reliable, nonpartisan, and essential coverage of Chicago’s diverse neighborhoods—has two gorgeous poster prints depicting remnants of the 1893 World’s Fair. The 6-by-20-inch limited-edition prints by Steve Shanabruch print are premiums for donors who purchase, gift, or upgrade a Block Club subscription by December 31, 2024. The poster for Hyde Park shows a lovely vista of the Wooded Island and the original Palace of Fine Arts. The Woodlawn neighborhood poster features [...]

By Scott|2024-12-30T08:29:46-06:00December 30th, 2024|Categories: NEWS, PRODUCTS|Tags: , , , |0 Comments
Read More

World’s Fair beer on “Jeopardy!”

The December 2, 2024, episode of Jeopardy! offered contestants this $200 clue in the Jeopardy! round under the category of “Cheers to Beers”: After being honored at the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago, this brand added "Blue Ribbon" to its name. Evan Jones gave the correct answer of Pabst. The Pabst Brewing Company was awarded a medal at the 1893 World Columbian Exposition. The blue ribbon was the company's own invention. A medal given to the Pabst Brewing [...]

By Scott|2024-12-18T20:07:56-06:00December 15th, 2024|Categories: NEWS|Tags: , |0 Comments
Read More

Maps of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in the Library of Congress

Maps of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition fairgrounds offer a fascinating look at the evolving design of the Jackson Park campus and of the continuous changes during the run of the Fair. The Library of Congress holds many interesting specimens of World’s Fair cartography in the collection of the Geography and Map Division. Cynthia Smith’s blog post “Chicago in 1893: Selected Maps of the World’s Columbian Exposition” (December 4, 2024) highlights several maps and exhibit hall floorplans from the [...]

By Scott|2024-12-30T08:31:42-06:00December 14th, 2024|Categories: NEWS|Tags: , |0 Comments
Read More

2024 Columbian Exposition Gift Guide

Shopping for a gift to give a Columbian Exposition enthusiast? Or wanting to treat yourself to a little something during the holiday season? If so, check on these products relating to the 1893 World’s Fair. Note: We provide this announcement of new products without any compensation from vendors. Prices and availability subject to change. Add a Ferris Wheel to your tree with a World’s Fair Wooden Ornament from Transit Tees. The image of the Great Wheel on the Midway [...]

By Scott|2025-01-20T09:41:00-06:00December 2nd, 2024|Categories: COLLECTING, NEWS|Tags: , |0 Comments
Read More

Season’s Readings: 2024 Books about the World’s Columbian Exposition

Relatively few new books were added to the Columbian Exposition bookshelf this past year, but the small selection does cover several interesting topics. Three new academic works explore the Woman’s Building, model Haida Village, and Haiti Building and Frederick Douglass. A new children’s novel time-travels back to 1893. Note: We provide this announcement of new titles without any compensation from authors or publishers. We encourage shopping through independent local book dealers and online platforms that support them, such as [...]

By Scott|2026-01-18T13:00:33-06:00December 1st, 2024|Categories: FICTION, NEWS, PRODUCTS, RESEARCH|Tags: , , , |0 Comments
Read More

World’s Fair architects on “Jeopardy!”

The November 29, 2024, episode of Jeopardy! offered contestants this $400 clue in the Double Jeopardy! round under the category of “Do You Want to Build a Building?”: In 1873 Daniel Burnham & John Root started a firm to build together in this city; 2 decades later, Burnham built a fair there. Debbie Mercer, a retired special education teacher from (nearby) Oak Park, Illinois, gave the correct answer of Chicago. Daniel Burnham and John Root in their office [...]

By Scott|2024-11-30T10:23:45-06:00November 30th, 2024|Categories: NEWS|Tags: , , |0 Comments
Read More

The Architectural Influence of the 1893 World’s Fair on “Wicked”

Every way That you look in this city There’s something exquisite You’ll want to visit Before the day’s through! —“One Short Day” by Stephen Schwartz The 2024 blockbuster film Wicked takes audiences into the thrilling dreamworld of Oz. While visiting the Emerald City, attentive viewers may catch glimpses of the 1893 World’s Fair. Ever since L. Frank Baum “discovered” the Land of Oz and published The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in 1900—seven years after visiting the World’s Columbian Exposition [...]

By Scott|2024-11-24T12:29:48-06:00November 22nd, 2024|Categories: NEWS|Tags: , , |2 Comments
Read More

“It’s Ugly.” But worth $150,000! Tiffany Love Cup from 1893 World’s Fair Featured on “Antiques Roadshow”

It may be ugly, but it’s a treasure from the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. A silver loving cup made by Tiffany & Company for the World’s Fair was brought in for appraisal on Antiques Roadshow Season 28 Episode 20 “Vintage Madison 2024, Hour 1” on PBS. The sterling silver cup is decorated with enameling embedded with turquoise and other stones. The owner inherited the vase from a family member who lived near the Midway Plaisance in Chicago, though admitted [...]

By Scott|2024-11-09T16:31:09-06:00November 10th, 2024|Categories: ANTIQUES, NEWS|Tags: |0 Comments
Read More

The Amusement Zone of the 1893 Columbian Exposition featured on WTTW’s “Chicago Stories”

“The 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition proved that Chicagoans had a healthy appetite for amusement—and that fun could be monetized.” —WTTW’s Chicago Stories An episode of WTTW’s Chicago Stories airing on October 4, 2024, takes viewers on a ride through the history of regional amusement parks such as The White City, Riverview, and Kiddieland. “Amusement Parks” opens with a visit to the 1893 World’s Fair and some dazzling digital animation of vintage photographs. “The 1893 Columbian Exposition was a BIG [...]

By Scott|2024-10-24T10:16:25-05:00October 24th, 2024|Categories: NEWS|Tags: , , |0 Comments
Read More

Oct 15, 2024: “Tiffany Chapel: 25 Years at the Morse” (Winter Park, FL)

The Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company (1892–1902) exhibited a magnificent chapel interior as the centerpiece of its display for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Since 1999, the chapel has been on view at the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art in Winter Park, FL. In celebration of the chapel’s 25th anniversary at the Museum, the Morse will exhibit Fathers of the Church, a glass mosaic on long-term loan from The Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass in [...]

By Scott|2024-10-10T14:32:12-05:00October 11th, 2024|Categories: EXHIBITS (current), NEWS|Tags: |2 Comments
Read More

“No Holmes Barred!” A World’s Fair Radio Show Podcast Concludes

History, hilarity, and histrionics characterize a new satirical radio-show podcast about the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago. No Holmes Barred! is written, directed, and produced by Daniel Ciarrocchi (you may have seen him on Jeopardy!) and tells the dual stories of Daniel Burnham’s construction of the fairgrounds in Jackson Park and the bloody trail of murderer H. H. Holmes in nearby Englewood. If this premise sounds like a certain best-selling work of narrative nonfiction that introduced millions of readers [...]

By Scott|2024-08-23T13:17:26-05:00August 23rd, 2024|Categories: AUDIO, NEWS|Tags: , , , , , , , |1 Comment
Read More

Preserving the Clarence Darrow Memorial Bridge in Jackson Park

Very few structures from the fairgrounds of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago have survived. One of them has stood in a state of disrepair behind a chain-link fence for fifteen years. The University of Chicago student newspaper, the Chicago Maroon, had provided an update on efforts to repair this historic bridge in Jackson Park. Evgenia Anastasakos’ “Community Members Organize to Preserve Historic Jackson Park Bridge” (August 5, 2024) highlights the efforts of the newly formed Clarence Darrow [...]

By Scott|2024-08-19T20:00:54-05:00August 22nd, 2024|Categories: NEWS|Tags: |0 Comments
Read More

Is “The Devil in the White City” TV miniseries still alive?

Deadline’s Zac Ntim recently interviewed Stacey Sher, often listed as show runner for Hulu’s The Devil in the White City TV miniseries that was shelved in March of 2023. Ntim asked Sher “is that still happening and are you still involved?” to which she replied “I’m still involved. I never give up.” When asked if fans can expect to see it sometime soon, she replied “I mean, I hope so. It’s not imminent, but it is not ever far [...]

By Scott|2024-08-21T08:54:18-05:00August 21st, 2024|Categories: NEWS, VIDEO|Tags: |0 Comments
Read More

Footprint of the Obama Presidential Center in relation to the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Jackson Park

Construction continues on the Obama Presidential Center on the west side of Jackson Park in Chicago. An update from the Obama Foundation shows a map of the campus, which includes a Museum building, John Lewis Plaza, Forum building, a new branch of the Chicago Public Library, the Eleanor Roosevelt Fruit & Vegetable Garden, the Home Court, and a playground. To see how the space occupied by these new structures relates to buildings from the 1893 World’s Fair, check out [...]

By Scott|2024-08-18T15:08:02-05:00August 19th, 2024|Categories: NEWS|Tags: |0 Comments
Read More

Long-lost film footage of the 1893 World’s Fair?

Has some long-lost film footage of the 1893 World’s Fair been discovered? Not quite. But this video about a stunning piece of Chicago real estate opens with some fun AI-generated animations of the Columbian Exposition fairgrounds. The video showcases a $3.6M penthouse mansion in the historic Montgomery Ward building (6 N. Michigan Ave.), constructed in 1898–99. [Note: The building across the street—constructed for use by the World’s Congress Auxiliary and which then became the new home of the Art [...]

By Scott|2024-08-17T13:58:17-05:00August 17th, 2024|Categories: NEWS, VIDEO|Tags: |0 Comments
Read More

“Big Shoulders” comic series plans to visit the 1893 World’s Fair

“A crossroads is where destinies can get made or broken,” states Big Shoulders #1, the first of a proposed six-issue full-color comic series. This Chicago-based fantasy, where the mundane and the cosmic collide, features twenty-two-year-old Coda Walker waking up and finding himself transported to the 1893 World’s Fair. Two pages (not yet colored) from Big Shoulders #1, showing Coda Walker in front of the Administration Building at the 1893 World’s Fair. [Art: Scott Gray] Written by John Dudley, [...]

By Scott|2024-06-19T13:49:30-05:00June 19th, 2024|Categories: FICTION, NEWS|0 Comments
Read More

Famous World’s Fair Name on “Jeopardy!”

“Famous Names” served as the Final Jeopardy category on the June 12, 2024, episode of Jeopardy! The answer was: “Vying with Eiffel, this engineer wanted to create big; an admiring account said the Obelisk of Luxor is too short to be a spoke.” Two of the contestants came up with correct question of is “Who is Ferris?” Pittsburgh engineer George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr., designed his great iron wheel for the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago. The Ferris Wheel [...]

By Scott|2024-06-17T21:23:10-05:00June 17th, 2024|Categories: NEWS|Tags: , , , |0 Comments
Read More

(Re)Introducing the Dana Palace of Fine Arts

Dear Mr. Burnham, Please take a look at the attached press release drafted by Chief Halsey Ives of the Fine Arts Department. Are we to proceed with this? I urge caution. With concern, Moses P. Handy Publicity and Promotion May 14, 1893 (Re)Introducing the Dana Palace of Fine Arts The World’s Fair is open, the guidebooks are printed, and the maps are distributed. And yet, winds of change are blowing through the Windy City. The Palace of Fine Arts [...]

By Scott|2024-05-18T09:48:10-05:00May 18th, 2024|Categories: NEWS|Tags: |0 Comments
Read More
Copyright 2024 WorldsFairChicago1893 | All Rights Reserved |
Go to Top