Mar. 16, 2018-Apr. 28, 2019: World’s Fair “Mummies” at the Field Museum

Mummies that were on display at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition are back in Chicago after a 6-year national tour. The exhibition "Mummies" opens at the Field Museum on Friday, March 16, 2018, and showcases artifacts from ancient Egypt and ancient Peru. Some of the ancient mummy artifacts on display at the 1893 World's Fair. [from The Catalogue of the Cliff-Dwellers Exhibit (H. Jay Smith Exploring Company, 1893).] After the close of the 1893 World’s Fair, mummies that had [...]

By |2023-04-09T08:51:13-05:00March 11th, 2018|Categories: EVENTS (past), EXHIBITS (past), NEWS|Tags: , , |0 Comments

Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry Celebrates the 1893 World’s Fair

The Museum of Science and Industry (MSI) in Chicago is housed in one of the few buildings remaining from the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition: what was then the Palace of Fine Arts. To commemorate the 125th anniversary of the World’s Fair, the Museum has mounted two displays commemorating the historic event. Lego Ferris Wheel Adam Reed Tucker installing his LEGO Ferris Wheel model. [Image from the Museum of Science and Industry.] The original 264-foot Ferris Wheel left Jackson [...]

By |2018-03-09T19:02:08-06:00March 10th, 2018|Categories: EXHIBITS (current), NEWS|Tags: , , |0 Comments

Chicago: City of the Century (2003)

News of the passing of David Ogden Stiers on March 3 has garnered tributes to the actor’s unforgettable role on M*A*S*H and his voice performances for several animated film from Disney Studios. Mr. Stiers also played a small but valuable role in the history of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, serving as the narrator of one of the first documentaries about the great fair. Chicago: City of the Century, based on the 1996 book of the same title by [...]

Souvenir Music from the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893

March, waltz, polka, and hoochie koochie your way back to the 1893 World’s Fair with Souvenir Music from the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, a new recording of vintage sheet music from Lake Forest College Press. Donald C. Meyer, Professor of Music at Lake Forest College, has assembled a fascinating collection of 18 pieces of music written for or about the Columbian Exposition. A trio of musicians (pianist Chris White, violinist Kate Carter, and baritone Brad Jungwirth) perform the [...]

Presidential Painting

A painting of a young Abraham Lincoln, reported to have been on display at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, was unveiled on February 9, 2018, at the Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Illinois. The Young Abraham Lincoln by William Morton Jackson Rice [Image from the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.] The Young Abraham Lincoln, a 56-by-85-inch oil painting by William Morton Jackson Rice (1854-1922), depicts Lincoln sitting in front of a tree he has just chopped [...]

Dominating Objects of Interest: Olmsted and Obama

“How much should the maxims of a 19th-century park designer tie the hands of a 21st-century president?” asks Edward McClelland in his piece “Olmsted vs. Obama: Inside the Pushback Against the Presidential Library” published this week by Chicago Magazine. A whimsical illustration by Graham Roumieu that accompanies the article shows of a ghostly zephyr of Frederick Law Olmsted, landscape architect of the 1893 World’s Fair, fretting over the fate of his beloved Jackson Park. The article summarizes the positions [...]

By |2019-01-22T18:42:33-06:00February 9th, 2018|Categories: NEWS|Tags: , , |0 Comments

Meadows Museum displays BEACH AT PORTICI from 1893 World’s Fair

The Meadows Museum on the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas has announced their acquisition of Beach at Portici, a work that was on display at the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago and the final painting of 19th century Spanish artist Mariano Fortuny y Marsal (1838-1874). The American Exhibit of art occupied 24,000 square feet of space in the northeastern part of the Palace of Fine Arts at the Columbian Exposition. One section was devoted to foreign masterpieces owned [...]

Chicago Tribune remembers the Midway Plaisance

Donkey Boys in the Streets of Cairo "Former President Barack Obama’s proposed parking garage wouldn’t have been the first oddball structure built on Chicago’s Midway Plaisance." writes Ron Grossman in the Chicago Tribune, referring to the now scuttled plans to build a parking lot for the Obama Presidential Center on the east end of the Midway. Grossman has dug through the Tribune's archive to excavate some interesting news stories from 1893 about the Midway, including "The donkey boys of [...]

Updates on the Obama Presidential Center plans for Jackson Park

January brought a flurry of planning activity for the Obama Presidential Center (OPC) along with heavy gusts of protest against the proposed development in Jackson Park. Both those favoring and those opposing the OPC proposal looked back to the 1893 World's Fair and invoked Frederick Law Olmsted's vision for the park after the Columbian Exposition to support their position. On January 8, the Obama Foundation released new design plans for OPC space on the west side of the lagoon. The [...]

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