Illinois Executive Mansion to display artifacts of the 1893 World’s Fair

The Illinois Executive Mansion in Springfield, home to Illinois governors and their families since 1855, is undergoing a $15 Million renovation. Funded entirely by private donors, the restoration includes a renewed visitor’s center and historic exhibits, including a room displaying rare artifacts from the 1893 World’s Fair held in Chicago. Occupying the mansion during the Columbian Exposition was John Altgeld, the first Chicago resident and first foreign-born citizen to have been elected governor. He served from January 1893 to January [...]

By |2023-04-09T08:49:17-05:00January 27th, 2018|Categories: EXHIBITS (current), NEWS|Tags: , , , |2 Comments
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“I’ll take the 1893 World’s Fair for $200, Alex”

Columbian Exposition fan Dorothy McFarland kindly shared with us some screenshots of the episode of Jeopardy that aired on January 17, 2018, which included the Round 1 category "The 1893 Chicago World’s Fair" ("You remember that," adds host Alex Trebek). The contestants did remember the fair, making a clean sweep of the category. Amanda Griggs provided the correct question to the $200 answer: "Illuminated by thousands of light bulbs, the building seen here was devoted to this new innovation [...]

By |2022-12-10T10:10:33-06:00January 19th, 2018|Categories: NEWS, VIDEO|Tags: , , , , , |0 Comments
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Is Chicago about to ruin Jackson Park? asks the Cultural Landscape Foundation

"Is Chicago about to ruin Jackson Park?" asks Charles A. Birnbaum, President & CEO of the Cultural Landscape Foundation in an opinion piece published this week in The Huffington Post. Birnbaum highlights several major projects affecting the park that in 1893 was home to the Columbian Exposition. Plans for the Obama Presidential Center (OPC) locate it on the west side of Jackson Park lagoon (approximately where the Woman's Building and Horticultural Building once stood), and an associated parking facility will sit on [...]

By |2018-01-04T19:37:01-06:00January 4th, 2018|Categories: NEWS|Tags: , , , , , , |1 Comment
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Happy New Year! Happy 125th Anniversary!

Welcome to 2018 Happy New Year to our readers. 2018 marks the 125th anniversary of the 1893 World's Fair, and we look forward to celebrating the year with posts about the history of the World's Columbian Exposition, images of the fairgrounds, reports on news and events related to the WCE (we expect there will be much happening in 2018!), notices of interesting WCE auctions and collectibles, and other Columbian commemorations. Would we ever be able to see it all? [...]

By |2021-04-02T11:22:45-05:00January 1st, 2018|Categories: NEWS|2 Comments
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Architectural Digest selects the top-20 world’s fair buildings of all time

Architectural Digest recently took a look "back at some of the most innovative architecture built for expositions around the globe." In his article "The 20 Boldest Buildings in the History of the World's Fair," Niki Mafi lists the Art Institute of Chicago at #5, behind the Eiffel Tower (Paris, 1889), the Grand Palais (Paris,. 1900), the Royal Exhibition Building (Melbourne, 1880), and the Arc de Triomf (Barcelona, 1888). The classical Beaux-Arts building designed by Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge of Boston is [...]

By |2022-03-05T10:03:50-06:00December 31st, 2017|Categories: NEWS|Tags: , , , |0 Comments
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Winter World’s Fair Reading

As we head into the holiday season, you might find some time to enjoy a trip to the 1893 World's Fair through some vintage fiction. Check out our Fair Fiction Library page to connect with some historical novels, fictional memoirs, and juvenile literature. We'd eventually like to offer short summaries or reviews of these titles, so send us your thoughts if you happen to read one of these titles.

By |2017-12-17T11:06:30-06:00December 17th, 2017|Categories: FICTION, NEWS|Tags: |0 Comments
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Wishing our readers a plentiful Thanksgiving!

THE STATUE OF "PLENTY" from Picturesque World's Fair (W. B. Conkey, 1894). The pieces of statuary which stood beside the portals of the great buildings or bridge approaches, or on pedestals overlooking the Grand Basin and canals and lagoons, had all definite names fitted to the idea of their conception. What Kemeys and Proctor did with wild animals Potter and French did with domestic ones, introducing them in statuary with fine effect. The Statue of "Plenty" was well conceived in [...]

By |2018-03-11T10:15:43-05:00November 23rd, 2017|Categories: NEWS, REPRINTS|Tags: , , , , |0 Comments
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See the Midway, German Building, and Palace of Fine Arts on Film

The Chicago Tribune has posted a video mash-up of Chicago aerial scenes, pairing vintage film footage—shot in 1914 from a dirigible flying over the city—with modern video of the same locations. The German Building (looking south) Of particular interest to fans of the 1893 World’s Fair are scenes of the Midway Plaisance (shown at 3:45 minutes in the video) followed by a fly-over of the 58th Street Beach (at 4:15), where during the fair were the Great [...]

By |2024-02-04T08:48:46-06:00November 13th, 2017|Categories: NEWS, VIDEO|Tags: , , , , , , , |0 Comments
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Weinstein, War, and the White City

The 1893 World’s Fair has made small guest appearances on the big screen and small screen, but has yet to be a major featured setting for a film or television series. The 2005 documentary film EXPO – Magic of the White City, narrated by Gene Wilder, (link to online video) uses still images of the Columbian Exposition along with video footage (oddly chosen, in some cases) to tell the story of the history of the fair. Advances in computer-generated [...]

By |2023-08-05T08:33:03-05:00November 10th, 2017|Categories: NEWS, VIDEO|Tags: , , , , , , , , , |0 Comments
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