Dec. 2, 2022 – Feb. 1, 2023: A Columbian Exposition quilt on display (Woodland, CA)

“Expressions in Cloth,” a new exhibition at YoloArts’ Gallery 625 in Woodland, California, includes a beautiful quilt by artist Sherry Werum that features images inspired by the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. World's Fair enthusiasts might see Louis Sullivan's iconic Golden Door entrance to the Transporation Building or William Le Baron Jenney's stunning glass dome of the Horticultural Building among Werum's intricate design. “Expressions in Cloth” runs from December 2, 2022, to February 1, 2023, at Gallery 625 [...]

By |2022-12-04T09:04:02-06:00December 4th, 2022|Categories: EXHIBITS (current), NEWS, Uncategorized|Tags: , |0 Comments

“Crazy Enthusiasm” for Ignacy Paderewski at the 1893 World’s Fair

Among the constellation of famous (or soon-to-be-famous) visitors to the 1893 World’s Fair, few stars shined as bright as pianist Ignacy Jan Paderewski (1860–1941). Wherever he performed, concert halls filled with passionate and adoring fans. The musical celebrity with wild and alluring red hair cast a spell over the women in the audience. One pundit, in the days before Paderewski’s concert at the opening of the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, diagnosed their craze as “Paddymania.” The Musical Courier [...]

By |2022-12-10T09:57:36-06:00September 25th, 2022|Categories: REPRINTS, Uncategorized|Tags: , , , |0 Comments

138. Picturesque World’s Fair – The Guatemala Building

THE GUATEMALA BUILDING.—Built in the Spanish style and tastefully though not profusely decorated, the Guatemala Building presented a most attractive frontage from its site at the east end of the North Pond. The edifice was one hundred and eleven feet square, and two stories in height, and the corners were embellished by graceful towers twenty-three feet in diameter. The entire height of the towers was sixty-five feet, and in two of them were staircases giving access to the roof [...]

By |2022-05-07T05:32:48-05:00May 7th, 2022|Categories: REPRINTS, Uncategorized|Tags: , |0 Comments

Footprint of the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park

Following a lengthy federal regulatory review, the Obama Presidential Center (OPC) is now preparing for its official groundbreaking in the fall of 2020, and the City of Chicago is beginning pre-construction work in Jackson Park. Updates on the OPC construction can be found at https://www.obama.org/updates/. The OPC campus has several components, all localized in the southwest corner of what was the fairgrounds for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. That space today has a track and football field, playground, bathroom [...]

By |2021-04-30T07:49:19-05:00April 29th, 2021|Categories: NEWS, Uncategorized|Tags: |1 Comment

101. Picturesque World’s Fair – Nizaha, A Woman of Nazareth

NIZAHA, A WOMAN OF NAZARETH.— Hardly what one would expect in appearance was Nizaha, a woman with the Bedouins, who came from the locality reverentially considered by all the Christian world as the birthplace of Christ. It will be observed that in sitting for her photograph Nizaha did not forget her hands and handkerchief and that, with the left hand especially, as it is spread out against her side, a somewhat startling effect is produced. The rings are shown [...]

By |2020-06-28T10:56:09-05:00June 28th, 2020|Categories: REPRINTS, Uncategorized|Tags: , |0 Comments

When Buffalo Bill Cody Goosed the World’s Fair

In the fall of 1893, Buffalo Bill Cody “departed Chicago with a million in cash and the irony of the last laugh,” writes Matt Braun in his article “Buffalo Bill Goosed the World’s Fair” in the May 2014 issue of True West magazine. “He never paid a red cent to Burnham or the World’s Columbian Exposition,” The article offers an account of how Nate Salsbury, Cody’s partner and business manager, requested a concession from the Columbian Exposition's Committee of [...]

By |2023-02-19T10:34:02-06:00May 15th, 2020|Categories: NEWS, Uncategorized|Tags: , |0 Comments

Opening Day at the 1893 World’s Fair

“The Electric Button” [Image (colorized) from Frank Leslie’s Illustrated, May 18, 1893.] Opening Day at the World's Columbian Exposition, May 1, 1893, brought “the greatest crowd Chicago has ever seen or probably ever will witness” into Jackson Park. The tally of total visitors inside the fairground, was close to 400,000, with 242,000 people buying tickets at the gate and another 150,000 arriving with pre-purchased souvenir tickets. The event may have been the greatest crowd Chicago had ever seen, [...]

By |2020-05-01T16:14:13-05:00May 1st, 2020|Categories: HISTORY, Uncategorized|Tags: |0 Comments

Clara Doty Bates, Hostess of the 1893 World’s Fair Children’s Library

“There are some crusty old bachelors and a few childless women who make a pretense of disliking children, but it's a flimsy sort of sour-grape antipathy, and rarely rings true. Even those people who do not like children's society will find a great deal to enjoy in their domicile.” —Emma. B. Dunlap, writing about the Children’s Building at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. Clara Doty Bates. [Image from A Woman of the Century edited by Frances E. Willard [...]

“Devil in the White City” is top-10 Illinois Book

Erik Larson’s 2003 best-selling book The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America ignited a passion for the 1893 World’s Fair in countless readers. The title recently earned a spot in the list of top-10 books with links to Illinois. Larson’s historical non-fiction thriller tells parallel stories about the monumental efforts of Daniel Burnham to build the White City in Jackson Park and the monstrous exploits of serial killer H. H. Holmes [...]

By |2023-08-05T08:33:34-05:00June 11th, 2018|Categories: NEWS, Uncategorized|Tags: , , , |0 Comments

Vienna Beef History Museum opens in Chicago

We have not yet reached the dog days of summer, but Chicago is already celebrating its most famous dog, with the opening of the Vienna Beef History Museum. The 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition launched the careers of many now-famous food items, including shredded wheat, Aunt Jemima pancake mix, chili, brownies, and one of Chicago’s iconic bites: the hot dog. The Vienna beef hot dog made its debut at the World’s Fair at a stand operated by Austrian-Hungarian immigrants Emil [...]

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