1893 World’s Fair buildings were “a counterfeit and a sham”

The excerpt below comes from a profile of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition published in the Pittsburg Dispatch in the summer of 1891, near the start of construction on the fairgrounds. The writer questions the use of staff as the main material for the facades of buildings. At this time, the decision had to yet been made to have all the buildings in the Court of Honor painted white. A bird’s eye view of the proposed fairgrounds of the [...]

By |2024-10-22T14:30:49-05:00October 23rd, 2024|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: |0 Comments
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168. Picturesque World’s Fair – The Marine Cafe

THE MARINE CAFE.—The Café, built in an attractive semi-Gothic style, located just at the beginning of the east side of the strait, connecting the lagoons with the north pond was most attractive in appearance, while occupying a convenient situation for those who would eat. Naturally, the Marine Café became one of the popular institutions of the Fair. The building was a large one, and afforded rooms for the Bureau of Public Comfort in the lower story, where were telegraph [...]

By |2024-09-28T03:40:30-05:00September 28th, 2024|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , |0 Comments
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Autumn on the Wooded Island in Jackson Park

"An Autumn Scene on Wooded Island" [Image from the Chicago Inter Ocean Sep. 30, 1893; digitally colored.] “Once a barren strip of sand protesting against the surrounding marshes,” the Wooded Island emerged “like a magnificent Turkish rug, rich with varied dyes, flung down upon a crystal floor,” wrote Shepp’s World’s Fair Photographed. “A profusion of flowers of every shade and hue gems the sod; groves of trees and masses of shrubbery lend further charm by the dark green [...]

By |2024-09-22T10:19:33-05:00September 22nd, 2024|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , |0 Comments
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167. Picturesque World’s Fair – The Kentucky Building

THE KENTUCKY BUILDING.—The Kentucky Building was adjacent to that of Missouri, near the northwest corner of the grounds, and was a pleasing structure in the Colonial style. It was seventy-five by ninety feet in dimensions, with fine porches supported by Corinthian pillars. The offices and parlors were large and roomy and the general air one of comfort and hospitality. Inside the building stood a fine statue of Daniel Boone. In the main room of the interior was a large [...]

By |2024-09-09T08:11:25-05:00September 9th, 2024|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , , |0 Comments
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Workers Escaping Death at the 1893 World’s Fair

The excerpt below, from The Chicago Record’s History of the World’s Fair, reminds us of the dangerous work that thousands of laborers (mostly immigrants) faced as they built the White City of 1893. The Medical Bureau of the Columbian Exposition officially reported only thirty-two deaths during construction of the fairgrounds. Luckily, the workers mentioned below escaped that fate. [Note: Although the article mentions the first accident happening at the Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building, the location likely was the [...]

By |2024-08-21T15:43:39-05:00September 2nd, 2024|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , , |0 Comments
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The Chicago Fair of 1893 Will Remain Unexcelled

In the aftermath of World War II—facing staggering military casualties, the atrocities of the Holocaust, and the specter of nuclear weapons—some people sought solace in fond memories of better times. The following reminiscence of visiting the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago as a young boy appeared in the July 6, 1946, issue of the Windsor Star (Windsor, Ontario). The author had grown up in the small town of Morenci, Michigan. The "electric bulbs which outlined the dome [...]

By |2024-08-23T14:22:10-05:00August 24th, 2024|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |0 Comments
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A City of Realized Dreams

The 1893 World's Columbian Exposition showcased harmony of architectural design and sculpture, advanced technologies to serve humanity, and education to guide moral progress. These themes are featured in the essay reprinted here, from the July 1893 issue of Catholic World. This depiction of the “East Lagoon by Moonlight” typified the dreamy quality of “the great white ephemeral city.” [Image from Picturesque World’s Fair. W.B. Conkey, 1894; digitally edited.] A CITY OF REALIZED DREAMS Wandering through the spacious [...]

By |2024-08-14T15:43:05-05:00August 15th, 2024|Categories: REPRINTS|0 Comments
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166. Picturesque World’s Fair – The Rhode Island Building

THE RHODE ISLAND BUILDING.—The smallest state in the Union made by no means the smallest showing at the Columbian Exposition. She contributed $50,000 toward a state exhibit, and her pretty building, which cost $10,000, was presented to Chicago at the close of the Fair. It was a graceful structure, in the style of a Greek mansion, its columns and pilasters enriched by decorated moldings and a balustrade surrounding the roof. The interior contained rooms for the commissioners, for guests, [...]

By |2024-07-23T20:53:41-05:00July 21st, 2024|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , |0 Comments
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Horace Spencer Fiske’s odes to Daniel Chester French’s Columbian Exposition sculptures

The great sculptural works of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition have been memorialized in photographs, paintings, and prose. Poetry, too, honors some of the famous sculptures from the Fair. Horace Spencer Fiske (1859–1940) taught English at Beloit College and Wisconsin State Normal School before a long career on the faculty and administration of the University of Chicago beginning in 1894. He stablished the John Billings Fiske Prize in Poetry (in honor of his father) for University students in 1919 [...]

By |2024-07-11T06:07:08-05:00July 11th, 2024|Categories: REPRINTS, Uncategorized|Tags: , , , , , |0 Comments
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Eyewitness to the Cold Storage Building fire

Mr. Bryan and Mr. King could not have imaged the infernal tragedy about to unfold at the Columbian Exposition on the afternoon of Monday, July 10, 1893. Thomas Barbour Bryan was a leading figure in the effort to bring the World’s Columbian Exposition to Chicago and had been its First Vice-President. William Fletcher King served as the president of Cornell College from 1863 until 1908. Their conversation was interrupted by smoke billowing from the cupola of a building in [...]

By |2024-07-03T08:41:57-05:00July 10th, 2024|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , |0 Comments
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