The most admired and the most criticized of the sculpture at the 1893 World’s Fair

Daniel Chester French’s Statue of the Republic … “was the most admired and the most criticized of the sculpture at the World’s Fair—admired because of its magnificent proportions and criticized by many artists because they claimed to see nothing artistic in a female figure with both arms raised. Its fate as a work of art was sealed when some unkind critic saw in the rear elevation of the figure the semblance of a washerwoman hanging out clothes.” Ouch. [...]

By |2024-02-21T15:52:49-06:00February 21st, 2024|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , |0 Comments
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161. Picturesque World’s Fair – The Golden Door, from the Wooded Island

THE GOLDEN DOOR, FROM THE WOODED ISLAND.— Among the great number of photographs, taken from different points of view, of the famous "Golden Door" it is doubtful if any surpassed in charming effect that from which the accompanying illustration is taken. The point afforded on the Wooded Island seems to have been at just the right distance from the Transportation Building and in just the right direction to allow of an absolute presentation of detail, while, at the same [...]

By |2024-03-09T11:12:45-06:00February 18th, 2024|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , , , |0 Comments
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160. Picturesque World’s Fair – Entrance to Fisheries Arcade

ENTRANCE TO FISHERIES ARCADE.—The Fisheries Building, because of the peculiar form of the site to which it was relegated, consisted of a rectangular central structure connected by curved arcades with circular pavilions on either side. The view here given is that of an entrance to one of the connecting arcades, and affords an excellent idea of the graceful and novel decoration resorted to in this structure, together with an example of mechanical duty performed too well. The columns of [...]

By |2024-01-30T17:49:09-06:00January 28th, 2024|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , |0 Comments
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“Making the best show for the least money”

It’s what’s on the outside that matters, according to one engineer of the 1893 World’s Fair. That’s because most buildings for the Columbian Exposition were designed to be temporary and constructed using a coating of staff—a mixture of plaster and jute fiber—applied to metal and steel frames and creating superficial appearance of white marble. The excerpt below comes from Joseph Kendall Freitag’s article “The World’s Fair Buildings” in the November 1891 issue of Engineering Magazine. The byline for this [...]

By |2024-01-21T17:56:20-06:00January 22nd, 2024|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: |0 Comments
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Nixon Waterman Dreams of the World’s Fair

A prolific writer of prose and verse, Nixon Waterman (1859–1944) is credited with having conducted the first all-verse column in newspaper history, for the Chicago Herald. He lived and wrote in Chicago in the years before and during the 1893 World’s Fair. Waterman’s light-hearted and pun-riddled verse, often on topics of Christopher Columbus or the emerging Exposition fairgrounds in Jackson Park, filled spots throughout the run Jewell N. Halligan’s Illustrated World’s Fair, published from 1891 through 1893. “Without his [...]

By |2024-01-18T09:55:52-06:00January 19th, 2024|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , |0 Comments
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159. Picturesque World’s Fair – The North Front of the Agriculture Building and Lawn

THE NORTH FRONT OF THE AGRICULTURE BUILDING, AND LAWN.—Between the magnificent Agriculture Building and the Grand Basin was a lawn not very broad, but nearly a thousand feet in length, resting the eye with its strip of green, and giving room for a just estimate of the architectural beauties displayed above. In the view given here is afforded not only a charming perspective of the Agriculture Building's graceful front, but of two Exposition features which commanded general admiration and [...]

By |2023-12-27T09:06:06-06:00December 27th, 2023|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , , , , |0 Comments
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“A credit to Chicago’s wonderful pluck”: An Easterner’s take on the White City

This gracious comment about the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition comes a Connecticut man visiting the Fair in early May. [reprinted from “Noted by a Meriden Man: Jottings at the Big World’s Fair” Meriden (CT) Daily Republican May 6, 1893] The number, area and styles of the buildings on Jackson Park are astonishing and a credit to Chicago's wonderful pluck and executive ability. New York would never have poured out the millions to erect the mammoth white structures that her [...]

By |2023-12-15T09:15:08-06:00December 16th, 2023|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: |0 Comments
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The Columbian Exposition, a Scintillating Diadem

Mr. Gerald James of London, puzzled by the discouraging impressions of the Fair reaching him through the New York press, came to Chicago to see for himself what the Exposition had to offer an open mind. “The Fair is supreme,” he wrote. “It is a scintillating diadem crowning the civilized world with the honor and glory of peace. It tells a story that centuries of books and newspapers could not tell, and is worth more to a man or [...]

By |2023-12-12T15:28:53-06:00December 15th, 2023|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , , , |0 Comments
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158. Picturesque World’s Fair – A Vista of State Buildings

A VISTA OF STATE BUILDINGS.—Looking southwest from an elevated point about the middle of the north line of the Exposition Grounds, a view was had of a number of the most attractive State Buildings, and an idea obtained of the general appearance of this charming city by itself, which might be called the White City's great suburb, though, of course, quite as much a part of the Exposition as anything on the grounds. The White City proper was the [...]

By |2023-12-09T09:44:01-06:00December 12th, 2023|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , , , , , , , , |0 Comments
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Literary Tributes to the World’s Fair

Reprinted below are ten “Literary Tributes to the World’s Fair” from the October 1893 issue of The Dial, a literary magazine published in Chicago. The notable contributors are: Mary Hartwell Catherwood (1847—1902), Midwest author of popular historical romances, short stories, and poetry; Charles Dudley Warner (1829–1900), essayist and novelist best remembered as the co-author with Mark Twain of The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (1873); George W. Cable (1844–1925), novelist who portrayed Creole life in his native New [...]

By |2023-12-09T08:37:26-06:00December 9th, 2023|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , , , , , , , , |0 Comments
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