Upcoming Events2024-02-09T18:16:17-06:00


Upcoming events related to the 1893 World’s Fair

If you know of an upcoming event, please contact us at worldsfairchicago1893@gmail.com.

See our CALENDAR of events and historical anniversaries


POSTS ABOUT UPCOMING EVENTS

Mar. 17, 2023: Hyde Park Historical Society Open House (Chicago)

The Hyde Park Historical Society will host their monthly Open House on Saturday March, 17, 2023, with a theme of the 1893 World Columbian Exposition. Visitors are invited to stop by the headquarters at 5529 S. Lake Park Avenue to learn more about the 1893 World’s Fair that took place in nearby Jackson Park. On display will be books, posters, and coloring book pages. You can also test your knowledge of World’s Fair Trivia (and possibly win a prize!) and sample some snacks that fairgoers enjoyed while visiting the Fair.

By |March 13th, 2024|Categories: EVENTS|2 Comments

Feb.-Oct., 2024: “World’s Fairs, Expositions, & Centennial Celebrations of the Victorian Era” (Ames, IA)

The Farm House Museum at Iowa State University in Ames is hosting an exhibition on “World's Fairs, Expositions, & Centennial Celebrations of the Victorian Era” from February through October, 2024. This exhibition illustrates through objects and narrative the earliest World’s Fair in 1851 London, through several in Paris, and the Centennial and World’s Columbian Exhibitions in the United States. The University Museums’ permanent collection includes several objects that were souvenirs of some of the fifteen major World’s Fairs or Expositions held between 1851 and 1910. Souvenirs ranged from booklets, paper fans, buttons, and ribbons, to commemorative glassware and ceramics produced [...]

By |February 22nd, 2024|Categories: EVENTS, EXHIBITS (current)|0 Comments

Mar. 23, 2024: “The Remarkable Women Who Helped Build Chicago” (Glen Ellyn, IL)

Women such as Bertha Palmer played a pivotal role in building the 1893 World’s Fair … and building Chicago. The Glen Ellyn Historical Society will host presentation by Laurie Russell on “Behind the Stars: The Remarkable Women Who Helped Build Chicago” on Saturday, March 23, 2024. The stars on the Chicago flag represent four major events that changed Chicago forever (Ft. Dearborn Massacre, Chicago Fire, World’s Columbian Exposition, and Century of Progress World’s Fair.) This presentation examines how women responded to these events, and in the process built the city we know today. The talk includes women who risked [...]

By |February 23rd, 2024|Categories: EVENTS|0 Comments

Mar. 27, 2024: “Love and Laughter: An Evening of Song” (Chicago)

A concert at the University of Chicago on March 27 will include music from a notable 1893 World’s Fair participant. “Love and Laughter: An Evening of Song,” featuring acclaimed baritone Kenneth Overton and internationally recognized pianist Casey Robards, will be a celebration of the rich artistic contributions of Black American composers and poets. The program will include a special performance of a song cycle composed by Anthony Patterson, Robards’ husband, set to the poignant and evocative texts of renowned poet Paul Laurence Dunbar. Dunbar made his first appearance at the World’s Fair on “Colored People Day” (August 25) through [...]

By |March 18th, 2024|Categories: AUDIO, EVENTS|Tags: |0 Comments

Apr. 12-Aug. 11, 2024: Arte Diseño Xicágo II-From the World’s Fair To The Present Day (Chicago)

The National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago is hosting an exhibit that explores art from the time of the 1893 World’s Fair. Arte Diseño Xicágo II (Art Design Chicago II) runs from April 12 through August 11, 2024. This exhibition examines the 1893 World’s Fair as a platform for expressions of cultural identity and reveals how many Chicago and Mexican artists had similar objectives. The exhibition features 19th-century works of art from both Chicago and Mexico by some of the leading artists participating in the World’s Fair, along with contemporary artworks by Mexican-born, Chicago-based artists whose art reflects [...]

By |March 22nd, 2024|Categories: EVENTS, EXHIBITS (current)|Tags: |0 Comments

Apr. 14, 2024: “The Enthronement of Merchandise with the Aura of Amusement” (Online)

The Farm House Museum at Iowa State University in Ames is hosting an online talk on the grandiose displays of manufacturers at late 19th- and early 20th-century world’s fairs, including the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. World's fairs scholar Ethan Robey of the University of California, Irvine, will present "The Enthronement of Merchandise with the Aura of Amusement" on Sunday, April 14, 2024, from 2- 3 PM (US Central) via Zoom. Using the link above to register for this free event. This lecture is part of the programing for the Museum's exhibition on “World's Fairs, Expositions, & Centennial Celebrations of [...]

By |March 21st, 2024|Categories: EVENTS|0 Comments

Apr. 12–14, 2024: Chicago Steampunk Exposition

What do you get when you combine a World’s Fair with retro-futuristic imagination? Come to the 2024 Chicago Steampunk Exposition to find out! Throughout the weekend of Apr. 12–14, 2024, the Expo will host talks, workshops, activities, and shopping for steampunk enthusiasts who enjoy imagining an alternate World’s Columbian Exposition with Gilded Age gothic adventures. The weekend includes live-action role-playing games, an afternoon tea, and an Artists’ Alley & Printers’ Row marketplace. Be on the lookout for gas lamps, mermaids, dirigibles, and vampires as you explore the fantasy fairgrounds. There are 13 bodies hidden somewhere on the fairgrounds [...]

By |March 20th, 2024|Categories: EVENTS|0 Comments

Jan-Dec, 2024: Dress worn at the 1893 World’s Fair on Display (Ripon, WI)

The small city of Ripon, Wisconsin, sent 1,375 of its citizens to experience the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. This was one-third of the city’s population at that time, reports the Ripon Press. A dress worn by one Ripon visitor to the World's Fair is a part of the collection at the Ripon Historical Society and is on display through the end of 2024 as part of its “The Stories We Wear” exhibit. The Society, located at 508 Watson Street in Ripon, is open Fridays and Saturdays from 10 am to 1 pm. Ripon was the birthplace of [...]

By |January 28th, 2024|Categories: EVENTS, EXHIBITS (current)|0 Comments

WORLD’S FAIR TOURS (ongoing)

Chicago Detours offers an “1893 World’s Fair Tour with Bars” that is an interactive walking tour of buildings in the Chicago Loop related to the Exposition.

Mysterious Chicago tour guide Adam Selzer offers two different “Devil in the White City” tours.

Weird Chicago offers a “Devil in the White City” tour.

The Chicago History Museum occasionally offers a “Devil in the White City” bus tour. Check their events page for details.

The Frank Lloyd Wright Trust regularly offers tours of the Burnham Library in the Rookery Building, where plans for the World’s Fair were formulated.

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