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
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 [...]
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 [...]
May 7, 2024: DREAM CITY musical (Chicago)
A new musical about the 1893 World’s Fair takes the stage at Theater Wit in Chicago for one night only. Dream City, with book and lyrics by June Finfer and music by Elizabeth Doyle, will be offered as a staged reading on May 7, 2024, at 7:30 PM. Finfer and Doyle’s musical is a revision of Burnham’s Dream: The White City, staged in 2018. This new version featured five new songs, two new characters (including a villain), and no dancing. Dream City is the story of Chicago in a Gilded Age not unlike today, when immigrants, women, and minorities [...]
May 10, 2024: “MEET ME AT THE FAIR!: Music from the Great World’s Fairs” (Clarks Summit, PA)
Paragon Ragtime Orchestra will present MEET ME AT THE FAIR!: Music from the Great “World’s Fairs” on May 10, 2024, in Clarks Summit, PA. A spectacular musical celebration of the legendary world’s fairs, including the 1876 Centennial Exhibition, the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, and the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition. Music played a key role in these international festivals, launching both hit songs and the illustrious careers of many American musicians. This new Paragon Ragtime Orchestra program features dozens of stirring world’s fair hits, performed from rare original scores, along with the continuous projections of [...]
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 [...]
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.