An Archive of Past Events
Relating to the 1893 World’s Fair
June 15, 2018: “Night at the Fair” MSI After Hours (Chicago)
The Museum of Science and Industry (MSI) in Chicago occupies one of the few remaining buildings from the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. To honor the 125th anniversary of the building and the fair, the museum is hosting “Night at the Fair” for their latest MSI After Hours event on June 15, 2018, from 7 to 10 pm. MSI invites you to “don your best fair attire” (a glass dress, perhaps?) to travel back in time and become one of the 27 million guests who experienced the glitz and glamour of the World’s Fair. Sample rare music from the era; taste [...]
June 5, 2018: Leading Ladies of Chicago’s Columbian Exposition at Driehaus Museum (Chicago)
The Richard H. Driehaus Museum is sponsoring a lecture “Leading Ladies of Chicago’s Columbian Exposition: Celebrating 125 Years” by Chicago historian Sally Sexton Kalmbach. Although the right to vote was still over 20 years away, the leading ladies of Chicago’s Gilded Age began exerting their power as leaders of social society and cultural tastemakers. Historian Sally Kalmbach will discuss how these women also played an integral leadership role in creating the World’s Fair and cultivating Chicago’s successful future. The event takes place at the museum (40 East Erie Street in Chicago) on Tuesday, June 5, from 6 – 7:30 p.m. [...]
June 1-July 1, 2018: “Burnham’s Dream: The White City” musical
The world premiere of a new musical about the Director of Works for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition opens on June 1 for a one-month run in Chicago. “Burnham’s Dream: The White City,” written by June Finfer with music by Elizabeth Doyle, tells “the tale of ambition of a city and of an architect … Chicago’s Dream City that lived for only a few months, then vanished.” In her 2010 play, “The Glass House,” Finfer explored the life and great work of another famous Chicago architect, Mies van der Rohe and his Farnsworth House. This new show, directed by [...]
May 29, 2018: Chicago History Museum Celebrates the 1893 Fair
"The Ferris Wheel Waltz-Polka" sheet music. [Image from Johns Hopkins University.] To celebrate the 125th anniversary of the World’s Columbian Exposition, the Chicago History Museum (CHM) is hosting a talk by Donald C. Meyer, Professor of Music at Lake Forest College, on May 29 at the museum. Prof. Meyer’s digitization project to preserve sheet music associated with the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago includes an online archive of recordings, sheet music scores and lyrics. An associated musical album, which we reviewed here, has been released by Lake Forest College Press. “The 125th Anniversary of The World’s Columbian Exposition: [...]
May 20: Auction of original columns from Ceylon Building
Columns from the Ceylon Building [Image from Clars Auction Gallery.] Remnants from an original 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition building come up for auction on May 20, offering a rare opportunity to own a piece of the Fair. Clars Auction Gallery (5644 Telegraph Ave., Oakland, California) will auction a set of hand-carved pillars that were part of the original Ceylon Building on the fairgrounds. Their auction 598 “Art, Furniture, Jewelry, Asian” on Sunday, May 20, starts at 11:30 AM CDT and includes four lots (6404, 6405, 6505, and 6406) of 11-by-1-foot pillars from the Ceylon Tea Building, each “hand [...]
May 19-20, 2018: “Revel in the White City” virtual simulation at MSI (Chicago)
To mark the 125th anniversary of the 1893 World’s Fair, the Museum of Science and Industry (MSI) in Chicago is hosting “Revel in the White City” on May 19 and 20, 2018. Visitors will experience the Columbian Exposition grounds and buildings as a virtual computer simulation, presented by Dr. Lisa M. Snyder, of UCLA’s Institute for Digital Research and Education, and Tim Samuelson, cultural historian for the City of Chicago. A scene of the Lagoon from the virtual World's Columbian Exposition. [Image from the UCLA's Urban Simulation Team.] Two decades ago, Snyder and the UCLA Urban Simulation Team began [...]
May 11, 2018: Columbian Exposition Talk in St. Louis, MO
“Meet me in St. Louis, Louis. Meet me at the fair …” St. Louis hosted their own World’s Fair in 1904--an exposition with a Grand Basin with white palaces of Fine Arts, Electricity, Agriculture, Machinery, Liberal Arts, and Mines; statuary by Daniel Chester French; a Lagoon, international villages, a midway, and even the original Ferris Wheel. In May, the focus in that city will be on the World’s Fair held in Chicago a decade earlier. On Friday, May 11, the St. Louis Park Community Education program will offer a presentation on the “Chicago World's Columbian Exposition of 1893” by military historian [...]
May 4-Nov. 25, 2018: “Celebrating Libbey Glass, 1818-2018” at Toledo Museum of Art
The Toledo Museum of Art (TMA) currently has an exhibit commemorating the 200th anniversary of the Libbey Glass Company. Celebrating Libbey Glass, 1818-2018 features several pieces showing the Toledo glassmaker’s contributions to the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago. The Libbey Glass Works building on the Midway Plaisance. [Image from Views of the World's Fair and Midway Plaisance (Conkey, 1894).] The Libbey Glass Works building, located at the east end of the Midway Plaisance at the Columbian Exposition, served as a working factory that offered demonstrations of glassmaking and exhibits of the company’s fine craft and sold numerous mementos [...]
April 25, 2018 (Reno, NV): 1893 World’s Mini-Fair at the National Automobile Museum
The 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition is coming to Reno, Nevada, for three days in April. The National Automobile Museum, is holding its 14th annual History Symposium on April 25, 26, and 28, with a theme of “The 1890s: Peril and Power.” The Museum will host national and local authors and historians who will address the winds of change that marked the 1890s. A special highlight of this year’s symposium is a mini-version of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. The Museum invites visitors to “journey through a new age of discovery as you enjoy activity stations throughout the museum. Interactive, [...]
April 22, 2018: World’s Fair Memorabilia Show
The 24th annual World's Fair Memorabilia Show will be held on Sunday, April 22, 2018 from 10 am to 4 pm at the Holiday Inn at 1000 Busse Road (Rt. 83 and Landmeier Rd.) in Elk Grove Village, Illinois. Collectors and dealers will meet to buy, sell and trade items related to World's Fairs from 1876 to the present. Although the main focus will be on the 1933/34 Chicago World's Fair, there will also be items from the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago and other Chicago-related ephemera. More than 15 tables of World's Fair items for sale will also include items from the fairs of 1904 St. [...]