An Archive of Past Events
Relating to the 1893 World’s Fair
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. [...]
April 16, 2018: World’s Fair Auction in Cleveland
A large collection of 1893 World’s Fair antiques and collectibles will be going under the hammer on Monday, April 16. Gray’s Auctioneers “World's Fair Memorabilia and Collectibles” live auction in Cleveland, Ohio, starts at 11 AM (EDT) and features more than thirty Columbian Exposition items. Lots 20 through 51 include … • numerous pieces of decorative glassware, pottery and porcelain, including set of beautiful Libby glass peachblow rose bowls and a pair of ornate vases featuring images of the U.S. Government Building (an early rendering) and the Electricity Building; • metal novelties, including a Columbus clock, bank, pocket watch, [...]
April 10-14, 2018: Food of the Fair Week at the Union League Club of Chicago
Members of the storied Union League Club of Chicago (ULCC) will be celebrating the 125th anniversary of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition with “Food of the Fair” week from April 10-14, 2018. Chef de cuisine Doug D’Avico will take diners in the Club’s Wigwam restaurant “on a culinary journey through the World’s Fair of 1893,” creating a three-course dinner of foods from the Columbian Exposition “with a ULCC twist.” What fair foods might the chef offer? Aunt Jemima pancakes, Quaker Oats, or Shredded Wheat? Tamales or Vienna Beef? Palmer House brownies, Cracker Jack, or Juicy Fruit Gum? Pabst “Blue Ribbon” beer [...]
March 23/25, 2018: Lecture on Composer Amy Beach (Boston)
Composer and pianist Amy Beach (1867-1944) made significant musical contributions to the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago. The Board of Lady Managers of the World's Columbian Exposition commissioned Beach to compose her Festival Jubilate (Op. 17) for the dedication of the Woman’s Building in October of 1892. This was her first commissioned work and reportedly is the first known work of an American woman composer commissioned in the U.S. “Why Amy Beach Matters” is the title of a lecture and musical performance to be held on March 23 and 25 in the Boston area. Musicologist Liane Curtis, violinist Carol Cubberley, [...]
Mar. 23-Aug. 29, 2018-Exhibit Showcases Mexicans at the 1893 World’s Fair
An upcoming exhibit at the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago features the early artistic involvement and influence of Mexican immigrants in Chicago beginning with the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893. Arte Diseño Xicágo: Mexican Inspiration from the World's Columbian Exposition to the Civil Rights Era opens on Friday, March 23, 2018, with a reception from 6–8 pm, and continues through August 19, 2018, in the Main Gallery. One of the earliest proponents of holding a world’s fair to mark the quadricentennial of Columbus’ arrival on the continent was a Mexican physician, Dr. Carlos W. Zaremba, who proposed that [...]
Mar. 16, 2018-Apr. 28, 2019: World’s Fair “Mummies” at the Field Museum
Mummies that were on display at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition are back in Chicago after a 6-year national tour. The exhibition "Mummies" opens at the Field Museum on Friday, March 16, 2018, and showcases artifacts from ancient Egypt and ancient Peru. Some of the ancient mummy artifacts on display at the 1893 World's Fair. [from The Catalogue of the Cliff-Dwellers Exhibit (H. Jay Smith Exploring Company, 1893).] After the close of the 1893 World’s Fair, mummies that had been part of the anthropology exhibit entered the collection of the Columbian Museum of Chicago (the original name of what [...]
March 16, 2018: 1893 Scavenger Hunt in the Chicago Loop
If you love learning about the history of the 1893 World’s Fair, are passionate about Chicago architecture, enjoy puzzles, and want to stretch your legs, then don’t miss out on “Glitz, Glamour…and Panic! A Hunt for the History of 1893 in Chicago.” Atlas Obscura Chicago Field Agent Patti Swanson is once again hosting her "Google-proof" scavenger hunt in the Chicago Loop on Friday, March 16, 2018. You will meet on the steps of the Art Institute of Chicago (née World’s Congress Auxiliary Building), next to Edward Kemeys' lions, where Patty will hand your team a set of clues built [...]