A Fair to Remember
Posts about the history of
the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago
The Best Potato Display Ever Made
In honor of National Potato Day, here is a look at “the best potato display ever made,” which was exhibited the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The agricultural exhibit from New York State occupied 4,000 square feet on the south side of the main aisle of the Agricultural Building, near the eastern entrance. For the autumn season, the exhibit featured potato varieties grown all around New York State--from [...]
Richard Morris Hunt (1827-1895), dean of American Architecture
Today marks the anniversary of the death of Richard Morris Hunt, on July 31, 1895. Among the most revered architects working in the U.S. at the time of the World’s Columbian Exposition, Hunt was invited to contribute a design for the Administration Building, which stood in a position of honor at the west end of the Grand Basin. The magnificent classical Beaux-Arts building, capped by a gleaming gold dome, [...]
Tales from the Swedish Café
Swedes from Chicago and around the world celebrated Sweden Day at the World’s Columbian Exposition on July 20, 1893. Many of the festive events took place at the beautiful Swedish Building. Nearby stood the Swedish Restaurant, which served as another site for Swedes to gather on the fairgrounds and as a concession to showcase Scandinavian fare to visitors from around the world. The Swedish Restaurant (also called the Swedish [...]
Chicago’s Alligator Problems
“One day spent among the curious works of nature found in the Fish and Fisheries building was worth a whole year’s reading about them.” -- “Exposition as an Educator” in Campbell's Illustrated History of the World's Columbian Exposition. A new resident to a Chicago city park has been (occasionally) making waves and making international news. An alligator spotted earlier this week swimming the lagoon of Humboldt Park is now [...]
Maillard’s Mammoth Chocolate Statues
July 7 is World Chocolate Day (by some accounts), so let’s celebrate ... 1893 style! Chocolate and cocoa could be found in many locations on the fairgrounds of the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago. Blooker’s Dutch Cocoa Windmill and House was one lovely display where visitors could sample some hot cocoa, but a set of mammoth chocolate statues exhibited by Maillard’s chocolates in the Agricultural Building must have been [...]
A Map of Libraries for the 1893 World’s Fair
At the 1893 World’s Fair, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts displayed “an ingenious map prepared for the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago, showing at a glance which of the towns in the state have free public libraries and the number of volumes in each library at the beginning of 1893,” according to the March 1894 issue of The Library Journal. The "Free public libraries of Massachusetts" map by George [...]
Fool of the Fair
We should expect to encounter a fool on April 1st, and visitors to the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition could have met a striking fool hanging in the Palace of Fine Arts. Thomas Shields Clarke's oil painting A Fool's Fool (1887) was on display at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. [Image from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.] A Fool's Fool (1887) was a work by artist Thomas [...]
Clara Doty Bates, Hostess of the 1893 World’s Fair Children’s Library
“There are some crusty old bachelors and a few childless women who make a pretense of disliking children, but it's a flimsy sort of sour-grape antipathy, and rarely rings true. Even those people who do not like children's society will find a great deal to enjoy in their domicile.” —Emma. B. Dunlap, writing about the Children’s Building at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. Clara Doty Bates. [Image from [...]
Ellen Martin Henrotin, Vice-President of the Women’s Branch of the World’s Congress Auxiliary
“To her belongs much of the credit for the strong feminist emphasis that characterized the Columbian Exposition.” --James, et al. Notable American Women, 1607-1950, p 182. Ellen M. Henrotin [Image from Pictorial Album and History of the World’s Fair and Midway. Harry T. Smith & Co., 1893.] Socialite and social reformer, Ellen Martin Henrotin (1847-1922) served as Vice President of the World’s Congress Auxiliary of the 1893 World's [...]
Virginia Claypool Meredith, the “The Queen of American Agriculture” on the Board of Lady Managers
“It is not likely that there will ever again be any distinction so artificial as that of sex between the skill of men and women--unlikely that there will ever again be a woman’s department in any World’s Fair.” --Virginia Meredith, from a speech given at the Indiana Union of Literary Clubs meeting, May 1892. [reprinted in Whitford, et al. The Queen of American Agriculture: A Biography of Virginia Claypool [...]