RECENT POSTS ABOUT THE HISTORY OF THE COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION’S BUILDING, FAIRGROUNDS, EXHIBITS, EVENTS, AND PEOPLE.
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 [...]
Feb. 27, 2024: “Fantastical Dreamscapes: Architectural Wonders and Innovations at World Expos, 1851 to 1911” (Online)
The Farm House Museum at Iowa State University in Ames is hosting an online talk on the architectural designs and building innovations that shaped the first sixty years of international expositions, including the 1893 World's Fair. University of Arizona Professor of Architectural History Lisa D. Schrenk will present "Fantastical Dreamscapes: Architectural Wonders and Innovations at World Expos, 1851 to 1911" on February 27, 2024, from 5- 6 PM (US Central) via Zoom. Using the link above to register for this free event. This lecture, co-sponsored by The Institute for the Study of International Expositions (ISIE), is part of the [...]
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 [...]
The most admired and the most criticized of the sculpture at the 1893 World’s Fair
Daniel Chester French’s Statue of the Republic … “was the most admired and the most criticized of the sculpture at the World’s Fair—admired because of its magnificent proportions and criticized by many artists because they claimed to see nothing artistic in a female figure with both arms raised. Its fate as a work of art was sealed when some unkind critic saw in the rear elevation of the figure the semblance of a washerwoman hanging out clothes.” Ouch. © worldsfairchicago1893.com SOURCE “Last of the Republic” Chicago Record Aug. 28, 1896, p. 1.
Columbian Cocktails at The Meadowlark in Chicago
A secret bar sits along a quiet side street in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood, nestled inside an unassuming brick building. Look for the door underneath the small bird cut-out sign and step inside the dimly lit vintage lounge. The menu offers many splendid options for craft cocktail aficionados … and a special treat for Columbian Exposition enthusiasts. Last summer, The Meadowlark launched an 1893 World’s Fair themed menu titled “The Magic City: Celebrating 130 Years Since the Chicago World’s Fair.” In a handsome, forty-page hardcover booklet, Beverage Director Abe Vueekovich offers patrons sixteen drinks relating to buildings and sites [...]
161. Picturesque World’s Fair – The Golden Door, from the Wooded Island
THE GOLDEN DOOR, FROM THE WOODED ISLAND.— Among the great number of photographs, taken from different points of view, of the famous "Golden Door" it is doubtful if any surpassed in charming effect that from which the accompanying illustration is taken. The point afforded on the Wooded Island seems to have been at just the right distance from the Transportation Building and in just the right direction to allow of an absolute presentation of detail, while, at the same time, giving the entire doorway with surroundings enough for an effective setting. The water, the pretty point of miniature beach, [...]
Taking her Valentine to the World’s Fair
From the February 1893 Illustrated World's Fair: TED.—“Kit, can I be your Valentine? I’m savin’ pennies now.” KIT.—“Yes, Ted, if you save enough to take me to the World’s Fair.” ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
Help Preserve the Maine State Building from the 1893 World’s Fair
The Maine State Building, designed by architect Charles Sumner Frost, is one of the few remaining buildings from the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. After the close of the fair, the Ricker family of Poland Spring, Maine, purchased the building from the state. They had it dismantled, moved to Maine, and rebuilt on Poland Spring property, where it reopened in 1895 as a library and art gallery for their hotel guests. (Read the history here.) The building remains open to the public today and houses a fascinating museum of 1893 World’s Fair materials. The Maine Building needs a [...]
Feb 7, 2023: The Viking Ship and the Chicago World’s Fair (online)
Learn about the "Viking Ship and the Chicago World's Fair" at a webinar by Timothy Boyce hosted by NorCham Chicago in collaboration with the Friends of the Viking Ship. This free event will be held vis Zoom on Wednesday, February 7, 2023, at 7:00 p.m. Please register at: https://www.norchamchicago.org/events/the-viking-ship-and-the-chicago-worlds-fair-1
A Brief History of the Midway Plaisance
The Chicago Maroon student newspaper has published a brief history of the Midway Plaisance that runs through the University of Chicago campus. Feifei Mei’s “From Mudway Nuisance to Midway Plaisance” explores the mile-long park (not owned by the University) from Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux’s original design and name, its use as the entertainment district for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, evolution in the hands of the Chicago Park District, and modern road safety issues. A view west on the Midway Plaisance, with the Panorama of the Bernese Alps and Turkish Village on the left and the [...]