RECENT POSTS ABOUT THE HISTORY OF THE COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION’S BUILDING, FAIRGROUNDS, EXHIBITS, EVENTS, AND PEOPLE.
Doctor Who goes to the 1893 World’s Fair
If you could travel anywhere in space and time, what would be your destination? If there is a golden colossus, a giant rotating wheel, mammoth chocolate statues, and a tower of oranges involved, then get yourself to the Doctor. Doctor Who and the TARDIS take a trip the fairgrounds of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Max Kashevsky’s “All’s Fair” a new audio-drama included in the collection Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor Chronicles Volume 05: Everywhere and Anywhere from Big Finish. Starring Jacob Dudman (as the Doctor) and Safiyya Ingar (as companion Valarie Lockwood), the story is described as: [...]
Ron Soule’s “Escape from the Emerald City” imagines an origin story for Oz at the 1893 World’s Fair
Escape from the Emerald City by Ron Soule. Independently published, 2023. 105 pages. Hardcover, $14.95. ISBN 9798395968029. Paperback, $7.95. ISBN 9798395968111. In the growing library of “fairground fiction,” stories that involve historical figures offer a special treat to readers who enjoy imagining how famous (and soon-to-be-famous) people experienced the 1893 World’s Fair. A then-unknown traveling salesman from Chicago visited the fairgrounds on several occasions with his wife and four sons. Only a few years later he would burst onto the literary scene with such acclaimed children’s books such as Mother Goose in Prose (1897) and The Wonderful Wizard of [...]
Did you see the 1893 Fair? Prove it with a “Certificate of Visitation to the World’s Columbian Exposition”
You bought your train ticket and booked your lodging in Chicago, traveled to Jackson Park and paid your fifty-cent admission. You’ve finally made it into the City of Wonders, the Dream City, the White City … the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition fairgrounds. How will anyone believe you are here if you don’t purchase an official “Certificate of Visitation” to show friends back home? T. Dart Walker’s drawing “In the Rotunda of the Administration Building” depicts a busy ground floor in the capitol building of the World’s Fair. Visitors could purchase a “Certificate of Visitation” here. [Image from Harper’s [...]
Tea from the Boston Tea Party at the 1893 World’s Fair
Two hundred and fifty years ago, on December 16, 1773, American colonists angry at the British crown for imposing taxation without representation, staged what became known as “The Boston Tea Party.” This act of colonial defiance to British rule has become a legendary part of American history, although aspects of the story are steeped in myth. Some of the tea from Boston Harbor appears to have made its way to the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. In the United States Government Building, World’s Fair visitors could view a “Colonial Exhibit” in the rotunda. In six of the alcoves, [...]
“A credit to Chicago’s wonderful pluck”: An Easterner’s take on the White City
This gracious comment about the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition comes a Connecticut man visiting the Fair in early May. [reprinted from “Noted by a Meriden Man: Jottings at the Big World’s Fair” Meriden (CT) Daily Republican May 6, 1893] The number, area and styles of the buildings on Jackson Park are astonishing and a credit to Chicago's wonderful pluck and executive ability. New York would never have poured out the millions to erect the mammoth white structures that her lively western rival has so well done. You can forgive the Chicagoans for the way they so persistently boom their [...]
The Columbian Exposition, a Scintillating Diadem
Mr. Gerald James of London, puzzled by the discouraging impressions of the Fair reaching him through the New York press, came to Chicago to see for himself what the Exposition had to offer an open mind. “The Fair is supreme,” he wrote. “It is a scintillating diadem crowning the civilized world with the honor and glory of peace. It tells a story that centuries of books and newspapers could not tell, and is worth more to a man or woman than the college training of a lifetime. It is so far ahead of what is expected that no story, [...]
California’s “Tower of Oranges” at the 1893 World’s Fair
California had a knack for building unusual towers for the 1893 World’s Fair. An amber-hued obelisk known as the “Olive Oil Tower” greeted visitors entering the south portal of the California Building. This display from Santa Barbara County was constructed from 2,000 quart-sized bottles of virgin liquid. In the northwest corner of the building, Butte County built twin towers made from several hundred boxes of choice dried fruits. In an upper floor of the Horticultural Building stood a “Walnut Tower,” twenty-feet high, constructed of plate glass, containing more than 2,000 pounds of English walnuts contributed by Los Angeles County [...]
158. Picturesque World’s Fair – A Vista of State Buildings
A VISTA OF STATE BUILDINGS.—Looking southwest from an elevated point about the middle of the north line of the Exposition Grounds, a view was had of a number of the most attractive State Buildings, and an idea obtained of the general appearance of this charming city by itself, which might be called the White City's great suburb, though, of course, quite as much a part of the Exposition as anything on the grounds. The White City proper was the great group of magnificent white edifices which were placed about the Court of Honor and the waterways, and the term, [...]
Literary Tributes to the World’s Fair
Reprinted below are ten “Literary Tributes to the World’s Fair” from the October 1893 issue of The Dial, a literary magazine published in Chicago. The notable contributors are: Mary Hartwell Catherwood (1847—1902), Midwest author of popular historical romances, short stories, and poetry; Charles Dudley Warner (1829–1900), essayist and novelist best remembered as the co-author with Mark Twain of The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (1873); George W. Cable (1844–1925), novelist who portrayed Creole life in his native New Orleans; Henry B. Fuller (1857–1929), Chicago author of The Cliff-Dwellers (1893); Hjalmar H. Boyesen (1848–1895), Professor of Germanic languages at [...]
Season’s Readings: 2023 Books about the World’s Columbian Exposition
This has been a year of rich and valuable additions to the Columbian Exposition bookshelf. Summarized below are important new nonfiction works that explore connections between the Chicago fair and Western Pennsylvania, Lebanon, England, and Massachusetts. Two others look at the religious and spiritual legacy of the Columbian Exposition. New fictional works explore the fairgrounds though the eyes of visitors in both realistic stories and magical adventures. We also include a few late additions that we missed last season. Note: We provide this announcement of new titles without any compensation from authors or publishers. We encourage shopping through independent [...]