RECENT POSTS ABOUT THE HISTORY OF THE COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION’S BUILDING, FAIRGROUNDS, EXHIBITS, EVENTS, AND PEOPLE.
Eulogies for George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr.
The death of one of America’s great inventors on November 22, 1896, came as a surprise to many. George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr. succumbed to complications due to typhoid fever at the tragically young age of thirty-seven. His eponymous attraction debuted at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago and helped lift the Exposition into financial success. Despite the great popularity of his rotating invention, Mr. Ferris died under crushing debt in 1896. His original Ferris Wheel, although still carrying riders at its new home on Chicago’s North Side, had gone into receivership only days before his death. Some [...]
Only One Thing in the Whole 1893 Exposition Worth Looking at
A man exploring the 1893 World’s Fair in July conveyed this story about an unimpressed visitor from New York: I met a friend on the plaisance yesterday who has just returned from New York. While there he met a New Yorker, whom he asked if he had visited the fair. The New Yorkers said “Yes, in May. I was roasted brown.” “Didn't you like the exposition?” “Like it? I should think not. I wouldn't go across the street to see it. There was nothing finished, and you had to put up with all sorts of inconveniences.” “It's different now. [...]
Meeting on the Midway Plaisance
On any given day, tens or hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world visited the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. One visitor commented on the strange coincidence of meeting familiar people on the fairgrounds: “Anyone merely passing among the thousands scattered over the Exposition grounds can get no idea of what a big patch of the earth they represent. You cannot guess how many of them came from long distances. A man who resides in a small city 200 miles from Chicago said yesterday that he had seen over fifty people from his town since [...]
Pennies Crushed as Souvenirs of the 1893 World’s Fair
Long before the United States Mint killed the penny on November 12, 2025, the diminutive copper coin was pressed, squashed, and otherwise elongated. Long before. Numismatists hold that the first elongated coins appeared in the United States at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. At an event offering countless souvenirs, these were strange ones. Vendors used mechanical coin-rolling machines to press pennies into an elongated shape while a design on the roller created an impression on it. Most of the souvenirs simply had text of “Columbian Exposition 1893” as the image. It is thought that customers supplied their [...]
Paragon Ragtime Orchestra releases “Meet Me at the Fair!” CD
The Paragon Ragtime Orchestra (PRO) has released a new album of music from great American World’s Fairs, including the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Meet Me at the Fair! (Rialto Records 6008) features nineteen tracks—nearly seventy minutes of exciting music performed by the Paragon Ragtime Orchestra (PRO). Conducted by Rick Benjamin, the PRO features musicians Arthur Moeller (violin), Bernadette Boerckel (soprano), Paul Murphy and Brandon Bergeron (cornets), and the SVC Limited chorus. The album is produced by Judith Sherman, multi-Grammy Award winning “Producer of the Year – Classical.” Meet Me at the Fair! is a spectacular sonic celebration of [...]
Mayhem on the Midway
Chicagoans rioted in the street—looting shops, destroying property, and attacking law enforcement. They were drunk, lascivious, and did not stop their mayhem until morning. The year was 1893. The place was the Midway Plaisance, the entertainment district of the World’s Columbian Exposition. Just two nights earlier, an assassin had gunned down Chicago’s colorful and beloved mayor, Carter Harrison, Sr., at his front door. With the pageant planned for the Columbian Exposition Closing Day ceremonies cancelled out of respect for the city’s tragic loss, crowds flooded into the Midway for the final night of the six-month World’s Fair—set to end [...]
179. Picturesque World’s Fair – East Front of the Manufactures Building
EAST FRONT OF THE MANUFACTURES BUILDING.—From the lake alone could be obtained a comprehensive view of the Manufactures Building, the largest structure in the world. From the harbor it could be observed in all the majesty of its magnitude. It was like a mountain range, the first story and descending slope forming foothills to the great dome which, with the balustrade surmounting the promenade formed the crest of the range. It looked as if it were the work of giants tempted out of the lake to show what they could do. It was more than huge; was a fine [...]
“The greatest educational exhibit on earth.” Francis W. Parker on the 1893 World’s Fair
Educational reformer Francis W. Parker (1837–1902) advocated for the mental, physical, and moral development of children in public schools. “There is, perhaps, no name more widely known among the teachers of this country, than that of Col. Francis W. Parker,” wrote Lelia E. Patridge in 1883. During the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, Colonel Parker served as the principal of the Cook County Normal School in Chicago. He participated in the World’s Congress of Education held in July, presenting a paper in the general session held on July 24 on the topic of “What Shall be Taught in the Public [...]
1893 Viking Ship featured on “Backstory with Larry Potash”
The October 5, 2025, episode of Backstory with Larry Potash on WGN-TV featured a segment on “The Viking Ship That Took the World by Storm.” The feature story profiles the replica Viking ship that sailed from Norway to Chicago to be displayed at the 1893 World’s Fair. This treasured relic from the Columbian Exposition is preserved today in Geneva, Illinois, under the care of the Friends of the Viking Ship. The episode can be viewed online at https://wgntv.com/backstory/the-viking-ship-that-took-the-world-by-storm/. The Viking Ship sent from Norway to Chicago for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. [Image from Bancroft, Hubert Howe The Book [...]
Sep. 13-Nov 9, 2025: “Nocturne 1893” Haunted House (Schiller Park, IL)
One of Chicagoland’s scariest haunted house attractions invites brave guests to a frightening Fair. 13th Floor Haunted House describes their season attraction “Nocturn 1893”: On the final night of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, the lights begin to fade… and something far more sinister takes the stage. You arrive amid the celebration, unaware that behind the dazzling lights, something methodical and monstrous hunts in silence. Guests vanish, rumors spread, and the truth festers beneath the spectacle. The fair’s once brilliant glow has dimmed and the celebration twists into hysteria. You’re not just a witness—you’re part of the madness now. [...]