RECENT POSTS ABOUT THE HISTORY OF THE COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION’S BUILDING, FAIRGROUNDS, EXHIBITS, EVENTS, AND PEOPLE.
Aug. 20-Dec. 22, 2022: An exhibit of Korean Fashion from the 1893 World’s Fair (Washington, D.C.)
After centuries of relative isolation, Korea opened its borders to international trade and diplomacy in 1876, but for years the country remained little known outside of Asia. Korea’s participation in the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893 changed that. Visitors to the Korean pavilion were dazzled by the colorful displays of traditional clothing (hanbok), such as embroidered silk jackets and robes made for the Joseon royal court. South Korea's emergence as a pop culture powerhouse and one of the most fashion-forward nations in the world is revealed in a new exhibit Korean Fashion: From Royal Court to Runway, on view [...]
Sept 10, 2022: 1893 Chicago’s Columbian Exposition doc film premiere (Chicago)
A new full-length documenary film 1893 Chicago's Columbian Exposition will have it theatrical premier on September 10th, 2022, at 5 pm. The event is in coordination with the Design Museum of Chicago and will be held at Chicago Filmmakers (1326 W. Hollywood Ave. in Chicago). A $10 donation is requested. Following the screening will be a demonstration on the patio of a World's Fair augmented reality project. For more information on the film, related book and music, and the extended reality project, go to chicago1893.com.
Daniel Burnham on Architecture and “The Intellectual Reflex of the Exposition”
What influence would the White City erected for the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago likely have on the development of American architecture in the years to come? Pondering that question, architectural critic Montgomery Schuyler noted that Daniel Burnham, Director of Works for the Columbian Exposition, offered a vision that was able to “crystallize into a lucid and specific form a general hazy expectation.” Burnham’s made his comments in this passage for a Chicago newspaper, and Schuyler reprinted them in his essay “Last Words about the World’s Fair” (Architectural Record Jan.-Mar. 1894): “The influence of the Exposition on architecture will [...]
Keanu Reeves Heads to the White City as Builder not Killer
After nearly two decades in development, a long-awaited screen drama about the 1893 World’s Fair may be coming at last. Hulu announced on August 4, 2022, that Keanu Reeves has officially joined the cast of the streaming service’s upcoming limited series The Devil in the White City. Back in January, rumors circulated that Reeves was in talks for an unidentified role. The show will be an adaptation of Erik Larson’s best-selling 2003 non-fiction book that interweaves the true stories of renowned architect Daniel H. Burnham struggling to build the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Jackson Park, and the notorious [...]
Sept. 11, 2022: “Walking the White City” tour (Chicago)
The Glessner House is offering a "Walking the White City" tour of the former fairgrounds of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition on Sunday, September 11, 2022, from 10 AM to noon. Architect and historian John Waters will guide participants on a walking tour of Jackson Park to see the sites of landmarks of the 1893 World's Fair, explore the fascinating vestiges, and learn how the Fair influenced the design of Jackson Park as we know it today. The tour will meet at the base of sculptor Daniel Chester French’s golden Statue of the Republic on Hayes Drive, which marks [...]
142. Picturesque World’s Fair – The Germania Fountain
THE GERMANIA FOUNTAIN.—Just to the north of the German Building, and showing charmingly against a background of trees which intervened between it and structures to the west, was what was known as the Germania Fountain, a work of art forming part of the German showing. Germania, standing upon a supported globe, held aloft a lamp, while typical additional figures made an effective grouping. . The globe was upheld by four female figures seated upon a lavishly decorated pedestal, which made the body of the fountain proper. The whole result achieved was graceful and attractive. Indeed, it would be difficult [...]
Aug. 19-21, 2022: “Sangamon Songs” Musical Play Tells of Illinois Boy Who Visited the 1893 World’s Fair (Skokie, IL)
A diary written by a 16-year-old Illinois boy who visited the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago is the source material for Sangamon Songs: A Musical Play by Tom Irwin and John W. Arden. The show will be performed at the Skokie Theatre for Performing Arts on August 19-21, 2022. After discovering Harry Glen Ludlam’s journal in his family farmhouse, Tom Irwin began composing an acoustic song cycle about late-nineteenth-century life of a teenager in a small town in Central Illinois. Irwin's 2012 album Sangamon Songs collects twelve of the pieces, including one titled “Hurrah for the World's Fair.” John [...]
Olmsted’s Three Visions for Jackson Park
The National Association for Olmsted Parks has posted a fascinating look at "Olmsted’s Three Visions for Jackson Park" by Julia Bachrach. She explores the designs by Frederick Law Olmsted for South Park in 1871, the fairgrounds of the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893, and return of Jackson Park in 1895. Construction in 1891 of the fairgrounds for the 1893 World's Fair.
The best selling book ever written about Chicago
"At 2.3 million copies, this may be the best selling book ever written about Chicago," reports Chicago Magazine. Making their list of The 10 Best 21st Century Chicago Nonfiction Books, The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America (2003) is Erik Larson's "intertwined biographies of Chicago’s greatest builder and its greatest destroyer." This captivating narrative nonfiction account of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition (and parallel profile of "serial killer" H.H. Holmes) has sparked the curiosity of countless readers to study the history of the Fair further. Those who have explored the [...]
Did the Art Institute of Chicago lions come from the 1893 World’s Fair? (Pt 2)
The pair of lion sculptures by Edward Kemeys that stand in front of the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) are not cast from sculptures at the 1893 World’s Fair. This misinformation, which appears to have originated in the late 1980s, now permeates descriptions of these iconic Chicago mascots in institutional, popular, and scholarly sources. A set of sixteen lion sculptures stood at the entrances to the Palace of Fine Arts at the World’s Columbian Exposition (WCE), and numerous contemporary sources credit their authorship to A. Phimister Proctor and Theodore Baur (not Kemeys). More importantly, the designs of Kemeys’ AIC lions clearly do not match any of the WCE lions.