RECENT POSTS ABOUT THE HISTORY OF THE COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION’S BUILDING, FAIRGROUNDS, EXHIBITS, EVENTS, AND PEOPLE.
Historic Woman from the 1893 World’s Fair on “Jeopardy!”
Jeopardy! featured an important figure from the 1893 World's Fair on their show #8766 (airing on Monday, December 19, 2022). The category of "Famous Woman" in the Double Jeopardy round included the answer: "In 1893, activist Fannie Barrier Williams successfully fought for Black inclusion at this city's Columbian Exposition." The correct question "What is Chicago?" required no knowledge of Williams and escaped all three contestants. Fannie Barrier Williams (1855–1944) was an Black teacher, political activist for the civil rights of African Americans and women, and the first Black woman to gain membership to the Chicago Woman's Club. The Rochester Regional [...]
“Very sterling qualities about the Hoosiers”: Lunch in the Indiana State Building
Hoosiers visiting the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago were mighty proud of the Indiana State Building. Designed by one of distinguished Chicago architect Henry Ives Cobb, the French Gothic structure stood in the southwest section of the state buildings on a lovely spot along the North Pond and nestled between the state buildings of Illinois, California, and Wisconsin. One of the twelve state buildings to receive an award for beauty of design and merit in its display, the Indiana Building featured a twenty-foot-wide veranda wrapping around the lower story, from which four entrances led inside. Visitors to the [...]
Dec. 2, 2022 – Feb. 1, 2023: A Columbian Exposition quilt on display (Woodland, CA)
“Expressions in Cloth,” a new exhibition at YoloArts’ Gallery 625 in Woodland, California, includes a beautiful quilt by artist Sherry Werum that features images inspired by the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. World's Fair enthusiasts might see Louis Sullivan's iconic Golden Door entrance to the Transporation Building or William Le Baron Jenney's stunning glass dome of the Horticultural Building among Werum's intricate design. “Expressions in Cloth” runs from December 2, 2022, to February 1, 2023, at Gallery 625 (625 Court St. in Woodland). Sherry Werum's quilt featuring the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition is part of an exhibition [...]
146. Picturesque World’s Fair – Birds-Eye View of State Buildings – Looking Northeast
BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF STATE BUILDINGS—LOOKING NORTHEAST.—Very popular was the Fifty-seventh street entrance, at the northwest corner of the Exposition Grounds, situated as it was close to a railroad station and at the end of a street car cable system, and hundreds of thousands of people became, in consequence, familiar with the view given in the illustration. The scene is that presented looking to the northeast from a point near the entrance to the grounds, and is that of the main street which led across the grounds to Lake Michigan and between State Buildings exclusively. Close at hand in the [...]
A diary from the 1893 World’s Fair
Sally MacNamara Ivey "has read more than 10,000 unpublished diaries and spent 35 years collecting them.... Whenever MacNamara Ivey has had pocket change, it’s gone to purchasing diaries. Back in the late ’90s, when she and her husband were raising four kids with the money she brought in waiting tables and he made working at the local mill, she bought a diary on layaway for $500 (about $900 today). It was written by a woman who attended the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. In exquisite detail, the author described the exotic events, including the devastating fire that erupted in a [...]
Dec. 10-11, 2022: “Sophia Hayden Deserves Better” play reading (Normal, IL)
In 1891 a brilliant 23-year-old woman won an architecture contest to design the Woman’s Building for the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. What should have been the start to a flourishing career in architecture became career-ending. Throughout the two-year process of building the Woman’s Building, the architect quietly endured bullying, micromanaging, and undermining until she finally spoke up. In a time when women were defined as physically and intellectually weaker than men, her concerns were not only not heard, but she was sent to a sanitarium. Diagnosed with melancholia due to overexertion. Silenced. After the fair, her building was [...]
Season’s Readings: 2022 Books about the World’s Columbian Exposition
2022 brought several additions to the World’s Columbian Exposition bookshelf.
Tiffany sterling silver monumental flagon made for the 1893 World’s Fair sells for $40,950
A silver monumental flagon made by Tiffany & Company for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition and exhibited in their pavilion there has sold at auction for $40,950. Included in Doyle’s “American Furniture, Silver & Decorative Arts” auction on November 2, 2022, the silver flagon came from the family of Katherine Medill McCormick (1853–1932), daughter of Joseph Medill and wife of Robert S. McCormick. The item exceeded its estimate of $25,000 - $35,000. This silver flagon made by Tiffany & Company for the 1893 World’s Fair sold at auction in 2022 for $40,950. [Image from Doyle.] Several other pieces [...]
Dec. 3-27, 2022: Joffrey Ballet’s “Columbian Nutcracker” (Chicago)
Chicago’s Joffrey Ballet once again will stage their spectacular production of The Nutcracker, with story set on the fairgrounds of 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. Performances run from December 3-7, 2022, at the Lyric Opera House (20 N. Wacker Dr. in Chicago) This ballet by choreographer Christopher Wheeldon, which premiered in 2016, invites the audience to … “journey inside Chicago’s 1893 World’s Fair ... when young Marie and her mother, a sculptress who is creating the fair’s iconic Statue of the Republic, host a holiday party, a surprise visit from the charming Great Impresario sets off a Christmas Eve dream [...]
“World’s Fair Souvenir Cook Book” advice for Thanksgiving
Utah Public Radio’s “Eating the Past: Old-time Advice on Table Manners” explores a culinary contribution from the 1893 World’s Fair Board of Lady Managers. Dr. Tammy Proctor recently dug out a copy of The 'Home Queen' World's Fair Souvenir Cook Book (George F. Cram, 1893) from Utah State University’s Merrill-Cazier Library. “The emphasis on Progress with a capital ‘P’ at the fair,” Proctor observes, “itself translates well to this imposing volume.” The cookbook reminds readers that “good manners are to the family what good morals are to society, their cement and their security.” The volume also offers this modest [...]