RECENT POSTS ABOUT THE HISTORY OF THE COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION’S BUILDING, FAIRGROUNDS, EXHIBITS, EVENTS, AND PEOPLE.
When Ward McAllister Sauced Chicago, Part 1
Appetizer: New York’s social dictator “The real Chicago, which works and hustles and brags about the Fair, cares nothing about McAllister or what he says.” —The New York World, April 16, 1893 He has been called “New York society’s panjandrum of lavish entertaining,” “a greater official than the mayor, a custodian of the ultra-fashionables,” a “flamboyant and outspoken figure,” the “foremost consultant in pleasure” and a “master of punctilio and snobbery.” Others named him “the Autocrat of Gotham’s 400,” “Dictator of Society,” “head butler to some of the rich people in New York,” the “Prince of Snobs” and a [...]
135. Picturesque World’s Fair – The Viking Ship
THE VIKING SHIP.—It was well that with the Columbian celebration honor should be paid to Leif Ericsson, undoubtedly the first European to land upon the shores of America, though due advantage was not taken of his great discovery and it was well, too, that the Viking Ship seen at the Fair should be a reproduction of one buried with its commander at about the time Leif Ericsson made his voyage. That was not far from the year 1000. The "Viking," as the vessel was named, was seventy-six feet in length, was open, with the exception of a small deck [...]
When Miss Inquisitive Poked Hercules at the 1893 World’s Fair
For six months in 1893, much of the world’s greatest artworks were on exhibit in the Art Place at the World’s Fair in Chicago. Not everyone in town knew how to behave themselves around it. The Palace of Fine Arts by Childe Hassam. Within weeks of the opening of the Columbian Exposition, one oil painting was nearly damaged by an overly enthusiastic visitor to the galleries. Hercules Wrestling with Death for the Body of Alcestes was one of four oil paintings and two sculptures exhibited at the Fair by Sir Frederick Leighton (1830–1896). One of the most [...]
Final Jeopardy
We've been devoted Jeopardy fans in recent weeks, due to the incredible winning streak of Amy Schneider. The episode that aired on January 24, 2022, included an extra treat: a final Jeopardy about the 1893 World's Fair: The answer question, of course, is "What is the Field Museum?" (then called the Field Columbian Museum), named for benefactor Marshall Field. Although defending champion Amy Schneider bet big but did not come up with the correct question, contestant Joanne Mercer did know it.
“The eighth wonder of the world” Gilded Age author Charles Dudley Warner extols the 1893 World’s Fair
“The bigger Chicago is, the more important this world becomes.” —Charles Dudley Warner American essayist and novelist Charles Dudley Warner (1829–1900) is perhaps best remembered as the co-author with Mark Twain of The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today. Their 1873 novel satirizes the greed and political corruption endemic in the United States after the Civil War. The “Gilded Age” moniker eventually came to describe the era of excess and deception in late-nineteenth-century America. The pinnacle of Gilded Age Chicago was the World’s Columbian Exposition, a White City on the lake adorned with gilded domes and a glittering colossus [...]
134. Picturesque World’s Fair – Entrance to the Electricity Building
ENTRANCE TO THE ELECTRICITY BUILDING.—The south front of the Electricity Building was by no means deficient in the part it sustained toward making a wall of splendid architecture about the Grand Plaza, and the special feature of this front was, of course, the main entrance to the structure. Here the architects had made their chief study and secured their greatest results. The facades were all relieved by entrances, but the one to the south had special distinction in its treatment. A great triumphal arch, fifty-eight feet wide and ninety-two feet high, made the frame of a semi-circular niche, or [...]
Jan. 28-Nov. 1, 2022: “No Compact of Silence” exhibit (Indianapolis)
The Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site in Indianapolis has a new special exhibit highlighting national and local Black civil rights activists during President Benjamin Harrison’s term in office (1889–1893). “No ‘Compact of Silence’: Black Civil Rights Advocates in the Harrison Era” explores the complex dynamics of race in late 19th century America, including the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Prominent individuals who will be featured include Frederick Douglass and Ida B. Wells. April 1890, President Harrison officially signed an act providing for an “international exhibition of arts, industries, manufactures, and the products of the soil, mine, and sea" to [...]
Which of the 6 Everyday Inventions Debuted at 1893 World’s Fair?
Do you know which of these “6 Everyday Inventions That Debuted at World's Fairs," from a list assembled by History.com, are from the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition? 1. telephone 2. zipper 3. dishwasher 4. electrical plug and socket 5. television 6. touchscreens Josephine Cochrane (1839–1913) of Shelbyville, IL, is credited with inventing the dishwashing machine, which she exhibited in the Inventions Room of the Woman’s Building. Whitcomb L. Judson is widely recognized as the inventor of the zipper, which he patented as the “clasp locker” shoe fastener. Many secondary sources claim that Judson exhibited his invention at the 1893 [...]
Bancroft’s “Book of the Fair”
High school history teacher Michael Skomba writes in “Go West! Then Back to the Future” (Smithsonian Magazine blog January 14, 2022) about his exploration of one of the most popular and enduring historical narratives of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. The Book of the Fair by Hubert Howe Bancroft, published in numerous editions, was “algorithmically perfected to maximize the market for an expensive work,” according to Bancroft scholar Dr. Travis Ross of Yale University. Skomba finds Bancroft’s history of the 1893 World’s Fair to be “a zeitgeist piece, a monolithic feel-good source about the American Coming of Age.” [...]
Sept. 24, 2021: “Romanticism to Ruin: Two Lost Works of Sullivan and Wright” (Chicago)
An exhibit at Wrightwood 659 in Chicago explores two lost architectural masterworks: the Garrick Theatre Building in Chicago designed by Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Larkin Building in Buffalo. Curated by John Vinci, Tim Samuelson, Eric Nordstrom, Chris Ware and Jonathan D. Katz, “Romanticism to Ruin: Two Lost Works of Sullivan and Wright” uses fragments, drawings, photography, and narrative to elucidate the life and death of these two iconic buildings. The first section of the exhibit, “Reconstructing the Garrick,” highlights the many connections between the Adler and Sullivan’s design of the Garrick Theatre Building, which [...]