RECENT POSTS ABOUT THE HISTORY OF THE COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION’S BUILDING, FAIRGROUNDS, EXHIBITS, EVENTS, AND PEOPLE.
June 17-18, 2022: Celebrate Olmsted 200 in Chicago
April 26, 2022, marks the bicentennial of the birth of Frederick Law Olmsted, social reformer and visionary founder of American landscape architecture. In June, the Olmsted 200 celebration reaches Chicago with a Olmsted Bicentennial Gala from 7– 9 PM on Friday, June 17, at the Glessner House (1800 S Prairie Ave. in Chicago). On Saturday, June 18, at 10 AM, an "Inspired by Olmsted" carillon concert at the Rockefeller Memorial Chapel (5850 S. Woodlawn Avenue in Chicago) and the adjoining the Midway Plaisance will include the premier of a new work dedisated to the Olmsted legacy. The Olmsted 200 [...]
Devil Details: Someone “inspired and probably unexpected” to star in Hulu’s “The Devil in the White City”
Deadline’s recent interview with Jordan Helman, head of scripted content at Hulu, revealed a few tantalizing tidbits about the streaming service’s project, The Devil in the White City. He confirms that Sam Shaw is the showrunner, working “within a small army of producers.” Previous reports have this production team including Leonardo DiCaprio, Martin Scorsese, Emma Koskoff, Jennifer Davisson, Rick Yorn, and Stacey Sher. Helman also confirms that sitting in the director’s chair will be Todd Field, whom he describes as “one of the great American filmmakers.” Field has just over a dozen directing credits, including In the Bedroom (2001) [...]
138. Picturesque World’s Fair – The Guatemala Building
THE GUATEMALA BUILDING.—Built in the Spanish style and tastefully though not profusely decorated, the Guatemala Building presented a most attractive frontage from its site at the east end of the North Pond. The edifice was one hundred and eleven feet square, and two stories in height, and the corners were embellished by graceful towers twenty-three feet in diameter. The entire height of the towers was sixty-five feet, and in two of them were staircases giving access to the roof which formed a terrace about a great central court. This court in the center of the building was a feature [...]
The Master Mind of the 1893 World’s Fair
Today is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Frederick Law Olmsted—landscape architect, author, conservationist, and social activist. His ambitious designs transformed Jackson Park in Chicago into the fairgrounds of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The excerpt below, from the November 1, 1893, issue of the Chicago Inter Ocean newspaper, is quick to credit the many important architects who together designed the fairgrounds. From Olmsted’s seminal vision, though, emerged the Dream City on Lake Michigan. [The article has been lightly formatted and edited for standard capitalization and punctuation.] For more information on the bicentennial celebration of FLO, [...]
June 25, 2022: Devil in the White City Bus Tour (Chicago)
Experience the murder, magic, and madness at the fair that changed America on a 4-hour bus tour offered by the Chicago History Museum on Saturday, June 25, 2022. Inspired by Erik Larson’s best-selling book (soon to be a miniseries), this tour will take you back to 1893 with historian Al Walavich, to follow the trails of Daniel Burnham and the devilish doings of H. H. Holmes. Visit the historic fairgrounds, the Garden of the Phoenix in Jackson Park, and discover what has become an iconic Chicago story. Tickets are $55 ($44 for CHM members.) and available for purchase through the Chicago History [...]
137. Picturesque World’s Fair – North and West from the Government Building
NORTH AND WEST FROM THE GOVERNMENT BUILDING.—From the dome of the Government Building the prospect north and west afforded as much variety as could be had from any point of observation of the Fair Grounds, since in other directions the view was either much shorter or was cut off by the huge department structures. The illustration shows the Fisheries in the foreground, the details of the south façade of the main building outlined very clearly at such short distance. At the left appear the Marine Café, the bridge to the Wooded Island, and, on the other side of the [...]
Feb. 25-Jun. 25, 2022: “Crossings: Mapping American Journeys” (Newberry Library, Chicago)
A map of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition fairgrounds is part of a new exhibit at the Newberry Library in Chicago. Maps, guidebooks, travelogues, postcards, and more from the Library’s collection recreate travelers’ experiences along the northern and southern borders of the US, across the continent’s interior, and up and down the Mississippi River. “Crossings: Mapping American Journeys” includes an enlarged print of the Indexed Guide Map and Key to the World’s Fair Buildings, Grounds, and Exhibits from the Rand, McNally and Company for the Old Times Distillery Company. The Old Times Distillery Company of Louisville, Kentucky, sponsored a [...]
Apr. 28, 2022: “From Fair to Field: The Field Museum’s Roots in the Columbian Exposition” (Northfield, IL)
Thursday, April 28, 2022, the Winnetka-Northfield Library District will host Mark Alvey, speaking on "From Fair to Field: The Field Museum's Roots in the Columbian Exposition." Mr. Alvey of the Field Museum will present a talk on the origin of the Field Columbian Museum, which opened in June 1894, with approximately 50,000 objexts from the 1893 World's Fair. The event runs from 7-8 PM in the Northfield Library (1785 Orchard Lane in Northfield, IL) and is free and open to the public. Registration is required and capacity is limited. The building that originally nserved as the Palace of [...]
Changes Coming to Midway Plaisance
“Passing under the Stony Island viaduct, we are in a new world, which, while it does not pretend to instruct, still conveys quite an amount of real knowledge, though carefully enshrouded in a sugarcoating of amusement.” —“The World's Columbian Exposition, a View from the Ferris Wheel” Scientific American September 9, 1893, pp. 169 70. The Midway Plaisance, a six hundred-foot wide by one-mile-long strip of land connecting Jackson Park on the east to Washington Park on the west, served as the entertainment district of the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago. As visitors left the White City behind, they passed [...]
The Girl Who Walked on a Monster’s Belt
“The Fair, considered as an electrical exposition only, would be well worthy the attention of the world.” —Murat Halstead, “Electricity at the Fair” Cosmopolitan, September 1893. A great central power plant inside of Machinery Hall powered most of the incandescent lamps, arc lamps, motors, and water pumps for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. Capable of delivering more than 12,000 horsepower (9480 kilowatts), this was not only—by far—the largest power plant ever built but also a stunning exhibit of the most modern electrical machinery of the age. World’s Fair visitors flocked to the Palace of Mechanic Arts to see the [...]