RECENT POSTS ABOUT THE HISTORY OF THE COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION’S BUILDING, FAIRGROUNDS, EXHIBITS, EVENTS, AND PEOPLE.
“Jennie” survived the Great Chicago Fire and visited the 1893 World’s Fair
The 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition celebrated the twenty-second anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 with “Chicago Day” on October 9, 1893. With around three-quarter-of-a-million people filling the fairgrounds, it was thought to be the largest peaceful gathering in human history. Among the visitors was one special guest who had survived the Fire due to the dedication her “mother,” ten-year-old Fannie Belle Becker. The article below, from the October 10, 1893, issue of the Chicago Tribune, describes the story behind a doll’s visit to 1893 World’s Fair. The Great Chicago Fire & The Web of Memory offers more [...]
126. Picturesque World’s Fair – The Penobscot Indian Camp
THE PENOBSCOT INDIAN CAMP.—To those familiar with the history of the Indians who lived near the Atlantic coast and so came into early contact with the whites, the Penobscot Indian Camp, or Village, was an object of interested study. There were four families of Penobscots, or, as they were once called, "Panawanskeks," and there was also a lodge of Iroquois, peopled by a few of the living representatives of that famous tribe, and forming a part of the New York State exhibit. The Iroquois' but is that seen on the left in the illustration,differing materially in construction from the [...]
Sept. 21, 2021: World’s Fair Auction #39 closes
Columbian Exposition collectors may be interested in World’s Fair Auction #39, now open for preview. Online bidding closes at 10:00 PM EST on Tuesday, September 21, 2021. The auction catalog can be viewed at: http://www.worldsfairauction.com/cgi-bin/catalog.cgi. Lots 21 through 71 are items related to the 1893 World’s Fair, and include several products commemorating various building of the White City: a china vase decorated with an image of the Horticultural Building; Report of the Committee on Awards World's Columbian Commission two-volume set; a Dedication Day program; a Libbey Glass Company exhibit booklet; a large selection of medals, coins, badges, and elongated [...]
125. Picturesque World’s Fair – Arab and Bedouin Horsemen
ARAB AND BEDOUIN HORSEMEN.—Just what the distinction was between Arabs and Bedouins, visitors to the Wild East Show were puzzled to determine. Those of them who had ever paid attention to the terms counted "Arab " as a general description, including all the desert dwellers, and " Bedouin " as something more definite, applying to a single tribe or nation. They left the Wild East Show with just as much and no more information on the subject than they had when they entered. The so-called Arab and the so-called Bedouin looked alike to American eyes and showed equal skill [...]
“The dearest spot on earth” at the 1893 World’s Fair
What some visitors thought of as exorbitant prices for food and lodging in Chicago during the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition became the stuff of legend. The fanciful tale told below, originally published in the July 2, 1895, Chicago Tribune and reprinted in newspapers across the country, captures one not-so-fond memory of the 1893 World’s Fair. We can only guess to the identity of the restaurant he had patronized. A photograph by Charles Dudley Arnold of the lovely Café de la Marine (Marine Café) designed by architect Henry Ives Cobb. [Image from Arnold, C. D.; Higinbotham, H. D. Official [...]
Death of the Republic: The fiery end to the golden colossus of the 1893 World’s Fair
They toppled the Republic at dawn on August 28, 1896. As the first rays of the sun spread across Lake Michigan and into Jackson Park, a funeral pyre lit inside the colossus began to spread up the structure. A flash of light soon appeared in her raised left arm. On a pedestal in the lagoon, the ghostly goddess stood with impassive dignity as muffled cracking within her heralded impending doom. A halo of yellow light formed about her head, and in an instant the laurels encircling her brow burst into a crown of flames. After this moment of seeming [...]
124. Picturesque World’s Fair – State Buildings Looking South
STATE BUILDINGS—LOOKING SOUTH.—The city of State Buildings at the north end of the Fair Grounds afforded many interesting bird's-eye views, of which one of the prettiest is given in the accompanying illustration. The view taken is from an elevated point at the northern extremity of the inclosed area, and very nearly at the center east and west. In the foreground, at the right, appears the log-built chalet of Idaho, beyond which is the Maryland Building, the gable of that of Delaware showing just behind it, and still further beyond the imposing structures of New York and Pennsylvania. In the [...]
Changes to Jackson Park 1893-2021
Construction in and around the Obama Presidential Center site in Jackson Park began on Monday, August 16. The long-delayed project on 19.3 acres of Jackson Park is set to be completed in 2025. In April, we posted a static map showing the "Footprint of the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park" and have now posted a YouTube video showing Jackson Park from 1893 World's Fair to Obama Presidential Center https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzbmUTu3Pf8
An original painting of the 1893 California State Building sells at auction
An original painting of the California State Building from the 1893 World’s Fair sold at auction for $2,800 on June 25, 2021. The 9.75-by-13.5-inch, unframed oil on canvas features the second largest state building (after that of Illinois) on the Columbian Exposition fairgrounds. Artist William Woodward (1859–1939), who served on the planning commission for his home state of Louisiana, depicted with impressionist flair a crowd passing in front the Mission Revival style building designed by architect A. Page Brown. William Woodward’s painting California State Building, World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, IL (1893). [Image from Neal Auction Company.] [...]
Sept. 12, 2021: “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 12, 2021, 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 [...]