RECENT POSTS ABOUT THE HISTORY OF THE COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION’S BUILDING, FAIRGROUNDS, EXHIBITS, EVENTS, AND PEOPLE.
120. Picturesque World’s Fair – A Load of Michigan Pine Logs
A LOAD OF MICHIGAN PINE LOGS.—The lumber industry in Michigan is conducted on a grand scale, and something of the methods pursued was illustrated by a firm which contributed a single load of logs to the Exposition. Twenty-five saw logs were shown in a single load at the Centennial Exposition. Michigan simply doubled this. Never before was seen such a load of logs. It consisted of fifty magnificent lengths of white pine, borne on a single sled, containing forty-six thousand feet of lumber, and weighing one hundred and forty-five tons. This load was drawn six miles to the Ontonagon [...]
June 24, 2021: 1893 Chicago World’s Fair Celebration (online)
GreenFields Geneva, a senior living center in Geneva, Illinois, will host an “1893 Chicago World’s Fair Celebration” online lecture on Thursday, June 24 at 11 AM. Local historian Bob Dion will provide a tour of this triumph of American spirit and ingenuity. Viewers will experience the thrill of the fairgrounds and discover how the fair changed everything from packaged food to city planning. The event is free and open to the public, but registration is required and available at https://greenfieldsgeneva.org/events/celebrate-the-1893-chicago-worlds-fair
Dec. 16, 2020-July 11, 2021: “Fantastic Fairs: The Fields at the World’s Fairs” (St. Louis)
The Field House Museum in St. Louis is dedicated to preserving the legacy and birthplace of author Eugene Field. A temporary exhibit in the museum’s main entryway showcases objects relating to Eugene Field’s involvement at the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago and his wife Julia Field’s position as juror at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis. Columbian Exposition books, stereoview cards, tickets, souvenir spoons, and a holograph letter from Mr. Field to Clara Doty Bates fill one display case. Some items from the Chicago World’s Fair are graciously on loan from the Glessner House Museum in Chicago. “Fantastic [...]
National Park Service Highlights “Women’s History at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition”
The National Park Service explores “Women’s History at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition” with a survey of some related NPS sites, including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Palmer House Hotel, Lorado Taft Midway Studios, a home belonging to Lois Lilley Howe (who submitted a design for the Woman’s Building at the 1893 World’s Fair), and—of course—Jackson Park Historic Landscape District and Midway Plaisance. The dining room of the Palmer House Hotel at the time of the 1893 World's Fair. [Image from Pierce, James Wilson Photographic History of the World's Fair and Sketch of the City of Chicago: [...]
“1893 World’s Columbian Exposition: Crossroads of America” podcast
The podcast Tour Guide Tell All brings listeners on a visit to the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago with their episode “1893 World’s Columbian Exposition: Crossroads of America” (published on April 9, 2021). In just under an hour, Rebecca Fachner and Becca Grawl cover a wide range of subjects, including “famous firsts of the fair,” Lyman J. Gage, Daniel Burnham, Frederick Law Olmsted, Gen. George R. Davis, George Westinghouse, Frederick Douglass, Eadweard Muybridge and much more. The hosts make several interesting connections between the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago and subsequent architecture and urban planning in their home of [...]
119. Picturesque World’s Fair – The Transportation Building
THE TRANSPORTATION BUILDING.—The Transportation Building was unique among the great structures of the Columbian Exposition in that it was the single departure from a general rule, the contrast and the foil to all the others. It was distinct in its style of architecture, and alone was decorated exteriorly in colors. It was not of those buildings which won for the Exposition the title of "The White City." The main building, located just west of the south end of the West Lagoon, was nine hundred and sixty feet in length by two hundred and fifty-six feet in breadth, and from [...]
The Idaho State Building at the 1893 World’s Fair
The Idaho Building in downtown Boise is a “descendant” of several other Idaho buildings stretching back to the 1893 World’s Fair. Idaho Press history columnist Rick Just tells this story in “A little slice of history: The downtown Boise buildings story”, published on May 22, 2021. The Idaho State Building at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. [Image from Johnson, Rossiter A History of the World's Columbian Exposition Volume 4 - Congresses. D. Appleton and Co., 1898.] Having just become a state on July 3, 1890, Idaho constructed an impressive log cabin structure on the fairgrounds of the Columbian [...]
July 8, 2021: Designed the Dazzle and Delight: Chicago’s 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition (Chicago)
The Newberry Library in Chicago will offer a one-day seminar on the 1893 World’s Fair on Thursday, July 8, 2021. Parks historian and preservationist Julia Bachrach will lead the Newberry Adult Education Seminar “Designed the Dazzle and Delight: Chicago's 1893 World's Columbian Exposition” from 6–8 pm online using Zoom. In 1890, when Congress awarded Chicago the honor of hosting the next World's Fair, civic leaders and exposition designers had a daunting task ahead of them. After a 600-acre windswept lakefront site was identified, it had to be transformed into magnificent fairgrounds, and fast. This seminar explores the fascinating making [...]
A Room with a View … of Diana
In late November of 1892, Moses P. Handy moved into his new office inside the Administration Building on the Columbian Exposition fairgrounds in Jackson Park. As Chief of the Department of Publicity and Promotion, Handy had a staff of between four and forty-five, including local newspapermen Paul Hull and Sam V. Steele, both well-known among Chicago’s writers. The Chicago Times (November 29, 1892) reported on the move-in and on the Publicity Chief’s impressive view of Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ marvelous statue of Diana twirling in the wind atop the dome of the Agricultural Building: “Major Handy passed the afternoon gazing upon the [...]
June 9, 2021: “Chicago Encounters Japan: The 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition” (online)
The Driehaus Museum in Chicago will offer an online program on “Chicago Encounters Japan: The 1893 World's Columbian Exposition” on Wednesday, June 9, 2021. Dr. Janice Katz, the Roger L. Weston Associate Curator of Japanese Art at the Art Institute of Chicago, will present on the history and legacy of Japanese Ho-o-den on the Wooded Island. Japan’s presence at the exposition of 1893 in Chicago was tactful, inspirational, and enduring. In particular, the Phoenix Hall (Hooden) situated on an island in Jackson Park showed visitors how one could live surrounded by Japanese art through its period rooms. Chicagoans such [...]