RECENT POSTS ABOUT THE HISTORY OF THE COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION’S BUILDING, FAIRGROUNDS, EXHIBITS, EVENTS, AND PEOPLE.
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 [...]
Ida B. Wells documentary airs on WTTW-Chicago
Civil rights activist Ida B. Wells spoke truth to power through her pamphlet The Reason Why the Colored American Is Not in The World’s Columbian Exposition. 10,000 copies were distributed at the 1893 World’s Fair. “With the eyes of the world on Chicago,” explains a new documentary film about Wells, “she would use the international stage to expose the terror of lynching.” On Friday, May 21, 2021, Chicago public television station WTTW will air Ida B. Wells, a one-hour Chicago Stories special at 8 pm. Along with a companion website, the show paints a deeply humanizing portrait of a [...]
Ballyhoo on the Midway Plaisance
“All new words are created because a new sound is needed to voice an idea, usually also new.” —Charles Wolverton The word ballyhoo, according to the renowned and authoritative Oxford English Dictionary (OED), means a “a showman’s touting speech, or a performance advertising a show.” It can be used as a mass noun to mean “bombastic nonsense; extravagant or brash publicity; noisy fuss.” Though this “carnival” usage has uncertain origins, the OED and other etymology sources cite the first known examples as coming from the early 1900s. Or, did ballyhoo originate on the Midway Plaisance at the 1893 World’s [...]
Feral Feline Fights for Food on the Fairgrounds
Several media outlets, including the Guardian and People, are reporting on Chicago’s use of feral cats to beat back our nationally recognized rat population. It’s old news. We’ve been relying on our feline friends since at least the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. “Not many people are aware that the World’s Fair has a cat,” wrote the Chicago Tribune in September 1893. “This ignorance on the part of visitors is largely due to the fact that the cat does not appear in the catalogues and sleeps during the day.” Cat-alogues, indeed! The Columbian cat really got around the grounds. The Trib [...]