RECENT POSTS ABOUT THE HISTORY OF THE COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION’S BUILDING, FAIRGROUNDS, EXHIBITS, EVENTS, AND PEOPLE.
Hurrah for the Red, White and Blue!
"Hurrah for the Red, White and Blue!" [Image from World's Fair Puck, July 3, 1893.] At 11 o'clock on July 4, 1893, crowds filled around a grandstand east of Terminal Station on the fairgrounds of the World's Fair in Chicago. A band opened the ceremonies with a medley of American airs, beginning with "Hail Columbia" and ending with "Yankee Doodle."
121. Picturesque World’s Fair – The Grand Basin at Night – Showing Search-Lights
THE GRAND BASIN AT NIGHT—SHOWING SEARCH-LIGHTS.—One of the charms of the night view over the Grand Basin was that it was always new, atmospheric or other causes producing varied effects, and the scene on one occasion being entirely different from that presented on another. And not only were atmospheric conditions fluctuating, but the artificial ones produced were made still more so, a new experience to the sight-seer after dark being thus assured beyond all peradventure. Here the great element of the Search-Light came in. Never before was the comparatively recent device for overcoming darkness utilized on such a scale [...]
“One feels inclined to make his peace with God and man”: A Ride on the Ferris Wheel
The great Ferris Wheel on the Midway Plaisance of the World’s Columbian Exposition opened to the public on June 21, 1893. A North Carolina visitor to the 1893 World’s Fair sent this correspondence to the Charlotte Observer about his experience riding the famous Ferris Wheel: Yesterday we spent the day in the Midway Plaisance. Among the first of our experiences was a ride on the great Ferris Wheel. This immense structure, consuming in its various parts over 4,000 tons of iron, 2,600 tons of this being in motion, under control of two immense engines, rises above the Plaisance 264 [...]
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 [...]