RECENT POSTS ABOUT THE HISTORY OF THE COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION’S BUILDING, FAIRGROUNDS, EXHIBITS, EVENTS, AND PEOPLE.
December 24, 1890: An Invitation to all the Nations of the Earth to Exhibit at the World’s Columbian Exposition
One hundred and thirty years ago today, the President of the United States extended an invitation to the nations of the world to come together for a World’s Fair in Chicago. President Benjamin Harrison. [Image from Campbell, James B. Campbell's Illustrated History of the World's Columbian Exposition, Volume I. M. Juul & Co., 1894.] December 24, 1890 By the President of the United States of America A Proclamation WHEREAS satisfactory proof has been presented to me that provision has been made for adequate grounds and buildings for the uses of the World's Columbian Exposition, and that a [...]
Some Recent Podcasts about the 1893 World’s Fair
Listen up! Several new podcasts discuss a wide variety of interesting topics about the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, from the Ferris Wheel to a Beer War. Grab your ear buds and check them out. If you know of other recent 183 World's Fair podcasts, let us know or post a link in the Comments below. Engines of Our Ingenuity 1968 “Vignettes From the Fair” (Dec. 13, 2020) Everything, Ranked “S1E2 - Biscuits+Gravy, Dinos, The 1893 World's Fair” [Note: Adult language!] (Nov. 4, 2020) Windy City Historians “Episode 18 – The Year 1893” (Oct. 29, 2020) Wendy City Podcasts "Episode [...]
Tiffany & Co. Silver Yachting Cup from the 1893 World’s Fair Sells for $62,500
A yachting trophy designed by Tiffany & Company and exhibited in their pavilion at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition sold for $62,500 at Heritage Auctions’ Fine Silver & Objects of Vertu Signature Auction on November 17, 2020. According to Heritage, Ogden Goelet commissioned two cups for the races that would be held during New York Yacht Clubs Annual Cruise in 1892. The following year the cup was on display in the Tiffany Pavilion at the Columbian Exposition along with three other Goelet Cups. They describe the piece: “The urn-form trophy with acid etched victory scene of war ships and [...]
Some New 1893 World’s Fair Products
If you are shopping for a gift to give a Columbian Exposition enthusiast or just want to treat yourself to a little something during the holiday season, check on these products relating to the 1893 World’s Fair. Note: We provide this announcement of new products without any compensation from vendors. Prices and availability subject to change. Ted’s vintage art offers a super-high quality, digitally restored print of a “Vintage Map of Chicago, Illinois 1893” depicting a birds-eye view of the 1893 fairgrounds, available in several sizes, framed and unframed ($29.99 – $199.99). Scott Larson’s Chicago_Images shop offers a Chicago 1893 [...]
Daniel Burnham Inducted into Lincoln Academy Hall of Fame
Daniel Burnham, Director of Works for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, is one of five Illinois figures inducted into the Lincoln Academy of Illinois Hall of Fame of Historic Illinoisans. The Academy’s citation for Burnham reads: Daniel Burnham (1846 – 1912) is famously quoted as saying, “Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood and probably will not themselves be realized.” He was an environmentalist, architect and urban designer. Much of his work was based on the classical style of Greek and Roman. He was the Director of Works for the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. With a [...]
Season’s Readings: New Books about the World’s Columbian Exposition
2019 brought several additions to the World’s Columbian Exposition bookshelf.
109. Picturesque World’s Fair – Athletic Pastimes in A Street In Cairo
ATHLETIC PASTIMES IN A STREET IN CAIRO.— They were unquestionably a merry lot who made up the resident population of a Street in Cairo, so full of animal spirits as to often engage in their pastimes, even when there were no visitors in attendance. Naturally, among such people, with such lives as theirs had been, physical prowess was held in high esteem, and the hero of a combat with lance or scimiter was in their eyes a greater man than one who might rule a state or write a book. In the scene presented, a couple of the swarthy [...]
Dec. 19, 2020: Chicago History Book Club discusses the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition (online)
DATE CHANGE The Chicago History Book Club will discuss three books about the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition during their online meeting at 10 am on Saturday, December 19: Robert Muccigrosso's Celebrating the New World: Chicago’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 (Ivan R. Dee, 1993), Erik Larson's best-selling The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America (Crown, 2003), and Jeanne Madeline Weimann's The Fair Women: The Story of the Woman’s Building at the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 (Chicago Review Press, 1981). Participants can register through the Chicago Public Library: https://chipublib.bibliocommons.com/events/5fb42dbf4ae047330bc3b7ff [...]
“Halcyon Days in the Dream City’’ Part 17: “Vale”
Halcyon Days in the Dream City by Mrs. D. C. Taylor Continued from Part 16 The sun has set for the last time on the World's Fair of ’93; for the last time his dying smile has lighted up the fairy courts, the gleaming splendor of statue and portal. Slowly as he sinks to rest, so slowly, solemnly, sinks the forest of fluttering flags and banners; each tall staff soon reaches up in the gathering night bare and stark. The Fair is over. View from the Administration Plaza. [Image from The Graphic History of the Fair. Graphic Co., [...]
“Halcyon Days in the Dream City’’ Part 16: The Transportation Building
Halcyon Days in the Dream City by Mrs. D. C. Taylor Continued from Part 15 Let us go through the “Golden Gate,” not the gate of the Holy City, but a gate the architect of which must have been dreaming of wondrous Bible imagery, when he designed it.[1] Arch beyond arch, receding, diminishing as they recede, till the last one is about the dimensions of some grand cathedral door, while the noble proportions of the first, are almost awe inspiring. These are overlaid and thickly incrusted with gold leaf which takes on a faintly greenish tinge, wrought into forms [...]