RECENT POSTS ABOUT THE HISTORY OF THE COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION’S BUILDING, FAIRGROUNDS, EXHIBITS, EVENTS, AND PEOPLE.
Commonplace Fun Facts Relives the Wonder of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair
We appreciate the invitation to “Relive the Wonder of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair” from Commonplace Fun Facts. The website’s fascinating “collection of trivia, fun facts, humor, and interesting notions” includes a few other posts that feature some Columbian connections, including one about popcorn history and another about Chicago’s “Windy City” moniker. Check it out.
“Halcyon Days in the Dream City’’ Part 15: The Palace of Art
Halcyon Days in the Dream City by Mrs. D. C. Taylor Continued from Part 14 What is "Art?" Perhaps we are not qualified to say, but to us, “It” is “Truth.” Not merely truth of detail in drawing; though that is necessary to a finished picture, not merely truth of coloring; though that also, must be had, but truth in its highest sense. When a man stands near to the great heart of all, when he sees the meaning of beauties of form and color; when the floating cloud, the calm of evening, the flush of autumn, unfold themselves [...]
Ontario’s Mammoth Squash at the 1893 World’s Fair
So many things were big, big, BIG at the 1893 World’s Fair that it may have been easy to miss the world’s biggest squash. On display in the Horticultural Building in late September was a quarter-ton “monster squash” from Canada. Gourdzilla received some proud coverage back home in the September 29, 1893, issue of the Windsor Star, which reported on the sensational vegetable: “Ontario is again the sensation provider for the fair. No longer is the “Canadian Mite,” as the big cheese is called, the undisputed sovereign in the realm of prodigious products. This time the vegetable kingdom furnishes [...]
“Halcyon Days in the Dream City’’ Part 14: A Dream
Halcyon Days in the Dream City by Mrs. D. C. Taylor Continued from Part 13 We dreamed that we sat upon the sands of the lake shore, and that all about us, unnumbered as these sands, sat and stood a great multitude; thousands upon thousands of people, men, women, and children, from the babe in arms to the maiden and stripling, high and low, rich and poor, all crowding together, all were equal, and over all a great hush and calm. The sun was setting. Our faces were turned to the east and we saw only the reflection of [...]
The World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 and the Library of Congress (video)
C-SPAN is streaming a recorded lecture on “The World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 and the Library of Congress.” In this talk, originally presented for the United States Capitol Historical Society (USCHS) on October 13, 2020, art historian Lynda Cooper reconstructs the relationship between the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago and the Library of Congress’s Thomas Jefferson Building (1889–1897) in Washington, D.C. Working from an art history perspective, Cooper describes the influence the exposition had on the artists and architects who designed and decorated the ornate Jefferson building. She offers an in-depth look at similarities among select mural [...]
“Halcyon Days in the Dream City’’ Part 13: The Illumination
Halcyon Days in the Dream City by Mrs. D. C. Taylor Continued from Part 12 To-day we went to the "Dream City," as Mrs. Candace Wheeler so prettily named the Chicago Exposition,[1] and saw the grand weekly illumination in the evening. At about five o'clock in the afternoon we pressed on with the crowd toward the grand basin. It seemed to be the objective point with all and we were so fortunate as to secure a seat on one of the benches facing the basin. It was an ideal evening, an ideal scene, a scene such as no man [...]
“Halcyon Days in the Dream City’’ Part 12: The Infanta
Halcyon Days in the Dream City by Mrs. D. C. Taylor Continued from Part 11 The Infanta of Spain was entertained by the World's Fair officials to-day, June 8, 1893, and we were fortunate in viewing the pageant from a good stand point.[1] It was a perfect day, cool and bright, and smiled on unclouded to its close. We secured some of the handy little camp chairs that are rented on the ground, and entering the south door of the Mining building wound our way up the long stairway to the balcony, overlooking the doorway of the Administration building, [...]
“Halcyon Days in the Dream City’’ Part 11: The Land of Boodah
Halcyon Days in the Dream City by Mrs. D. C. Taylor Continued from Part 10 A low curved roofed, wide eaved temple, built of foreign woods covered with intricate carving, with deep lace-arched balconies, and blind walls, windowless and dark.[1] The East India Government Building at the 1893 World’s Fair. [Image from The Graphic History of the Fair. Graphic Co., 1894.] As we enter the door a strange odor of mingled incense and sandal wood greets us. We find ourselves in a medium sized room lighted from the roof, and surrounded by a gallery supported on slender pillars. [...]
“Halcyon Days in the Dream City’’ Part 10: A Cave of the Sea
Halcyon Days in the Dream City by Mrs. D. C. Taylor Continued from Part 9 We roamed through a cave of the sea;[1] on either side rose lofty pillared arches, thickly broidered and crusted with myriad growths of ocean's mysterious depths and of its various tributaries. Shells in all their whorls and spirals and intricate convolutions; half sentient sea anemones, sea ferns and broad leaved kelps, branching lace like and weeping willowy corals, arrowy reeds and floating lily pads, wreathed and twined around the columns and arches. Amid these growths sprawled frogs and star fishes, and water snakes drew [...]
“Halcyon Days in the Dream City’’ Part 9: Manufactures Building
Halcyon Days in the Dream City by Mrs. D. C. Taylor Continued from Part 8 Pause, before you enter, and gaze upon this mighty mass of crystal and iron;[1] union of purity and strength, seemingly so frail and airy, and yet in reality so firm and stable. Look at the roof, like a huge translucent wave, at the grand majestic archways towering high above you, with their pictured allegorys [sic] smiling down upon you from their airy heights.[2] Step within this arch and look through the doorway down the long, long perspective, where human beings dwindle away to moving [...]