RECENT POSTS ABOUT THE HISTORY OF THE COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION’S BUILDING, FAIRGROUNDS, EXHIBITS, EVENTS, AND PEOPLE.
“Halcyon Days in the Dream City’’ Part 8: Sights and Sounds of the Midway
Halcyon Days in the Dream City by Mrs. D. C. Taylor Continued from Part 7 Will ever human foot tread such a "way" again? 'Twas as if one had "Aladdin's Lamp" or the wonderful carpet that transported one to any clime with the celerity of thought. One bears the booming of the Dahomian skin drums, and sees the terrible naked Amazons in their hideous dance; sees the Laplander wrapped in his furs and leading his reindeers; sees the Esquimeaux, still more furry, and , if possible, more ugly and dirty; sees Turkish houris whirling in their glittering dance; sees [...]
Dec. 2 2020: “Building Chicago’s Public Spaces with Julia Bachrach” (online)
The Chicago Public Library, in partnership with the Chicago Architecture Center, will host an online presentation on "Building Chicago’s Public Spaces" by Chicago parks historian Julia Bachrach. The talk on Wednesday, December 2, from 6-7 pm, is free but registration is required: https://chipublib.bibliocommons.com/events/5f9c4a02e085ab5c2caf057d Bachrach will highlight two major architectural themes in park history: the Museum of Science and Industry—built as the Palace of Fine Arts for the World’s Columbian Exposition—and the fieldhouse, an influential building type invented in Chicago. She will discuss the original drawings by architects Daniel H. Burnham and Charles B. Atwood, which have rarely been seen by the [...]
“Halcyon Days in the Dream City’’ Part 7: The Ferris Wheel
Halcyon Days in the Dream City by Mrs. D. C. Taylor Continued from Part 6 In the very centre, midway of “The Midway” stands a high wooden enclosure, and rising above it like a gigantic spider’s-web, the "Ferris Wheel." After the usual “open sesame" we enter the enclosure, and mounting a flight of steps find ourselves upon a high platform with the revolving monster only a few feet distant, but protected by a stout wooden paling. We, with some hundred other sight-seers, wait patiently for some moments when the wheel becomes stationary, and a blue-coated, much bebuttoned official slides [...]
“Halcyon Days in the Dream City’’ Part 6: Temple of Luxor
Halcyon Days in the Dream City by Mrs. D. C. Taylor Continued from Part 5 This fine June morning we will go to Egypt without the tribulations of an ocean voyage and the fatigue of travel. Walk up to this broad gateway, where a swarthy woman wearing a stick bound to the bridge of her nose and between her eyes, with a long black netted veil hanging from below them to her knees, is trying, with many blandishments, to sell flowers to the passers in and out. She coaxes in her soft southern language, offers to pin her pinks [...]
“Halcyon Days in the Dream City’’ Part 5: China
Halcyon Days in the Dream City by Mrs. D. C. Taylor Continued from Part 4 Still traveling along the Midway, we see on the right hand at some distance as yet, a temple that looks as if it had jumped out of the old dogs-eared geography we studied at school.[1] Two square towers composed of little balconies one above the other, each a little smaller than the last one, and all surmounted by a curved projecting roof, hung thickly along the edges with little tinkling bells. There is a high wind blowing to day, and upon the front of [...]
“Halcyon Days in the Dream City’’ Part 4: The Turkish Bazaar
Halcyon Days in the Dream City by Mrs. D. C. Taylor Continued from Part 3 Do you see yonder carved and arched doorway, hung about with gaudy foreign stuffs, where a constant stream of people is being swallowed up in the gloom within? Let us too undergo the swallowing process. So! Here we are! A long broad avenue lined on either side with little cells containing merchandise of strange forms.[1] Here is one larger than the others, let us go in. Three veritable fat Turks with large melancholy dark eyes, swarthy skins, and black silky moustaches, crowned each with [...]
“Halcyon Days in the Dream City’’ Part 3: Cairo Street
Halcyon Days in the Dream City by Mrs. D. C. Taylor Continued from Part 2 A long stretch of high stone wall above which clearly outlined against the blue of the summer sky, is seen a confused medly [sic] of queer tiled roofs, glimpses of latticed and casement windows, and above all a tall minaret, the turban like top holding up star and crescent. We pay the magic twenty-five cents and step into a curving narrow street, lined with dusky booths for the sale of numberless trinkets and mementoes of the Orient, but these have lost all charms for [...]
“Halcyon Days in the Dream City’’ Part 2: The Plaisance
Halcyon Days in the Dream City by Mrs. D. C. Taylor Continued from Part 1 A May morning, cool but not cold, with a brisk wind, blowing, cloud shadows and sun bursts chasing one another across the deep blue sky. To-day we make our way straight from the 60th street entrance to the Midway Plaisance. When we have passed through that tunnel like passage under the intramural railway, we have left America behind us. We are in foreign countries among foreign people. A strange, groaning, whistling noise attracts our attention, and glancing to the right, we see a tall [...]
“Halcyon Days in the Dream City’’ Part 1: Salve
Halcyon Days in the Dream City by Mrs. D. C. Taylor Continued from Introduction With what joyous hearts and eager eyes, we first stepped through the turnstile at the 60th street entrance to the great Columbian Exposition of ’93. For three years we had talked of it, dreamed of it, read about it, and now at least it was a thing accomplished and we had entered the charmed precincts. We had decided to devote the first day to a mere glance at the most prominent exterior features of the Exposition, and accordingly we allowed no temptations to allure us [...]
“Halcyon Days in the Dream City”: Introduction
Personal accounts of trips to the 1893 World’s Fair offer candid and authentic insight into how visitors experienced the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Visitors famous and unknown have left behind memories of the Midway and whims of the White City on postcards and letters back home, in personal diaries preserved in archives, and through first-hand accounts published in newspapers. Some recollections appear in bound volumes published both professionally—Henry Adams’ The Education of Henry Adams (1909) and Clarence Day’s Life With Father (1935) are among the more notable titles—and privately. Among the latter category is a collection of short [...]