RECENT POSTS ABOUT THE HISTORY OF THE COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION’S BUILDING, FAIRGROUNDS, EXHIBITS, EVENTS, AND PEOPLE.
“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 [...]
“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 [...]