RECENT POSTS ABOUT THE HISTORY OF THE COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION’S BUILDING, FAIRGROUNDS, EXHIBITS, EVENTS, AND PEOPLE.
176. Picturesque World’s Fair – An Eskimo Boy
AN ESKIMO BOY.--Not the least interesting objects in the village of the Eskimos, and certainly the most attractive, were the youngsters who rolled about like the seals in the waters of their own cold country. One of the young gentlemen of the group became an exceedingly popular personage with visitors to the odd village of odd people. He had reached the age of about four years, but his general air and bearing indicated that he had little more to learn and, while rather pleased with the world, yet looked upon it affably from a purely objective point of view. [...]
The Swami and the Street Sign
Chicago Public Radio’s Curious City, the long-running series on WBEZ that answers questions from listeners about the city and region, has a episode that does a deep dive into one of the most revered visitors to the 1893 World’s Fair. Hindus around the world learn about Swami Vivekananda’s visit to Chicago and his public lectures during the World’s Parliament of Religions in September 1893. The Curious City episode “Why did an honorary street sign go missing in Chicago?” explores that history and the (seemingly) missing memorial marker to the religious leader’s momentous trip to the Columbian Exposition. [Please consider [...]
1893 World’s Fair Official Cycling Route from Biketropolis
Although wheelmen (with a few notable exceptions) were forbidden from cycling through the fairgrounds of the 1893 World’s Fair, bicyclists today have much to discover as they ride through Jackson Park. The history of the great exposition is hiding in plain sight, thanks to a new cycling route guide published by Biketropolis®. In collaboration with Arcadia Publishing, True North Cafe, Two Wheel Gear®, and Ride With GPS, Biketropolis has curated a bicycle route that connects the dots of history in Jackson Park and surrounding areas. The free downloadable guide offers turn-by-turn directions, with descriptive text, photos, videos, audio narratives, [...]
“Referencing Columbiana” by Steve A. Starlust
Columbian Exposition collectors can rejoice over a new reference book that provides invaluable information about commemorative coins, medals, badges and ribbons, and other related souvenirs from the 1893 World’s Fair. The handsome volume Referencing Columbiana compiled by Steve A. Starlust belongs on any Columbian Exposition bookshelf. The 305-page book, which bears the title World’s Columbian Exposition Chicago on the cover (there is no title page), builds upon and greatly expands Nathan N. Eglit’s seminal reference book, Columbiana; The Medallic History of Christopher Columbus and the Columbian Exposition of 1893. Privately published in 1965, Eglit’s reference book catalogs nearly 600 [...]
A Columbian Exposition Enthusiast’s Guide to HBO’s “The Gilded Age”
Viewers of The Gilded Age on HBO Max meet several real historical figures mingling with a cast of colorful fictional characters. Although the series takes place in 1882–84, ten years before the Columbian Exposition will open in Chicago, The Gilded Age features several of the designers, participants, and visitors associated with the 1893 World’s Fair. [This post will be updated as new episodes are released.] Jane Addams Social activist Jane Addams is mentioned in Season 2, Episode 4, when Miss Brook is invited to teach a charity class. Addams and Ellen Gates Starr co-founded a settlement house called Hull [...]
300 Minutes at the World’s Columbian Exposition
Tim Donnohue of Knoxville, Tennessee, really wanted to see the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago, but he was very short on time. Mr. Donnohue reportedly left town at noon on Saturday, October 21, and travelled to Chicago. He spent five hours taking in as much as possible of the city and the Columbian Exposition fairgrounds—including three rides on the Ferris Wheel. Those rides alone occupied sixty minutes of his visit. Then he turned around and was back home in Knoxville by Monday night. “This is right smart hustling for Tim,” praised his hometown newspaper. [This efficient Exposition tourist may [...]
179 Days at the World’s Columbian Exposition
“I have made up my mind that six months is too short a time for a man to see and study the Fair,” announced Mr. Thomas Carhart in May of 1893. The wealthy Englishman had come to Chicago to squeeze every possible moment out of the great Columbian Exposition. He planned to visit the fairgrounds in Jackson Park every day for the six months the Fair was open! Mr. Carhart, a resident of Madras, India, for the past thirty-five years, checked himself into the Palmer House Hotel on May 1, Opening Day of the Exposition. He would likely have [...]
175. Picturesque World’s Fair – Canoes on Transportation Day
CANOES ON TRANSPORTATION DAY—Transportation Day was a great day all over the Fair grounds, not merely when the aristocratic blooded horses, with modern turn-outs, jostled lumbering camels and reindeer, and when an ox hitched to a rude cart might have nearly run over a palanquin, but upon the ponds and bayous and the canals, where the odd craft of different races swept along together in fantastic contrast. The scene in the illustration is evidently one afforded when there was some rest in the movement, and evidently, also, at a point just east of the northern end of the Wooded [...]
Betsy Ross Cleans Up at the 1893 World’s Fair
Without the flag, there would be no Flag Day. And without Betsy Ross, there would be no flag (or so the story goes). Among abundance of eye-catching exhibits inside the Agricultural Building of the 1893 World’s Fair stood a unusual sculpture of the purported mother of the American flag. The Agricultural Building housed many wonderous exhibits of the varied output of farms and the amazing products of a burgeoning agriculture industry. Visitors could encounter the likeness of Betsy Ross in the gallery level. [Image from Campbell, James B. Campbell’s Illustrated History of the World’s Columbian Exposition, Volume II. [...]
Fun Facts about Pope Leo and the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago
Chicago is losing its Malört over the announcement that Cardinal Robert Prevost was elected to be the first pope from the United States. Born in the Bronzeville neighborhood and raised in Chicago’s south suburbs, Prevost has taken the name Leo XIV. Back in 1893, Pope Leo XIII had a varied—and rather unusual—presence at the World’s Columbian Exposition, held in Chicago’s Jackson Park. Pope Leo XIII loaned many Vatican treasures to be exhibited at the World’s Fair. One theme of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition was commemorating Christopher Columbus’s 1492 arrival in the Americas. United States officials sought to assemble [...]