RECENT POSTS ABOUT THE HISTORY OF THE COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION’S BUILDING, FAIRGROUNDS, EXHIBITS, EVENTS, AND PEOPLE.
The Architectural Influence of the 1893 World’s Fair on “Wicked”
Every way That you look in this city There’s something exquisite You’ll want to visit Before the day’s through! —“One Short Day” by Stephen Schwartz The 2024 blockbuster film Wicked takes audiences into the thrilling dreamworld of Oz. While visiting the Emerald City, attentive viewers may catch glimpses of the 1893 World’s Fair. Ever since L. Frank Baum “discovered” the Land of Oz and published The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in 1900—seven years after visiting the World’s Columbian Exposition in his hometown of Chicago—his American fairyland has been reimagined countless times. One recent incarnation is the alternative-Oz invented by [...]
Ignacy Paderewski Battles the Midway Camel
Twenty-two-year-old Ignacy Jan Paderewski (November 18, 1860 – June 29, 1941) was already a rock star when he performed a concert for the opening of the 1893 World’s Fair. The Polish pianist’s adoring fans—enchanted as much by his luxuriant red locks as by his charismatic keyboard performance—succumbed to “Paddymania.” His distinguishing coiffure made Paderewski a common subject of caricatures and cartoons. One example places him back at the World’s Columbian Exposition, where one denizen of the Midway Plaisance was instantly attracted to the pianist’s unwieldy mass of red hair. Cartoonist A. S. Daggy apparently had little familiarity with his [...]
“It’s Ugly.” But worth $150,000! Tiffany Love Cup from 1893 World’s Fair Featured on “Antiques Roadshow”
It may be ugly, but it’s a treasure from the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. A silver loving cup made by Tiffany & Company for the World’s Fair was brought in for appraisal on Antiques Roadshow Season 28 Episode 20 “Vintage Madison 2024, Hour 1” on PBS. The sterling silver cup is decorated with enameling embedded with turquoise and other stones. The owner inherited the vase from a family member who lived near the Midway Plaisance in Chicago, though admitted that she thought it was ugly. While appraiser Ronald Bourgeault of Bourgeault-Horan Antiquarians agreed, he also found the piece “absolutely [...]
169. Picturesque World’s Fair – The Beauty Show
THE BEAUTY SHOW—What bore upon its front the legend, "International Dress and Costume Exhibit, or World's Congress of Beauties," was a large rectangular structure seen upon the right soon after entering the Midway Plaisance from the Exposition grounds. Further information regarding the attractions within was conveyed in an additional notice to the effect that "Forty Ladies from Forty Nations" were there on exhibition. The interior consisted chiefly of a great hall, surrounded on three sides by a raised and carpeted platform, on which were seated the beauties, each on her own division of the dais, the country represented being [...]
Tale of a Canceled Pass at the 1893 World’s Fair
From the September 30, 1893, issue of Boot and Shoe Recorder comes this verse about whiskers, an entrance pass, and love on the World’s Columbian Exposition fairgrounds. An 1893 patent fot a farm lifting gate. TALE OF A CANCELED PASS I. Cervantes Burton was patentee Of a lifting gate called the “A. B. C.” “It is built in such a simple way That a child can work it,” he would say. Mr. Burton had shown this wondrous gate At half the fairs in the Sucker State. To open it all you had to do Was to press [...]
Dec. 6-28, 2024: Joffrey Ballet’s “Columbian Nutcracker” (Chicago)
A festive Ferris Wheel, a Dream City, a flurry of snow, dancing dragons, dancing nuts, and dancing rats! It's that time of the year for Chicago’s Joffrey Ballet to stage their spectacular annual production of The Nutcracker, with story set on the fairgrounds of 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. Performances run from December 6-28, 2023, at the Lyric Opera House (20 N. Wacker Dr. in Chicago) This ballet by choreographer Christopher Wheeldon, which premiered in 2016, invites the audience to … “journey inside Chicago’s 1893 World’s Fair ... when young Marie and her mother, a sculptress who is creating the [...]
Nov. 9, 2024: “H. H. Holmes & New Links to Chicago & the White City” (Hazel Crest, IL, and online)
The South Suburban Genealogical and Historical Society (SSGHS) will host a presentation on “H. H. Holmes & New Links to Chicago & the White City” at their meeting on Saturday, November 9, 2024. Guest speaker Ray Johnson, known as “The History Cop,” will discuss his research into new links between killer H. H. Holmes and Thomas B. Bryan and Daniel H. Burnham, and a possible link to a swindle in England. The society meeting will take place from 10–11 am at the Kauchak Public Safety Center, 3000 W. 170th Place, in Hazel Crest, Illinois. For those who wish to [...]
The Amusement Zone of the 1893 Columbian Exposition featured on WTTW’s “Chicago Stories”
“The 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition proved that Chicagoans had a healthy appetite for amusement—and that fun could be monetized.” —WTTW’s Chicago Stories An episode of WTTW’s Chicago Stories airing on October 4, 2024, takes viewers on a ride through the history of regional amusement parks such as The White City, Riverview, and Kiddieland. “Amusement Parks” opens with a visit to the 1893 World’s Fair and some dazzling digital animation of vintage photographs. “The 1893 Columbian Exposition was a BIG DEAL,” asserts Chicago cultural historian Tim Samuelson. Actors recreate the Opening Day ceremony with President Cleveland pushing the button (strikingly [...]
1893 World’s Fair buildings were “a counterfeit and a sham”
The excerpt below comes from a profile of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition published in the Pittsburg Dispatch in the summer of 1891, near the start of construction on the fairgrounds. The writer questions the use of staff as the main material for the facades of buildings. At this time, the decision had to yet been made to have all the buildings in the Court of Honor painted white. A bird’s eye view of the proposed fairgrounds of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. The constructed fairgrounds different in several ways. [Image from Pittsburg (PA) Dispatch Aug. 24, 1891.] [...]
Nov. 17, 2024: “MEET ME AT THE FAIR!: Music from the Great World’s Fairs” (Overland Park, KS)
Paragon Ragtime Orchestra will present MEET ME AT THE FAIR!: Music from the Great “World’s Fairs” on November 17, 2024, in Overland Park, KS. This concerts is a spectacular musical celebration of the legendary world’s fairs, including the 1876 Centennial Exhibition, the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, and the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition. Music played a key role in these international festivals, launching both hit songs and the illustrious careers of many American musicians. This Paragon Ragtime Orchestra program features dozens of stirring world’s fair hits, performed from rare original scores, along with the continuous [...]