RECENT POSTS ABOUT THE HISTORY OF THE COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION’S BUILDING, FAIRGROUNDS, EXHIBITS, EVENTS, AND PEOPLE.
“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 [...]
Voting Ends on Tuesday, November 3.
Just a friendly reminder from worldsfairchicago1893.com to exercise your right to vote. Voting ends on Tuesday, November 3, 2020. "Miss Chicago Up to Date" showing a suffragette posing as the Statue of the Republic from the 1893 World's Fair. [Image from the August 11, 1913, issue of The Chicago Examiner.]
108. Picturesque World’s Fair – Miriamna, A Woman from Ceylon
MIRIAMNA, A WOMAN FROM CEYLON.—The Singhalese type was well illustrated in Miriamna, a woman who, from the nature of her position at the Fair, became, perhaps, better known than any other one of her race there. The Ceylon tea room, in the Woman's Building, was a popular resort, and there Miriamna sold tea and made a pretty picture as she moved about. She was a wee bit of a woman, but had a dignity of her own which she maintained under all circumstances. Not only were her fingers and wrists resplendent with rings and bracelets, but there were jewels [...]
The Decline of Christopher Columbus
CoinWeek has published an article describing yet another arena in which the commemoration of Christopher Columbus is in decline: coin collecting. Heinz Tschachler’s “Christopher Columbus: His Decline in Numismatics and the Nation’s Collective Memory” chronicles the “flagging interest” in the explorer due to both the lack of an authentic portrait of Columbus and changing social and cultural views of his place in history. Tschachler includes a description how the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition launched the Columbus half-dollar—the very first U.S. coin bearing the portrait of a historic person as well as the first official commemorative coin. [...]
Charles Dana’s 1892 Roast of Chicago, Part 4. Chicago Responds to the New York Sun’s “Thoroughly Mugmump Concoction”
The May 29, 1892, issue of New York Sun contained a nearly full-page invective titled “Chicago As Chicago Is.” Although the piece was signed "THE PICADOR," news outlets attributed this diatribe directly to the Sun’s editor and owner, Charles Dana. Having rebounded from the Great Fire of 1871, the Windy City easily extinguished his malicious editorial roast.
Charles Dana’s 1892 Roast of Chicago, Part 3. “A Desperate, Perhaps Final, Crisis in Her History”
The May 29, 1892, issue of New York Sun contained a nearly full-page invective titled “Chicago As Chicago Is.” Although the piece was signed "THE PICADOR," news outlets attributed this diatribe directly to the Sun’s editor and owner, Charles Dana. Having rebounded from the Great Fire of 1871, the Windy City easily extinguished his malicious editorial roast.
Charles Dana’s 1892 Roast of Chicago, Part 2. “The Metropolis of Misrepresentation”
The May 29, 1892, issue of New York Sun contained a nearly full-page invective titled “Chicago As Chicago Is.” Although the piece was signed "THE PICADOR," news outlets attributed this diatribe directly to the Sun’s editor and owner, Charles Dana. Having rebounded from the Great Fire of 1871, the Windy City easily extinguished his malicious editorial roast.
Charles Dana’s 1892 Roast of Chicago, Part 1. “This is Chicago!”
The May 29, 1892, issue of New York Sun contained a nearly full-page invective titled “Chicago As Chicago Is.” Although the piece was signed "THE PICADOR," news outlets attributed this diatribe directly to the Sun’s editor and owner, Charles Dana. Having rebounded from the Great Fire of 1871, the Windy City easily extinguished his malicious editorial roast.
107. Picturesque World’s Fair – Five Samoan Warriors in Character Song
FIVE SAMOAN WARRIORS IN A CHARACTER SONG.—There was a theatre in the village where the Samoans were, and they gave daily performances of no mean quality. Among these were the Tapate, a dance peculiar to the Wallis islanders in which both men and women appeared, the men carrying paddles which they struck together as the dance proceeded to the time beaten on a stick by one of the number sitting on the ground and controlling the movements of the others. A religious dance was another feature, accompanied by a singular chant and with the hitting of sticks together in [...]
Remembering Nancy Green, Aunt Jemima, and the 1893 World’s Fair
Though relatively unknown at the time, one participant in the 1893 World’s Fair later became a famous fixture of food advertising and a part of many people’s kitchens for more than a century. For the past ninety-seven years, the final resting place of the real woman behind the character was an unmarked plot of grass in a cemetery on Chicago’s South Side. A sign welcoming guests to the September 5, 2020, headstone ceremony for Nancy Green. On Saturday, September 5, 2020, cultural historians, civic leaders, and interested members of the community gathered at Oak Woods Cemetery for [...]