RECENT POSTS ABOUT THE HISTORY OF THE COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION’S BUILDING, FAIRGROUNDS, EXHIBITS, EVENTS, AND PEOPLE.
A Tribute to Harlow N. Higinbotham, President of the World’s Columbian Exposition
On April 18, 1919, the former president of the World’s Columbian Exposition met a tragic death. Harlow N. Higinbotham was visiting New York to “meet the boys” of Illinois who had recently returned from serving in the U.S. military during the Great War. The eighty-year-old Chicagoan set out from his residence at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel on Central Park to the New York headquarters of the Illinois Soldiers' Welcome Committee at 107 East 34th Street. Along the way, he stepped into the street at Madison Avenue and 45th Street and was struck by a U.S. Army ambulance that hurled him [...]
Video of “Eternal Light: The Sacred Stained-Glass Windows of Louis Comfort Tiffany” at the Driehaus Museum
“Eternal Light: The Sacred Stained-Glass Windows of Louis Comfort Tiffany” at the Driehaus Museum features items exhibited at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition.
Apr. 18, 2020: Women of the 1893 World’s Fair (Chicago Architecture Center)
Several women played significant roles in making the 1893 World’s Fair a spectacularly grand affair. Chicago Architecture Center (CAC) docent Kathleen Carpenter will introduce you to these remarkable women artists, activists, and achievers in a video lecture "Women of the 1893 World's Fair" at 1 pm on Saturday, April 18, 2020. The program will be hosted on Zoom; registered guests will receive an email directly from Zoom on the day of the program with details about how to access and view it. The cost is $8 for the public and free for CAC members. For more information and a [...]
Stay Home. Stay Safe.
Stay Home. Stay Safe.
CANCELLED May 9, 2020: Devil in the White City Bus Tour
Experience the murder, magic, and madness at the fair that changed America on a 4-hour bus tour offered by the Chicago History Museum on Saturday, May 9, 2020, starting at 1 pm. Inspired by Erik Larson’s best-selling book (soon to be a miniseries), this tour will take you back to 1893 with historian Al Walavich, to follow the trails of Daniel Burnham and the devilish doings of H. H. Holmes. Visit the historic fairgrounds, the Garden of the Phoenix in Jackson Park, and discover what has become an iconic Chicago story. Tickets are $55 ($45 for CHM members) and available for purchase [...]
98. Picturesque World’s Fair – Kaleife and his Dromedary
KALEIFE AND HIS DROMEDARY.—The Bedouin and the dromedary, "the ship of the desert," were very much in evidence at the Ottoman's Arab camp, or "Wild East Show ' The "ship" when under full sail around the encampment was gorgeously decorated, and his driver was not less brightly appareled. Why in a region as warm as the desert is supposed to be so much covering should be deemed a necessity is hard to say, but on all state occasions both the Arabs and their beasts were burdened with a great deal of what was gaudy but not neat. There was [...]
Spring 2020 Trivia Question
Our seasonal newsletter includes a “Palmer Puzzler” exclusive to those who subscribe. (You can sign up here.) The first person to send us the correct answer wins a small prize. The Spring 2020 Trivia Question Who was the "Tiger King" of the 1893 World's Fair? A. George Washington Gale Ferris Jr. B. Francis Millet C. P. T. Barnum D. Carl Hagenbeck E. George R. Davis Many readers knew that the correct answer is Carl Hagenbeck, proprietor of Hagenbeck’s Wild Animal Arena and Museum (among other names) on the Midway Plaisance. “Tiger King,” of course, is moniker attributed to a fascinating/freaky [...]
97. Picturesque World’s Fair – Fettome, A Bedouin Woman
FETTOME, A BEDOUIN WOMAN.—Much as has been written about the Arabs and their wild life upon the North African plains, descriptions have been, as a rule, confined mostly to the men and how the woman of the desert lives, moves and has her being has been left largely to the imagination. So it came that the Bedouin women, at the Columbian Exposition, were looked upon with a good deal of curiosity and were found to be by no means uninteresting creatures. They were quite as intelligent as their lords, were by no means bad-looking and manifested the utmost good [...]
Columbian Exposition Poetry: “The Man in the Moon”
In honor of World Poetry Day, we offer this whimsical verse from the pen of popular newspaper poet Nixon Waterman, published in the December 1892 issue of Illustrated World's Fair. THE MAN IN THE MOON by Nixon Waterman The man in the moon, as he sails through the sky, Can't help but to turn an admiring eye, And linger a while as he passes the site Of that perfectly wonderful City of White. And he says to himself, "All next summer I'll see The Fair without paying a penny, he, he! And I won't have to peep through a [...]
96. Picturesque World’s Fair – The Forestry Building
THE FORESTRY BUILDING.— None among the many department structures on the Fair grounds was built with more regard for what was symbolic of its uses than the Forestry Building. It stood very near the southeastern corner of the grounds and its eastern frontage was upon Lake Michigan. Its dimensions were five hundred by two hundred feet, and it had a central height of sixty feet. It was made entirely of wood, not even a nail being used but wooden pegs substituted instead. The roofed colonnade surrounding the building, which shows well in the illustration, was upheld by pillars each [...]