RECENT POSTS ABOUT THE HISTORY OF THE COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION’S BUILDING, FAIRGROUNDS, EXHIBITS, EVENTS, AND PEOPLE.
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 [...]
May 29–Jun. 1, 2025: Chicago Steampunk Exposition
What do you get when you combine a World’s Fair with retro-futuristic imagination? The Chicago Steampunk Exposition! For 2025, the convention theme of “The Curse of Cthulhu” will add a dimension of Lovecraftian weird horror. Throughout the weekend of May 29–June 1, 2025, the Expo will host talks, workshops, activities, and shopping for steampunk enthusiasts who enjoy imagining an alternate World’s Columbian Exposition with Gilded Age gothic adventures. The weekend includes live-action role-playing games; an afternoon tea; an Underground Market for vendors; a Palace of Fine Arts for artists, musicians, and writers; and a Midway Plaisance for organizations and [...]
174. Picturesque World’s Fair – Interior of the Woman’s Building
INTERIOR OF THE WOMAN'S BUILDING. The interior of the Woman's Building, viewed from the gallery at either end, presented an exceedingly attractive appearance. The great space was admirably lighted from the skylight over the central court, and the objects on display were visible with exceptional distinctness. Very curious and interesting were many these objects, character of which may be at least vaguely discerned in the illustration. A feature of the exhibits in this building was that many of them had a personal interest of exceptional character. For instance, there was a painting by Queen Victoria, one which, if painted [...]
173. Picturesque World’s Fair – The Idaho Building
THE IDAHO BUILDING.—So attractive and so striking in appearance was the building erected in the Exposition grounds by the Territory of Idaho that before the Fair closed it was sold to an English club to be transported across the ocean and re-erected as a shooting box. The structure reminded one of a Swiss chalet, but was intended in its style and composition to indicate the varied resources of the young territory. All the material was from Idaho, and so were all the ornaments. The building was erected on a foundation of basaltic rock and lava, and was practically a [...]
Apr. 22, 2025: “Perspective of Wonder: A Tour of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition” (Carol Stream, IL)
Author Cindy Angell Keeling will offer a fascinating introduction to the spectacular Chicago World’s Fair in her presentation “Perspective of Wonder: A Tour of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition” on Tuesday, April 22, 2025, in Carol Stream, Illinois. In this entertaining presentation, Cindy will take you on a tour of the fairgrounds using vintage photographs, maps, and artwork. Which building had the most ostentatious dome? What in the world is “staff,” and why was it important to the Fair? Which concession featured a donkey ride up a mountain? Travel back in time with Cindy to find out. Bring your [...]