RECENT POSTS ABOUT THE HISTORY OF THE COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION’S BUILDING, FAIRGROUNDS, EXHIBITS, EVENTS, AND PEOPLE.
Sean Masterson’s Magic from the Midway
A story about the Midway Plaisance of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition weaves its was through a Chicago magic show. Sean Masterson’s Timeless Magic blends expert sleight-of-hand trickery, quirky humor, and a personal detective story centering around a World’s Fair commemorative coin. Masterson shares with his audience his quest to discover the origin of his coin, taking us on a tour of several magicians who worked on the Midway and in Chicago at the time of the Fair. (You’ll know at least on their names.) Along the way, Masterson enchants with classic and inventive magic acts, audience participation, one [...]
Frederick Law Olmsted and the Spark of Genius
The Wooded Island in the fairgrounds of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. On the anniversary of the death of Frederick Law Olmsted (April 26, 1822 – August 28, 1903), we endeavor that the memory of his name and personality is not dimmed in the passage of years. This tribute to Olmsted’s design of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition comes from the May 3, 1893, issue of Garden and Forest, written just after Opening Day on the fairgrounds. In the throng who witnessed on Monday the Columbian Exposition few probably realized that the harmony of the scene and the [...]
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR – A View Through the Ferris Wheel (p. 85)
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS Page 85 – A VIEW THROUGH THE FERRIS WHEEL A VIEW THROUGH THE FERRIS WHEEL.—Imposing as was the Ferris Wheel seen from a distance, a great object towering aloft and showing the location of the Fair from a distance of miles away, it was scarcely less impressive when its monster parts were examined from one of the cars which revolved with it, carrying their hosts of passengers. It was not any intricacy in the design of the wheel nor the complexity of its mechanism which most commanded admiration, for its [...]
World’s Columbian Exposition Secretary Howard O. Edmonds’ Presentation Set Sells for $21,600
The Howard O. Edmonds presentation set sold by Heritage Auctions in August 2019. [Image from Heritage Auctions.] Heritage Auctions offered a rare Columbian Exposition presentation set at their August 2019 “ANA World's Fair of Money US Coins Signature Auction.” The group consisting of a medal, pin and two ribbons that had once belonged to Howard O. Edmonds, secretary of the Exposition, sold for $21,600. The Numismatic Guaranty Corporation (NGC) had certified the medal set in the spring of 2019. The gold “officer medal” presented to Howard O. Edmonds, secretary of the Columbian Exposition. [Image from Heritage Auctions.] [...]
Tiffany Clock from the 1893 World’s Fair Sells for $150,000
(Left) The “Louis XV Clock” on display in the Tiffany Pavilion within the Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building. [Image from Bancroft, Hubert Howe The Book of the Fair. The Bancroft Company, 1893.] (Right) The Tiffany clock today. Note the plain lower panel, compared to the image of the clock from 1893. [Image from Sotheby’s.] A magnificent clock manufactured by Tiffany & Company and exhibited at the 1893 World’s Fair sold by Sotheby's at their June 4, 2019, auction for $150,000. The eight-foot-tall longcase clock, designed in the style of Louis XV, is “one of the most complicated clocks [...]
All the World is Beer
A HAPPY PROSPECT. Sing a song of wondrous things A city full of sights: Common folks and queens and kings Enjoying the delights. When the fair is opened, And all the world is here, We'll have a jolly time throughout the Exposition year. (from The Illustrated World’s Fair, May 1892) For a jolly time throughout the current year, consider a taste of “All the World is Here,” a new beer inspired by the 1893 World's Fair from Temperance Beer Company of Evanston, Illinois. While not a recreation of a beer from 1893, the dry-hopped cream ale is made using some [...]
The Best Potato Display Ever Made
In honor of National Potato Day, here is a look at “the best potato display ever made,” which was exhibited the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The agricultural exhibit from New York State occupied 4,000 square feet on the south side of the main aisle of the Agricultural Building, near the eastern entrance. For the autumn season, the exhibit featured potato varieties grown all around New York State--from Chittenango to Chateaugay and from East Aurora to Westbury Station. “The specimens were grown under contract in widely separated localities so as to ensure, in one place or another, the [...]
The (Im)Perfection of Rude Simplicity: Davy Crockett’s Descendant Visits the Hunter’s Cabin at the 1893 World’s Fair
Many visitors to the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago on June 9, 1893, were eagerly trying to spot the Infanta Eulalia, the visiting Princess from Spain, as she toured the White City and Midway Plaisance. Meanwhile, just off the south end of the Wooded Island, a direct descendant of the legendary pioneer Davy Crockett (August 17, 1786 – March 6, 1836) visited the quaint Hunter’s Cabin. Sponsored by Theodore Roosevelt and his Boone and Crockett Foundation and designed by prolific architect Charles Atwood, the Hunter’s Cabin was a replica of a typical pioneer house from 1850s and contained a display [...]
Sept. 8, 2019: “Walking the White City” Tour in Jackson Park
The Glessner House is sponsoring "Walking the White City," a walking tour of Jackson Park on Sunday, September 8, 2019, from 10 am to noon. Led by architect and historian John Waters, the tour will locate the sites of landmarks of the fair, explore the fascinating vestiges of the fair that still remain, and show how the fair influenced the design of Jackson Park as we know it today. The tour costs $25 per person ($20 for Glessner House members) and pre-paid reservations (required) can be made here. The tour begins at the Statue of the Republic in Jackson [...]
Summer 2019 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. Gondola on the North Pond, featuring a traditional fero da prora. [Image from Johnson, Rossiter A History of the World's Columbian Exposition Volume 1 - Narrative. D. Appleton and Co., 1897.] The Summer 2019 Trivia Question The prow of a traditional Venetian gondola has a metal plate (a fero da prora), which serves as a counterweight to the gondolier. The design symbolizes the S shape of the [...]