RECENT POSTS ABOUT THE HISTORY OF THE COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION’S BUILDING, FAIRGROUNDS, EXHIBITS, EVENTS, AND PEOPLE.
Fool of the Fair
We should expect to encounter a fool on April 1st, and visitors to the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition could have met a striking fool hanging in the Palace of Fine Arts. Thomas Shields Clarke's oil painting A Fool's Fool (1887) was on display at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. [Image from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.] A Fool's Fool (1887) was a work by artist Thomas Shields Clarke (1860–1920) on display in Gallery 7. The 39 ½-by-83-inch oil on canvas shared wall space with works by James Abbott McNeill Whistler, George W. Maynard, George Inness, and [...]
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR – East Lagoon by Moonlight (p. 77)
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS Page 77 – THE EAST LAGOON BY MOONLIGHT THE EAST LAGOON BY MOONLIGHT.— The night scenes at the Fair were undoubtedly the most beautiful for those who liked dreamy pictures, or half darkness contrasted with a blaze of glorious lights, better than unvarying white beauty. The fireworks, the illumination about the Court of Honor, the colored effects upon the Wooded Island were all charming and, in addition to these, was the fascinating scene produced when the moonlight fell anywhere upon the magnificently framed water-surfaces. Such a scene is presented in [...]
From the Balcony of Henry Ives Cobb’s Fisheries Building
Detail from "From the Balcony of the Fisheries Building" in Harper's New Monthly Magazine May 1893. Henry Ives Cobb (August 19, 1859 – March 27, 1931) contributed several buildings to the fairgrounds of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, but perhaps none so beautiful and intricately detailed as the great Fisheries Building. "In the Fisheries Building, a clever scheme of surface ornament has been composed from casts of starfish, seahorses, crabs, lobsters, and creatures of land and water which are calculated to delight the heart of a designer … The sinuous procession of seahorses winding around one pillar [...]
April 26, 2019: 1893 Scavenger Hunt in the Chicago Loop
If you love learning about the history of the 1893 World’s Fair, are passionate about Chicago architecture, enjoy puzzles, and want to stretch your legs, then head to the Chicago Loop for “Glitz, Glamour…and Panic! A Hunt for the History of 1893 in Chicago.” Atlas Obscura Chicago Field Agent Patti Swanson is once again hosting her "Google-proof" scavenger hunt in the Chicago Loop on Friday, April 26, 2019. You will meet on the steps of the Art Institute of Chicago (née World’s Congress Auxiliary Building), next to Edward Kemeys' lions, where Patty will hand your team a set of [...]
Mar 27-May 5, 2019: Wilmette (IL) Public Library One Book, Everybody Reads “The Lake on Fire”
For their 2019 One Book, Everybody Reads program, the Wilmette (IL) Public Library has a selected a title related to the 1893 World’s Fair. Rosellen Brown's 2018 acclaimed novel, The Lake on Fire, is set in Chicago during the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. The publisher describes The Lake on Fire as an epic narrative that begins among 19th century Jewish immigrants on a failing Wisconsin farm. Lured by the potential for new life, Chaya and her brilliant younger brother Asher flee to industrialized Chicago. Surrounded by the superficial extravagance of the Columbian Exposition, the pair depends on factory work [...]
Spring 2019 Trivia Question
Our quarterly 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 2019 Trivia Question In the image above can be seen the Wooded Island, spread out below the balloon. Just out the frame to the left (south) would have been a small log cabin, erected by future U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt as a museum and memorial to honor what two American frontiersmen? The winner of the Winter 2018 Trivia Question is J.V. from Wisconsin, who knew the answer [...]
Clara Doty Bates, Hostess of the 1893 World’s Fair Children’s Library
“There are some crusty old bachelors and a few childless women who make a pretense of disliking children, but it's a flimsy sort of sour-grape antipathy, and rarely rings true. Even those people who do not like children's society will find a great deal to enjoy in their domicile.” —Emma. B. Dunlap, writing about the Children’s Building at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. Clara Doty Bates. [Image from A Woman of the Century edited by Frances E. Willard and Mary A. Livermore (Charles Wells Moulton, 1893).] Counted among those who loved children, Clara Doty Bates (1838-1895) organized and [...]
Woman’s Part at the World’s Fair, Part III
Throughout Women’s History Month, we’re reflecting on women’s valuable contributions to the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. Reprinted here is Part 3 of “Woman’s Part at the World’s Fair” from the May 1893 issue of The Review of Reviews. “The Children's Building” was contributed by Clara Doty Bates, who served as the librarian for the building. Earlier this month we posted Part 1 and Part 2. Additional images have been added to the original article. Clara Doty Bates. [Image from A Woman of the Century edited by Frances E. Willard and Mary A. Livermore (Charles Wells Moulton, 1893).] [...]
Relics from the Columbian Exposition’s “Victoria House” Up for Sale
Victoria House served as Great Britain’s government building for the 1893 World’s Fair. Remnants of some beautiful carpentry from the original structure have come on the market recently. This World’s Fair relic, however, comes as part of a house on Chicago’s northside, for sale in the range of $739,000. The house at 1911 W. Farwell Avenue in the Roger’s Park neighborhood was built by Andrew Hall, an electrician who worked for a company involved with the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, according to a story published by Curbed Chicago. After the close of the Exposition, Hall “arranged to buy the [...]
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR – The Life Saving Station (p. 76)
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS Page 76 – THE LIFE SAVING STATION THE LIFE SAVING STATION —The Life Saving Station was a popular institution at the World's Fair. At a certain hour every afternoon the crowd assembled on the lake shore and gazed out over the water, out of which, at a considerable distance, rose a mast, theoretically, that of a vessel submerged beneath. To the mast clung one or more supposedly shipwrecked people awaiting help from land. The help soon came. From the Life Saving Station dashed down the rescuers. A mortar was fired [...]