RECENT POSTS ABOUT THE HISTORY OF THE COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION’S BUILDING, FAIRGROUNDS, EXHIBITS, EVENTS, AND PEOPLE.
Mar. 11, 2019: The Vanishing City–Excavating the World’s Fair (McHenry County Historical Society & Museum)
The McHenry County Historical Society & Museum will kick off its 33rd annual Sampler Lecture Series on Monday, March 11 with a look at the 1893 World’s Fair with “The Vanishing City: Excavating the World’s Fair.” Rebecca Graff, assistant professor of anthropology and chair of the American studies at Lake Forest College, divulges what is hiding beneath the future Obama Presidential Center site in Chicago. Jackson Park at one time housed the 1893 World’s Columbia Exposition. After the fair, parts of buildings simply were tossed into a ditch and buried – only to be unearthed by Graff and her [...]
Mar. 23, 2019: 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, March 23, 2019. (A second tour will be offered on April 13, 2019.) 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 ($44 for [...]
How Should Chicago be Governed?
Chicago City Hall. [Image from Butterworth, Hezekiah Zigzag Journeys in the White City (Estes and Lauriat, 1894).] With the election for a new Mayor of Chicago on the horizon, citizens are demanding cleaner streets, a crackdown on crime and vice, and safer public transportation. The year was 1893. The mayoral election of the spring of 1893 would decide who would become the “World’s Fair Mayor” as the city prepared for the May 1 opening of the World’s Columbian Exposition. Bartow Adolphus Ulrich (1840-1930) had some thoughts on the direction the host city should take and published his views [...]
Fair Floor Faces Foggy Future
A parquet floor in the William Witten Home in Highland Park, Illinois, came from the 1893 World’s Fair. [Image from the William Witten Home Facebook page.] Will an impending wrecking ball spare a rare craftsman floor from the 1893 World’s Fair? Following a story last year from the Chicago Tribune, CBS-2 Chicago reports that the William Walter Witten Home, at 1014 Central Avenue in Highland Park, Illinois, could be torn down soon. William Witten "was a talented woodworker," notes CBS "and created the parquet dance floor that was a prize-winner at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.” [...]
“Frederick Douglass’s Defiant Stand at Chicago’s World’s Fair”
February 14 is often listed as the birthday of Frederick Douglass, who late in life served as the Commissioner of the Haitian Republic. Daniel Hautzinger writes in “Frederick Douglass's Defiant Stand at Chicago's World's Fair” (WTTW, February 14, 2018) that “Frederick Douglass never knew the date of his own birth, or even how old he was … But the famous abolitionist and orator eventually chose to celebrate his birthday on February 14, determining that he was probably born 200 years ago, in 1818. So when Douglass served as the most prominent representative of African Americans at the 1893 World’s [...]
“Devil in the White City” to be a Hulu Mini Series
One man built a dream city on the shores of Lake Michigan, attracting tens of millions of visitors from around the world. Another built a nightmare hotel in a neighborhood near the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Erik Larson entwined the true stories of architect Daniel H. Burnham and serial killer H. H. Holmes into a fascinating narrative in his 2003 bestseller The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair That Changed America. Twelve years after Paramount acquired the film rights to adapt Larson’s book into a film, the project is now moving [...]
Finding the Fair at the Field
In terms of quantity and quality, one of the greatest collections of objects from the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition resides in the Field Museum in Chicago. The permanent collection is a treasure trove of unique and fascinating items from the 1893 Exposition. We visited the museums several times recently to take in some of the temporary exhibits having World’s Fair materials on display and share a few photos here. Beyond Bollywood: Indian Americans Shape the Nation ran from July 29, 2017, through January 7, 2018. The exhibit, created by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center and the Smithsonian Institution [...]
THE LADY OF THE LAKE by Julian Hawthorne Part IV: The Incomparable Loveliness of the Illuminations
Author Julian Hawthorne visited the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Like so many other visitors who recorded their impressions of visiting the World’s Fair, he offered some of his highest praise for the electrical lighting of the night scene in the Dream City, a “banquet of royal beauty.” Reprinted below is the fourth and final part of Julian Hawthorne’s “The Lady of the Lake” about his June visit to the fairgrounds and published in the August 1893 issue of Lippincott’s Magazine. The previous installment can be found in Part I, Part II, and Part III. THE LADY OF [...]
THE LADY OF THE LAKE by Julian Hawthorne Part III: Curiosities of the Midway Plaisance
Author Julian Hawthorne visited the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Reprinted below is the third part of Julian Hawthorne’s “The Lady of the Lake” about his June visit to the fairgrounds and published in the August 1893 issue of Lippincott’s Magazine. The previous installments can be found in Part I and Part II. [NOTE: By today’s standards, some of Hawthorne’s remarks about the Midway Plaisance and citizens of the international villages sound racist. It was not uncommon for commentators of this era to describe Asian and African displays at the Fair as “savage,” “uncivilized,” or “dirty” (Hawthorne repeats this [...]
THE LADY OF THE LAKE by Julian Hawthorne Part II: A Pure Delight of the Soul
Author Julian Hawthorne visited the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Reprinted below is the second part of Julian Hawthorne’s “The Lady of the Lake” about his June visit to the fairgrounds and published in the August 1893 issue of Lippincott’s Magazine. Part 1 can be found here. THE LADY OF THE LAKE by Julian Hawthorne The Palace of Fine Arts depicted in “Art Palace from the Southwest” by the Poole Brothers. [Image from Vistas of the Fair (Poole Bros., 1894).] I am unqualified to judge as to the comparative excellence or deficiency of any particular display. But [...]