RECENT POSTS ABOUT THE HISTORY OF THE COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION’S BUILDING, FAIRGROUNDS, EXHIBITS, EVENTS, AND PEOPLE.
Japanese Vase from 1893 World’s Fair Was Hiding in Plain Sight
A rare Japanese vase made especially for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago has been hiding in plain sight in a California restaurant, reports the Chicago Tribune. The beautiful piece of World's Fair history will go up for auction next month. The recently identified Japanese vase from the 1893 World’s Fair, showing a dragon (symbolizing China) over waves. The vase decorated Spenger’s Fish Grotto in Berkeley, California, for many years. [Image courtesy Clars Auction Gallery.] Dragon in the Restaurant For many years, the 8-foot-tall vase featuring the images of a dragon and a plover above waves [...]
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR – The East India Building (p. 73)
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS Page 73 – THE EAST INDIA BUILDING THE EAST INDIA BUILDING.—Through the result of private enterprise instead of being strictly a governmental affair, the East India Building was representative, both as to exterior and contents, and was counted one of the most graceful of its group. It was eighty feet long, sixty feet wide and sixty feet in height, and had one large room surrounded by a gallery, the whole lighted by an extensive skylight. The structure was almost entirely of staff and though built for a foreign company, the [...]
Winter 2018 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 Winter 2018 Trivia Question Which state building on the fairgrounds was surmounted by a 9-foot elk with antlers measuring ten feet from tip to tip? A. Idaho B. Montana C. Wyoming D. Nevada The winner of the Winter 2018 Trivia Question is R.S. from Wheaton, IL, who knew the answer is B. White & Igleheart's World's Columbian Exposition Chicago 1893 (P. W. Ziegler, 1893) describes the unique Montana Building [...]
Columbian Exposition Books from 2018
The 125th anniversary year of the World’s Columbian Exposition offered scholarship, images, and fiction relating to the World’s Fair in several new publications in 2018. Pioneers of Promotion: How Press Agents for Buffalo Bill, P. T. Barnum, and the World’s Columbian Exposition Created Modern Marketing by Joe Dobrow. University of Oklahoma Press. Communications professional and business history writer Joe Dobrow traces the origins of modern American marketing by shining the spotlight on three men: pioneers of promotion John M. Burke of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show, Tody Hamilton of the Barnum & Bailey Circus, and Moses P. Handy of [...]
“A city of ivory palaces, embodying architectural dreams.” George R. Davis introduces the 1893 World’s Fair
Today marks the anniversary of the birth on January 3, 1840, of George R. Davis, Director-General of the World’s Columbian Exposition. The article below by comes from The World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893 by Trumbull White and William Igleheart. J. W. Ziegler, 1893. _________________________________________________________________________ INTRODUCTION By Col. George R. Davis, Director-General of the Exposition. When the gates of the World's Columbian Exposition have been finally closed it will be time enough to impress its lessons upon the world. To attempt to do so now would be premature, and perhaps misleading. But since its glories have been unveiled to the [...]
White City Archaeologist Featured in January 2019 issue of Chicago Magazine
The January 2019 issue of Chicago magazine features an article about the first official archaeological dig at the site of the 1893 World’s Columbian exposition. In “Stories in the Dirt,” Anne Ford interviews Rebecca Graff, Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Chair of the American Studies Program at Lake Forest College. Graff reflects on her personal connection to the 1893 World’s Fair and surmises on the historical artifacts possibly buried beneath the future site of the Obama Presidential Center.
“The Fairest of Them All” in the Fall/Winter issue of The Newberry Magazine
The Fall/Winter 2018 issue of the Newberry Magazine, a publication of the Newberry Library in Chicago, features an article on the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. “The Fairest of Them All” by Alex Teller describes impressions of the 1893 World’s Fair by visitors and the use of images to promote and remember the Fair, as featured in the Library’s fall exhibition, “Pictures from an Exposition: Visualizing the 1893 World’s Fair.” The Newberry Magazine is sent to members of the Library (Newberry Associates).
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR – The Algerian Theatre (p. 72)
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS Page 72 – THE ALGERIAN THEATER THE ALGERIAN THEATRE.—The Algerian and Tunisian Village, in which the theatre was the chief attraction, was situated near the center of the Midway Plaisance and adjoining the Street in Cairo. The frontage, as may be seen in the illustration, was not remarkably pretentious, but the main building inside had a Moorish dome with towers and minarets, and its exterior was covered with the rich-hued glazed tiles of Tunis and Algiers, as, in fact, were most of the buildings. 'I here were a Moorish cafe, [...]
Sonneberg’s Santa Claus Visits the 1893 World’s Fair
Although the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition ran during the warm months of May through October, a touch of Christmas could be found on the fairgrounds. Nestled in the northwest corner of the German Pavilion inside the Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building (Section F, 77-79), the toy manufacturers of Sonneberg, Germany, featured a lovely display of toys and dolls filling an ornate carriage and topped by a Christmas tree. A photograph of the German toy exhibit in the Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building. [Image from Shepp's World's Fair Photographed (Globe Bible Publishing Co., 1893).] Mecca of the child's [...]
Feb. 13, 2019: “The Black Presence at the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893” Newberry Seminar (Chicago)
Chicago’s Newberry Library will offer a six-week seminar on “The Black Presence at the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893,” to be held from 5:45-7:45 pm on Wednesdays starting on February 13 and ending on March 20, 2019. Led by Christopher Reed, Professor Emeritus of History at Roosevelt University, the seminar examines the role of African Americans in the World’s Fair with the aim of questioning the narrative established by the pamphlet The Reason Why the Colored American Is Not in The World’s Columbian Exposition. Reed is the author of "All the World Is Here!": The Black Presence at White City [...]