RECENT POSTS ABOUT THE HISTORY OF THE COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION’S BUILDING, FAIRGROUNDS, EXHIBITS, EVENTS, AND PEOPLE.
June 2018 Trivia Question
Our monthly newsletter includes a “Palmer Puzzler” exclusive to those who subscribe. The first person to send us the correct answer wins a small prize. The June 2018 Trivia Question When the Ferris Wheel attraction finally opened, on June 21, 1893, which musical group performed in one of the cars for the inaugural rotation? A. the Iowa State Band B. the Exposition Orchestra C. the Irish Village choir D. John Philip Sousa’s band The winner of the June 2018 Trivia Question is B.W., who knew the answer is A. Although the other three musical groups performed regularly during the [...]
Iowa State Band Performs on Inaugural Spin of the Ferris Wheel
The great Ferris Wheel opened to the public on June 21, 1893. Though more than a month late (the fair opened on May 1), the wheel became one of the most popular attraction of the World’s Columbian Exposition. Some 2,000 spectators gathered on the Midway Plaisance for the opening ceremony. The festivities began at 3 pm with speeches by Robert W. Hunt, President of the Ferris Wheel Company; George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr., engineer and designer of the metal monster, and General Nelson A. Miles. Mrs. Ferris then presented a golden whistle to her husband, which he blew at [...]
Cephalopod Week Visits the 1893 World’s Fair
“Cephalopod Week” on NPR’s Science Friday celebrates the “amazing, adaptive, and sometimes creepy” family of sea creatures that includes the squid, octopus, cuttlefish and nautilus. Among the wonders of the 1893 Word's Fair lurked several tentacled delights. Armed with sucking disks on its tentacles Visitors to the 1893 World’s Fair could view cephalopods inside Henry Ives Cobb’s beautiful Fisheries Building. Trumball White and William Igleheart’s World's Columbian Exposition Chicago 1893 (P. W. Ziegler, 1893) describes some of the attractions inside Fisheries: The inhabitants of two-thirds of the earth's surface, as well as of the air, are here in almost [...]
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR – Facade of the French Section (p. 54)
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS Page 54 – THE FACADE OF THE FRENCH SECTION FACADE OF THE FRENCH SECTION.—Among the various magnificent national displays made in the Manufactures Building that of France ranked with the greatest, either exteriorly considered or with regard to the works and products on exhibition. The section was on the east side of the north and south thoroughfare, known as Columbia Avenue, and at its junction with the main division east and west, France occupying the southeast corner diagonally across from Germany. The illustration gives the facade and portal of the [...]
A Flag for the Fair
In 1893, the U.S. flag sported forty-four stars for the forty-four states of the union. Flag Day marks the anniversary of adoption of the United States flag on June 14, 1777. An official holiday (though not a federal holiday) since 1946, Flag Day commemorations emerged in the 1880s. Apparently there were no Flag Day observances at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition on June 14, though. In honor of "Old Glory," we offer this article from the November 1893 issue of World's Columbian Exposition Illustrated, describing one interesting and significant U.S. flag that appeared in several 1893 World’s [...]
“Nicodemus” in Las Vegas is a Virtual Reality Fair Fright
Electricity at the World's Fair, on the set of the new virtual-reality adventure "Nicodemus" in Las Vegas. The demon Nicodemus is on the loose in the old fairgrounds of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. That is, if you are inside of a new virtual-reality attraction in Las Vegas. The VOID at Grand Canal Shoppes in the Venetian/The Palazzo resort (3377 South Las Vegas Boulevard) in Las Vegas has opened an immersive walk-around adventure game called Nicodemus Demon of Evanishment, based on the 1893 World’s Fair. The describe the attraction this way: In the summer of 1893, the World’s [...]
“Devil in the White City” is top-10 Illinois Book
Erik Larson’s 2003 best-selling book The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America ignited a passion for the 1893 World’s Fair in countless readers. The title recently earned a spot in the list of top-10 books with links to Illinois. Larson’s historical non-fiction thriller tells parallel stories about the monumental efforts of Daniel Burnham to build the White City in Jackson Park and the monstrous exploits of serial killer H. H. Holmes in a nearby neighborhood and beyond. Earning the top spot on the list was the beloved 1900 children’s book, The [...]
Columbian Exposition Stamp Collecting … and Complaints
Of the many “firsts” associated with the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, the issuing of the first commemorative postage stamps by the United States Post Office became philatelic history. The set of sixteen stamps are among the most sought-after by collectors of stamps and Columbiana. In the winter of 1892, Postmaster-General John Wanamaker reported on the Columbian series: The introduction of the Columbian series of postage stamps will contribute in a marked way to the great recognition given by the Government of the United States to the Columbian Exposition, and they will create for it, both in this country and [...]
June 21, 2018: Celebrating the 125th Anniversary of the Ferris Wheel in Chicago and Santa Monica
UPDATE 6/21/2018: Navy Pier has cancelled this event: https://navypier.org/event/125th-anniversary-ferris-wheel/ The great Ferris Wheel opened to the public on Thursday June 21, 1893, at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Marking this anniversary will be celebrations of the Ferris Wheel at two of America’s most famous piers. Chicago’s Navy Pier and Santa Monica Pier will each commemorate George Washington Gale Ferris Jr.’s famous feat of engineering, which reached 264 feet into the sky above the Midway Plaisance. The festivities at Navy Pier will include free rides on their 196-foot-tall Centennial Wheel for the first 1,893 registered guests; RSVP here. Starting at [...]
Yachting to the World’s Fair
Visitors traveled to the 1893 World’s Fair by train, boat, carriage, horse, bicycle, and even by foot (sometimes very long distances). Below is an annotated excerpt from “Going to the Fair” in the June 1893 issue of Current Literature, in which the author describes the route to travel by yacht from New York to the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. “The Water Route” Certainly for the man who owns a boat capable of making the journey, no more delightful trip can be conceived than to sail through the Sound, stop off at Newport, coast along Massachusetts and Maine shores, and [...]