RECENT POSTS ABOUT THE HISTORY OF THE COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION’S BUILDING, FAIRGROUNDS, EXHIBITS, EVENTS, AND PEOPLE.
Opening Day, Part 5: Invocation by the Blind Chaplain
Invocation by the Blind Chaplain This is Part 5 of our series “Opening Day of the World’s Fair,” which explores the events of May 1, 1893, at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The full series can be found here. At the conclusion of the performance of the “Columbian March” by the Exposition Orchestra, Director-General George R. Davis approached the front of the platform. He lifted his hand and commanded silence from the vast audience, to which there was instant obedience. He said: "According to the official program for to-day's exercises, I have the pleasure of introducing the Rev. [...]
Opening Day, Part 4: Paine’s “Columbian March”
Paine’s “Columbian March” This is Part 4 of our series “Opening Day of the World’s Fair,” which explores the events of May 1, 1893, at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The full series can be found here. The Exposition Orchestra Under the main arch of the Administration Building, and in front of a great sounding board, sat the 150 musicians* of the Exposition Orchestra, under the baton of conductor Theodore Thomas. The grandstand beneath them filled with more than 2000 invited guests and dignitaries, from the President of the United States and his cabinet to the Mayor of [...]
Opening Day, Part 3: A Sea of Humanity
A Sea of Humanity This is Part 3 of our series “Opening Day of the World’s Fair,” which explores the events of May 1, 1893, at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The full series can be found here. As the procession of the President of the United States began its march south on Michigan Avenue, thousands of people in downtown Chicago began forming their own spontaneous parade to the World’s Fair. Everyone on West Madison Street and North Clark Street were going in one direction. When this great tempest reached the center of the city, it divided into [...]
Opening Day, Part 2: Presidential Procession to the Fairgrounds
Presidential Procession to the Fairgrounds This is Part 2 of our series “Opening Day of the World’s Fair,” which explores the events of May 1, 1893, at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The full series can be found here. Finely decorated with flags and bunting The Auditorium Building, where the Duke of Vergua stayed. [Image from the Rijksmueum, Amsterdam.] On the morning of Opening Day of the 1893 World’s Fair, the center of attraction in downtown Chicago was the Auditorium hotel. Built four years earlier by the architectural firm of Adler and Sullivan, the majestic Auditorium stands [...]
Opening Day, Part 1: Morning on the Fairgrounds
Morning on the Fairgrounds This is Part 1 of our series “Opening Day of the World’s Fair,” which explores the events of May 1, 1893, at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The full series can be found here. The day of days dawned with gray skies. Jupiter Pluvius, giver of rain, held an uplifted threatening fist over Chicago this morning. Throughout the city, bunting hung to celebrate the opening of the World’s Fair sagged, damp and listless. A bleak and chilled mist filled the air, and a general tone of gloom pervaded the streets. The sun, as if [...]
Opening Day, Introduction: Chicago’s Day of Days
Chicago’s Day of Days May 1, 1893 "Opening of the World's Fair" [Image from the Library of Congress.] The day of days had arrived in Chicago. After winning the bid to host the World’s Columbian Exposition, months of searching to select Jackson Park as the site of the fairgrounds, the death of the lead architect, two years of constructing a White City on the shores of Lake Michigan, damaging winter storms, delays and setbacks, and a Dedication Day ceremony the previous October… Chicago was ready to open her doors to the world. To say that the Opening Day [...]
A Google Doodle for the Columbian Exposition’s 125th Anniversary?
During the centennial of the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1993, Google did not exist. How times have changed. The main Google search page usually features a “Google Doodle.” These temporary re-designs of the iconic Google logo commemorate people, events, holidays, and other notable anniversaries of the day. Clicking the image takes browsers to more information on the subject of the doodle. Since the practice began in 1998, Google has honored several people associated with the 1893 World’s Fair. Doodles have recognized the birthday anniversaries of Frank Lloyd Wright on June 8, 2005, Nikola Tesla on July 10, 2009, George [...]
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR – The French Statue of the Republic (p. 47)
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS Page 47 – THE FRENCH STATUE OF THE REPUBLIC THE FRENCH STATUE OF THE REPUBLIC.—The majestic gilded figure which stood at the east end of the great basin in the court of Honor, and which typified the nation inviting her sisters of the world, was not the only representative statue of a Republic to be seen at the Exposition. On the east side of the broad thoroughfare known as Columbia Avenue, in the Manufactures Building, and facing the main portal of the French display, stood the heroic statue representing the [...]
A Visitor from Maine
First-hand accounts of visitors to the Columbian Exposition can provide a fascinating and unique perspective on the great World’s Fair of 1893. Freelance writer Dave Sargent writes in the April 13, 2018, issue of the Lewiston (Maine) Sun Journal about his grandmother’s visit to Chicago in July of 1893. She recorded her accounts in a personal journal and had her story published in a newspaper many years later. The Maine State Building, as depicted on the cover of the September 6, 1893, issue of the Chicago Inter Ocean Illustrated Supplement. Hattie Field Sargent and her cousin, both 19-year-old [...]
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR – The German Castle (p. 46)
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS Page 46 – THE GERMAN CASTLE THE GERMAN CASTLE.—The most notable feature of the German Village in Midway Plaisance was, assuredly, the German Castle, a manner of structure with which very few save foreign visitors were at, all familiar. It bore little resemblance to the ideal fortress of the Middle Ages, even to those upon the Rhine whence robber barons descended upon passing bodies of traders or to make war upon rival lords. The castle was a specimen of South German architecture especially and was surrounded by a fosse and [...]