RECENT POSTS ABOUT THE HISTORY OF THE COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION’S BUILDING, FAIRGROUNDS, EXHIBITS, EVENTS, AND PEOPLE.
Get Your (So-Called) Orange Cider
You’ve just taken the thrill ride of your life—ascending 264 feet into the air on a giant rotating wheel of iron, viewing the expansive fairgrounds of the Columbian Exposition from a perspective intended only for birds, and gently returning to terra firma in a car filled with scores of other passengers. You need a drink. Visitors to the 1893 World’s Fair walking along the Midway may have spotted a little beverage stand tucked underneath the east side of the Ferris Wheel. From this small structure, P. G. Mattox offered “Florida Orange Cider” for 5 cents a glass. A [...]
Weinstein, War, and the White City
The 1893 World’s Fair has made small guest appearances on the big screen and small screen, but has yet to be a major featured setting for a film or television series. The 2005 documentary film EXPO – Magic of the White City, narrated by Gene Wilder, (link to online video) uses still images of the Columbian Exposition along with video footage (oddly chosen, in some cases) to tell the story of the history of the fair. Advances in computer-generated graphics offer filmmakers unprecedented opportunities to recreate the spectacle of the White City, and many Columbian Exposition enthusiasts have been [...]
West Point Cadets’ Encampment on the Fairgrounds
In honor of Veteran’s Day, let’s look back to the summer of 1893, when the 300 young soldiers camped on the grounds of the World’s Fair in Chicago. The West Point Cadets traveled to the Columbian Exposition by train from their home on the Hudson, pulling into Terminal Station in Jackson Park at noon on August 18. Crowds gathered to watch the troops assemble in the plaza. “The battalion was in full dress,” reported the Chicago Tribune, “and with the spotless white waist and cross belts and bright buttons made a fine display.” Once in formation, the cadets marched [...]
C. D. Arnold Gelatin Silver Prints at Nov. 10th Auction
Charles Dudley Arnold served as the official photographer of the 1893 World's Fair. Between 1891 and 1894, he documented the construction of the fairgrounds and operation of the Exposition, capturing spectacular views of architecture, events, and visitors. Some of the most iconic images of the Columbian Exposition came from C. D. Arnold's camera. Sets of his beautiful large-size platinum prints can be found in several library collections, and many of Arnold's photographs are reproduced in Stanley Appelbaum's The Chicago World's Fair of 1893: a Photographic Record (Dover, 1980) and Spectacle in the White City: The Chicago 1893 World's Fair (Calla Editions, 2009). On [...]
Chicago History Museum WCE display updated
The World's Columbian Exposition exhibit at the Chicago History Museum The Chicago History Museum blog post "New Additions to an Old Favorite" reports that the museum's permanent exhibition Chicago: Crossroads of America made some updates this past summer to the section on the 1893 World's Fair, including: an expanded section on activist and author Ida B. Wells, showing her 1893 pamphlet “The Reason Why The Colored American Is Not in the World’s Columbian Exposition,” a new video that includes excerpts from Frederick Douglass’s speech on August 25, 1893, for “Colored American Day,” and two flip books featuring photographs of the exposition [...]
Carter Harrison Played His Part, October 1892
An excerpt from The Illustrated World's Fair Vol. 3, No. 16, October 1892, p. 330: EX-MAYOR CARTER H. HARRISON ON CHICAGO AN ARTICLE BY THE BEST-KNOWN CHICAGOAN. In the middle of an elegant street, well toward the heart of the city of Chicago, stands a dead cottonwood tree. Trunk and branches are bare of bark. It is gnarled and white. Should one cut a cross-section of the trunk he would probably not be able to count a hundred annual rings, for the tree when it died a little while ago was less than a century old ... But today, [...]
1893 World’s Fair trading cards from Topps
Sports card collectors know the name Topps well. The company that has produced countless baseball cards and other sports trading cards, often packaged with a stick of chewing gum, also releases non-sports trading cards. One of their recent "vintage" collector's card lines is an "Allen & Ginter" series, named after the Virginia company that produced the first cigarette trading cards. Topps three Columbian Exposition trading cards from 2017 Earlier this year, Topps released a series of 20 World's Fair cards in the "Allen & Ginter" line. Three of them show color images of the 1893 Columbian Exposition. Card [...]
Nov. 16, 2017: “Making a New American Nutcracker” documentary premiers
The Joffrey Ballet's spectacular new production of The Nutcracker, which Tony Award-winning choreographer Christopher Wheeldon re-imagined taking place on the fairgrounds of the Columbian Exposition in the winter of 1892 (see our other post here), is the subject of a new documentary titled "Making a New American Nutcracker." Produced by Daniel Andries and narrated by actress Neve Campbell, the documentary will premiere on Thursday, November 16, at 8:00 pm on Chicago's WTTW11 and on wttw.com. Other PBS stations may pick up the show for broadcast in December 2017 (check your local listings). BroadwayWorld.com reports that: "'Making a New American Nutcracker' takes [...]
Oct. 28, 2017 (Chicago): White City dinner and drinks at The Reservoir
Enjoy an evening at the White City on Saturday, October 28, with a meal and cocktails inspired by the 1893 World's Fair. The Reservoir, located at 844 West Montrose Avenue in Chicago, will host a Halloween "Devil in the White City" party beginning at 6:30 with cocktails name "White City Devil," "White City Soda" and "Devil's Elixer." A special 1893 World's Fair special dinner is on the menu, followed by a costume context with prizes at 9 pm. Herman Mudgett may or may not be in attendance.
Walking the Fairgrounds
One of my earliest childhood memories was of my family taking a trip up to Chicago. During that adventure out of Central Illinois, we went to the Museum of Science and Industry in Jackson Park. I can vividly recollect several exhibits: a tour through the gigantic plaster beating heart, fixating on the sliced up body used as 'artwork' in a stairwell, gazing at a golden pendulum swinging back and forth in a deep shaft, and viewing a fantasy "Vintage Car of the Future" spinning around on a dais in all its glory. I couldn't believe my eyes and as we turned each corner there [...]