Reprinters Row
A collection of reprinted texts and images
from the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition
A New Yorker’s Feeling of Indignation
Ashbel R. Elliott (1850–1937) founded A. R. Elliott Advertising, one of New York’s first ad agencies, in 1890. After visiting the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, he submitted a letter to the Chicago Inter Ocean on July 20, writing: "I have just returned from four weeks at the World's Fair. Like everyone else whose eyes have beheld its beauty I am enthusiastic. It is a cause for chagrin to be [...]
Humanizing New Yorkers at the Columbian Exposition
Charles Lederer created editorial cartoons and humorous illustrations for the Chicago Herald during the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. He flings some ink at the longstanding feud between Chicago and New York in this proto-comic strip that appeared on the front page of the July 16, 1893, issue. “The Humanizing Effects on a New Yorker—of Eight Hours at the World’s Fair” depicts a Gothamite transitioning from “apprehension” to “exultation,” as [...]
Signals in the Sky Above the White City
On the roof of the Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building of the 1893 World’s Fair were erected several of the most powerful search lights in the world at the time. While usually busy illuminating the fairgrounds each evening, the light rays occasionally were pointed toward distant locales. Historian Rossiter Johnson recorded that “the beam was seen at Milwaukee, eighty-five miles distant, on July 15, 1893, and at Antioch, Ill., [...]
In Praise of the Wondering Crowds at the Columbian Exposition
Abby Frances Hamlin Abbott (1837–1907) was the daughter of Hannibal Hamlin, the 15th Vice President of the United States (1861 to 1865, during President Abraham Lincoln’s first term), and the wife of Rev. Dr. Lyman Abbott, editor of The Outlook. In her “Just Among Ourselves” column in the December 1893 issue of the Ladies’ Home Journal, Mrs. Lyman Abbott extols the comportment and curiosity of Columbian Exposition crowds: Nothing [...]
187. Picturesque World’s Fair – The Vermont Building
THE VERMONT BUILDING.—The building of the State of Vermont was quite unlike any other State Building and, for that matter, quite unlike anything else anywhere. It contained no exhibits but was a sufficient exhibit in itself. It was in the style of architecture made familiar by the excavations at Pompeii. Passing beneath a decorated portal, the visitor entered a paved courtyard, in the center of which was a fountain [...]
186. Picturesque World’s Fair – From the Balcony of the Woman’s Building
FROM THE BALCONY OF THE WOMAN'S BUILDING.—The view afforded from the balcony of the Woman's Building might have been enjoyed by thousands more than was really the case had the broad floor of that balcony been well supplied with seats. For some reason, however, this was not the case, and the many, who in the shade the building afforded in the afternoon might have sat at ease enjoying the [...]
185. Picturesque World’s Fair – Entrance to the French Section in the Manufactures Building
ENTRANCE TO THE FRENCH SECTION IN THE MANUFACTURES BUILDING.—In artistic and elaborate finish, the entrance to the French section in the Manufactures Building would compare favorably with the entrance to the pavilions of any of the great nations in that structure. There was a great porch, which was a semi-dome, supported by Corinthian columns, between which appeared mural paintings of a striking character. The general style of the architecture [...]
184. Picturesque World’s Fair – The Statue of Benjamin Franklin
THE STATUE OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.— It was a natural idea and an appropriate one that the heroic statue of Benjamin Franklin should be the most conspicuous object in the main entrance to the Electricity Building. It was the first time in the history of expositions that a building had been devoted to a display of electrical inventions, and it seemed but right and proper that its approach should be [...]
183. Picturesque World’s Fair – Main Structure and Dome of the Horticulture Building
MAIN STRUCTURE AND DOME OF THE HORTICULTURE BUILDING.—The admirable features of the Horticulture Building's architecture to be considered were lost to the eye of many for the double reason that its chief attractions were near the center and were to an extent lost in a view of the structure as a whole, and that the space between the Horticulture Building and the West Lagoon was but the width of [...]
A nightly scene of fairy-like loveliness: Illumination of the 1893 White City
Many of the most effusive and eloquent descriptions of the fairgrounds of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition focus on the nightly illumination. This electrical spectacle, augmented with flame torches and fireworks, dazzled visitors in Chicago’s Jackson Park. Some cried. Others thought they were glimpsing the heavenly beyond. The luminous poetry seemed like magic, but was actually cutting-edge science. Ponderous steam engines generating some 17,000 horse power drove great dynamos [...]
REPRINT SERIES
Picturesque World’s Fair: An Elaborate Collection of Colored Views (W. B. Conkey Company. 1894)