Reprinters Row
A collection of reprinted texts and images
from the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition
300 Minutes at the World’s Columbian Exposition
Tim Donnohue of Knoxville, Tennessee, really wanted to see the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago, but he was very short on time. Mr. Donnohue reportedly left town at noon on Saturday, October 21, and travelled to Chicago. He spent five hours taking in as much as possible of the city and the Columbian Exposition fairgrounds—including three rides on the Ferris Wheel. Those rides alone occupied sixty minutes of his [...]
179 Days at the World’s Columbian Exposition
“I have made up my mind that six months is too short a time for a man to see and study the Fair,” announced Mr. Thomas Carhart in May of 1893. The wealthy Englishman had come to Chicago to squeeze every possible moment out of the great Columbian Exposition. He planned to visit the fairgrounds in Jackson Park every day for the six months the Fair was open! Mr. [...]
175. Picturesque World’s Fair – Canoes on Transportation Day
CANOES ON TRANSPORTATION DAY—Transportation Day was a great day all over the Fair grounds, not merely when the aristocratic blooded horses, with modern turn-outs, jostled lumbering camels and reindeer, and when an ox hitched to a rude cart might have nearly run over a palanquin, but upon the ponds and bayous and the canals, where the odd craft of different races swept along together in fantastic contrast. The scene [...]
174. Picturesque World’s Fair – Interior of the Woman’s Building
INTERIOR OF THE WOMAN'S BUILDING. The interior of the Woman's Building, viewed from the gallery at either end, presented an exceedingly attractive appearance. The great space was admirably lighted from the skylight over the central court, and the objects on display were visible with exceptional distinctness. Very curious and interesting were many these objects, character of which may be at least vaguely discerned in the illustration. A feature of [...]
173. Picturesque World’s Fair – The Idaho Building
THE IDAHO BUILDING.—So attractive and so striking in appearance was the building erected in the Exposition grounds by the Territory of Idaho that before the Fair closed it was sold to an English club to be transported across the ocean and re-erected as a shooting box. The structure reminded one of a Swiss chalet, but was intended in its style and composition to indicate the varied resources of the [...]
The biggest building in the world was at the 1893 Columbian Exposition
How big was the Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building at the 1893 World’s Fair? The MLAB was the largest building in the world and the largest roofed building that had ever erected at that time. The south front of the Manufactures Building at the 1893 World’s Fair. At 787 feet wide, this is the shorter end of the mammoth structure. [Image from Picturesque World’s Fair (W.B. Conkey, 1894); [...]
“Isn’t it hideous?” Cleveland Caricature is a Columbian Claptrap
A flower arrangement made of immortelles (everlastings) at the 1893 World’s Fair intended to depict President Grover Cleveland. The floral display in the Horticultural Building turned heads and turned stomachs. This article in the Chicago Tribune about the “Caricature in Immortelles” included a headline declaring “The Alleged Cleveland Picture in the Horticultural Building an Atrocity.” Under the great dome of the horticultural building, just opposite the main entrance, through [...]
Dyche’s Panorama of North American Mammals at the 1893 World’s Fair
While countless attractions at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition could make a reasonable claim to be the “most interesting” exhibit on the fairgrounds, the article reprinted below awards that honor to the “Exhibit of Large North American Mammals” in the Kansas State Building. Professor Lewis Lindsay Dyche’s unique panorama is one of the few large displays from the 1893 Exposition that remained intact after the close of the Fair. [...]
Bounced from the Beer Garden on the Midway Plaisance
Visitors to the 1893 World’s Fair frequently complained about the behavior of restaurant staff, with claims of their padding the bill of fare to not offering polite service. While venturing into cafes and bars among the various international villages of the Midway Plaisance, guests faced even greater tensions due to language barriers and differences in cultural norms. The Beer Garden in front of the Castle in the German [...]
Homesick in the German Village
The World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 showcased many exciting attractions that were new and unusual to the tens of millions of visitors—electrical devices powered by mammoth dynamos, unfamiliar music and dance from Asian and African cultures, and a giant rotating observation tower. In some instances, though, fairgoers found comfort in the familiar, as in the case of when this immigrant ventured into German Village on the Midway Plaisance and [...]
REPRINT SERIES
Picturesque World’s Fair: An Elaborate Collection of Colored Views (W. B. Conkey Company. 1894)