Reprinters Row
A collection of reprinted texts and images
from the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR – The New York Building (p. 69)
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS Page 69 – THE NEW YORK BUILDING THE NEW YORK BUILDING.—Ranking nearly with that of Illinois, the New York Building was probably first in point of originality of light design and unique attractiveness of interior. It occupied a space two hundred and fourteen feet in length by one hundred and forty-two in depth, and was not quite one hundred feet [...]
Chicago Mayor DeWitt Cregier Agitates for a World’s Fair
DeWitt Clinton Cregier (June 1, 1829 - November 9, 1898) was Chicago’s 31st mayor--serving from 1889 to 1891--and the first of several “World’s Fair” mayors. “The New York Orphan Who Built Chicago,” Cregier got the ball rolling only a few months into his term by organizing the civic meeting to build the proposal for Chicago to host the Columbian Exposition. The article reprinted below, from The Illustrated World’s Fair, [...]
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR – Machinery Hall (p. 68)
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS Page 68 – MACHINERY HALL MACHINERY HALL.—One of the most elaborate structures of the Columbian Exposition, Machinery Hall, or the Palace of Mechanic Art as it was termed officially, fully justified by its general effect the attention paid to ornamental details. The genius who achieved the lesser thing so well did not fail in the greater. Located at the south [...]
End of an Epoch: October 30, 1893
October 30, 1893 was Closing Day of the World's Columbian Exposition. "The end came at sunset. The great Columbian Exposition faded as quietly and sadly as an autumn day, and when the belching cannon had sent a score of shots to heaven and pelted the domes and pinnacles with a million echoes the giant had died." --from “End of an Epoch” The Chicago Herald, October 31, 1893, p.1 [...]
The Dying Scene of this Magnificent Exposition: Mayor Carter Harrison’s Final Speech
World’s Columbian Exposition celebrated “American Cities Day” on Saturday, October 28, 1893, two days before the close of the Fair. Chicago’s Mayor, Carter Harrison, hosted what was thought to be the largest congregation of U.S. mayors ever assembled. Greeting the guests as they arrived on the fairgrounds on the bitterly cold day was the blast of a cannon and musical fanfares from a group of sixteen trumpeters stationed around [...]
Remembering Sophia Hayden, architect of the Woman’s Building
Today marks the anniversary of the birth of Sophia Gregoria Hayden on October 17, 1868, in Santiago, Chile. The first female graduate of the four-year program in architecture at MIT, Hayden won the national competition to design the Woman’s Building for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. In her essay on the Woman’s Pavilion, Anna Burrows observes that “due to its limited dimensions, Sophia Hayden deemed it more effective to [...]
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR – The Whaleback, “Christopher Columbus” (p. 67)
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS Page 67 – THE WHALEBACK, "CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS." THE WHALEBACK, "CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS."—The steamboat company accorded the privilege of controlling the passenger traffic by water between the central part of Chicago and the Fair Grounds had a number of boats in its service but none to compare either in size or speed with the "Christopher Columbus,' popularly known as the "Whale-back." The [...]
Remembering Harlow Higinbotham, President of the World’s Columbian Exposition
Today we mark the birthday of Harlow Niles Higinbotham (October 10, 1838 – April 18, 1919), who served as the third President of the World’s Columbian Exposition Company, following terms of Lyman J. Gage and William T. Baker. The quote below, reprinted in Harriet Monroe’s Harlow Niles Higinbotham: A Memoir with Brief Autobiography and Extracts from Speeches and Letters (R.F. Seymour, 1920) came from a speech that Higinbotham made [...]
October 9, 1893. Could it be possible that 754,000 were assembled together to celebrate a peaceful event?
October 9, 1893, was “the greatest gathering in history” and the “grandest spectacle in modern times.” Chicago Day at the 1893 World’s Fair shattered all previous attendance records with 713,646 paid admissions to the Fair and over three-quarters of a million of people inside the gates of the White City. The event commemorated the night of October 9, 1871, when the Great Fire ripped through downtown Chicago. Having risen [...]
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR – The Santa Maria (p. 66)
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS Page 66 – THE SANTA MARIA THE SANTA MARIA.—The duplicate of the flagship of Columbus, the famous "Santa Maria,” had many thousands of visitors as she lay in Lake Michigan, just in front of the grounds, one of the most interesting of all the Exposition's attractions. The hosts who boarded her and examined her every part, accustomed as they were [...]
REPRINT SERIES
Picturesque World’s Fair: An Elaborate Collection of Colored Views (W. B. Conkey Company. 1894)