The Columbian Exposition Research Library

Non-fiction books and research articles

about the 1893 World’s Fair

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BOOKS ABOUT THE 1893 WORLD’S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION: a select bibliography

• Appelbaum, Stanley The Chicago World’s Fair of 1893: A Photographic Record. Dover, 1980. Amazon
• Appelbaum, Stanley Spectacle in the White City: The Chicago 1893 World’s Fair. Calla Editions, 2009. Amazon.
• Axe, John; Wetherhold, Faye S. (Eds.) World’s Columbian Exposition Revisited, Chicago 1893-1993. United Federation of Doll Clubs, Inc. 1993. Amazon.
• Badger, Reid R. The Great American Fair: The World’s Columbian Exposition and American Culture. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1979. Amazon.
• Beck, David R. M. Unfair Labor?: American Indians and the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. University of Nebraska Press, 2019. Amazon / Bookshop
• Bigler, Brian J. The Norway Building of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair: A building’s journey from Norway to America: an architectural legacy. Little Norway, 1992. Amazon.
• Blades, John M; Loring, John Tiffany at the World’s Columbian Exposition. Flagler Museum, 2006. Amazon.
• Bolotin, Norman and Christine Laing The World’s Columbian Exposition: The Chicago World’s Fair of 1893. Preservation Press, 1992. Amazon / Bookshop
• Bolotin, Norman with Christine Laing Chicago’s Grand Midway: A Walk around the World at the Columbian Exposition. University of Illinois Press, 2017. Amazon / Bookshop
• Bradley, Stuart Van Leer 1893 Chicago Midway Playing Cards & History of the World’s Fair Card Deck. Railway Station Press, 2020.
• Brown, Julie K. Contesting Images : Photography and the Worlds Columbian Exposition. University of Arizona Press, 1994. Amazon.
• Burg, David F.  Chicago’s White City of 1893. University Press of Kentucky, 1976 (reprinted 2009). Amazon.
• Bullard, Thomas R. The Columbian Intramural Railway: A Pioneer Elevated Line. Thomas R. Bullard, 1987. Amazon.
• Bussler, Mark The World’s Fair of 1893: Ultra Massive Photographic Adventure. 2017. Amazon.
• Bussler, Mark The White City of Color: 1893 World’s Fair. 2017. Amazon.
• Charles River Editors The Black and White City: The History of Racism and Race Relations at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. CreateSpace, 2016. Amazon.
• Chaudhuri, Asim Swami Vivekananda in Chicago: New Findings, 2005. Amazon.
• Corn, Wanda M. Women Building History: Public Art at the 1893 Columbian Exposition. University of California Press, 2011. Amazon / Bookshop
• Cummings, Scott D.; Hercey, Randall T. Denslow at the Fair: Illustrations of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition by W. W. Denslow for the Chicago Herald. 2017.
• Danzer, Gerald A. The World’s Columbian Exposition, 1893: Reconstructing the Geography of Chicago’s World’s Fair by Way of a Fire Insurance Atlas. Chicago Map Society, 2014.
• Di Cola, Joseph M.; Stone, David Chicago’s 1893 World’s Fair (Images of America series). Arcadia Publishing, 2012. Amazon.
• Dobrow, Joe Pioneers of Promotion: How Press Agents for Buffalo Bill, P. T. Barnum, and the World’s Columbian Exposition Created Modern Marketing. University of Oklahoma Press, 2018. Amazon / Bookshop
• Doolin, James P. 1893 Columbian Exposition Admission and Concession Tickets. J.P. Doolin, 1981. Amazon.
• Downey, Dennis B. A Season of Renewal: The Columbian Exposition and Victorian America. Praeger, 2001. Amazon.
• Durcia, Paul; Savage, Bill Chicago By Day and Night: The Pleasure Seeker’s Guide to the Paris of America. Northwestern University Press, 2013. Amazon.
• Dybwad, G. L.; Bliss, Joy V. Chicago Day at the World’s Columbian Exposition: Illustrated with Candid Photographs. The Book Stops Here, 1997.
• Dybwad, G. L.; Bliss, Joy V. White City Recollections: The Illustrated 1893 Diary of a Trip to the World’s Columbian Exposition. The Book Stops Here, 2003. Amazon.
• Eglit, Nathan N. Columbiana; The Medallic History of Christopher Columbus and the Columbian Exposition of 1893. Nathan N. Eglit, 1963.
• Extraordinary Marketing of Ohio Maple Sugar and Syrup The Story of The 1893 World’s Fair and Other Contemporary Exhibitions. Geauga County Historical Society, 2018.
• Finney, Michael 1893 Chicago’s Columbian Exposition: Arts and Culture on the Doorstep of the 20th Century. Independently published, 2019. Amazon.
• Gale, Neil The Midway Plaisance at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Lulu, 2017. Amazon / Bookshop
• Gifford, Daniel The Last Voyage of the Whaling Bark Progress: New Bedford, Chicago and the Twilight of an Industry. McFarland Press, 2020. Amazon
• Gilbert, James Burkhart Perfect Cities: Chicago’s Utopias of 1893. University of Chicago Press, 1991. Amazon.
• Graff, Rebecca Disposing of Modernity: The Archaeology of Garbage and Consumerism during Chicago’s 1893 World’s Fair. University Press of Florida, 2020. Amazon
• Grandin, Madame Leon A Parisienne in Chicago: Impressions of the World’s Columbian Exposition. University of Illinois Press, 2010. Amazon.
• Grundy, Mercedes and Patrick Montgomery An Image of Jamaica: Examining Photographs by Valentine & Sons at the World’s Columbian Exposition. Archive Farms, 2011. WorldCat
• Gustaitis, Joseph Chicago’s Greatest Year 1893: The White City and the Birth of a Modern Metropolis. Southern Illinois University Press, 2013. Amazon.
• Hagy, Jim and Sage Fair Tricks: The Magicians at the Columbian Exposition, Chicago 1893. Reginald Scot Books, 2019.
• Hales, Peter B. Constructing the Fair, Platinum Photographs By C. D. Arnold of the World’s Columbian Exposition. Art Institute of Chicago, 1993. Amazon.
• Harding, John Mahāyāna Phoenix: Japan’s Buddhists at the 1893 World’s Parliament of Religions. Peter Lang Inc., 2008. Amazon.
• Harris, Neil, et al. Grand Illusions: Chicago’s World’s Fair of 1893. Chicago Historical Society, 1993. Amazon.
• Hayashi, Tadamasa Twelve Bronze Falcons Exhibited at the World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago 1893. Tokyo, 1893. WorldCat
• Hinsley, Curtis M.; Wilcox, David R. (Eds.) Coming of Age in Chicago: The 1893 World’s Fair and the Coalescence of American Anthropology. University of Nebraska Press, 2016. Amazon.
• Hollweg, Brenda Ausgestellte Welt: Formationsprozesse Kultureller Identitat in Den Texten Zur Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition (1893). Universitatsverlag Winter, 2021. Amazon.
• Jones, Lois Stodieck The Ferris Wheel. Grace Dangberg Foundation, 1984. Amazon.
• Kirkpatrick, Diane The Fair View: Representations of the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893. The Terra Museum, 1993.
• Klasey, Jack The Prince of Wheelwrights: George Ferris and his Great Wheel. Looking Back Publications, 2021. Amazon.
• Koppel, Ellen Metrie From the Mountain to the Midway. Ellen Metrie Koppel, 2023. Amazon.
• Lancaster, Clay The Incredible World’s Parliament of Religions at the Chicago Columbian Exposition of 1893: A Comparative and Critical Study. Open Gate Press, 1987. Amazon.
• Larson, Erik The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America. Crown, 2003. Amazon
• Lewis, Arnold An Early Encounter with Tomorrow: Europeans, Chicago’s Loop, and the World’s Columbian Exposition. University of Illinois Press, 1997. Amazon
• Lewis, Russell Historic Photos of the Chicago World’s Fair. Turner, 2010. Amazon.
• Lewis, Russell Remembering the Chicago World’s Fair. Turner, 2011. Amazon.
• Maddux, Kristy Practicing Citizenship: Women’s Rhetoric at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. Penn State University Press, 2019. Amazon.
• McGlothlin, Chris A. World’s Fair Spoons: Volume I: The World’s Columbian Exposition. Chris a McGlothlin, 1985.
• Mickoski, Howdie Exposing The Expositions 1851-1915: Ancient Rome in America? Howard Mickoski, 2019. Amazon / Bookshop
• Muccigrosso, Robert Celebrating the New World: Chicago’s Columbian Exposition of 1893. Ivan R. Dee, 1993. Amazon
• National Museum of American Art Revisiting the White City: American Art at the 1893 World’s Fair. National Museum of American Art, 1993. Amazon.
• Norman, Mike It Wasn’t Rocket Science: A Family Quest for the Truth. Firstintheworld, 2023. Amazon
• Ormos, Istvan Cairo in Chicago: Cairo Street at the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893. French Institute of Oriental Archeology, 2021. Amazon.
• Reed, Christopher Robert All the World is Here!: The Black Presence at White City. Indiana University Press, 2000. Amazon.
• Reid Neilson Exhibiting Mormonism: The Latter-day Saints and the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair (Religion in America series). Oxford University Press, 2011. Amazon.
• Rosenberg, Chaim M. America at the Fair: Chicago’s 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. Arcadia Publishing, 2008. Amazon.
• Rossen, Howard M. Columbian World’s Fair Collectibles, Chicago (1892-1893). Wallace-Homestead Book Co, 1976. Amazon.
• Rydell, Robert W. All the World’s A Fair: Visions of Empire at American International Expositions, 1876-1916. University of Chicago Press, 1984. Amazon
• Rydell, Robert W.; John E. Findling, and Kimberly D. Pelle  Fair America: World’s Fairs in the United States. Smithsonian Institution Press, 2000. Amazon / Bookshop
• Shaw, Marian World’s Fair Notes: A Woman Journalist Views Chicago’s 1893 Columbian Exposition. Pogo Press, 1992. Amazon.
• Smith, Duane A.; Vendl, Karen A.; Vendl; Mark A. Colorado Goes to the Fair: World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893. University of New Mexico Press, 2011. Amazon / Bookshop
• Snodgrass, Judith Presenting Japanese Buddhism to the West : Orientalism, Occidentalism, and the Columbian Exposition. University of North Carolina Press, 2003. Amazon / Bookshop
• Stendel, Robert C. Koehler-Girsch Expo Views & Plating UX10. R.C. Stendel, 1994.
• Tsenes-Hills, Temple I Am the Utterance of My Name: Black Victorian Feminist Discourse and Intellectual Enterprise at the Columbian Exposition, 1893. iUniverse, Inc., 2006. Amazon.
• Wadsworth, Sarah; Wiegand, Wayne A. Right Here I See My Own Books: The Woman’s Building Library at the World’s Columbian Exposition. Univ of Massachusetts Press, 2012. Amazon.
• Walter, David Today Then: America’s Best Minds Look 100 Years into the Future on the Occasion of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. Farcountry Press, 1992. Amazon.
• Watkins, F. L. By Whale Road to the World’s Fair: A Viking Drakkar’s Adventures At the Columbian Exposition in 1893. Folump Enterprises, 2008. Amazon.
• Webster, Sally Eve’s Daughter/Modern Woman: A Mural by Mary Cassatt. University of Illinois Press, 2004. Amazon.
• Weingardt, Richard G. Circles in the Sky: The Life and Times of George Ferris. ASCE Press, 2009. Amazon.
• Weimann, Jeanne Madeline The Fair Women: The Story of the Woman’s Building at the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893. Chicago Review Press, 1981. Amazon.
• World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 Revised. Toyko National Museum, 1997.
• Wukasch, Kenneth C. Handbook of the Post Cards of the World’s Columbian Exposition. Velocity Direct, 2013.
• Wukasch, Kenneth C. Handbook of the Postal Cards of the World’s Columbian Exposition. United Postal Stationery Society, 2005. Amazon.
• Zwick, Jim Inuit Entertainers in the United States: From the Chicago World’s Fair through the Birth of Hollywood. Infinity Publishing, 2006. Amazon.

For a comprehensive bibliography of contemporary publications, see:

• Bertuca, David J.; Hartman,‎ Donald K.; Neumeister, Susan The World’s Columbian Exposition: A Centennial Bibliographic Guide (Bibliographies and Indexes in American History). Greenwood, 1996. Amazon / Bookshop
• Dybwad, G. L.; Bliss, Joy V. Annotated Bibliography, World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago 1893. The Book Stops Here, 1992. Amazon.
• Dybwad, G. L.; Bliss, Joy V. Annotated Bibliography, World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago 1893: Supplement. The Book Stops Here, 1999. Amazon.