Columbian Exposition News
The enduring legacy of the 1893 World’s Fair in modern scholarship, education, the arts, creative products, preservation, and other events.
RECENT POSTS ABOUT COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION NEWS
“I’ll take the 1893 World’s Fair for $200, Alex”
Columbian Exposition fan Dorothy McFarland kindly shared with us some screenshots of the episode of Jeopardy that aired on January 17, 2018, which included the Round 1 category "The 1893 Chicago World’s Fair" ("You remember that," adds host Alex Trebek). The contestants did remember the fair, making a clean sweep of the category. Amanda Griggs provided the correct question to the $200 answer: "Illuminated by thousands of light bulbs, [...]
Is Chicago about to ruin Jackson Park? asks the Cultural Landscape Foundation
"Is Chicago about to ruin Jackson Park?" asks Charles A. Birnbaum, President & CEO of the Cultural Landscape Foundation in an opinion piece published this week in The Huffington Post. Birnbaum highlights several major projects affecting the park that in 1893 was home to the Columbian Exposition. Plans for the Obama Presidential Center (OPC) locate it on the west side of Jackson Park lagoon (approximately where the Woman's Building and Horticultural Building [...]
Happy New Year! Happy 125th Anniversary!
Welcome to 2018 Happy New Year to our readers. 2018 marks the 125th anniversary of the 1893 World's Fair, and we look forward to celebrating the year with posts about the history of the World's Columbian Exposition, images of the fairgrounds, reports on news and events related to the WCE (we expect there will be much happening in 2018!), notices of interesting WCE auctions and collectibles, and other Columbian [...]
Architectural Digest selects the top-20 world’s fair buildings of all time
Architectural Digest recently took a look "back at some of the most innovative architecture built for expositions around the globe." In his article "The 20 Boldest Buildings in the History of the World's Fair," Niki Mafi lists the Art Institute of Chicago at #5, behind the Eiffel Tower (Paris, 1889), the Grand Palais (Paris,. 1900), the Royal Exhibition Building (Melbourne, 1880), and the Arc de Triomf (Barcelona, 1888). The classical Beaux-Arts [...]
Winter World’s Fair Reading
As we head into the holiday season, you might find some time to enjoy a trip to the 1893 World's Fair through some vintage fiction. Check out our Fair Fiction Library page to connect with some historical novels, fictional memoirs, and juvenile literature. We'd eventually like to offer short summaries or reviews of these titles, so send us your thoughts if you happen to read one of these titles. [...]
Wishing our readers a plentiful Thanksgiving!
THE STATUE OF "PLENTY" from Picturesque World's Fair (W. B. Conkey, 1894). The pieces of statuary which stood beside the portals of the great buildings or bridge approaches, or on pedestals overlooking the Grand Basin and canals and lagoons, had all definite names fitted to the idea of their conception. What Kemeys and Proctor did with wild animals Potter and French did with domestic ones, introducing them in statuary with [...]
See the Midway, German Building, and Palace of Fine Arts on Film
The Chicago Tribune has posted a video mash-up of Chicago aerial scenes, pairing vintage film footage—shot in 1914 from a dirigible flying over the city—with modern video of the same locations. The German Building (looking south) Of particular interest to fans of the 1893 World’s Fair are scenes of the Midway Plaisance (shown at 3:45 minutes in the video) followed by a fly-over of the 58th Street [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]