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
A diary from the 1893 World’s Fair
Sally MacNamara Ivey "has read more than 10,000 unpublished diaries and spent 35 years collecting them.... Whenever MacNamara Ivey has had pocket change, it’s gone to purchasing diaries. Back in the late ’90s, when she and her husband were raising four kids with the money she brought in waiting tables and he made working at the local mill, she bought a diary on layaway for $500 (about $900 today). [...]
Season’s Readings: 2022 Books about the World’s Columbian Exposition
2022 brought several additions to the World’s Columbian Exposition bookshelf.
“World’s Fair Souvenir Cook Book” advice for Thanksgiving
Utah Public Radio’s “Eating the Past: Old-time Advice on Table Manners” explores a culinary contribution from the 1893 World’s Fair Board of Lady Managers. Dr. Tammy Proctor recently dug out a copy of The 'Home Queen' World's Fair Souvenir Cook Book (George F. Cram, 1893) from Utah State University’s Merrill-Cazier Library. “The emphasis on Progress with a capital ‘P’ at the fair,” Proctor observes, “itself translates well to this [...]
A big statement from Norway for the 1893 World’s Fair
"Constructed for the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, the Norway building offered its namesake country a means of promoting their culture and rich history in the U.S. For many newly-arrived Norwegian immigrants, the Jackson Park building also stood as a testament to their belonging in America." Read more at "Hyde Park Stories: The Norway Building" by Patricia L. Morse in the Hyde Park Herald (posted November 16, 2022). [...]
Arkansas exhibits at the 1893 World’s Fair
A female architect designed the Arkansas State Building for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. The state’s displays at the Fair included a fountain made of crystals (also designed by a woman) and a 14,000-pound piece of zinc and inspired the writing of the song “My Happy Little Home in Arkansas.” Read more in “Arkansas A–Z: From middling to mighty — State’s hand in World’s Fairs” by Guy Lancaster, the Arkansas [...]
Childe Hassam painting of the 1893 World’s Fair sells for $44,000
American impressionist painter Childe Hassam (1859–1935) created several paintings of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition fairgrounds. He visited Chicago for the first time in 1892 to prepare his works that depicted what the World’s Fair would look like when open the following year. He also exhibited five oil paintings and five watercolors in the Palace of Fine Arts. An original 1893 World’s Fair painting by Hassam sold for $44,000 [...]
1893 World’s Fare in Downtown Chicago
The 1893 World’s Fair is the puported theme of three new food and drink establishments in downtown Chicago in September 2022. Kinsley, a new restaurant and bar in the One North Wacker building, promises to evoke a “spirit of innovation and diversity, inspired by the ultimate Fairgrounds of old, the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition and its gleaming White City.” The name comes from famed Chicago restaurateur Herbert M. Kinsley, [...]
“It will take two years to see it all”
When Barney Fredendall from Guilderland, New York, returned home from his visit to the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago, he commented that “it will take two years to see it all.” In her article "In 1892, Columbus was celebrated in big Chicago fair and by school children locally," Mary Ellen Johnson describes other impressions of the Columbian Exposition from the pages of the Altamont Enterprise newspaper. “The matter [...]
The Indian guru who spoke at the 1893 World’s Fair
“One morning in September 1893, a 30-year-old Indian man sat on a curb on Chicago’s Dearborn Street wearing an orange turban and a rumpled scarlet robe. He had come to the United States to speak at the Parliament of the World’s Religions, part of the famous World Columbian Exposition. The trouble was, he hadn’t actually been invited …” Read more about Swami Vivekananda’s time at the 1893 World’s Fair [...]
Listen to the journey of the Viking Ship to the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago
Few surviving artifacts from the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition are as treasured as the Viking, an exact replica of the Gokstad ship that sailed from Norway to be displayed at the Fair. Friends of the Viking Ship in Geneva, Illinois, work to preserve and educate about the Viking and her crew. They have released a new audiobook version of Viking: From Norway to America (Friends of the Viking Ship, [...]