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The Devil in the WHAT City?
We love some Jeopardy! aaaaaalmost as much as we love exploring the 1893 World’s Fair. In the Double Jeopardy round on the March 5, 2026, episode, defending one-day champion Quentin Powers found a Daily Double and had this $1,600 clue in the “CITIES IN COLOR” category: “For the color of many buildings, the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago had this nickname referenced in the title of a 2003 bestseller”. [...]
182. Picturesque World’s Fair – A Frontier Ox-Cart
A FRONTIER OX-CART.—As a sort of annex to the North Dakota Building, there stood outside, upon the greensward, what was called a Red River Ox-Cart. It stood there as representing the only means of conveyance known up to within a little more than twenty years ago throughout the vast territory now composing the two Dakotas. It was simply a stuffed ox, hitched to a cart. It was an amiable-looking [...]
His (almost) last trip over that infernal Ferris Wheel
On his way to visit the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago, the editor of a small-town newspaper in Kansas met a fellow traveler from Lebanon, Indiana, (Mr. J. R. Anthony). On their second day at the Fair, the men toured the Midway Plaisance together and eventually found their way to its central attraction. “The Ferris Wheel next demanded our attention. We were reluctant at first about making this circuitous [...]
181. Picturesque World’s Fair – The Illinois Building on Illinois Day
THE ILLINOIS BUILDING ON ILLINOIS DAY. — On the occasion of a day of celebration devoted to any particular state, a scene of interest occurred at that state's building. Naturally, the people of the particular commonwealth would gather in thousands about their edifice and there would be much enthusiasm and much noise while the ceremonies of the occasion were in progress. So it was to be expected that Illinois [...]
Powerlifting at the 1893 World’s Fair
The newspaper account reprinted below is a reminder that marble was mostly a myth at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. The destination for this faux stone block may have been the Ruins of Yucatan exhibit. Built for a Heavy Load People who were on the platform of the intramural opposite the Anthropological Building yesterday about 3 o’clock were treated to a sight which almost made them doubt their eyes. [...]
An Engine of Destruction in the Krupp Gun Pavilion
In her memoir about the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago, Halcyon Days in the Dream City, Mrs. D. C. Taylor describes a day when she explored the area of Jackson Park around the South Pond. The visitor from Kankakee, Illinois, “wandered away by the fortress where is housed, black and baleful, with its great yawning mouth waiting to belch forth death, the great Krupp gun; a fearful hideous thing, [...]
180. Picturesque World’s Fair – Looking East from the Golden Door
LOOKING EAST FROM THE GOLDEN DOOR.—Very few views, possibly not more than one, were taken eastward from the Golden Door. That remarkable portal was so striking in itself that it did not occur, apparently, to any one of the various photographers to take any picture in its vicinity which did not include the glittering entrance. There were numerous views near the southern extremity of the lagoons, but there was [...]
Season’s Readings 2025: New Books about the World’s Columbian Exposition
New books explore the colorful campus and souvenir coins of the Columbian Exposition and profile a host of people associated with the Fair, including architect Stanford White and sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens, photographer Alice Austen, exhibitors Nancy Green (who portrayed Aunt Jemima) and Louis Vuitton, and another investigation of H.H. Holmes. That devil also creeps into a supernatural thriller. Note: We provide this announcement of new titles without any compensation [...]
The Chicago Orchestra’s 1892 Premiere of Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker Suite”
One of America’s most beloved holiday artistic traditions originated in imperial Russia and came to the United States through Chicago at the time of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. On October 22, 1892, an audience of Chicagoans—joined by distinguished guests in town for the World’s Fair Dedication Day exercises—gathered in the Auditorium to hear a concert by the Chicago Orchestra conducted by Theodore Thomas. During the third piece on [...]
Dec. 5-28, 2025: Joffrey Ballet’s “Columbian Nutcracker” (Chicago)
A festive Ferris Wheel, a Dream City, a flurry of snow, dancing dragons, dancing nuts, and dancing rats! It's that time of the year for Chicago’s Joffrey Ballet to stage their spectacular annual production of The Nutcracker, with story set on the fairgrounds of 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. Performances run from December 4-28, 2025, at the Lyric Opera House (20 N. Wacker Dr. in Chicago) This ballet by choreographer [...]
Eulogies for George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr.
The death of one of America’s great inventors on November 22, 1896, came as a surprise to many. George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr. succumbed to complications due to typhoid fever at the tragically young age of thirty-seven. His eponymous attraction debuted at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago and helped lift the Exposition into financial success. Despite the great popularity of his rotating invention, Mr. Ferris died under [...]
Only One Thing in the Whole 1893 Exposition Worth Looking at
A man exploring the 1893 World’s Fair in July conveyed this story about an unimpressed visitor from New York: I met a friend on the plaisance yesterday who has just returned from New York. While there he met a New Yorker, whom he asked if he had visited the fair. The New Yorkers said “Yes, in May. I was roasted brown.” “Didn't you like the exposition?” “Like it? I [...]
Meeting on the Midway Plaisance
On any given day, tens or hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world visited the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. One visitor commented on the strange coincidence of meeting familiar people on the fairgrounds: “Anyone merely passing among the thousands scattered over the Exposition grounds can get no idea of what a big patch of the earth they represent. You cannot guess how many of [...]
Pennies Crushed as Souvenirs of the 1893 World’s Fair
Long before the United States Mint killed the penny on November 12, 2025, the diminutive copper coin was pressed, squashed, and otherwise elongated. Long before. Numismatists hold that the first elongated coins appeared in the United States at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. At an event offering countless souvenirs, these were strange ones. Vendors used mechanical coin-rolling machines to press pennies into an elongated shape while a [...]
Paragon Ragtime Orchestra releases “Meet Me at the Fair!” CD
The Paragon Ragtime Orchestra (PRO) has released a new album of music from great American World’s Fairs, including the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Meet Me at the Fair! (Rialto Records 6008) features nineteen tracks—nearly seventy minutes of exciting music performed by the Paragon Ragtime Orchestra (PRO). Conducted by Rick Benjamin, the PRO features musicians Arthur Moeller (violin), Bernadette Boerckel (soprano), Paul Murphy and Brandon Bergeron (cornets), and the [...]
Mayhem on the Midway
Chicagoans rioted in the street—looting shops, destroying property, and attacking law enforcement. They were drunk, lascivious, and did not stop their mayhem until morning. The year was 1893. The place was the Midway Plaisance, the entertainment district of the World’s Columbian Exposition. Just two nights earlier, an assassin had gunned down Chicago’s colorful and beloved mayor, Carter Harrison, Sr., at his front door. With the pageant planned for the [...]
179. Picturesque World’s Fair – East Front of the Manufactures Building
EAST FRONT OF THE MANUFACTURES BUILDING.—From the lake alone could be obtained a comprehensive view of the Manufactures Building, the largest structure in the world. From the harbor it could be observed in all the majesty of its magnitude. It was like a mountain range, the first story and descending slope forming foothills to the great dome which, with the balustrade surmounting the promenade formed the crest of the [...]
“The greatest educational exhibit on earth.” Francis W. Parker on the 1893 World’s Fair
Educational reformer Francis W. Parker (1837–1902) advocated for the mental, physical, and moral development of children in public schools. “There is, perhaps, no name more widely known among the teachers of this country, than that of Col. Francis W. Parker,” wrote Lelia E. Patridge in 1883. During the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, Colonel Parker served as the principal of the Cook County Normal School in Chicago. He participated in [...]
1893 Viking Ship featured on “Backstory with Larry Potash”
The October 5, 2025, episode of Backstory with Larry Potash on WGN-TV featured a segment on “The Viking Ship That Took the World by Storm.” The feature story profiles the replica Viking ship that sailed from Norway to Chicago to be displayed at the 1893 World’s Fair. This treasured relic from the Columbian Exposition is preserved today in Geneva, Illinois, under the care of the Friends of the Viking [...]
Sep. 13-Nov 9, 2025: “Nocturne 1893” Haunted House (Schiller Park, IL)
One of Chicagoland’s scariest haunted house attractions invites brave guests to a frightening Fair. 13th Floor Haunted House describes their season attraction “Nocturn 1893”: On the final night of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, the lights begin to fade… and something far more sinister takes the stage. You arrive amid the celebration, unaware that behind the dazzling lights, something methodical and monstrous hunts in silence. Guests vanish, rumors spread, [...]