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“Jennie” survived the Great Chicago Fire and visited the 1893 World’s Fair
The 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition celebrated the twenty-second anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 with “Chicago Day” on October 9, 1893. With around three-quarter-of-a-million people filling the fairgrounds, it was thought to be the largest peaceful gathering in human history. Among the visitors was one special guest who had survived the Fire due to the dedication her “mother,” ten-year-old Fannie Belle Becker. The article below, from the [...]
126. Picturesque World’s Fair – The Penobscot Indian Camp
THE PENOBSCOT INDIAN CAMP.—To those familiar with the history of the Indians who lived near the Atlantic coast and so came into early contact with the whites, the Penobscot Indian Camp, or Village, was an object of interested study. There were four families of Penobscots, or, as they were once called, "Panawanskeks," and there was also a lodge of Iroquois, peopled by a few of the living representatives of [...]
Sept. 21, 2021: World’s Fair Auction #39 closes
Columbian Exposition collectors may be interested in World’s Fair Auction #39, now open for preview. Online bidding closes at 10:00 PM EST on Tuesday, September 21, 2021. The auction catalog can be viewed at: http://www.worldsfairauction.com/cgi-bin/catalog.cgi. Lots 21 through 71 are items related to the 1893 World’s Fair, and include several products commemorating various building of the White City: a china vase decorated with an image of the Horticultural Building; [...]
125. Picturesque World’s Fair – Arab and Bedouin Horsemen
ARAB AND BEDOUIN HORSEMEN.—Just what the distinction was between Arabs and Bedouins, visitors to the Wild East Show were puzzled to determine. Those of them who had ever paid attention to the terms counted "Arab " as a general description, including all the desert dwellers, and " Bedouin " as something more definite, applying to a single tribe or nation. They left the Wild East Show with just as [...]
“The dearest spot on earth” at the 1893 World’s Fair
What some visitors thought of as exorbitant prices for food and lodging in Chicago during the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition became the stuff of legend. The fanciful tale told below, originally published in the July 2, 1895, Chicago Tribune and reprinted in newspapers across the country, captures one not-so-fond memory of the 1893 World’s Fair. We can only guess to the identity of the restaurant he had patronized. [...]
Death of the Republic: The fiery end to the golden colossus of the 1893 World’s Fair
They toppled the Republic at dawn on August 28, 1896. As the first rays of the sun spread across Lake Michigan and into Jackson Park, a funeral pyre lit inside the colossus began to spread up the structure. A flash of light soon appeared in her raised left arm. On a pedestal in the lagoon, the ghostly goddess stood with impassive dignity as muffled cracking within her heralded impending [...]
124. Picturesque World’s Fair – State Buildings Looking South
STATE BUILDINGS—LOOKING SOUTH.—The city of State Buildings at the north end of the Fair Grounds afforded many interesting bird's-eye views, of which one of the prettiest is given in the accompanying illustration. The view taken is from an elevated point at the northern extremity of the inclosed area, and very nearly at the center east and west. In the foreground, at the right, appears the log-built chalet of Idaho, [...]
Changes to Jackson Park 1893-2021
Construction in and around the Obama Presidential Center site in Jackson Park began on Monday, August 16. The long-delayed project on 19.3 acres of Jackson Park is set to be completed in 2025. In April, we posted a static map showing the "Footprint of the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park" and have now posted a YouTube video showing Jackson Park from 1893 World's Fair to Obama Presidential Center [...]
An original painting of the 1893 California State Building sells at auction
An original painting of the California State Building from the 1893 World’s Fair sold at auction for $2,800 on June 25, 2021. The 9.75-by-13.5-inch, unframed oil on canvas features the second largest state building (after that of Illinois) on the Columbian Exposition fairgrounds. Artist William Woodward (1859–1939), who served on the planning commission for his home state of Louisiana, depicted with impressionist flair a crowd passing in front the [...]
Sept. 12, 2021: “Walking the White City” tour (Chicago)
The Glessner House is offering a "Walking the White City" tour of the former fairgrounds of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition on Sunday, September 12, 2021, from 10 AM to noon. Architect and historian John Waters will guide participants on a walking tour of Jackson Park to see the sites of landmarks of the 1893 World's Fair, explore the fascinating vestiges, and learn how the Fair influenced the design [...]
An Endless Ride on the Intramural Railway at the 1893 World’s Fair
One challenge for the designers of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition was finding ways to transport visitors around the enormous fairgrounds. Walking the main grounds—almost a mile and a half from north to south and three-quarters of a mile wide across the south end, and a mile-long Midway Plaisance—exhausted many fairgoers. Rolling chairs offered a personal mode of transportation around the grounds, while watercraft such as electric launches and [...]
123. Picturesque World’s Fair – The Boiler-Room of Machinery Hall
THE BOILER-ROOM OF MACHINERY HALL.—Never before was such a boiler-room as that which delighted engineers in Machinery Hall. It must needs be enormous, for it supplied the force for all the lights and machinery of the great buildings, but those who had never seen it were none the less astonished when they entered the great room. It extended north and south in the annex, and to look down it [...]
The Garden of the Phoenix — Japan’s lasting gift in Jackson Park
One of the most important sites in the U.S. reflecting American-Japanese relations has its roots in the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. The Garden of the Phoenix on the Wooded Island in the heart of Jackson Park, is located at the site of the original Ho-o-den pavilion (Phoenix Hall). After this gift to the city of Chicago was destroyed by fire, a Japanese garden rose from the ashes. As the [...]
Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi’s Visit to the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Part 3
Continued from Part 2 Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi in 1880. Charmed with the wonders of the White City As Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi prepared to depart Chicago, he was leaving behind his name with the son of a new friend, and he was leaving behind his statue of Washington and Lafayette with an uncertain future. Although Bartholdi reportedly had planned for only a two-week sojourn in Chicago, he had [...]
122. Picturesque World’s Fair – South Front of the Manufactures Building
SOUTH FRONT OF THE MANUFACTURES BUILDING.—While not its greatest frontage, the south end of the Manufactures Building was most familiar to Exposition visitors, facing as it did to the Court of Honor and affording between it and the Grand Basin a vantage point for seeing the fountains at play and the illumination of the buildings at night. The illustration above shows this frontage as well as that on the [...]
Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi’s Visit to the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Part 2
Continued from Part 1 Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi in 1880. “I come to see the American side of the Fair” On September 10, 1893, Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi and his wife Jeanne-Émilie arrived in Chicago and settled into the Hotel Metropole. This hotel stood on Michigan Avenue at 23rd Street, just south of the tony Prairie Avenue District called home by many of Chicago’s elite citizens, including Marshall Field, [...]
Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi’s Visit to the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Part 1
“My only ambition has been to engrave my name at the feet of great men and in the service of grand ideas.” —Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi in 1880. Most monographs about Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi conclude his story with the 1886 unveiling ceremony for his Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor. A lesser-known chapter in the French sculptor’s life involves his next and final trip [...]
Hurrah for the Red, White and Blue!
"Hurrah for the Red, White and Blue!" [Image from World's Fair Puck, July 3, 1893.] At 11 o'clock on July 4, 1893, crowds filled around a grandstand east of Terminal Station on the fairgrounds of the World's Fair in Chicago. A band opened the ceremonies with a medley of American airs, beginning with "Hail Columbia" and ending with "Yankee Doodle."
121. Picturesque World’s Fair – The Grand Basin at Night – Showing Search-Lights
THE GRAND BASIN AT NIGHT—SHOWING SEARCH-LIGHTS.—One of the charms of the night view over the Grand Basin was that it was always new, atmospheric or other causes producing varied effects, and the scene on one occasion being entirely different from that presented on another. And not only were atmospheric conditions fluctuating, but the artificial ones produced were made still more so, a new experience to the sight-seer after dark [...]
“One feels inclined to make his peace with God and man”: A Ride on the Ferris Wheel
The great Ferris Wheel on the Midway Plaisance of the World’s Columbian Exposition opened to the public on June 21, 1893. A North Carolina visitor to the 1893 World’s Fair sent this correspondence to the Charlotte Observer about his experience riding the famous Ferris Wheel: Yesterday we spent the day in the Midway Plaisance. Among the first of our experiences was a ride on the great Ferris Wheel. This [...]