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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 [...]
120. Picturesque World’s Fair – A Load of Michigan Pine Logs
A LOAD OF MICHIGAN PINE LOGS.—The lumber industry in Michigan is conducted on a grand scale, and something of the methods pursued was illustrated by a firm which contributed a single load of logs to the Exposition. Twenty-five saw logs were shown in a single load at the Centennial Exposition. Michigan simply doubled this. Never before was seen such a load of logs. It consisted of fifty magnificent lengths [...]
June 24, 2021: 1893 Chicago World’s Fair Celebration (online)
GreenFields Geneva, a senior living center in Geneva, Illinois, will host an “1893 Chicago World’s Fair Celebration” online lecture on Thursday, June 24 at 11 AM. Local historian Bob Dion will provide a tour of this triumph of American spirit and ingenuity. Viewers will experience the thrill of the fairgrounds and discover how the fair changed everything from packaged food to city planning. The event is free and open [...]
Dec. 16, 2020-July 11, 2021: “Fantastic Fairs: The Fields at the World’s Fairs” (St. Louis)
The Field House Museum in St. Louis is dedicated to preserving the legacy and birthplace of author Eugene Field. A temporary exhibit in the museum’s main entryway showcases objects relating to Eugene Field’s involvement at the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago and his wife Julia Field’s position as juror at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis. Columbian Exposition books, stereoview cards, tickets, souvenir spoons, and a holograph letter [...]
National Park Service Highlights “Women’s History at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition”
The National Park Service explores “Women’s History at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition” with a survey of some related NPS sites, including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Palmer House Hotel, Lorado Taft Midway Studios, a home belonging to Lois Lilley Howe (who submitted a design for the Woman’s Building at the 1893 World’s Fair), and—of course—Jackson Park Historic Landscape District and Midway Plaisance. The dining room of [...]
“1893 World’s Columbian Exposition: Crossroads of America” podcast
The podcast Tour Guide Tell All brings listeners on a visit to the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago with their episode “1893 World’s Columbian Exposition: Crossroads of America” (published on April 9, 2021). In just under an hour, Rebecca Fachner and Becca Grawl cover a wide range of subjects, including “famous firsts of the fair,” Lyman J. Gage, Daniel Burnham, Frederick Law Olmsted, Gen. George R. Davis, George Westinghouse, [...]
119. Picturesque World’s Fair – The Transportation Building
THE TRANSPORTATION BUILDING.—The Transportation Building was unique among the great structures of the Columbian Exposition in that it was the single departure from a general rule, the contrast and the foil to all the others. It was distinct in its style of architecture, and alone was decorated exteriorly in colors. It was not of those buildings which won for the Exposition the title of "The White City." The main [...]
The Idaho State Building at the 1893 World’s Fair
The Idaho Building in downtown Boise is a “descendant” of several other Idaho buildings stretching back to the 1893 World’s Fair. Idaho Press history columnist Rick Just tells this story in “A little slice of history: The downtown Boise buildings story”, published on May 22, 2021. The Idaho State Building at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. [Image from Johnson, Rossiter A History of the World's Columbian Exposition Volume [...]
July 8, 2021: Designed the Dazzle and Delight: Chicago’s 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition (Chicago)
The Newberry Library in Chicago will offer a one-day seminar on the 1893 World’s Fair on Thursday, July 8, 2021. Parks historian and preservationist Julia Bachrach will lead the Newberry Adult Education Seminar “Designed the Dazzle and Delight: Chicago's 1893 World's Columbian Exposition” from 6–8 pm online using Zoom. In 1890, when Congress awarded Chicago the honor of hosting the next World's Fair, civic leaders and exposition designers had [...]
A Room with a View … of Diana
In late November of 1892, Moses P. Handy moved into his new office inside the Administration Building on the Columbian Exposition fairgrounds in Jackson Park. As Chief of the Department of Publicity and Promotion, Handy had a staff of between four and forty-five, including local newspapermen Paul Hull and Sam V. Steele, both well-known among Chicago’s writers. The Chicago Times (November 29, 1892) reported on the move-in and on [...]
June 9, 2021: “Chicago Encounters Japan: The 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition” (online)
The Driehaus Museum in Chicago will offer an online program on “Chicago Encounters Japan: The 1893 World's Columbian Exposition” on Wednesday, June 9, 2021. Dr. Janice Katz, the Roger L. Weston Associate Curator of Japanese Art at the Art Institute of Chicago, will present on the history and legacy of Japanese Ho-o-den on the Wooded Island. Japan’s presence at the exposition of 1893 in Chicago was tactful, inspirational, and [...]
Ida B. Wells documentary airs on WTTW-Chicago
Civil rights activist Ida B. Wells spoke truth to power through her pamphlet The Reason Why the Colored American Is Not in The World’s Columbian Exposition. 10,000 copies were distributed at the 1893 World’s Fair. “With the eyes of the world on Chicago,” explains a new documentary film about Wells, “she would use the international stage to expose the terror of lynching.” On Friday, May 21, 2021, Chicago public [...]
Ballyhoo on the Midway Plaisance
“All new words are created because a new sound is needed to voice an idea, usually also new.” —Charles Wolverton The word ballyhoo, according to the renowned and authoritative Oxford English Dictionary (OED), means a “a showman’s touting speech, or a performance advertising a show.” It can be used as a mass noun to mean “bombastic nonsense; extravagant or brash publicity; noisy fuss.” Though this “carnival” usage has uncertain [...]
Feral Feline Fights for Food on the Fairgrounds
Several media outlets, including the Guardian and People, are reporting on Chicago’s use of feral cats to beat back our nationally recognized rat population. It’s old news. We’ve been relying on our feline friends since at least the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. “Not many people are aware that the World’s Fair has a cat,” wrote the Chicago Tribune in September 1893. “This ignorance on the part of visitors is largely [...]
118. Picturesque World’s Fair – The Great Steam Hammer
THE GREAT STEAM HAMMER.—One exhibit in the Transportation Building always attracted curious inspection. To many unfamiliar with the heavy machinery used in the vast manufactories of today, its use was not apparent, but to those informed in such fields it was an object of decided interest. This was the model of the monster steam hammer in use by the Bethlehem Iron Company, of Pennsylvania, the largest steam hammer in [...]
“Chicago’s White City Devil” on Smithsonian’s MURDEROUS HISTORY
The latest documentary about the evil doings of H. H. Holmes joins a crowded collection of films and television shows about the “devil in the white city” who killed an unknown number of victims around the time of the World’s Columbian Exposition. It is among the best to date. “Chicago's White City Devil,” the second episode of the Smithsonian Channel’s new series Murderous History, features rather cheesy dramatic scenes [...]