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In-cider Information on a Columbian Exposition Beverage
The Columbian Exposition adult beverage shelf has a new addition. Reach past those cans of “Fist City” and “All the World is Here” beer, Field Gin, and the long line of products from Few Spirits and grab a can of Virtue Cider’s new Southcider. Crafted in their cider houses in Fennville, Michigan, using local apples and blended with botanicals, Southcider--along with its companion beverage Northcider--honors Chicago’s famous crosstown baseball [...]
104. Picturesque World’s Fair – A South Sea Island House
A SOUTH SEA ISLAND HOUSE.—The South Sea Island Village included among its inhabitants natives of various islands in the Polynesian Archipelago, though so superior to all the rest were the Samoans that they soon attracted most attention, and the place was as often alluded to as the Samoan Village as otherwise. The houses were of Samoan construction, and the largest of them was a building of repute, having once [...]
103. Picturesque World’s Fair – Soloman Joseph and Ta-Ra-Ra Boom-De-Aye
SOLOMON JOSEPH AND TA-RA-RA BOOM-DE-AYE.—As a group of uncompromisingly rapacious and mannerless patronage-seekers the donkey boys of a Street in Cairo were probably never surpassed, and of these Solomon Joseph was admittedly the chief brigand. He was noisy, persistent and altogether intolerable in soliciting people to ride upon his dwarfish beasts, and was always grinning and good-natured. Of the two, the donkey shown in the picture had probably the [...]
Zoom to the 1893 World’s Fair with the Chicago History Museum
Stuck in endless online conferences? Ready to escape from the confines of your home office? Try adding a background that situates you at the 1893 World's Fair. The Chicago History Museum offers several images from their collection to use as a Zoom background. Among them is a famous photograph by C. D. Arnold of the Administration Building surrounded by crowds on Chicago Day [CHM, ICHi-002201] You can download the [...]
1893 Chicago Midway Playing Cards & History of the World’s Fair Card Deck
1893 Chicago Midway Playing Cards & History of the World’s Fair Card Deck by Stuart Van Leer Bradley. Railway Station Press, 2020. ISBN: 9781951299057. Softcover, 40 pages. $15.00. This companion book to the recently produced set of Midway Playing Cards contains a summary of the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago and the Midway Plaisance, technical notes about the set of Barnhart Brothers & Spindler (BB&S) type foundry printers ornaments, [...]
Aug. 11, 2020: “Britannia Visits the White City”: the Peter family and the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 (Washington D.C.)
What was it like to attend the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago? A first-hand account from Martha Washington’s great-grandchild is the basis of “Britannia Visits the White City,” a lecture sponsored by the DAR Museum in Washington on August 11, 2020. Washington descendant Britannia W. Kennon, a seventy-eight-year-old owner of the Georgetown estate of Tudor Place, spent a week with her family at the Chicago World’s Fair in [...]
The Voyage of “The Viking” Ship to the 1893 World’s Fair
“The presence of the Viking ship in one of our ports and her subsequent visit to Newport and New York and the trip up the Hudson, through the Erie Canal down the Great Lakes to Chicago and the ‘White City’ marks a historical event of no small importance.” —The Chautauquan, August 1893. The Viking from Norway at the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago. [Image from Scientific American, Aug. [...]
The Columbian Exposition as a New World Fable
“A New World Fable” by Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen describes the 1893 World’s Fair as a “wealth of achievement” that promises to be “an elevating influence which will endure beyond the present generation.”
1776, 1861, and 1893
At a banquet held in Chicago on January 10, 1891, Chief of Construction Daniel Burnham made this patriotic appeal to the architects of the World’s Columbian Exposition: “Gentlemen, 1893 will be the third great date in our country’s history. On the two others, 1776 and 1861, all true Americans served, and so now I ask you to serve again!" [from Martin, Justin Genius of Place: The Life of Frederick Law [...]
Chicago00 Launches 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition VR Web Portal
Grab your Columbian Exposition return pass and head back to the 1893 World’s Fair virtually with the Chicago 00 Project, which has launched their 1893 World's Columbian Exposition VR web portal at https://1893.chicago00.org/. A partnership between the Chicago History Museum and filmmaker Geoffrey Alan Rhodes, the Chicago 00 Project has been producing a series of interactive multimedia experiences using historical images of important sites and events in Chicago. Their [...]
102. Picturesque World’s Fair – Medicine and Plenty Horse, Sioux Indian Chiefs
MEDICINE" AND " PLENTY HORSE," SIOUX INDIAN CHIEFS.- The typical Indian Village on the Plaisance was not so much of a novelty as a study for American visitors to the Fair. They had seen Indians enough, but they had never seen members of widely separate tribes grouped together and so affording opportunity for comparison. To foreigners all were interesting, as savage races from abroad were to us, but to [...]
101. Picturesque World’s Fair – Nizaha, A Woman of Nazareth
NIZAHA, A WOMAN OF NAZARETH.— Hardly what one would expect in appearance was Nizaha, a woman with the Bedouins, who came from the locality reverentially considered by all the Christian world as the birthplace of Christ. It will be observed that in sitting for her photograph Nizaha did not forget her hands and handkerchief and that, with the left hand especially, as it is spread out against her side, [...]
Transported to the Land of the Fairies: 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. The following account comes from Mrs. Julia Waugh, whose letter describing her ride on the Ferris Wheel was published in the July 7, 1893, issue of the Crawfordsville (IN) Weekly Journal. She notes that her “memorable trip” was taken the second day after the opening of the attraction, [...]
Speaking of Whales
The excerpt below, from The Century World’s Fair Book for Boys and Girls by Tutor Jenks (Century Co., 1893), describes the whaling bark Progress exhibited at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The authentic whaling ship from New Bedford, Massachusetts, was moored in the South Pond and served as a floating museum of the fading whaling industry. A view of the Anthropology and Ethnology exhibits along the [...]
“The Last Voyage of the Whaling Bark Progress” Raises Story of a Forgotten Ship from the 1893 World’s Fair
The Last Voyage of the Whaling Bark Progress: New Bedford, Chicago and the Twilight of an Industry by Daniel Gifford. McFarland Press, 2020. ISBN: 9781476682150. Softcover, 204 pages. $45.00. Along the eastern edge of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition were four different exhibits of sea craft, each with a unique story to share. The reproductions of the Spanish Caravels—the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria—served as a fitting commemoration of [...]
The 1893 World’s Fair, a Glorified Park
June 8, 1893 was “Princess Eulalia Day” at the World’s Columbian Exposition. Attendance swelled to around 169,000 visitors—the largest yet. Most were eager to catch a glimpse the Infanta from Spain as she toured the fairgrounds. A report from that day reprinted below (originally published in the July 12, 1893, issue of Garden and Forest) makes only a passing mention of the royal guest. Instead, the author focuses on the [...]
June 13, 2020: LGBT Chicago History in 1893 (Virtual Tour)
To celebrate Pride month, Chicago Detours is offering an "LGBT CHICAGO HISTORY IN 1893 VIRTUAL TOUR" on Saturday, June 13, 2020, at 2:30 pm. This special tour was intended to be a walking tour in the Chicago Loop, but instead will be available as an online program and open to everyone. The tour will explore stories of gay and lesbian history from the 19th-century, set against the backdrop of [...]
Memorial Day 2020
Bearing the bandages, water and sponge, Straight and swift to my wounded I go, Where they lie on the ground after the battle brought in, Where their priceless blood reddens the grass the ground, Or to the rows of the hospital tent, or under the roof'd hospital, To the long rows of cots up and down each side I return, To each and all one after another I draw [...]
Edward Kemeys’ “Buffalo”, Masked
Edward Kemeys' buffalo sculptures for the 1893 World's Fair "possess that touch of the ideal—that suggestion of the soul—which, lacking in the real animal, is bestowed by the magic of art."
May 28, 2020: “Wonders of the 1893 World’s Fair Part 2” Virtual Historic Happy Hour (Chicago Detours)
Grab a refreshment of choice and join Chicago Detours for a Historic Happy Hour on Thurs, May 28, when the theme is “Wonders of the 1893 World’s Fair Part 2.” Executive Director, Amanda, will offer a virtual tour of the World's Columbian Exposition and highlight the industrial, engineering, and gastronomical inventions that wowed visitors to Chicago's White City. The even runs from 6-6:30 pm CST. The event is free [...]