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December 24, 1890: An Invitation to all the Nations of the Earth to Exhibit at the World’s Columbian Exposition
One hundred and thirty years ago today, the President of the United States extended an invitation to the nations of the world to come together for a World’s Fair in Chicago. President Benjamin Harrison. [Image from Campbell, James B. Campbell's Illustrated History of the World's Columbian Exposition, Volume I. M. Juul & Co., 1894.] December 24, 1890 By the President of the United States of America A [...]
Some Recent Podcasts about the 1893 World’s Fair
Listen up! Several new podcasts discuss a wide variety of interesting topics about the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, from the Ferris Wheel to a Beer War. Grab your ear buds and check them out. If you know of other recent 183 World's Fair podcasts, let us know or post a link in the Comments below. Engines of Our Ingenuity 1968 “Vignettes From the Fair” (Dec. 13, 2020) Everything, Ranked [...]
Tiffany & Co. Silver Yachting Cup from the 1893 World’s Fair Sells for $62,500
A yachting trophy designed by Tiffany & Company and exhibited in their pavilion at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition sold for $62,500 at Heritage Auctions’ Fine Silver & Objects of Vertu Signature Auction on November 17, 2020. According to Heritage, Ogden Goelet commissioned two cups for the races that would be held during New York Yacht Clubs Annual Cruise in 1892. The following year the cup was on display [...]
Some New 1893 World’s Fair Products
If you are shopping for a gift to give a Columbian Exposition enthusiast or just want to treat yourself to a little something during the holiday season, check on these products relating to the 1893 World’s Fair. Note: We provide this announcement of new products without any compensation from vendors. Prices and availability subject to change. Ted’s vintage art offers a super-high quality, digitally restored print of a “Vintage [...]
Daniel Burnham Inducted into Lincoln Academy Hall of Fame
Daniel Burnham, Director of Works for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, is one of five Illinois figures inducted into the Lincoln Academy of Illinois Hall of Fame of Historic Illinoisans. The Academy’s citation for Burnham reads: Daniel Burnham (1846 – 1912) is famously quoted as saying, “Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood and probably will not themselves be realized.” He was an environmentalist, architect [...]
Season’s Readings: New Books about the World’s Columbian Exposition
2019 brought several additions to the World’s Columbian Exposition bookshelf.
109. Picturesque World’s Fair – Athletic Pastimes in A Street In Cairo
ATHLETIC PASTIMES IN A STREET IN CAIRO.— They were unquestionably a merry lot who made up the resident population of a Street in Cairo, so full of animal spirits as to often engage in their pastimes, even when there were no visitors in attendance. Naturally, among such people, with such lives as theirs had been, physical prowess was held in high esteem, and the hero of a combat with [...]
Dec. 19, 2020: Chicago History Book Club discusses the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition (online)
DATE CHANGE The Chicago History Book Club will discuss three books about the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition during their online meeting at 10 am on Saturday, December 19: Robert Muccigrosso's Celebrating the New World: Chicago’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 (Ivan R. Dee, 1993), Erik Larson's best-selling The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America (Crown, 2003), and Jeanne Madeline Weimann's The [...]
“Halcyon Days in the Dream City’’ Part 17: “Vale”
Halcyon Days in the Dream City by Mrs. D. C. Taylor Continued from Part 16 The sun has set for the last time on the World's Fair of ’93; for the last time his dying smile has lighted up the fairy courts, the gleaming splendor of statue and portal. Slowly as he sinks to rest, so slowly, solemnly, sinks the forest of fluttering flags and banners; each tall staff [...]
“Halcyon Days in the Dream City’’ Part 16: The Transportation Building
Halcyon Days in the Dream City by Mrs. D. C. Taylor Continued from Part 15 Let us go through the “Golden Gate,” not the gate of the Holy City, but a gate the architect of which must have been dreaming of wondrous Bible imagery, when he designed it.[1] Arch beyond arch, receding, diminishing as they recede, till the last one is about the dimensions of some grand cathedral door, [...]
Commonplace Fun Facts Relives the Wonder of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair
We appreciate the invitation to “Relive the Wonder of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair” from Commonplace Fun Facts. The website’s fascinating “collection of trivia, fun facts, humor, and interesting notions” includes a few other posts that feature some Columbian connections, including one about popcorn history and another about Chicago’s “Windy City” moniker. Check it out.
“Halcyon Days in the Dream City’’ Part 15: The Palace of Art
Halcyon Days in the Dream City by Mrs. D. C. Taylor Continued from Part 14 What is "Art?" Perhaps we are not qualified to say, but to us, “It” is “Truth.” Not merely truth of detail in drawing; though that is necessary to a finished picture, not merely truth of coloring; though that also, must be had, but truth in its highest sense. When a man stands near to [...]
Ontario’s Mammoth Squash at the 1893 World’s Fair
So many things were big, big, BIG at the 1893 World’s Fair that it may have been easy to miss the world’s biggest squash. On display in the Horticultural Building in late September was a quarter-ton “monster squash” from Canada. Gourdzilla received some proud coverage back home in the September 29, 1893, issue of the Windsor Star, which reported on the sensational vegetable: “Ontario is again the sensation provider [...]
“Halcyon Days in the Dream City’’ Part 14: A Dream
Halcyon Days in the Dream City by Mrs. D. C. Taylor Continued from Part 13 We dreamed that we sat upon the sands of the lake shore, and that all about us, unnumbered as these sands, sat and stood a great multitude; thousands upon thousands of people, men, women, and children, from the babe in arms to the maiden and stripling, high and low, rich and poor, all crowding [...]
The World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 and the Library of Congress (video)
C-SPAN is streaming a recorded lecture on “The World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 and the Library of Congress.” In this talk, originally presented for the United States Capitol Historical Society (USCHS) on October 13, 2020, art historian Lynda Cooper reconstructs the relationship between the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago and the Library of Congress’s Thomas Jefferson Building (1889–1897) in Washington, D.C. Working from an art history perspective, [...]
“Halcyon Days in the Dream City’’ Part 13: The Illumination
Halcyon Days in the Dream City by Mrs. D. C. Taylor Continued from Part 12 To-day we went to the "Dream City," as Mrs. Candace Wheeler so prettily named the Chicago Exposition,[1] and saw the grand weekly illumination in the evening. At about five o'clock in the afternoon we pressed on with the crowd toward the grand basin. It seemed to be the objective point with all and we [...]
“Halcyon Days in the Dream City’’ Part 12: The Infanta
Halcyon Days in the Dream City by Mrs. D. C. Taylor Continued from Part 11 The Infanta of Spain was entertained by the World's Fair officials to-day, June 8, 1893, and we were fortunate in viewing the pageant from a good stand point.[1] It was a perfect day, cool and bright, and smiled on unclouded to its close. We secured some of the handy little camp chairs that are [...]
“Halcyon Days in the Dream City’’ Part 11: The Land of Boodah
Halcyon Days in the Dream City by Mrs. D. C. Taylor Continued from Part 10 A low curved roofed, wide eaved temple, built of foreign woods covered with intricate carving, with deep lace-arched balconies, and blind walls, windowless and dark.[1] The East India Government Building at the 1893 World’s Fair. [Image from The Graphic History of the Fair. Graphic Co., 1894.] As we enter the door a strange [...]
“Halcyon Days in the Dream City’’ Part 10: A Cave of the Sea
Halcyon Days in the Dream City by Mrs. D. C. Taylor Continued from Part 9 We roamed through a cave of the sea;[1] on either side rose lofty pillared arches, thickly broidered and crusted with myriad growths of ocean's mysterious depths and of its various tributaries. Shells in all their whorls and spirals and intricate convolutions; half sentient sea anemones, sea ferns and broad leaved kelps, branching lace like [...]
“Halcyon Days in the Dream City’’ Part 9: Manufactures Building
Halcyon Days in the Dream City by Mrs. D. C. Taylor Continued from Part 8 Pause, before you enter, and gaze upon this mighty mass of crystal and iron;[1] union of purity and strength, seemingly so frail and airy, and yet in reality so firm and stable. Look at the roof, like a huge translucent wave, at the grand majestic archways towering high above you, with their pictured allegorys [...]