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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 [...]
“Halcyon Days in the Dream City’’ Part 8: Sights and Sounds of the Midway
Halcyon Days in the Dream City by Mrs. D. C. Taylor Continued from Part 7 Will ever human foot tread such a "way" again? 'Twas as if one had "Aladdin's Lamp" or the wonderful carpet that transported one to any clime with the celerity of thought. One bears the booming of the Dahomian skin drums, and sees the terrible naked Amazons in their hideous dance; sees the Laplander wrapped [...]
Dec. 2 2020: “Building Chicago’s Public Spaces with Julia Bachrach” (online)
The Chicago Public Library, in partnership with the Chicago Architecture Center, will host an online presentation on "Building Chicago’s Public Spaces" by Chicago parks historian Julia Bachrach. The talk on Wednesday, December 2, from 6-7 pm, is free but registration is required: https://chipublib.bibliocommons.com/events/5f9c4a02e085ab5c2caf057d Bachrach will highlight two major architectural themes in park history: the Museum of Science and Industry—built as the Palace of Fine Arts for the World’s Columbian Exposition—and the [...]
“Halcyon Days in the Dream City’’ Part 7: The Ferris Wheel
Halcyon Days in the Dream City by Mrs. D. C. Taylor Continued from Part 6 In the very centre, midway of “The Midway” stands a high wooden enclosure, and rising above it like a gigantic spider’s-web, the "Ferris Wheel." After the usual “open sesame" we enter the enclosure, and mounting a flight of steps find ourselves upon a high platform with the revolving monster only a few feet distant, [...]
“Halcyon Days in the Dream City’’ Part 6: Temple of Luxor
Halcyon Days in the Dream City by Mrs. D. C. Taylor Continued from Part 5 This fine June morning we will go to Egypt without the tribulations of an ocean voyage and the fatigue of travel. Walk up to this broad gateway, where a swarthy woman wearing a stick bound to the bridge of her nose and between her eyes, with a long black netted veil hanging from below [...]
“Halcyon Days in the Dream City’’ Part 5: China
Halcyon Days in the Dream City by Mrs. D. C. Taylor Continued from Part 4 Still traveling along the Midway, we see on the right hand at some distance as yet, a temple that looks as if it had jumped out of the old dogs-eared geography we studied at school.[1] Two square towers composed of little balconies one above the other, each a little smaller than the last one, [...]
“Halcyon Days in the Dream City’’ Part 4: The Turkish Bazaar
Halcyon Days in the Dream City by Mrs. D. C. Taylor Continued from Part 3 Do you see yonder carved and arched doorway, hung about with gaudy foreign stuffs, where a constant stream of people is being swallowed up in the gloom within? Let us too undergo the swallowing process. So! Here we are! A long broad avenue lined on either side with little cells containing merchandise of strange [...]
“Halcyon Days in the Dream City’’ Part 3: Cairo Street
Halcyon Days in the Dream City by Mrs. D. C. Taylor Continued from Part 2 A long stretch of high stone wall above which clearly outlined against the blue of the summer sky, is seen a confused medly [sic] of queer tiled roofs, glimpses of latticed and casement windows, and above all a tall minaret, the turban like top holding up star and crescent. We pay the magic twenty-five [...]
“Halcyon Days in the Dream City’’ Part 2: The Plaisance
Halcyon Days in the Dream City by Mrs. D. C. Taylor Continued from Part 1 A May morning, cool but not cold, with a brisk wind, blowing, cloud shadows and sun bursts chasing one another across the deep blue sky. To-day we make our way straight from the 60th street entrance to the Midway Plaisance. When we have passed through that tunnel like passage under the intramural railway, we [...]
“Halcyon Days in the Dream City’’ Part 1: Salve
Halcyon Days in the Dream City by Mrs. D. C. Taylor Continued from Introduction With what joyous hearts and eager eyes, we first stepped through the turnstile at the 60th street entrance to the great Columbian Exposition of ’93. For three years we had talked of it, dreamed of it, read about it, and now at least it was a thing accomplished and we had entered the charmed precincts. [...]
“Halcyon Days in the Dream City”: Introduction
Personal accounts of trips to the 1893 World’s Fair offer candid and authentic insight into how visitors experienced the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Visitors famous and unknown have left behind memories of the Midway and whims of the White City on postcards and letters back home, in personal diaries preserved in archives, and through first-hand accounts published in newspapers. Some recollections appear in bound volumes published both professionally—Henry [...]
Voting Ends on Tuesday, November 3.
Just a friendly reminder from worldsfairchicago1893.com to exercise your right to vote. Voting ends on Tuesday, November 3, 2020. "Miss Chicago Up to Date" showing a suffragette posing as the Statue of the Republic from the 1893 World's Fair. [Image from the August 11, 1913, issue of The Chicago Examiner.]
108. Picturesque World’s Fair – Miriamna, A Woman from Ceylon
MIRIAMNA, A WOMAN FROM CEYLON.—The Singhalese type was well illustrated in Miriamna, a woman who, from the nature of her position at the Fair, became, perhaps, better known than any other one of her race there. The Ceylon tea room, in the Woman's Building, was a popular resort, and there Miriamna sold tea and made a pretty picture as she moved about. She was a wee bit of a [...]