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Sept. 7, 2019-Mar. 22, 2020: “Eternal Light: The Sacred Stained-Glass Windows of Louis Comfort Tiffany” at the Driehaus Museum (Chicago)
“Eternal Light: The Sacred Stained-Glass Windows of Louis Comfort Tiffany” at the Driehaus Museum features items exhibited at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition.
Feb. 8, 2020: Talking Trash About the 1893 World’s Fair (West Bend, WI)
The Museum of Wisconsin Art (MOWA) in West Bend, Wisconsin, is hosting a talk on "The Vanishing City: Excavating the World’s Fair of 1893" on Saturday, February 8, 2020, from 2-3:30 pm. Rebecca Graff, associate professor of anthropology at Lake Forest College (IL), divulges what is hiding beneath the surface of Jackson Park. Professor Graff will discuss her archaeological and archival research focused on the Fair’s ephemeral “White City” [...]
Tiffany & Co. at the 1893 Columbian Exposition
“Tiffany & Co. at the 1893 Columbian Exposition” is the subject of an informative new article from Spencer Marks Ltd. “The unique masterpieces made by Tiffany and sent to the fair,” they write, “were designed and executed to be shown in a spectacular setting and sold to their very best clientele.” The Tiffany & Company and the Gorham Manufacturing Company displayed their stunning pieces in their gorgeous pavilion within [...]
Chicago Food Hall Serves an 1893 World’s Fair Theme
Hayden Hall (333 S. Wabash Street) in Chicago features the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in both name and interior design.
Updates on Plans for the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park
The 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition emerged from an idea to a White City on the lake in a little more than three years. Building the Obama Presidential Center (OPC) along one edge of Jackson Park certainly will take much longer—if it materializes in that location at all. “The Obama Foundation first announced its site in Jackson Park back in 2016 and hoped to break ground in late 2018 after [...]
“Haunts of the White City” Offers a Few World’s Fair Ghost Stories
Haunts of the White City: Ghost Stories From the World's Fair, the Great Fire, and Victorian Chicago by Ursula Bielski. History Press, 2019. ISBN: 9781467139656. Softcover, 272 pages. $21.99. Even those of us who don’t believe in ghosts can enjoy a good ghost story. And Chicago is full of them. Ursula Bielski collects many of the more famous spectral tales, and few lesser-known phantoms, in Haunts of the White [...]
Utah Women Raise Money for the 1893 World’s Fair
A new podcast highlights the work of Margaret Salisbury and women in Utah, who raised funds for their state displays in the Woman’s Building and in the Utah Building of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The Zion’s Suffragists podcast from the Deseret News explores how Utah pioneered voting rights for women in the United States. Episode 3, “Woman will be restored,” features Salisbury, who served on the [...]
Vienna Beef History Museum Closes
UPDATE (1/26/2020): The Vienna Beef History Museum will be closing on February 1, 2020, with no plans for reopening, according to reporting by Block Club Chicago. _______________________________________________________________________________________ We have not yet reached the dog days of summer, but Chicago is already celebrating its most famous dog, with the opening of the Vienna Beef History Museum. The 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition launched the careers of many now-famous food items, including [...]
93. Picturesque World’s Fair – Southwest from the Government Building
SOUTHWEST, FROM THE GOVERNMENT BUILDING—The view southwest from the roof of the United States Government Building embraced a great number of attractive objects. The east lagoon and more than half the Wooded Island appeared conspicuously in the foreground, and there was no elevated place in the grounds from which the island and lagoon could be seen together that did not command a sight worth seeing, for any lover of [...]
World’s Columbian Exposition Rat Traps
Although little has been written about them, rats must have been present on the fairgrounds of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. Rats also contributed to a unique Columbian Exposition product. The excerpt below, from “Traps Suited to the Rat’s Taste” published in the November 4, 1894, issue of the Philadelphia Times, describes commercial rat traps having themes related to the Midway Plaisance: It seems like rats are like persons. [...]
“Chicago’s Lollapalooza Days: 1893-1934” Explores the Windy City’s Raucous Roots
Chicago's Lollapalooza Days: 1893-1934 by Jim Edwards. Arcadia Publishing, 2019. ISBN: 9781467103701. Softcover, 128 pages. $21.99. Partying ruled in the years between Chicago’s two World's Fairs, writes historian Jim Edwards in his introduction to Chicago's Lollapalooza Days: 1893-1934. The collection of 169 annotated images form a loose theme around the titular “lollapalooza” (a ball in the notorious First Ward, not a modern music festival). Edwards curates a visual review [...]
1893 World’s Fair Safe Bank Featured on “Antiques Roadshow”
Antiques Roadshow on PBS featured a rare 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition safe bank on their show “Meadow Brook Hall, Hour 2” (Season 23 Episode 2; aired January 14, 2019) shot in Rochester, Michigan. The nickel-plated cast iron “still bank” (not a mechanical bank) with combination lock features the northern hemisphere on top with copper inlays portraits depicting Christopher Columbus, U.S. President Grover Cleveland, and World’s Columbian Exposition President Thomas [...]
92. Picturesque World’s Fair – The Javanese at Home
THE JAVANESE AT HOME.— In their home life the Javanese are said to be a simple and happy people, and this will be readily believed of them by those who were in the Javanese Village at the Fair frequently enough to note the home demeanor of its occupants. They were most interesting, these gentle Javanese, and, in certain ways and habits and views of life, quite unlike any other [...]
Jan. 28, 2020: World’s Fair History Happy Hour at the Chicago History Museum
The Chicago History Museum will host History Happy Hour with an 1893 World’s Fair theme on Tuesday, January 28, from 6-9 pm. The Chicago 00 Project will offer a preview of their 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition virtual reality experience. Guests will be taken on an immersive tour of the world’s fair, known for its dazzling White City and eclectic Midway Plaisance, experiencing Chicago’s past and present in 360 degrees and [...]
Jan. 11-12, 2020: “Sangamon Songs” Musical Play Tells of Illinois Boy Who Visited the 1893 World’s Fair (Skokie, IL)
A diary written by a 16-year-old Illinois boy who visited the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago is the source material for a new musical. Sangamon Songs: A Musical Play by Tom Irwin and John W. Arden will be performed at Skokie Theatre for Performing Arts on Jan. 11 and 12, 2010. After discovering Harry Glen Ludlam’s journal in his family farmhouse, Tom Irwin began composing an acoustic song cycle [...]
THE CITY OF WONDERS: A Souvenir of the World’s Fair (Chapter 13)
THE CITY OF WONDERS A SOUVENIR OF THE WORLD'S FAIR by Mary Catherine Crowley (1894)
THE CITY OF WONDERS: A Souvenir of the World’s Fair (Chapter 12)
THE CITY OF WONDERS A SOUVENIR OF THE WORLD'S FAIR by Mary Catherine Crowley (1894)
Jan. 20, 2020: John Mark Hansen Discusses “The City in a Garden” (Chicago)
For a short time in 1893, the Hyde Park and Kenwood neighborhoods of Chicago bordered the capital of the world, as millions visited the World’s Columbian Exposition in Jackson Park and the Midway Plaisance. The City in a Garden, a new book by John Mark Hansen explores the history of these neighborhoods: Chicago suburb, world’s fair grounds, college town, the city’s first stably integrated community, Hyde Park and Kenwood [...]
THE CITY OF WONDERS: A Souvenir of the World’s Fair (Chapter 11)
THE CITY OF WONDERS A SOUVENIR OF THE WORLD'S FAIR by Mary Catherine Crowley (1894)
Jan. 10, 2020: James Hagy Presentation on Magicians at the Columbian Exposition (Chicago)
The January 10 luncheon of the Caxton Club of Chicago features James Hagy, co-author with Sage Hagy of Fair Tricks: The Magicians at the Columbian Exposition, Chicago 1893. Recent scholarship has confirmed the long-assumed basic presence of a young Howard Thurston and an even younger Harry Houdini, both then unknown but who would soon become the two most recognized magicians of the vaudeville era. But how extensive were conjurors’ contributions [...]