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Timeline of THE DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY minseries
The April 2019 issue of Chicago magazine includes this timeline of the on-again-off-again (it's ON again!) plans for a film version of The Devil in the White City. There is no word yet on the title of the upcoming Hulu miniseries or where filming will take place. And who will play the role of Daniel Burnham? Perhaps ... John C. Reilly? David Morse? Tom Hanks? Daniel H. Burnham, [...]
Mar. 4-Apr. 22, 2019: Montclair Reads “The Devil in the White City” (Montclair, NJ)
The Montclair Library (Montclair, NJ) is hosting a series of events relating to the 1893 World’s Fair as part of their programming for Montclair Reads The Devil in the White City, focused on Erik Larson’s best-selling book (soon to be a miniseries) about the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition and a nearby killer, H. H. Holmes. Events include: Montclair in the Gilded Age. Monday, March 4 at 6:30 pm, Main [...]
Ellen Martin Henrotin, Vice-President of the Women’s Branch of the World’s Congress Auxiliary
“To her belongs much of the credit for the strong feminist emphasis that characterized the Columbian Exposition.” --James, et al. Notable American Women, 1607-1950, p 182. Ellen M. Henrotin [Image from Pictorial Album and History of the World’s Fair and Midway. Harry T. Smith & Co., 1893.] Socialite and social reformer, Ellen Martin Henrotin (1847-1922) served as Vice President of the World’s Congress Auxiliary of the 1893 World's [...]
Woman’s Part at the World’s Fair, Part II
March is Women’s History Month and a fitting time to reflect on women’s valuable contributions to the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. Reprinted here is Part 2 of “Woman’s Part at the World’s Fair” from the May 1893 issue of The Review of Reviews. “The Woman's Branch of the World's Congress Auxiliary” was written by Ellen M. Henrotin, Vice-President of the Woman's Branch of the World's Congress Auxiliary. Part 1 [...]
Apr. 13, 2019: Devil in the White City Bus Tour
Experience the murder, magic, and madness at the fair that changed America on a 4-hour bus tour offered by the Chicago History Museum on Saturday, April 13, 2019. Inspired by Erik Larson’s best-selling book (soon to be a miniseries), this tour will take you back to 1893 with historian Al Walavich, to follow the trails of Daniel Burnham and the devilish doings of H. H. Holmes. Visit the historic fairgrounds, the Garden [...]
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR – The Interior of the Agriculture Building (p. 75)
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS Page 75 – INTERIOR OF AGRICULTURE BUILDING INTERIOR OF AGRICULTURE BUILDING.—The visitor new to the Fair and as yet unfamiliar with the topography of interiors was not unlikely to get lost in the Agriculture Building, with its acres of space and mile upon mile of displays. It was a most bewildering, but attractive, place, and drew the people, regardless of [...]
Wind Yourself Up and Spring Forward
A timely reminder from World'sFairChicago1893.com to set your clocks ahead for daylight savings, which begins on Sunday, March 10, 2019. The Clock Tower of the Self-Winding Clock Company in the center of the Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building. [Image from Scientific American, July 29, 1893.]
May 3-5, 2019: Chicago Antiquarian Map, Book & Ephemera Fair
The Chicago Antiquarian Map, Book & Ephemera Fair, to be held from May 3-5, 2019, at the Newberry Library (60 W. Walton St. in Chicago), will gather over thirty exhibitors offering a wide array of maps, books, and ephemera for sale. Among the tables may be some treasures from the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, according to the fair’s featured item’s page. The Abraham Lincoln Book Shop offers a fascinating [...]
Virginia Claypool Meredith, the “The Queen of American Agriculture” on the Board of Lady Managers
“It is not likely that there will ever again be any distinction so artificial as that of sex between the skill of men and women--unlikely that there will ever again be a woman’s department in any World’s Fair.” --Virginia Meredith, from a speech given at the Indiana Union of Literary Clubs meeting, May 1892. [reprinted in Whitford, et al. The Queen of American Agriculture: A Biography of Virginia Claypool [...]
Woman’s Part at the World’s Fair, Part I
March is Women’s History Month and a fitting time to reflect on women’s valuable contributions to the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. Reprinted here is Part 1 of “Woman’s Part at the World’s Fair” from the May 1893 issue of The Review of Reviews. “The Work of the Board of Lady Managers” was written by one of its Vice Presidents, Virginia C. Meredith of Indiana. Parts 2 and 3 will [...]
Mar. 11, 2019: The Vanishing City–Excavating the World’s Fair (McHenry County Historical Society & Museum)
The McHenry County Historical Society & Museum will kick off its 33rd annual Sampler Lecture Series on Monday, March 11 with a look at the 1893 World’s Fair with “The Vanishing City: Excavating the World’s Fair.” Rebecca Graff, assistant professor of anthropology and chair of the American studies at Lake Forest College, divulges what is hiding beneath the future Obama Presidential Center site in Chicago. Jackson Park at one [...]
Mar. 23, 2019: Devil in the White City Bus Tour
Experience the murder, magic, and madness at the fair that changed America on a 4-hour bus tour offered by the Chicago History Museum on Saturday, March 23, 2019. (A second tour will be offered on April 13, 2019.) Inspired by Erik Larson’s best-selling book (soon to be a miniseries), this tour will take you back to 1893 with historian Al Walavich, to follow the trails of Daniel Burnham and the devilish doings [...]
How Should Chicago be Governed?
Chicago City Hall. [Image from Butterworth, Hezekiah Zigzag Journeys in the White City (Estes and Lauriat, 1894).] With the election for a new Mayor of Chicago on the horizon, citizens are demanding cleaner streets, a crackdown on crime and vice, and safer public transportation. The year was 1893. The mayoral election of the spring of 1893 would decide who would become the “World’s Fair Mayor” as the city [...]
Fair Floor Faces Foggy Future
A parquet floor in the William Witten Home in Highland Park, Illinois, came from the 1893 World’s Fair. [Image from the William Witten Home Facebook page.] Will an impending wrecking ball spare a rare craftsman floor from the 1893 World’s Fair? Following a story last year from the Chicago Tribune, CBS-2 Chicago reports that the William Walter Witten Home, at 1014 Central Avenue in Highland Park, Illinois, could be [...]
“Frederick Douglass’s Defiant Stand at Chicago’s World’s Fair”
February 14 is often listed as the birthday of Frederick Douglass, who late in life served as the Commissioner of the Haitian Republic. Daniel Hautzinger writes in “Frederick Douglass's Defiant Stand at Chicago's World's Fair” (WTTW, February 14, 2018) that “Frederick Douglass never knew the date of his own birth, or even how old he was … But the famous abolitionist and orator eventually chose to celebrate his birthday [...]
“Devil in the White City” to be a Hulu Mini Series
One man built a dream city on the shores of Lake Michigan, attracting tens of millions of visitors from around the world. Another built a nightmare hotel in a neighborhood near the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Erik Larson entwined the true stories of architect Daniel H. Burnham and serial killer H. H. Holmes into a fascinating narrative in his 2003 bestseller The Devil in the White City: [...]
Finding the Fair at the Field
In terms of quantity and quality, one of the greatest collections of objects from the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition resides in the Field Museum in Chicago. The permanent collection is a treasure trove of unique and fascinating items from the 1893 Exposition. We visited the museums several times recently to take in some of the temporary exhibits having World’s Fair materials on display and share a few photos here. [...]
THE LADY OF THE LAKE by Julian Hawthorne Part IV: The Incomparable Loveliness of the Illuminations
Author Julian Hawthorne visited the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Like so many other visitors who recorded their impressions of visiting the World’s Fair, he offered some of his highest praise for the electrical lighting of the night scene in the Dream City, a “banquet of royal beauty.” Reprinted below is the fourth and final part of Julian Hawthorne’s “The Lady of the Lake” about his June visit [...]
THE LADY OF THE LAKE by Julian Hawthorne Part III: Curiosities of the Midway Plaisance
Author Julian Hawthorne visited the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Reprinted below is the third part of Julian Hawthorne’s “The Lady of the Lake” about his June visit to the fairgrounds and published in the August 1893 issue of Lippincott’s Magazine. The previous installments can be found in Part I and Part II. [NOTE: By today’s standards, some of Hawthorne’s remarks about the Midway Plaisance and citizens of the [...]
THE LADY OF THE LAKE by Julian Hawthorne Part II: A Pure Delight of the Soul
Author Julian Hawthorne visited the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Reprinted below is the second part of Julian Hawthorne’s “The Lady of the Lake” about his June visit to the fairgrounds and published in the August 1893 issue of Lippincott’s Magazine. Part 1 can be found here. THE LADY OF THE LAKE by Julian Hawthorne The Palace of Fine Arts depicted in “Art Palace from the Southwest” [...]