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Nov. 10, 2018: “Crafting the World’s Fair” at the Newberry Library (Chicago)
The Newberry Library’s Pictures from an Exposition: Visualizing the 1893 World's Fair includes a series of rich programs about the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. On Saturday, November 10, 2018, the Newberry will host “Crafting the World's Fair” [https://www.newberry.org/11102018-second-saturday-november-crafting-worlds-fair]. Author and artist Laura Nyman Montenegro will read her book The Most Magical World’s Fair and lead children in a craft project inspired by the Fair. The children’s event runs from 10-11:30am [...]
Remembering Harlow Higinbotham, President of the World’s Columbian Exposition
Today we mark the birthday of Harlow Niles Higinbotham (October 10, 1838 – April 18, 1919), who served as the third President of the World’s Columbian Exposition Company, following terms of Lyman J. Gage and William T. Baker. The quote below, reprinted in Harriet Monroe’s Harlow Niles Higinbotham: A Memoir with Brief Autobiography and Extracts from Speeches and Letters (R.F. Seymour, 1920) came from a speech that Higinbotham made [...]
October 9, 1893. Could it be possible that 754,000 were assembled together to celebrate a peaceful event?
October 9, 1893, was “the greatest gathering in history” and the “grandest spectacle in modern times.” Chicago Day at the 1893 World’s Fair shattered all previous attendance records with 713,646 paid admissions to the Fair and over three-quarters of a million of people inside the gates of the White City. The event commemorated the night of October 9, 1871, when the Great Fire ripped through downtown Chicago. Having risen [...]
October 2018 Trivia Question
Our monthly newsletter includes a “Palmer Puzzler” exclusive to those who subscribe. (You can sign up here.) The first person to send us the correct answer wins a small prize. The October 2018 Trivia Question For the grand night pageant held on Chicago Day (October 9), the General Electric Company and Chicago Edison sponsored a float shaped as … A. a giant light bulb B. a wizard of electricity [...]
Oct. 5 – Dec. 28, 2018: “Seeds of Time: Binghamton at the World’s Fair” at the Bundy Museum (Binghamton, NY)
The Bundy Museum of History and Art in Binghamton, New York, has opened a new exhibit titled “Seeds of Time: Binghamton at the World’s Fair” showcasing that city’s involvement with the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The museum notes: “The World’s Fair opened the door to the future, and schools and businesses representing Binghamton sent their best work to display. To commemorate the 125th anniversary of the Fair, this [...]
Oct. 6-20, 2018: Chicago a cappella Sings Music of the Columbian Exposition
The vocal group Chicago a cappella will feature some music from the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in a concert titled “Chicago, Chicago with Geoffrey Baer.” The concert includes the patriotic song “America the Beautiful” with music by Samuel Ward and lyrics by Katharine Lee Bates (arr. Deke Sharon). During the summer of 1893, Bates traveled from her home in Boston to Colorado. The English professor and writer was so [...]
Nov. 6, 2018: “Eye of the Beholder: Visitor Experience at 19th-Century World Fairs” at the Newberry Library (Chicago)
The Newberry Library’s Pictures from an Exposition: Visualizing the 1893 World's Fair includes a series of rich programs about the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. On Tuesday, November 6, 2018, the Newberry will host “Eye of the Beholder: Visitor Experience at 19th-Century World Fairs”. Dr. Ruth Slatter, lecturer in Human Geography at the University of Hull (UK), will focus on the many thousands of visitors who streamed through these exhibition spaces. [...]
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR – The Santa Maria (p. 66)
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS Page 66 – THE SANTA MARIA THE SANTA MARIA.—The duplicate of the flagship of Columbus, the famous "Santa Maria,” had many thousands of visitors as she lay in Lake Michigan, just in front of the grounds, one of the most interesting of all the Exposition's attractions. The hosts who boarded her and examined her every part, accustomed as they were [...]
Nov. 2, 2018: World Premier of Alex Temple’s “Three Principles of Noir”
Composer Alex Temple [Image from the American Composers Orchestra.] The American Composers Orchestra (ACO) will perform the world premiere a piece having a time-traveling science fiction narrative centered around a Chicago historian who travels back in time to the 1893 World's Fair. The ensemble will perform Alex Temple's Three Principles of Noir with singer Meaghan Burke, on November 2, 2018, at Carnegie Hall in New York. Three Principles [...]
September 2018 Trivia Question
Our monthly newsletter includes a “Palmer Puzzler” exclusive to those who subscribe. (You can sign up here.) The first person to send us the correct answer wins a small prize. The September 2018 Trivia Question To accompany our “Brownies in September” post, here is a trivia question about (the other kind of) brownies at the Fair. One origin story for the delicious chocolate treats is that they were invented [...]
Pictures from “Pictures from an Exposition”
“Pictures from an Exposition: Visualizing the 1893 World’s Fair” has opened at the Newberry Library. “Pictures from an Exposition: Visualizing the 1893 World’s Fair” has opened at the Newberry Library in Chicago. The exhibition of nearly two hundred items from the World’s Columbian Exposition fills two galleries in the Library’s newly renovated main floor. Displays are organized into sections on: • Introduction • Construction • Maps and [...]
Happy National Coffee Day
Happy National Coffee Day from WorldsFairChicago1893.com! An advertisement for Chase & Sanborn's "Seal Brand" coffee, official coffee of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition.
Hopes of the Coming Humanity: Remembering Frances E. Willard
“The world is wide, and I will not waste my life in friction when it could be turned into momentum.” – Frances E. Willard Today marks the anniversary of the birth of Frances E. Willard (September 28, 1839 – February 17, 1898), a member of the Lady Board of Managers of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition and the president of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. The profile of this notable [...]
Oct. 28, 2018: “The World’s Columbian Exposition in Music and Story” at Second Presbyterian Church (Chicago)
The historic Second Presbyterian Church in Chicago will celebrate the legacy of the 1893 World’s Fair with an event on October 28, 2018. The date marks the 125th anniversary of the assassination of five-time Chicago mayor Carter H. Harrison, Sr. just days before the scheduled end of the World’s Columbian Exposition. The tragic event sent the city into mourning and the closing ceremonies were replaced by a public memorial [...]
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR – Entrance to Woman’s Building (p. 65)
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS Page 65 – ENTRANCE TO WOMAN'S BUILDING ENTRANCE TO WOMAN'S BUILDING.—The view given in the accompanying illustration is of the east portal to the transept of the Woman's Building, and it may be said of it, as might be said of other portion of the edifice, that it appeared best upon a close inspection. The building, accidentally, no doubt, but [...]
Why Couldn’t New York Build the White City for Real?
“History is happening in Manhattan and we just happen to be In the greatest city in the world!” --"The Schuyler Sisters” from Hamilton The White City of the World’s Columbian Exposition was the undeniable center of the world for six months in 1893, but it was also a theatrical illusion -- a Dream City. Behind the scenes, a famous rivalry played out between the real cities of Chicago and [...]
History and Change in Jackson Park
The 2018-2019 class of Obama Foundation Scholars recently convened in Chicago. On one beautiful summer day, the scholars -- coming from places as far flung as Cameroon, India and Vietnam -- were provided with a history tour of Chicago’s South Side that included a visit to the former fairgrounds of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Jackson Park. The Obama Presidential Center hopes to move into the western side [...]
Inside the Administration Building Dome: “The Glorification of the Arts and Sciences” by William Dodge (Part II)
[Part I of this article describes Dodge’s commission to paint a mural for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition and his work to create The Glorification of the Arts and Sciences.] PART II: THE PROCESSION BEFORE THE THRONE OF APOLLO “… illuminated by the opal-like circle of light at the summit, Dodge’s great picture crowns the whole, with its circling procession of arts and sciences, gods and muses, nymphs and graces, [...]
Remembering Robert Swain Peabody, architect of Machinery Hall
Robert Swain Peabody (February 22, 1845-September 23, 1917) died on this day at his summer home in Marblehead, Massachusetts. Cofounder of the renowned Boston architectural firm of Peabody & Stearns, he was one of the select east-coast architects invited by Daniel Burnham to contribute to the design of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Despite his pessimistic statement in 1891 about the prospect of constructing the World’s Fair on [...]
“From the Midway” a new 1893 World’s Fair podcast from the Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune recently launched a new podcast series called “From the Midway” that explores the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition on its 125th anniversary year. Host Colleen Connolly, digital news editor at the Trib, promises to offer listeners stories about “the legacy left behind by the fair, including the remnants that can still be viewed today, the cultural legacy of the fair, the evolution of the Ferris wheel and [...]