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“No Holmes Barred!” A World’s Fair Radio Show Podcast Concludes
History, hilarity, and histrionics characterize a new satirical radio-show podcast about the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago. No Holmes Barred! is written, directed, and produced by Daniel Ciarrocchi (you may have seen him on Jeopardy!) and tells the dual stories of Daniel Burnham’s construction of the fairgrounds in Jackson Park and the bloody trail of murderer H. H. Holmes in nearby Englewood. If this premise sounds like a certain [...]
Preserving the Clarence Darrow Memorial Bridge in Jackson Park
Very few structures from the fairgrounds of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago have survived. One of them has stood in a state of disrepair behind a chain-link fence for fifteen years. The University of Chicago student newspaper, the Chicago Maroon, had provided an update on efforts to repair this historic bridge in Jackson Park. Evgenia Anastasakos’ “Community Members Organize to Preserve Historic Jackson Park Bridge” (August 5, [...]
Is “The Devil in the White City” TV miniseries still alive?
Deadline’s Zac Ntim recently interviewed Stacey Sher, often listed as show runner for Hulu’s The Devil in the White City TV miniseries that was shelved in March of 2023. Ntim asked Sher “is that still happening and are you still involved?” to which she replied “I’m still involved. I never give up.” When asked if fans can expect to see it sometime soon, she replied “I mean, I hope [...]
Aug. 29, 2024: “The Women’s Building at the Chicago World’s Fair” (Lima, OH)
The Allen County Museum in Lima, Ohio, will host a talk about the Woman’s Building at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition on August 29, 2024. Dr. David Strittmatter, Ohio Northern University Assistant Professor of History will present on “The Women’s Building at the Chicago World’s Fair.” This talk is part of a lecture series accompanying The Art of Domesticity, a temporary exhibition focusing on the decorative arts from the [...]
Footprint of the Obama Presidential Center in relation to the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Jackson Park
Construction continues on the Obama Presidential Center on the west side of Jackson Park in Chicago. An update from the Obama Foundation shows a map of the campus, which includes a Museum building, John Lewis Plaza, Forum building, a new branch of the Chicago Public Library, the Eleanor Roosevelt Fruit & Vegetable Garden, the Home Court, and a playground. To see how the space occupied by these new structures [...]
Sep. 15, 2024: “Walking the White City” tour (Chicago)
The Glessner House is offering a "Walking the White City" tour of the former fairgrounds of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition on Sunday, September 15, 2024, from 10 AM to noon. Architect and historian John Waters will guide participants on a walking tour of Jackson Park to see the sites of landmarks of the 1893 World's Fair, explore the fascinating vestiges, and learn how the Fair influenced the design [...]
Long-lost film footage of the 1893 World’s Fair?
Has some long-lost film footage of the 1893 World’s Fair been discovered? Not quite. But this video about a stunning piece of Chicago real estate opens with some fun AI-generated animations of the Columbian Exposition fairgrounds. The video showcases a $3.6M penthouse mansion in the historic Montgomery Ward building (6 N. Michigan Ave.), constructed in 1898–99. [Note: The building across the street—constructed for use by the World’s Congress Auxiliary [...]
A City of Realized Dreams
The 1893 World's Columbian Exposition showcased harmony of architectural design and sculpture, advanced technologies to serve humanity, and education to guide moral progress. These themes are featured in the essay reprinted here, from the July 1893 issue of Catholic World. This depiction of the “East Lagoon by Moonlight” typified the dreamy quality of “the great white ephemeral city.” [Image from Picturesque World’s Fair. W.B. Conkey, 1894; digitally edited.] [...]
Aug. 13 – Nov. 2, 2024: “A Broader View: The 1893 Land Run in an Era of American Change” (Enid, OK)
The Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center in Enid, OK, is hosting an exhibition about 1893 Oklahoma and their relation to national events such as the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. “A Broader View: The 1893 Land Run in an Era of American Change” runs from August 13 through November 2, 2024, in the Mabee Foundation Gallery. Travel back in time through this immersive exhibit that offers a broader perspective [...]
166. Picturesque World’s Fair – The Rhode Island Building
THE RHODE ISLAND BUILDING.—The smallest state in the Union made by no means the smallest showing at the Columbian Exposition. She contributed $50,000 toward a state exhibit, and her pretty building, which cost $10,000, was presented to Chicago at the close of the Fair. It was a graceful structure, in the style of a Greek mansion, its columns and pilasters enriched by decorated moldings and a balustrade surrounding the [...]
July 19-Aug. 4, 2024: “White City Murder” at the Phoenix Theatre (Indianapolis)
Murder! Mischief! Dark Comedy! White City Murder, a macabre and hilarious tale of infamous serial killer H.H. Holmes at the 1893 World’s Fair, is playing at the Phoenix Theatre in Indianapolis from July 19 to August 4, 2024. Featuring original music by Ben Asaykwee, the show promises a blend of laughter and chills. In two acts, the play includes over 30 characters, all played by two actors as they [...]
Horace Spencer Fiske’s odes to Daniel Chester French’s Columbian Exposition sculptures
The great sculptural works of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition have been memorialized in photographs, paintings, and prose. Poetry, too, honors some of the famous sculptures from the Fair. Horace Spencer Fiske (1859–1940) taught English at Beloit College and Wisconsin State Normal School before a long career on the faculty and administration of the University of Chicago beginning in 1894. He stablished the John Billings Fiske Prize in Poetry [...]
Eyewitness to the Cold Storage Building fire
Mr. Bryan and Mr. King could not have imaged the infernal tragedy about to unfold at the Columbian Exposition on the afternoon of Monday, July 10, 1893. Thomas Barbour Bryan was a leading figure in the effort to bring the World’s Columbian Exposition to Chicago and had been its First Vice-President. William Fletcher King served as the president of Cornell College from 1863 until 1908. Their conversation was interrupted [...]
“Ring the Bells!” by Richard Lew Dawson
Essayist, story writer, song writer, critic and poet, Richard Lew Dawson (1852–1921) wrote for many popular newspapers and magazines, including the Indianapolis Sentinel, Indianapolis Journal, Chicago Current, Saturday Herald, and Century Magazine. He was a founding member of the Western Association of Writers in 1886. A few years before his death on April 23, 1921, the Hoosier writer moved to San Francisco, where he departed this world on the [...]
“Big Shoulders” comic series plans to visit the 1893 World’s Fair
“A crossroads is where destinies can get made or broken,” states Big Shoulders #1, the first of a proposed six-issue full-color comic series. This Chicago-based fantasy, where the mundane and the cosmic collide, features twenty-two-year-old Coda Walker waking up and finding himself transported to the 1893 World’s Fair. Two pages (not yet colored) from Big Shoulders #1, showing Coda Walker in front of the Administration Building at the [...]
Famous World’s Fair Name on “Jeopardy!”
“Famous Names” served as the Final Jeopardy category on the June 12, 2024, episode of Jeopardy! The answer was: “Vying with Eiffel, this engineer wanted to create big; an admiring account said the Obelisk of Luxor is too short to be a spoke.” Two of the contestants came up with correct question of is “Who is Ferris?” Pittsburgh engineer George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr., designed his great iron wheel [...]
165. Picturesque World’s Fair – The Texas Building
THE TEXAS BUILDING.—The Texas Building, a fine structure, was a credit to the patriotism and energy of the ladies of that state and equally a rebuke to the legislature of the great commonwealth which failed to make the needed appropriation in time. It was to the women alone that praise for Texas' representation at the Fair was due. The building occupied a fine site near the northern extremity of [...]
Jul. 9, 2014: “Race-making in the Americas From Columbus to the 1893 World’s Fair” (Chicago)
The Adult Education program at the Newberry Library will offer a course on "Race-making in the Americas: From Columbus to the 1893 World’s Fair" weekly on Tuesdays from July 9–30, 2024. Led by Breanna Escamilla, an anthropologist from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the seminar will begin by analyzing the journal of Christopher Columbus and expand into the archival materials of religious missionaries in the Western Hemisphere, before turning [...]
(Re)Introducing the Dana Palace of Fine Arts
Dear Mr. Burnham, Please take a look at the attached press release drafted by Chief Halsey Ives of the Fine Arts Department. Are we to proceed with this? I urge caution. With concern, Moses P. Handy Publicity and Promotion May 14, 1893 (Re)Introducing the Dana Palace of Fine Arts The World’s Fair is open, the guidebooks are printed, and the maps are distributed. And yet, winds of change are [...]
Aurora Borealis in Alba Urbs
Amid the majesty of night, What splendid vision strikes my eyes, In glory bursting on the sight, Forth from the northern skies? — from “The Aurora Borealis” by Stephen Greenleaf Bulfinch