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April 16, 2018: World’s Fair Auction in Cleveland
A large collection of 1893 World’s Fair antiques and collectibles will be going under the hammer on Monday, April 16. Gray’s Auctioneers “World's Fair Memorabilia and Collectibles” live auction in Cleveland, Ohio, starts at 11 AM (EDT) and features more than thirty Columbian Exposition items. Lots 20 through 51 include … • numerous pieces of decorative glassware, pottery and porcelain, including set of beautiful Libby glass peachblow rose bowls [...]
April 10-14, 2018: Food of the Fair Week at the Union League Club of Chicago
Members of the storied Union League Club of Chicago (ULCC) will be celebrating the 125th anniversary of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition with “Food of the Fair” week from April 10-14, 2018. Chef de cuisine Doug D’Avico will take diners in the Club’s Wigwam restaurant “on a culinary journey through the World’s Fair of 1893,” creating a three-course dinner of foods from the Columbian Exposition “with a ULCC twist.” [...]
Fake News, 1892 edition
While it may feel like a new problem, fake news has been with us for a long time. Perhaps no day brings more “alternative facts” than does April Fool’s Day. Long before Russian troll farms, the New York press was at it, attempting to undermine the upcoming World’s Columbian Exposition that was set to open in Chicago on May 1, 1893. The January 11, 1892, issue of World’s Columbian [...]
Rare Saint-Gaudens Columbian Exposition Medal Sells for $45,600
A medal described as the “holy grail of Columbian Expo numismatics” sold at auction on March 21, for $45,600. Stack’s Bowers Galleries offered a rare example of Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ Columbian Exposition award medal with his original--and ultimately rejected--reverse side image of a nude male youth. Each exhibitor at the 1893 World’s Fair received an award medal, meaning that 20,000 or so such medals were minted, and many still circulate [...]
Out Like a Lamb
March came in like a lion, so it should go out like a lamb, right? "Mary & Her Lamb" [Image from the Keystone-Mast Collection, UC Riverside, California Museum of Photography.] Choosing a lion from among the many prominent felines present at the 1893 World’s fair was quite easy for our post back on March 1. Finding a lamb for this accompanying end-of-the-month post has been a much more [...]
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR – The Great Display of Windmills (p. 43)
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS Page 43 – THE GREAT DISPLAY OF WINDMILLS THE GREAT DISPLAY OF WINDMILLS.—One of the most picturesque effects produced on the Exposition grounds was that resulting from the grouping of windmills of all sorts and kinds in competition. From the old Dutch windmill made famous in poetry and story to the latest patented American invention, they were there in the [...]
Artifacts of the 1893 World’s Fair Unearthed in Jackson Park
The Chicago Tribune reports that archaeologists have unearthed artifacts of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Jackson Park. In late 2017, researchers working for the Illinois State Archaeological Survey excavated seven sites in the area of the proposed Obama Presidential Center (OPC). Dig locations were on the west side of Jackson Park as well as in the eastern edge of the Midway Plaisance, where a parking garage for the OPC [...]
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR – The Administration Building (p. 42)
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS Page 42 – THE ADMINISTRATION BUILDING THE ADMINISTRATION BUILDING.—The heart of the great entity known as the Columbian Exposition was in the Administration Building. Here were the offices of the Presidents and here, also, those of the Director-General and some of his immediate lieutenants. From here the vast machinery was directed and controlled, and about here as a nucleus thronged [...]
April 22, 2018: World’s Fair Memorabilia Show
The 24th annual World's Fair Memorabilia Show will be held on Sunday, April 22, 2018 from 10 am to 4 pm at the Holiday Inn at 1000 Busse Road (Rt. 83 and Landmeier Rd.) in Elk Grove Village, Illinois. Collectors and dealers will meet to buy, sell and trade items related to World's Fairs from 1876 to the present. Although the main focus will be on the 1933/34 Chicago World's Fair, there will also be [...]
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR – Japanese Government Buildings (p. 41)
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS Page 41 – JAPANESE GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS JAPANESE GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS.—From the very inception of the idea of the Columbian Exposition, the Japanese Government showed a hearty good will toward the United States in the movement, and was one of the earliest nations on the ground engaged in the erection of its buildings. A site on the Wooded Island was given the [...]
Grover Cleveland’s Columbian Exposition Keepsake
We conclude a trio of stories this week about President Grover Cleveland’s visit to the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago with a newspaper report about a handsome Columbian Exposition keepsake. The following tidbit about Opening Day of the Columbian Exposition on May 1, 1893, comes from “The Great Fair Opens” in the June 1893 issue of Current Literature [public domain]. Bibliophiles may wonder where this handsome volume is today! [...]
March 23/25, 2018: Lecture on Composer Amy Beach (Boston)
Composer and pianist Amy Beach (1867-1944) made significant musical contributions to the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago. The Board of Lady Managers of the World's Columbian Exposition commissioned Beach to compose her Festival Jubilate (Op. 17) for the dedication of the Woman’s Building in October of 1892. This was her first commissioned work and reportedly is the first known work of an American woman composer commissioned in the U.S. “Why [...]
An Irish Serenade for President Cleveland
Continuing our celebration this week of both St. Patrick’s Day and the anniversary of President Grover Cleveland’s birth, we present this annotated report from the May 2, 1893, edition of the San Sabo (TX) News. The article describes how a group of Irish women from the Midway serenaded President Cleveland as he departed Chicago after the Opening Ceremony of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. _________________________________________________________________________ OFF TO WASHINGTON [...]
Grover Cleveland’s Big Impression on the Midway
Today marks the anniversary of the birth of Stephen Grover Cleveland on March 18, 1837, in Caldwell, New Jersey. The second inauguration of Grover Cleveland as the 24th President of the United States was held on March 4, 1893, less than two months before the opening of the World’s Fair in Chicago on May 1. Having previously served as the 22nd president, Cleveland is the only U.S. president to [...]
Lady Aberdeen on Ireland at the 1893 World’s Fair
"Types of the Fair" [Adapted from a drawing in Current Literature June 1893.] Ishbel Maria Hamilton-Gordon, Marchioness of Aberdeen and Temair, became viceregal consort of Canada in 1893 when her husband John Campbell Hamilton-Gordon (Lord Aberdeen) was appointed governor general. She was the former viceroy of Ireland and founder of the Irish Industries Association. In her essay about Ireland, published in the July 1893 issue of the North American [...]
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR – The Ceylon Building (p. 40)
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS Page 40 - THE CEYLON BUILDING THE CEYLON BUILDING.—Distant Ceylon made an admirable snowing at the Columbian Exposition, its building forming a notable exhibit in itself. The "Court," as it was called, stood just to the north of the German Building, fronting on the lake. The material was of the beautiful native woods of Ceylon, and the pillars, ends of [...]
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR – Music Hall, The Peristyle and the Movable Sidewalk (p. 39)
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS Page 39 – MUSIC HALL, THE PERISTYLE AND THE MOVABLE SIDEWALK MUSIC HALL, THE PERISTYLE AND THE MOVABLE SIDEWALK.—First to disappear totally from among the grander features of the Columbian Exposition were the Casino and Music Hall, the famous Peristyle and a portion of the Movable Sidewalk, destroyed by fire on the evening and night of January 8, 1894. The [...]
Mar. 16, 2018-Apr. 28, 2019: World’s Fair “Mummies” at the Field Museum
Mummies that were on display at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition are back in Chicago after a 6-year national tour. The exhibition "Mummies" opens at the Field Museum on Friday, March 16, 2018, and showcases artifacts from ancient Egypt and ancient Peru. Some of the ancient mummy artifacts on display at the 1893 World's Fair. [from The Catalogue of the Cliff-Dwellers Exhibit (H. Jay Smith Exploring Company, 1893).] After [...]
Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry Celebrates the 1893 World’s Fair
The Museum of Science and Industry (MSI) in Chicago is housed in one of the few buildings remaining from the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition: what was then the Palace of Fine Arts. To commemorate the 125th anniversary of the World’s Fair, the Museum has mounted two displays commemorating the historic event. Lego Ferris Wheel Adam Reed Tucker installing his LEGO Ferris Wheel model. [Image from the Museum of [...]
Chicago: City of the Century (2003)
News of the passing of David Ogden Stiers on March 3 has garnered tributes to the actor’s unforgettable role on M*A*S*H and his voice performances for several animated film from Disney Studios. Mr. Stiers also played a small but valuable role in the history of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, serving as the narrator of one of the first documentaries about the great fair. Chicago: City of the Century, [...]