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May 29, 2018: Chicago History Museum Celebrates the 1893 Fair
"The Ferris Wheel Waltz-Polka" sheet music. [Image from Johns Hopkins University.] To celebrate the 125th anniversary of the World’s Columbian Exposition, the Chicago History Museum (CHM) is hosting a talk by Donald C. Meyer, Professor of Music at Lake Forest College, on May 29 at the museum. Prof. Meyer’s digitization project to preserve sheet music associated with the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago includes an online archive of [...]
Souvenir Music from the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893
March, waltz, polka, and hoochie koochie your way back to the 1893 World’s Fair with Souvenir Music from the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, a new recording of vintage sheet music from Lake Forest College Press. Donald C. Meyer, Professor of Music at Lake Forest College, has assembled a fascinating collection of 18 pieces of music written for or about the Columbian Exposition. A trio of musicians (pianist Chris [...]
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR – The Massachusetts Building (p. 35)
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS Page 35 - THE MASSACHUSETTS BUILDING THE MASSACHUSETTS BUILDING.—Typical of the history and character of the Old Bay State was the Massachusetts Building, which stood just east of New York on the broad roadway leading east from the Fifty-seventh street entrance to the grounds. It was in the old Colonial style and, as nearly as was practicable, a duplicate of the [...]
Happy Birthday to Architect Robert Peabody
Today we celebrate the anniversary of the birth of Robert Swain Peabody on February 22, 1845. Peabody was a cofounder of the Boston architectural firm of Peabody & Stearns, designer of Machinery Hall (also known as the Palace of Mechanical Arts) and the Massachusetts Pavilion for the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago. Architects invited by Daniel Burnham to contribute building for the World's Columbian Exposition gathered in Chicago on [...]
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR – Egyptian Dancing Girls (p. 34)
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWSPage 34 – EGYPTIAN DANCING GIRLSEGYPTIAN DANCING GIRLS.—That prominent feature of the Midway Plaisance, a Street in Cairo, had a theatre among its attractions, and what doubtless drew most visitors to this place of entertainment, was the performance of the Egyptian Dancing Girls. The illustration gives excellent portraits of the three dusky beauties who were most prominent there, and shows also the [...]
Presidential Painting
A painting of a young Abraham Lincoln, reported to have been on display at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, was unveiled on February 9, 2018, at the Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Illinois. The Young Abraham Lincoln by William Morton Jackson Rice [Image from the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.] The Young Abraham Lincoln, a 56-by-85-inch oil painting by William Morton Jackson Rice (1854-1922), depicts Lincoln [...]
Site of the World’s Columbian Exposition
The piece below, from the first issue of The World’s Columbian Exposition Illustrated (Vol. 1 No. 1, February 1891) and likely written by editor James B. Campbell, offers an enthusiastic description of the locations that Chicago had recently selected to host the 1893 World’s Fair. The editorial boosterism belies much of the bitter fighting that went into reaching the decision to use Jackson Park as the main fairgrounds. At [...]
March 8, 2018: Union League Club of Chicago lecture on “The Columbian Exposition”
The Union League Club of Chicago (ULCC) is celebrating the 125th anniversary of the 1893 World's Fair with a presentation by Greg Cook titled "The World's Columbian Exposition and its Transformation of Chicago Architecture" on Thursday, March 8 from 5:30-7 p.m. at the Union League Club (65 Jackson Boulevard in Chicago). The Union League Club of Chicago. [Image from https://www.facebook.com/ULCChicago/] A cocktail reception with a cash bar and light appetizers will start [...]
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. – Dome of Agriculture Building (p. 33)
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS Page 31 – DOME of AGRICULTURE BUILDING DOME OF AGRICULTURE BUILDING.—The agriculture department of the World's Columbian Exposition was housed in a palace, for the great building devoted to the purpose was a magnificent structure, both as to dimensions and architectural character. The main building stood beside Lake Michigan its principal facade facing the grand basin in the Court of [...]
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR – Royal Berlin Porcelain Vase (p. 32)
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS Page 31 – ROYAL BERLIN PORCELAIN VASE ROYAL BERLIN PORCELAIN VASE.—There were some very beautiful objects in the porcelain display by Germany, in the Manufactures Building, but easily first was the Royal Porcelain Vase, nine feet in height, which is the subject of this illustration. It was part of the showing made by the Royal Berlin Porcelain Works, which are [...]
Happy National Ferris Wheel Day!
Up 'n' down Ferris wheel Tell me how does it feel To be so high Looking down here. -- Norah Jones "Carnival Town" Grab a box of chocolates and a bouquet of roses, because today is ... National Ferris Wheel Day! This annual celebration honors the anniversary of George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr.’s birth on February 14, 1859, in Galesburg, Illinois. Ferris, of course, was the engineer who invented the [...]
March 6, 2018: World’s Fair Auction #31 ends
World's Fair Auction #31 is now open for preview and online bidding closes on Tuesday, March 6, 2018. The auction catalog can be viewed at: http://www.worldsfairauction.com/cgi-bin/CATALL.CGI
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR – Interior of “Old Vienna” (p. 31)
Page 31 INTERIOR OF “OLD VIENNA."— From: PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS INTERIOR OF “OLD VIENNA."—To leave the Exposition without having visited the Austrian Village, more widely known as "Old Vienna," was, in the opinion of many people, not to have seen the Fair at all. It was one of the most popular places of resort for the multitude, despite the expensiveness of the luxury, for prices [...]
Mar. 23-Aug. 29, 2018-Exhibit Showcases Mexicans at the 1893 World’s Fair
An upcoming exhibit at the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago features the early artistic involvement and influence of Mexican immigrants in Chicago beginning with the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893. Arte Diseño Xicágo: Mexican Inspiration from the World's Columbian Exposition to the Civil Rights Era opens on Friday, March 23, 2018, with a reception from 6–8 pm, and continues through August 19, 2018, in the Main Gallery. One [...]
Dominating Objects of Interest: Olmsted and Obama
“How much should the maxims of a 19th-century park designer tie the hands of a 21st-century president?” asks Edward McClelland in his piece “Olmsted vs. Obama: Inside the Pushback Against the Presidential Library” published this week by Chicago Magazine. A whimsical illustration by Graham Roumieu that accompanies the article shows of a ghostly zephyr of Frederick Law Olmsted, landscape architect of the 1893 World’s Fair, fretting over the fate [...]
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR – Interior of the Javanese Theater (p. 30)
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS Page 30 INTERIOR OF THE JAVANESE THEATER.—Not a remarkable histrionic production was any play performed in the Javanese Theatre, but it was interesting, as was anything connected with these gentle people. Centrally in the quaint village was a structure, somewhat larger than the others, made of bamboo, thatched in the native style and illuminated at night. From this building emanated [...]
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS (p. 29)
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS Page 29 - NORTH LAGOON AND THE MERCHANT TAILORS' BUILDING NORTH LAGOON AND THE MERCHANT TAILORS' BUILDING.—It was hardly to be expected that a building erected by a special class of exhibitors would compare favorably in classic beauty of conception and in all architectural features With anything produced by the great artists of the Exposition, but such was certainly the case. [...]
Meadows Museum displays BEACH AT PORTICI from 1893 World’s Fair
The Meadows Museum on the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas has announced their acquisition of Beach at Portici, a work that was on display at the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago and the final painting of 19th century Spanish artist Mariano Fortuny y Marsal (1838-1874). The American Exhibit of art occupied 24,000 square feet of space in the northeastern part of the Palace of Fine Arts at the [...]
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS (p. 28)
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS Page 28 THE SWEDISH BUILDING.—The remarkable style of architecture of the Swedish Building made it conspicuous among the group between the north pond and the lake, and it may be added, that the comment thus attracted was most favorable. The building stood on a triangular piece of ground, and to meet this exigency, in preparing the plans a hexagon was [...]
Chicago Tribune remembers the Midway Plaisance
Donkey Boys in the Streets of Cairo "Former President Barack Obama’s proposed parking garage wouldn’t have been the first oddball structure built on Chicago’s Midway Plaisance." writes Ron Grossman in the Chicago Tribune, referring to the now scuttled plans to build a parking lot for the Obama Presidential Center on the east end of the Midway. Grossman has dug through the Tribune's archive to excavate some interesting news stories [...]