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“I’ll take the 1893 World’s Fair for $200, Alex”
Columbian Exposition fan Dorothy McFarland kindly shared with us some screenshots of the episode of Jeopardy that aired on January 17, 2018, which included the Round 1 category "The 1893 Chicago World’s Fair" ("You remember that," adds host Alex Trebek). The contestants did remember the fair, making a clean sweep of the category. Amanda Griggs provided the correct question to the $200 answer: "Illuminated by thousands of light bulbs, [...]
Feb. 7, 2018: Des Plaines History Center “World’s Fair” event for children
"The Chicago World’s Fair of 1893 exhibited important cultural ideas including innovations in architecture and the fine arts, just to name a few! At the time, it was the world’s biggest fair," writes the Des Plaines History Center, which will be holding a event called "Homeschool Adventures: World’s Columbian Exposition (The Chicago World’s Fair of 1893)" from 1-2 pm on February 7, 2018. The Center invites children ages 5-12 with adult, [...]
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS (p. 23)
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS Page 23 UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT BUILDING.—Undoubtedly, buildings which were artistic and architectural successes have been erected by the United States Government, but they have been the exception rather than the rule. The Government Building at the Columbian Exposition was not one of the exceptions. It is not unfair to say of it that it fell far below the standard of [...]
Harriet Monroe’s History of the World’s Fair (Part 5)
[Previous installments of this series include Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.] This fifth part of Harriet Monroe’s “The World's Columbian Exposition” from John Wellborn Root: A Study of His Life and Work (Houghton, Mifflin & Company, 1896) describes how John Root in late 1890 assembled the “best fruit” of American architecture to design the buildings of the 1893 World’s Fair. Part 5: Expect to be [...]
Harriet Monroe’s History of the World’s Fair (Part 4)
[Previous installments of this series include Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.] "John Root made the Fair until he died," asserted Owen F. Aldis. We present this fourth part of Harriet Monroe’s “The World's Columbian Exposition” from John Wellborn Root: A Study of His Life and Work (Houghton, Mifflin & Company, 1896) on the anniversary of John Root’s death, on January 15, 1891. In this section, Monroe describes [...]
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS (p. 22)
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS Page 22 MACHINERY HALL FROM THE SOUTHEAST.—The Spanish Renaissance style adopted by the gifted architects who designed Machinery Hall, enabled a beautiful effect and the north and east facades of the great building ranked in most respects with the grandest of the Exposition. The illustration here afforded shows the southeast corner of the structure and most of its east frontage, [...]
Harriet Monroe’s History of the World’s Fair (Part 3)
[Previous installments of this series include Part 1 and Part 2] Today marks the 125th anniversary of the passing of Henry Sargent Codman, who died unexpectedly while recovering from an appendectomy on January 13, 1893, at the young age of 29. As Frederick Law Olmsted's protégé, Codman influenced the design of the Columbian Exposition fairgrounds in substantial and creative ways, as described in this third part of Harriet Monroe’s [...]
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS (p. 21)
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS Page 21 BIRD'S EYE VIEW OF THE WOODED ISLAND.—It was soon discovered after the World's Fair had become a reality, that, from various points of vantage, views could be secured of a scope and beauty unsought and unexpected by the architect or landscape gardener. From the tops of certain buildings there opened vistas such as could have only been imagined [...]
Harriet Monroe’s History of the World’s Fair (Part 2)
[Part 1 of this series can be found here] This second part of Harriet Monroe’s “The World's Columbian Exposition” from John Wellborn Root: A Study of His Life and Work (Houghton, Mifflin & Company, 1896) begins with a look at how architect John Root in 1890 was thinking about the “alluring problem” of how and where Chicago might host the upcoming World’s Fair. Mentioned in this section is Horace [...]
Harriet Monroe’s History of the World’s Fair (Part 1)
“The World’s Columbian Exposition has never been so well revealed and appreciated as through her imagination and her eyes,” wrote renowned poet William Carlos Williams, describing fellow poet and publisher Harriet Monroe (1860–1936). “And her part in it was distinguished.” Two of Monroe’s distinguished accomplishments served as bookends to the 1893 World’s Fair. The Dedication Day Ceremony held on the fairgrounds on October 21, 1892, featured a reading of [...]
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS (p. 20)
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS Page 20 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW LOOKING SOUTH.—It is difficult to determine what first attracts attention in this picture—the mirror surfaces of water, the cluster of state buildings, or the distant but easily recognized outlines of the great Exposition buildings. Certain it is that Nature, in all her loveliness, never appeared more at her best or appealed more bewitchingly than she does [...]
Is Chicago about to ruin Jackson Park? asks the Cultural Landscape Foundation
"Is Chicago about to ruin Jackson Park?" asks Charles A. Birnbaum, President & CEO of the Cultural Landscape Foundation in an opinion piece published this week in The Huffington Post. Birnbaum highlights several major projects affecting the park that in 1893 was home to the Columbian Exposition. Plans for the Obama Presidential Center (OPC) locate it on the west side of Jackson Park lagoon (approximately where the Woman's Building and Horticultural Building [...]
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS (p. 19)
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS Page 19 THE ELECTRICITY BUILDING.— A brilliant picture is presented of the palace for the accommodation of Electricity, a Science and Industry that at our Centennial had little more than a name — much less a habitation. Its architecture speaks the romance of the Italian Renaissance; its contents, the magic of modern electrical science. The view here allows the eye [...]
Happy New Year! Happy 125th Anniversary!
Welcome to 2018 Happy New Year to our readers. 2018 marks the 125th anniversary of the 1893 World's Fair, and we look forward to celebrating the year with posts about the history of the World's Columbian Exposition, images of the fairgrounds, reports on news and events related to the WCE (we expect there will be much happening in 2018!), notices of interesting WCE auctions and collectibles, and other Columbian [...]
Architectural Digest selects the top-20 world’s fair buildings of all time
Architectural Digest recently took a look "back at some of the most innovative architecture built for expositions around the globe." In his article "The 20 Boldest Buildings in the History of the World's Fair," Niki Mafi lists the Art Institute of Chicago at #5, behind the Eiffel Tower (Paris, 1889), the Grand Palais (Paris,. 1900), the Royal Exhibition Building (Melbourne, 1880), and the Arc de Triomf (Barcelona, 1888). The classical Beaux-Arts [...]
P. T. Barnum’s “What the Fair Should Be”
The new musical biopic The Greatest Showman starring Hugh Jackman is shining the spotlight on the life and time of Phineas Taylor Barnum. Although the legendary circus showman died before the Columbian Exposition opened in Chicago in May of 1893, Barnum penned some thoughts on the upcoming World's Fair--then slated for 1892 in a still undetermined city. His short piece was published in March 1890 issue of The North American Review. Perhaps the [...]
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS (pp. 15-16)
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS Page 15 A VIEW IN MIDWAY PLAISANCE.—A city in itself was the Midway, picturesque certainly, and educational as well, however meretricious some of its droll features. It was the playground of the multitude and they learned much while they ate, drank, stared and were merry. The view above presented is from a point about the center of the west half [...]
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS (pp. 17-18)
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS Page 17 THE UNITED STATES BATTLE-SHIP ILLINOIS.—The happy idea of a battle-ship as a part of the naval exhibit at the World's Fair is said to have originated with Commodore R. W. Meade, U. S. N. The result of the conception was the "Illinois," which lay apparently at anchor in Lake Michigan, near Victoria House, and approachable from one of [...]
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS (pp. 13-14)
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS Page 13 THE ELECTRIC FOUNTAINS.—The Electric Fountains, one on each side of the famous Macmonnies Fountain, at the west end of the Court of Honor, added greatly to the beauty of the night scene, and always when playing attracted thousands to their vicinity. When quiescent, all that could be seen of the fountains was the multitude of pipes arranged within [...]