A new musical about the 1893 World’s Fair takes the stage at Theater Wit in Chicago for one night only. Dream City, with book and lyrics by June Finfer and music by Elizabeth Doyle, will be offered as a staged reading on May 7, 2024, at 7:30 PM. Finfer and Doyle’s musical is a revision of Burnham’s Dream: The White City, staged in 2018. This new version featured five new songs, two new characters (including a villain), and no [...]
WTTW’s Chicago Stories series has a new episode titled “Candy Capital” that includes a segment about the sweet treats born at the 1893 World’s Fair. The profile discusses Milton Hershey, Frederick and Louis Rueckheim's precursor to Cracker Jack, Bertha Palmer's brownies, and more. The reversed shot of the Court of Honor (shown above) was a little strange, though. If you have recovered from your Halloween candy pile, check out their short stories and images from the Columbian Exposition at [...]
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 best-selling work of narrative nonfiction that introduced millions of readers [...]
The Evanston History Center will host a presentation on "Women’s Work at the 1893 World’s Fair" by Diane Dillon on Thursday, September 21, 2023, at 7 pm. Her presentation will explore the range of contributions women made to the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, including the work of Bertha Palmer and the Board of Lady Managers, the protest of Ida B. Wells, the design of the Woman’s Building by architect Sophia Hayden, and the Congress of Representative Women. [...]
Royalty! Fireworks! A Throne! The Glessner House in Chicago will be hosting an online presentation on "The Princess of the Fair: The Infanta Eulalia of Spain's Visit to the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition" on Friday, June 9, 2023. Among the amazing array of famous people walking the fairgrounds of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, the supreme guest of honor was the Infanta Eulalia of Spain. Chicago was hosting royalty, and the world was watching. During her eight [...]
On April 29, 1893, gardeners at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition held a christening ceremony for a pair of plants. Inside the greenhouse behind the Horticultural Building, they sprinkled water from a can onto the opening blossoms of two petunias, baptizing the large white bloom as “Mrs. Potter Palmer” (named after the President of the Board of Lady Managers) and the black one having one tiny white fleck as “The Burnham” (named after the Director of Works for the [...]
The Great Chicago Quiz Show on WTTW in Chicago has host Geoffrey Baer asking contestants (including some famous Chicagoans) trivia questions about their city. No program about Chicago history would be complete without at least a few tidbits from the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, and Geoffrey asked contestants several , including: • The world’s first Ferris Wheel was a hit at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Jackson Park. In fact, it was so popular that immediately after the [...]
Louisville, Kentucky, is celebrating hometown sculptor Enid Yandell (1870-1934) with a series of events in 2019. The Louisville native, who studied under Auguste Rodin and Frederick MacMonnies, contributed several notable works to the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Yandell sculpted the four caryatids supporting the railing of the roof garden of the Woman’s Building. She was selected for the job for Bertha Palmer, President of the Board of Lady Managers and herself a Kentucky native. The artist also [...]
Throughout Women’s History Month, we’re reflecting on women’s valuable contributions to the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. Reprinted here is Part 3 of “Woman’s Part at the World’s Fair” from the May 1893 issue of The Review of Reviews. “The Children's Building” was contributed by Clara Doty Bates, who served as the librarian for the building. Earlier this month we posted Part 1 and Part 2. Additional images have been added to the original article. Clara Doty Bates. [Image [...]
“To her belongs much of the credit for the strong feminist emphasis that characterized the Columbian Exposition.” --James, et al. Notable American Women, 1607-1950, p 182. Ellen M. Henrotin [Image from Pictorial Album and History of the World’s Fair and Midway. Harry T. Smith & Co., 1893.] Socialite and social reformer, Ellen Martin Henrotin (1847-1922) served as Vice President of the World’s Congress Auxiliary of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Educated in Europe, Ellen Martin moved [...]
