Chicago Magazine Recalls the “Indecent Undulations” on the Midway Plaisance

A photograph of "Egyptian Dancing Girls" from Picturesque World’s Fair shows more modest attire than is often described for the "belly dancer" show on the Midway. The February 2019 issue of Chicago Magazine offers a historical survey of baring skin in the Windy City. “Unbuttoning Chicago’s History of Covering Up” opens with the 1893 World’s Fair, summarizing how the “belly dancers” in the Street in Cairo exhibit on the Midway Plaisance shocked some viewers, raised ire of the [...]

By |2022-03-05T10:40:24-06:00January 26th, 2019|Categories: NEWS|Tags: , , , , |0 Comments
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Tchaikovsky’s Tribute to Children for the 1893 World’s Fair

“Earth hold no music half so sweet as the laughter of a happy child.” -- Bertha Palmer in Fame's Tribute to Children (1893) On this day the world remembers the great Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (May 7, 1840 -- November 6, 1893), who died 125 years ago. Although he did not attend the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, he did provide a small musical gift to help build it. The Children's Building. [Image from Bancroft, Hubert [...]

By |2022-03-05T10:37:56-06:00November 6th, 2018|Categories: HISTORY|Tags: , , , , , |0 Comments
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Hopes of the Coming Humanity: Remembering Frances E. Willard

“The world is wide, and I will not waste my life in friction when it could be turned into momentum.” – Frances E. Willard Today marks the anniversary of the birth of Frances E. Willard (September 28, 1839 – February 17, 1898), a member of the Lady Board of Managers of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition and the president of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. The profile of this notable women’s rights activist comes from the October 1891 issue of [...]

By |2018-09-28T08:10:05-05:00September 28th, 2018|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , |0 Comments
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A Flag for the Fair

In 1893, the U.S. flag sported forty-four stars for the forty-four states of the union. Flag Day marks the anniversary of adoption of the United States flag on June 14, 1777. An official holiday (though not a federal holiday) since 1946, Flag Day commemorations emerged in the 1880s. Apparently there were no Flag Day observances at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition on June 14, though. In honor of "Old Glory," we offer this article from the November [...]

By |2018-07-03T07:54:52-05:00June 14th, 2018|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , , , , , , , |0 Comments
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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 Amy Beach Matters” is the title of a lecture and [...]

By |2023-01-12T20:31:04-06:00March 19th, 2018|Categories: EVENTS (past)|Tags: , , , , , , |0 Comments
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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 semi-Oriental costume in which they danced. Of the performance it [...]

By |2018-03-11T14:36:21-05:00February 20th, 2018|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , , , , |1 Comment
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