The First Ticket Sold at the World’s Fair?

The following story about Opening Day of the Columbian Exposition on May 1, 1893, comes from “Sketches and Anecdotes of the Fair” in the June 1893 issue of Current Literature [public domain]. A contrasting story published in the Chicago Daily Tribune reported that the first person on the fairgrounds on Opening Day was a man from Oskaloosa, Iowa. Whether or not the story below is true … it should be. Probably the most humorous incident of the opening day [...]

By |2022-01-22T12:48:38-06:00May 10th, 2018|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , |0 Comments
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Opening Day, Part 6: Reading of “The Prophecy”

Reading of “The Prophecy” This is Part 6 of our series “Opening Day of the World’s Fair,” which explores the events of May 1, 1893, at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The full series can be found here. At the conclusion of Reverend Milburn’s invocation, General-Director George R. Davis again commanded the attention of the crowd and announced the third number on the program. "I introduce to you Miss Jessie Couthoui, who will read the poem." With faultless [...]

By |2018-04-25T20:23:28-05:00April 27th, 2018|Categories: OPENING DAY|Tags: , , , , , , , |1 Comment
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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 among collectors. At any given time, several typically are for [...]

By |2024-09-23T08:13:10-05:00March 31st, 2018|Categories: ANTIQUES, COLLECTING|Tags: , , , |0 Comments
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PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS (pp. 11-12)

PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS Page 11 INTERIOR OF MANUFACTURES BUILDING.—Very like a great city by itself was the interior of the Manufactures Building, with its forty-four acres of exhibiting space — space which was not enough, great as it was for what the world demanded, with its broad avenues, its scores and scores of galleries, its wonderful exhibits and its teeming population. Never under one roof before was collected such an enormous display of [...]

By |2022-01-22T12:49:31-06:00December 17th, 2017|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , , , |0 Comments
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