Frederick Law Olmsted’s 1893 Report to the American Institute of Architects

Equaling or surpassing the grandeur of the White City palaces were the awesome scenic grounds of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. The eminent landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, who had laid out New York's Central Park and the Chicago suburb of Riverside, transformed Jackson Park (“the least park-like ground within miles of the city”) into a garden of stunning beauty enjoyed by tens of millions of visitors. In this report to the American Institute of Architects (published The American [...]

By |2020-04-26T15:18:28-05:00April 26th, 2020|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , , , |0 Comments
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“Haunts of the White City” Offers a Few World’s Fair Ghost Stories

Haunts of the White City: Ghost Stories From the World's Fair, the Great Fire, and Victorian Chicago by Ursula Bielski. History Press, 2019. ISBN: 9781467139656. Softcover, 272 pages. $21.99. Even those of us who don’t believe in ghosts can enjoy a good ghost story. And Chicago is full of them. Ursula Bielski collects many of the more famous spectral tales, and few lesser-known phantoms, in Haunts of the White City. Spawning these claims of the supernatural are the expected [...]

By |2024-02-17T10:01:37-06:00February 1st, 2020|Categories: PRODUCTS, RESEARCH|Tags: , |0 Comments
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“Nothing equal to it since the Parthenon.” Remembering Charles B. Atwood

Charles Bowler Atwood (1849–December 19, 1895), the most prolific architect of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, designed more than seventy-five buildings and structures, ranging from the stock to the sublime.

By |2022-06-14T12:35:55-05:00December 19th, 2019|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , |0 Comments
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“The Current War” offers only a dimly lit view of the 1893 World’s Fair

The 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago shines on the big screen, if only for a few minutes. The Current War (2017, released 2019) tells the story of the rancorous rivalry between inventor Thomas Edison (Benedict Cumberbatch), who adamantly championed direct current (DC) technologies to electrify and illuminate American cities, and George Westinghouse (Michael Shannon), who banked on alternating current (AC). The legendary “war of the currents” has these titans of the electrical industry setting their sights on powering the Columbian [...]

By |2023-12-20T13:47:10-06:00October 30th, 2019|Categories: NEWS, VIDEO|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |0 Comments
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Mar. 4-Apr. 22, 2019: Montclair Reads “The Devil in the White City” (Montclair, NJ)

The Montclair Library (Montclair, NJ) is hosting a series of events relating to the 1893 World’s Fair as part of their programming for Montclair Reads The Devil in the White City, focused on Erik Larson’s best-selling book (soon to be a miniseries) about the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition and a nearby killer, H. H. Holmes. Events include: Montclair in the Gilded Age. Monday, March 4 at 6:30 pm, Main Library Auditorium. Learn about life in Montclair in the late [...]

By |2022-03-05T10:47:07-06:00March 16th, 2019|Categories: EVENTS (past)|Tags: , , , , |0 Comments
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“Devil in the White City” to be a Hulu Mini Series

One man built a dream city on the shores of Lake Michigan, attracting tens of millions of visitors from around the world. Another built a nightmare hotel in a neighborhood near the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Erik Larson entwined the true stories of architect Daniel H. Burnham and serial killer H. H. Holmes into a fascinating narrative in his 2003 bestseller The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair That Changed America. [...]

By |2022-12-10T10:11:08-06:00February 12th, 2019|Categories: NEWS, VIDEO|Tags: , , , |1 Comment
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Jan. 24, 2019: Sophia Hayden’s Gold Medal To Be Auctioned

The reverse of Hayden's presentation medal . [Image from John McInnis Auctioneers.] John McInnis Auctioneers (76 Main Street, Amesbury, MA) will offer a rare item from the 1893 World’s Fair in their “Numismatics, Exonumia, Silver and Jewelry” auction on Thursday January 24, 2019. Lot 10 is a 14-karat gold presentation medal awarded to architect Sophia Hayden for her design of the Woman’s Building. An inscription on the obverse reads "Sophia G. Hayden--Presented by the Board of Lady Managers [...]

By |2019-01-30T21:33:32-06:00January 16th, 2019|Categories: ANTIQUES, EVENTS (past)|Tags: , , , , |0 Comments
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Pillars of the Fair: John Root and Henry Codman

Two pillars of the 1893 World’s Fair died unexpectedly before they could complete their work on the fairgrounds. Even the preliminary architectural contributions of both men, however, played a monumental role in the success of the Columbian Exposition. So, it was fitting that a small monument to the memory of these two leading designers graced the fairgrounds. John Wellborn Root (left) and Henry Sargent Codman (right). Glorious achievements January 13 marks the anniversary of the death of [...]

By |2022-12-10T10:11:00-06:00January 13th, 2019|Categories: HISTORY, LOST & FOUND|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , |2 Comments
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Columbian Exposition Books from 2018

The 125th anniversary year of the World’s Columbian Exposition offered scholarship, images, and fiction relating to the World’s Fair in several new publications in 2018. Pioneers of Promotion: How Press Agents for Buffalo Bill, P. T. Barnum, and the World’s Columbian Exposition Created Modern Marketing by Joe Dobrow. University of Oklahoma Press. Communications professional and business history writer Joe Dobrow traces the origins of modern American marketing by shining the spotlight on three men: pioneers of promotion John M. [...]

By |2023-12-08T08:39:45-06:00January 5th, 2019|Categories: FICTION, PRODUCTS, RESEARCH|Tags: , , , , , , , , , |0 Comments
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The Dying Scene of this Magnificent Exposition: Mayor Carter Harrison’s Final Speech

World’s Columbian Exposition celebrated “American Cities Day” on Saturday, October 28, 1893, two days before the close of the Fair. Chicago’s Mayor, Carter Harrison, hosted what was thought to be the largest congregation of U.S. mayors ever assembled. Greeting the guests as they arrived on the fairgrounds on the bitterly cold day was the blast of a cannon and musical fanfares from a group of sixteen trumpeters stationed around Music Hall. Mayors represented the great cities of Philadelphia, Milwaukee, [...]

By |2022-12-10T10:10:40-06:00October 28th, 2018|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , |0 Comments
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