25 Impressions of the 1893 World’s Fair

Toward the close of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, The Critic invited twenty-five notable scholars, writers, and leaders of the day to offer their brief impressions of the World’s Fair. At such a monumental event with so many novelties … what impressed them the most? It is interesting how frequently these contributors sing the same notes as they rhapsodize about the fairgrounds at night and the illumination of the Court of Honor, praise (except for Henry Fuller!) [...]

160. Picturesque World’s Fair – Entrance to Fisheries Arcade

ENTRANCE TO FISHERIES ARCADE.—The Fisheries Building, because of the peculiar form of the site to which it was relegated, consisted of a rectangular central structure connected by curved arcades with circular pavilions on either side. The view here given is that of an entrance to one of the connecting arcades, and affords an excellent idea of the graceful and novel decoration resorted to in this structure, together with an example of mechanical duty performed too well. The columns of [...]

By |2024-01-30T17:49:09-06:00January 28th, 2024|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , |0 Comments

Aug 8-Oct. 31, 2023: “World’s Finest: Fly-Fishing Tackle” (Monee, IL)

A temporary exhibit featuring some historical fishing from the 1893 World’s Fair will open this fall at the Monee Reservoir Visitor Center in Monee, Illinois. Their exhibit “World’s Finest: Fly-Fishing Tackle” highlights influential anglers, all of whom exhibited at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. This ongoing program runs from Tuesday, Aug. 8, to Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2023, at the Visitor Center (27341 S Ridgeland Ave in Monee) and is free. Paintings on display in the Angling Pavilion [...]

By |2023-12-17T08:09:43-06:00July 8th, 2023|Categories: EVENTS (past), EXHIBITS (past)|Tags: |0 Comments

The Making of the White City (Part 2)

[Continued from Part 1] A great stage decked with ambitious scenery Perhaps the first thing that would strike a stranger entering the World’s Fair grounds in the summer of 1892 would be the silence of the place, the next the almost theatrical unreality of the impression by the sight of an assemblage of buildings so startlingly out of the common in size and form. When I speak of the silence, I mean the effect of silence. There are seven [...]

137. Picturesque World’s Fair – North and West from the Government Building

NORTH AND WEST FROM THE GOVERNMENT BUILDING.—From the dome of the Government Building the prospect north and west afforded as much variety as could be had from any point of observation of the Fair Grounds, since in other directions the view was either much shorter or was cut off by the huge department structures. The illustration shows the Fisheries in the foreground, the details of the south façade of the main building outlined very clearly at such short distance. [...]

“Halcyon Days in the Dream City’’ Part 10: A Cave of the Sea

Halcyon Days in the Dream City by Mrs. D. C. Taylor Continued from Part 9 We roamed through a cave of the sea;[1] on either side rose lofty pillared arches, thickly broidered and crusted with myriad growths of ocean's mysterious depths and of its various tributaries. Shells in all their whorls and spirals and intricate convolutions; half sentient sea anemones, sea ferns and broad leaved kelps, branching lace like and weeping willowy corals, arrowy reeds and floating lily pads, [...]

By |2021-04-02T11:21:35-05:00November 17th, 2020|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: |2 Comments

Chicago’s Alligator Problems

“One day spent among the curious works of nature found in the Fish and Fisheries building was worth a whole year’s reading about them.”  -- “Exposition as an Educator” in Campbell's Illustrated History of the World's Columbian Exposition. A new resident to a Chicago city park has been (occasionally) making waves and making international news. An alligator spotted earlier this week swimming the lagoon of Humboldt Park is now drawing large crowds hoping to catch a glimpse of the [...]

By |2022-03-05T10:33:55-06:00July 12th, 2019|Categories: HISTORY, NEWS|Tags: , , , |0 Comments

From the Balcony of Henry Ives Cobb’s Fisheries Building

Detail from "From the Balcony of the Fisheries Building" in Harper's New Monthly Magazine May 1893. Henry Ives Cobb (August 19, 1859 – March 27, 1931) contributed several buildings to the fairgrounds of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, but perhaps none so beautiful and intricately detailed as the great Fisheries Building. "In the Fisheries Building, a clever scheme of surface ornament has been composed from casts of starfish, seahorses, crabs, lobsters, and creatures of land and water [...]

By |2019-03-26T20:55:53-05:00March 27th, 2019|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , |0 Comments

Pictures from “Pictures from an Exposition”

“Pictures from an Exposition: Visualizing the 1893 World’s Fair” has opened at the Newberry Library. “Pictures from an Exposition: Visualizing the 1893 World’s Fair” has opened at the Newberry Library in Chicago. The exhibition of nearly two hundred items from the World’s Columbian Exposition fills two galleries in the Library’s newly renovated main floor. Displays are organized into sections on: • Introduction • Construction • Maps and Bird’s Eye Views • Staff and Sculpture • Publicity and [...]

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