On Thursday, September 24, 2020, The National Association for Olmsted Parks will host Chicago parks historian Julia Bachrach, who will offer a lecture "Designed to Dazzle and Delight" about landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted and the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. The special program will be help at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time using Zoom. Advance registration is required.
"8 Famous Parks Designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, Plus a Tiny One You May Not Know About" by Wendy Bowman reviews many of the great works by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, who died on this day in 1903. Included are the fairgrounds of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition and the adjacent (and often overlooked) Washington Park in Chicago. Olmsted & Vaux’s 1871 South Park Plan (from the Chicago Park District).
April 26, 2022, marks the bicentennial of the birth of Frederick Law Olmsted, landscape architect of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. A celebration is being planned in honor of the author, journalist, city planner, landscape architect, public official, and creative genius who transformed the modern American landscape. Olmsted 200 will be a coordinated national and local celebration, engaging wide and inclusive audiences in examining the foundational principles of Olmsted’s democratic vision, values, and resilient designs. The Bicentennial will bring [...]
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 [...]
The 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition emerged from an idea to a White City on the lake in a little more than three years. Building the Obama Presidential Center (OPC) along one edge of Jackson Park certainly will take much longer—if it materializes in that location at all. “The Obama Foundation first announced its site in Jackson Park back in 2016 and hoped to break ground in late 2018 after gaining city approvals that spring.” reports Curbed Chicago. “Two years [...]
The Wooded Island in the fairgrounds of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. On the anniversary of the death of Frederick Law Olmsted (April 26, 1822 – August 28, 1903), we endeavor that the memory of his name and personality is not dimmed in the passage of years. This tribute to Olmsted’s design of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition comes from the May 3, 1893, issue of Garden and Forest, written just after Opening Day on the fairgrounds. In [...]
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 [...]
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. [...]
The Museum of Science and Industry (MSI) in Chicago held their “Revel in the White City” virtual simulation at the museum on May 19 and May 20 to a packed auditorium. It was spectacular. Making the event even more festive were a set of posters designed by Chicago artist David Lee Csicsko, titled “Icons of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition.” Greeting cards of the set of eight images were available for sale at the museum. Csicsko is an acclaimed [...]
News of the passing of David Ogden Stiers on March 3 has garnered tributes to the actor’s unforgettable role on M*A*S*H and his voice performances for several animated film from Disney Studios. Mr. Stiers also played a small but valuable role in the history of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, serving as the narrator of one of the first documentaries about the great fair. Chicago: City of the Century, based on the 1996 book of the same title by [...]
