third President of the World’s Columbian Exposition Board of Directors (aka “the Directory”)
The Fourth of July at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago was the biggest day yet at the Fair.
The Fourth of July at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago was the biggest day yet at the Fair.
Chicagoans rioted in the street—looting shops, destroying property, and attacking law enforcement. They were drunk, lascivious, and did not stop their mayhem until morning. The year was 1893. The place was the Midway Plaisance, the entertainment district of the World’s Columbian Exposition. Just two nights earlier, an assassin had gunned down Chicago’s colorful and beloved mayor, Carter Harrison, Sr., at his front door. With the pageant planned for the Columbian Exposition Closing Day ceremonies cancelled out of respect for [...]
The United States Capitol almost became the home of a painting to commemorate the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. [Image from Pennsylvania Railroad to the Columbian Exposition (Pennsylvania Railroad Co., 1892).] U.S. Capitol, Washington, D.C., February 24, 1890 “CHICAGO WINS,” headlines read across the country the next morning. The Midwest metropolis won the bid to host the upcoming World’s Fair on the eighth vote in the House of Representatives. After a six-hour battle on February 24, 1890, the [...]
On Thanksgiving 1892, Chicago was gearing up for the World’s Columbian Exposition, having just held the grand Dedication Day ceremonies on October 21 and the Inaugural Reception ball two days before that. Both events had showed that Chicago was ready to host the World’s Fair the following spring. What were these ten prominent Chicagoans thankful for? In this cartoon for the Chicago Inter Ocean Illustrated Supplement, artist Art Young attempts to take a guess their inner thoughts. George R. [...]
You bought your train ticket and booked your lodging in Chicago, traveled to Jackson Park and paid your fifty-cent admission. You’ve finally made it into the City of Wonders, the Dream City, the White City … the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition fairgrounds. How will anyone believe you are here if you don’t purchase an official “Certificate of Visitation” to show friends back home? T. Dart Walker’s drawing “In the Rotunda of the Administration Building” depicts a busy ground [...]
A new Netflix documentary This Is a Robbery: The World's Biggest Art Heist reveals the grievous but fascinating story of a 1990 art theft from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. Two paintings from the collection (thankfully not stolen!) were loaned by Mrs. Gardner to the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago and exhibited in the Palace of Fine Arts. Hanging in the Swedish display in Gallery 70 was Anders Zorn’s Omnibus (1892). Mrs. Gardner purchased this 49 [...]
On April 18, 1919, the former president of the World’s Columbian Exposition met a tragic death. Harlow N. Higinbotham was visiting New York to “meet the boys” of Illinois who had recently returned from serving in the U.S. military during the Great War. The eighty-year-old Chicagoan set out from his residence at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel on Central Park to the New York headquarters of the Illinois Soldiers' Welcome Committee at 107 East 34th Street. Along the way, he stepped [...]
In 1894, Chicago socialites rebuilt a miniature version of the great Midway Plaisance from the 1893 World’s Fair inside of two downtown armories. “Echoes of the White City—The Midway” culminated in a “Grand Finale” on November 27.
The Howard O. Edmonds presentation set sold by Heritage Auctions in August 2019. [Image from Heritage Auctions.] Heritage Auctions offered a rare Columbian Exposition presentation set at their August 2019 “ANA World's Fair of Money US Coins Signature Auction.” The group consisting of a medal, pin and two ribbons that had once belonged to Howard O. Edmonds, secretary of the Exposition, sold for $21,600. The Numismatic Guaranty Corporation (NGC) had certified the medal set in the spring of [...]
A Statue of the Republic plaster model up for sale through Potter & Potter Auctions on February 2, 2019. Potter & Potter Auctions of Chicago will offer several interesting World’s Columbian Exposition items in their February 2nd auction, “Fine Books and Manuscripts: Featuring Important Chicago Memorabilia.” A unique lot is a three-foot, golden Statue of the Republic plaster model, identified as being produced by Orlandi Statuary of Chicago in 1993 for the 100th anniversary of the Exposition. [...]
Today we mark the birthday of Harlow Niles Higinbotham (October 10, 1838 – April 18, 1919), who served as the third President of the World’s Columbian Exposition Company, following terms of Lyman J. Gage and William T. Baker. The quote below, reprinted in Harriet Monroe’s Harlow Niles Higinbotham: A Memoir with Brief Autobiography and Extracts from Speeches and Letters (R.F. Seymour, 1920) came from a speech that Higinbotham made years after the 1893 World’s Fair, at a banquet for [...]
The American labor movement and the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition share an intertwined history. Labor Day became an official U.S. federal holiday in 1894. The official histories of the World’s Fair rarely recognize the back-breaking labor of the working class and largely immigrant labor force that carved the lagoon, constructed the White City, operated the concessions. The following article from the August 16, 1893 issue of the Chicago Inter Ocean, describes one instance of labor unrest at the Fair [...]
Tour of the Fairgrounds This is Part 12 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. After the “Banquet of Nations” luncheon, President Cleveland and his entourage embarked on a whirlwind tour of the Columbian Exposition grounds and buildings. They departed from the north entrance of the Administration Building where carriages were waiting. “President Cleveland [...]
The Banquet of Nations This is Part 11 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. Pushing the button that launched the great transformation scene to open the 1893 World’s Fair was not the end of the duties of the President of the United States on May 1. Escorted to the café Hardly had the Opening [...]
The Address by Director-General Davis This is Part 8 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. The dignitaries on the platform for the Opening Ceremonies. [Image from the Ryerson and Burnham Archives.] As conductor Thomas laid down his ebony baton following the performance the "Rienzi" overture by the Exposition Orchestra, Director-General George R. Davis [...]
A Sea of Humanity This is Part 3 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. As the procession of the President of the United States began its march south on Michigan Avenue, thousands of people in downtown Chicago began forming their own spontaneous parade to the World’s Fair. Everyone on West Madison Street and North [...]
Presidential Procession to the Fairgrounds This is Part 2 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. Finely decorated with flags and bunting The Auditorium Building, where the Duke of Vergua stayed. [Image from the Rijksmueum, Amsterdam.] On the morning of Opening Day of the 1893 World’s Fair, the center of attraction in downtown Chicago [...]
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS Page 42 – THE ADMINISTRATION BUILDING THE ADMINISTRATION BUILDING.—The heart of the great entity known as the Columbian Exposition was in the Administration Building. Here were the offices of the Presidents and here, also, those of the Director-General and some of his immediate lieutenants. From here the vast machinery was directed and controlled, and about here as a nucleus thronged the multitude preliminary to any great festal occasion. It was [...]
[Previous installments of this series include Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.] "John Root made the Fair until he died," asserted Owen F. Aldis. We present this fourth part of Harriet Monroe’s “The World's Columbian Exposition” from John Wellborn Root: A Study of His Life and Work (Houghton, Mifflin & Company, 1896) on the anniversary of John Root’s death, on January 15, 1891. In this section, Monroe describes the continuing chaos and “hot war” in the fall of [...]
