Horticultural Building Archives - Chicago's 1893 Worlds Fair

“Isn’t it hideous?” Cleveland Caricature is a Columbian Claptrap
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“Isn’t it hideous?” Cleveland Caricature is a Columbian Claptrap

REPRINTS

“Isn’t it hideous?” Cleveland Caricature is a Columbian Claptrap

A flower arrangement made of immortelles (everlastings) at the 1893 World’s Fair intended to depict President Grover Cleveland. The floral display in the Horticultural Building turned heads and turned stomachs. This article in the Chicago Tribune about the “Caricature in Immortelles” included a headline declaring “The Alleged Cleveland Picture in the Horticultural Building an Atrocity.” Under the great dome of the horticultural building, just opposite the main entrance, through which most strangers approached the beautiful display of plants and [...]

By Scott|2025-03-11T11:59:25-05:00March 18th, 2025|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: Grover Cleveland, Horticultural Building, John Thorpe|0 Comments

Workers Escaping Death at the 1893 World’s Fair
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Workers Escaping Death at the 1893 World’s Fair

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Workers Escaping Death at the 1893 World’s Fair

The excerpt below, from The Chicago Record’s History of the World’s Fair, reminds us of the dangerous work that thousands of laborers (mostly immigrants) faced as they built the White City of 1893. The Medical Bureau of the Columbian Exposition officially reported only thirty-two deaths during construction of the fairgrounds. Luckily, the workers mentioned below escaped that fate. [Note: Although the article mentions the first accident happening at the Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building, the location likely was the [...]

By Scott|2024-08-21T15:43:39-05:00September 2nd, 2024|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: Administration Building, Agricultural Building, construction, Horticultural Building|0 Comments

California’s “Tower of Oranges” at the 1893 World’s Fair
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California’s “Tower of Oranges” at the 1893 World’s Fair

HISTORY

California’s “Tower of Oranges” at the 1893 World’s Fair

California had a knack for building unusual towers for the 1893 World’s Fair. An amber-hued obelisk known as the “Olive Oil Tower” greeted visitors entering the south portal of the California Building. This display from Santa Barbara County was constructed from 2,000 quart-sized bottles of virgin liquid. In the northwest corner of the building, Butte County built twin towers made from several hundred boxes of choice dried fruits. In an upper floor of the Horticultural Building stood a “Walnut [...]

By Scott|2023-12-12T14:51:11-06:00December 13th, 2023|Categories: HISTORY|Tags: California State Building, Horticultural Building, oranges, Tower of Oranges|0 Comments

The Great Aussie Apple Race to the 1893 World’s Fair
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The Great Aussie Apple Race to the 1893 World’s Fair

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The Great Aussie Apple Race to the 1893 World’s Fair

In the spring of 1893, two apple barrels in New South Wales, Australia, embarked on separate paths in a race around the globe. Heading in opposite directions, they reunited inside the Horticultural Building at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Which apples won, red or gold? How many days did it take? How did they stay fresh for so long? Find out about their journey in the story below, from the June 7, 1893, issue of the Chicago [...]

By Scott|2023-09-23T18:10:16-05:00October 21st, 2023|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: Horticultural Building, New South Wales|0 Comments

Fabulous Fungi at the Fair
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Fabulous Fungi at the Fair

HISTORY

Fabulous Fungi at the Fair

Avert your eyes from a post-apocalyptic future in which fearsome fungi destroy civilization and instead look back at some marvelous mushrooms at the 1893 World’s Fair. George Hiller with his mushroom bed in the dome gallery of the Horticultural Building at the 1893 World’s Fair. [Image from the Chicago Tribune Jan. 22, 1893.] The January 22, 1893, issue of the Chicago Tribune reported on “Mushrooms at the Exposition” having “a bed in the Horticultural Building well worth seeing”: [...]

By Scott|2023-03-14T06:54:04-05:00March 12th, 2023|Categories: HISTORY|Tags: Horticultural Building, John Thorpe, Mammoth Crystal Cave|0 Comments

The Making of the White City (Part 2)
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The Making of the White City (Part 2)

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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 [...]

Dec. 2, 2022 – Feb. 1, 2023: A Columbian Exposition quilt on display (Woodland, CA)
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Dec. 2, 2022 – Feb. 1, 2023: A Columbian Exposition quilt on display (Woodland, CA)

EXHIBITS (current), NEWS, Uncategorized

Dec. 2, 2022 – Feb. 1, 2023: A Columbian Exposition quilt on display (Woodland, CA)

“Expressions in Cloth,” a new exhibition at YoloArts’ Gallery 625 in Woodland, California, includes a beautiful quilt by artist Sherry Werum that features images inspired by the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. World's Fair enthusiasts might see Louis Sullivan's iconic Golden Door entrance to the Transporation Building or William Le Baron Jenney's stunning glass dome of the Horticultural Building among Werum's intricate design. “Expressions in Cloth” runs from December 2, 2022, to February 1, 2023, at Gallery 625 [...]

By Scott|2022-12-04T09:04:02-06:00December 4th, 2022|Categories: EXHIBITS (current), NEWS, Uncategorized|Tags: Horticultural Building, Transportation Building|0 Comments

Prominent Petunias
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Prominent Petunias

HISTORY

Prominent Petunias

On April 29, 1893, gardeners at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition held a christening ceremony for a pair of plants. Inside the greenhouse behind the Horticultural Building, they sprinkled water from a can onto the opening blossoms of two petunias, baptizing the large white bloom as “Mrs. Potter Palmer” (named after the President of the Board of Lady Managers) and the black one having one tiny white fleck as “The Burnham” (named after the Director of Works for the [...]

By Scott|2021-05-08T14:32:44-05:00May 8th, 2021|Categories: HISTORY|Tags: Bertha Palmer, Daniel Burnham, Horticultural Building|0 Comments

Progress of the Century: The Celebrated Agave Plant of the 1893 World’s Fair
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Progress of the Century: The Celebrated Agave Plant of the 1893 World’s Fair

HISTORY

Progress of the Century: The Celebrated Agave Plant of the 1893 World’s Fair

Uncle John rose with the morning sun on April 23, 1893 and made a bee-line for the Horticultural Building on the fairgrounds of the World’s Columbian Exposition in Jackson Park, Chicago. The opening of the Fair—when President Cleveland would push the button to unfurl the flags along the White City rooftops and release the water to the glorious fountains—was still nine days away. Today, however, the Chief of the Horticultural Department was expecting a throng of visitors to his [...]

By Scott|2023-03-11T16:15:10-06:00May 7th, 2021|Categories: HISTORY|Tags: Horticultural Building, John Thorpe, pulque, William Le Baron Jenney|0 Comments

115. Picturesque World’s Fair – Under the Horticulture Building Dome
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115. Picturesque World’s Fair – Under the Horticulture Building Dome

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115. Picturesque World’s Fair – Under the Horticulture Building Dome

UNDER THE HORTICULTURE BUILDING DOME.—The largest hothouse in the world had sights worth seeing. The great dome of the Horticulture Building, one hundred and eighty feet in height and one hundred and fourteen feet in diameter, overhung a charming scene where gigantic palms, ferns, bamboos and other products of tropical growth were flourishing, and where one coming in from the grounds outside seemed transported suddenly to some equatorial country. Directly underneath the dome in the center of the building [...]

By Randy|2021-03-28T10:31:27-05:00March 28th, 2021|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: Horticultural Building, PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR|1 Comment