A new musical about the 1893 World’s Fair takes the stage at Theater Wit in Chicago for one night only. Dream City, with book and lyrics by June Finfer and music by Elizabeth Doyle, will be offered as a staged reading on May 7, 2024, at 7:30 PM. Finfer and Doyle’s musical is a revision of Burnham’s Dream: The White City, staged in 2018. This new version featured five new songs, two new characters (including a villain), and no [...]
The Evanston History Center will host a presentation on "Women’s Work at the 1893 World’s Fair" by Diane Dillon on Thursday, September 21, 2023, at 7 pm. Her presentation will explore the range of contributions women made to the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, including the work of Bertha Palmer and the Board of Lady Managers, the protest of Ida B. Wells, the design of the Woman’s Building by architect Sophia Hayden, and the Congress of Representative Women. [...]
The Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site in Indianapolis has a new special exhibit highlighting national and local Black civil rights activists during President Benjamin Harrison’s term in office (1889–1893). “No ‘Compact of Silence’: Black Civil Rights Advocates in the Harrison Era” explores the complex dynamics of race in late 19th century America, including the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Prominent individuals who will be featured include Frederick Douglass and Ida B. Wells. April 1890, President Harrison officially signed an [...]
Civil rights activist Ida B. Wells spoke truth to power through her pamphlet The Reason Why the Colored American Is Not in The World’s Columbian Exposition. 10,000 copies were distributed at the 1893 World’s Fair. “With the eyes of the world on Chicago,” explains a new documentary film about Wells, “she would use the international stage to expose the terror of lynching.” On Friday, May 21, 2021, Chicago public television station WTTW will air Ida B. Wells, a one-hour [...]
In honor of Black History Month WGN-TV aired a new half-hour documentary show titled “Hidden History” that included a segment on the experience of African Americans at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. WGN News anchor Micah Materre opened the six-minute segment reminding viewers that “African Americans have a long and storied history in Chicago,” with one important moment of African Americans influence on the world taking place in and around the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago’s Jackson Park. Historian [...]
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. [...]
Chicago’s Newberry Library will offer a six-week seminar on “The Black Presence at the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893,” to be held from 5:45-7:45 pm on Wednesdays starting on February 13 and ending on March 20, 2019. Led by Christopher Reed, Professor Emeritus of History at Roosevelt University, the seminar examines the role of African Americans in the World’s Fair with the aim of questioning the narrative established by the pamphlet The Reason Why the Colored American Is Not [...]
During the centennial of the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1993, Google did not exist. How times have changed. The main Google search page usually features a “Google Doodle.” These temporary re-designs of the iconic Google logo commemorate people, events, holidays, and other notable anniversaries of the day. Clicking the image takes browsers to more information on the subject of the doodle. Since the practice began in 1998, Google has honored several people associated with the 1893 World’s Fair. Doodles [...]
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 [...]
The World's Columbian Exposition exhibit at the Chicago History Museum The Chicago History Museum blog post "New Additions to an Old Favorite" reports that the museum's permanent exhibition Chicago: Crossroads of America made some updates this past summer to the section on the 1893 World's Fair, including: an expanded section on activist and author Ida B. Wells, showing her 1893 pamphlet “The Reason Why The Colored American Is Not in the World’s Columbian Exposition,” a new video that includes excerpts from [...]
