Aug. 25, 2018: Historic Marker for the Norway Building

On Saturday August 25, 2018, an Illinois State Historical Society (ISHS) marker commemorating the Norway Building was dedicated in Jackson Park on the exact site where the building stood during the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. A delegation of Norwegians traveled to the event from Orkdal—where the building was originally constructed and then returned to in 2017 as a museum and heritage center (see "The Long Journey of the Norway Building.") They were joined by members of the Norwegian-American community of [...]

By |2024-07-20T08:41:59-05:00August 30th, 2018|Categories: EVENTS (past)|Tags: , , |0 Comments
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Wooded Island Well Suited for Climate Change

It is not easy to find good news in reports about climate change. A news story in the August 17, 2018, Chicago Tribune offered one small encouraging note in an otherwise distressing description of the impacts of climate change on the Chicago region. “The birches in the corner of your kid’s favorite park, the towering spruce in your suburban backyard, that graceful linden on your block — all are likely to disappear from Chicago’s landscape over the next few decades,” [...]

By |2022-04-29T18:39:04-05:00August 21st, 2018|Categories: NEWS|Tags: , |0 Comments
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The Long Journey of the Norway Building

Tucked among some willow trees in the foreign building section in the northeast corner of the World’s Columbian Exposition grounds stood a striking structure made of massive pine beams. Built in the style of a medieval stave church, its gabled roof with carved dragons evoke the prow of a Viking ship. One of only a few surviving structures from the 1893 World’s Fair, the Norway Building has journeyed some 10,000 miles over the past 125 years. The building was [...]

By |2022-03-05T10:28:08-06:00July 15th, 2018|Categories: NEWS|Tags: , , , , , , |1 Comment
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What’s Left of the World’s Columbian Exposition?

“On its 125th birthday, what’s left from the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition?” asked the Chicago Sun-Times this week. They note four remnants: the Palace of Fine Arts (rebuilt and now the Museum of Science and Industry); the Wooded Island; an original ticket booth now standing in Oak Park; and the 1918 “Golden Lady” statue, which is a reduced replica of the original 65-foot “Big Mary” Statue of the Republic. Their map of Jackson Park, allowing you to slide between 1893 and [...]

By |2020-06-21T13:34:18-05:00April 28th, 2018|Categories: NEWS|Tags: , , , , , , , |5 Comments
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Opening Day, Part 3: A Sea of Humanity

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 [...]

By |2023-04-09T08:55:22-05:00April 24th, 2018|Categories: OPENING DAY|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |1 Comment
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Opening Day, Part 1: Morning on the Fairgrounds

Morning on the Fairgrounds This is Part 1 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 day of days dawned with gray skies. Jupiter Pluvius, giver of rain, held an uplifted threatening fist over Chicago this morning. Throughout the city, bunting hung to celebrate the opening of the World’s Fair sagged, damp and listless. A [...]

By |2018-04-26T06:17:33-05:00April 22nd, 2018|Categories: OPENING DAY|Tags: , , , , , , , , , |0 Comments
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Artifacts of the 1893 World’s Fair Unearthed in Jackson Park

The Chicago Tribune reports that archaeologists have unearthed artifacts of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Jackson Park. In late 2017, researchers working for the Illinois State Archaeological Survey excavated seven sites in the area of the proposed Obama Presidential Center (OPC). Dig locations were on the west side of Jackson Park as well as in the eastern edge of the Midway Plaisance, where a parking garage for the OPC was at the time planned but has since been scrapped. [...]

By |2022-04-29T18:38:28-05:00March 24th, 2018|Categories: NEWS|Tags: , , , , , |0 Comments
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Happy Birthday to Architect Robert Peabody

Today we celebrate the anniversary of the birth of Robert Swain Peabody on February 22, 1845. Peabody was a cofounder of the Boston architectural firm of Peabody & Stearns, designer of Machinery Hall (also known as the Palace of Mechanical Arts) and the Massachusetts Pavilion for the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago. Architects invited by Daniel Burnham to contribute building for the World's Columbian Exposition gathered in Chicago on January 10, 1891. Robert S. Peabody traveled from the east [...]

By |2022-03-05T08:35:09-06:00February 22nd, 2018|Categories: HISTORY|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |0 Comments
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Site of the World’s Columbian Exposition

The piece below, from the first issue of The World’s Columbian Exposition Illustrated (Vol. 1 No. 1, February 1891) and likely written by editor James B. Campbell, offers an enthusiastic description of the locations that Chicago had recently selected to host the 1893 World’s Fair. The editorial boosterism belies much of the bitter fighting that went into reaching the decision to use Jackson Park as the main fairgrounds. At the time of this publication in early 1891, plans to [...]

By |2021-05-16T11:25:52-05:00February 18th, 2018|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , , , , , , , |2 Comments
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Dominating Objects of Interest: Olmsted and Obama

“How much should the maxims of a 19th-century park designer tie the hands of a 21st-century president?” asks Edward McClelland in his piece “Olmsted vs. Obama: Inside the Pushback Against the Presidential Library” published this week by Chicago Magazine. A whimsical illustration by Graham Roumieu that accompanies the article shows of a ghostly zephyr of Frederick Law Olmsted, landscape architect of the 1893 World’s Fair, fretting over the fate of his beloved Jackson Park. The article summarizes the positions [...]

By |2019-01-22T18:42:33-06:00February 9th, 2018|Categories: NEWS|Tags: , , |0 Comments
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