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 [...]

Richard Morris Hunt (1827-1895), dean of American Architecture

Today marks the anniversary of the death of Richard Morris Hunt, on July 31, 1895. Among the most revered architects working in the U.S. at the time of the World’s Columbian Exposition, Hunt was invited to contribute a design for the Administration Building, which stood in a position of honor at the west end of the Grand Basin. The magnificent classical Beaux-Arts building, capped by a gleaming gold dome, was considered one of the finest structures on the fairgrounds. [...]

By |2019-07-30T12:24:40-05:00July 31st, 2019|Categories: HISTORY|Tags: , , , |0 Comments

THE LADY OF THE LAKE by Julian Hawthorne Part I: Sculpture in the Grand Basin

Julian Hawthorne (June 22, 1846 – July 21, 1934) was the only son of novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne and himself a journalist and author. Julian Hawthorne’s biographer notes that “as an author, he far exceeded the literary production of his famous father, composing no less than twenty-six novels and romances, over sixty short stories, almost a hundred essays, and several lengthy works of history, biography, and autobiography.” [Bassan, Maurice Hawthorne’s Son: The Life and Literary Career of Julian Hawthorne. Ohio [...]

Inside the Administration Building Dome: “The Glorification of the Arts and Sciences” by William Dodge (Part II)

[Part I of this article describes Dodge’s commission to paint a mural for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition and his work to create The Glorification of the Arts and Sciences.] PART II: THE PROCESSION BEFORE THE THRONE OF APOLLO “… illuminated by the opal-like circle of light at the summit, Dodge’s great picture crowns the whole, with its circling procession of arts and sciences, gods and muses, nymphs and graces, and Apollos radiant in the midst.” —Lawrence L. Lynch in [...]

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