Fair of the Future—Chicago’s International Exposition, A.D. 2000: Third Prize

Fair of the Future—Chicago’s International Exposition, A.D. 2000: Third Prize “Yesterday at the Exposition [From the Times-Herald, June 27, 2000]” by L. Frank Baum Continued from: Introduction First Prize: “Chicago’s World’s Fair, A.D. 2000” by Percival Owen Second Prize: “Greatest of All” by Mary F. Arnold Yesterday was a busy day at the exposition. The pneumatic cars[1] were discharged from the Lake Front Station at intervals of one minute the entire day, and every carriage was packed. One car, [...]

By |2024-03-30T09:20:54-05:00March 31st, 2024|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: |0 Comments
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Fair of the Future—Chicago’s International Exposition, A.D. 2000: Introduction

Fair of the Future—Chicago’s International Exposition, A.D. 2000: Introduction “If you don’t think about the future, you cannot have one.” —English novelist John Galsworthy To celebrate the upcoming opening of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, the American Press Association solicited prognostication by notable people as they looked one hundred years into the future. The series, which ran in newspapers in early 1893, included essays by distinguished thinkers of the day such as populist politician William Jennings Bryan, industrialist George [...]

By |2024-03-30T09:19:50-05:00March 28th, 2024|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , , |0 Comments
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Ron Soule’s “Escape from the Emerald City” imagines an origin story for Oz at the 1893 World’s Fair

Escape from the Emerald City by Ron Soule. Independently published, 2023. 105 pages. Hardcover, $14.95. ISBN 9798395968029. Paperback, $7.95. ISBN 9798395968111. In the growing library of “fairground fiction,” stories that involve historical figures offer a special treat to readers who enjoy imagining how famous (and soon-to-be-famous) people experienced the 1893 World’s Fair. A then-unknown traveling salesman from Chicago visited the fairgrounds on several occasions with his wife and four sons. Only a few years later he would burst onto [...]

By |2023-12-21T06:05:37-06:00December 21st, 2023|Categories: FICTION, PRODUCTS|Tags: , , , , , , , , , |0 Comments
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Season’s Readings: 2023 Books about the World’s Columbian Exposition

This has been a year of rich and valuable additions to the Columbian Exposition bookshelf. Summarized below are important new nonfiction works that explore connections between the Chicago fair and Western Pennsylvania, Lebanon, England, and Massachusetts. Two others look at the religious and spiritual legacy of the Columbian Exposition. New fictional works explore the fairgrounds though the eyes of visitors in both realistic stories and magical adventures. We also include a few late additions that we missed last season. [...]

By |2023-12-06T14:37:41-06:00December 6th, 2023|Categories: FICTION, NEWS, PRODUCTS, RESEARCH|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , |0 Comments
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The Wizard in the White City

L. Frank Baum, so the legend goes, used his experience visiting the White City of the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago as inspiration for the Emerald City in his best-selling children's book of 1900, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. A new documentary film exploring the life and times of Baum has been released as part of the American Experience series on PBS. "American Oz, the True Wizard Behind the Curtain" (aired April 19, 2021) includes a segment featuring Baum's [...]

By |2021-04-26T17:10:00-05:00April 28th, 2021|Categories: NEWS, VIDEO|Tags: |0 Comments
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“Greatly Interested in the World’s Fair is the Wizard.” Thomas Edison’s 1891 Visit to Chicago

Thomas Edison visited Chicago on May 12, 1891, staying for several days “to attend to some private interests” and to consult with Prof. John P. Barrett, Chief of the Department of Electricity and Electrical Appliances for the World’s Columbian Exposition. [“Proposition for a Compromise” Chicago Inter Ocean May 12, 1891, p. 8.] The article below, from the front page of the May 12, 1891, issue of the Chicago Evening Post, describes his interest in the 1893 World’s Fair and [...]

By |2019-10-27T20:47:54-05:00October 28th, 2019|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , |0 Comments
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Mar. 4-Apr. 22, 2019: Montclair Reads “The Devil in the White City” (Montclair, NJ)

The Montclair Library (Montclair, NJ) is hosting a series of events relating to the 1893 World’s Fair as part of their programming for Montclair Reads The Devil in the White City, focused on Erik Larson’s best-selling book (soon to be a miniseries) about the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition and a nearby killer, H. H. Holmes. Events include: Montclair in the Gilded Age. Monday, March 4 at 6:30 pm, Main Library Auditorium. Learn about life in Montclair in the late [...]

By |2022-03-05T10:47:07-06:00March 16th, 2019|Categories: EVENTS (past)|Tags: , , , , |0 Comments
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“Devil in the White City” is top-10 Illinois Book

Erik Larson’s 2003 best-selling book The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America ignited a passion for the 1893 World’s Fair in countless readers. The title recently earned a spot in the list of top-10 books with links to Illinois. Larson’s historical non-fiction thriller tells parallel stories about the monumental efforts of Daniel Burnham to build the White City in Jackson Park and the monstrous exploits of serial killer H. H. Holmes [...]

By |2023-08-05T08:33:34-05:00June 11th, 2018|Categories: NEWS, Uncategorized|Tags: , , , |0 Comments
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From the Emerald City to the White City

Having been a devoted L. Frank Baum enthusiast for decades, I developed a keen interest in learning more about his life and times upon moving to Chicago in the summer of 2003. The author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz provided the invitation to explore the history of the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago. Many sources have offered commentary—ranging from the factual to the fanciful—on Baum’s connections to the Columbian Exposition, and I anticipate contributing additional thoughts on that [...]

By |2022-03-05T09:52:54-06:00September 4th, 2017|Categories: ABOUT, STICK|Tags: , , , , , , |0 Comments
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