[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 [...]
SOUTHWEST, FROM THE GOVERNMENT BUILDING—The view southwest from the roof of the United States Government Building embraced a great number of attractive objects. The east lagoon and more than half the Wooded Island appeared conspicuously in the foreground, and there was no elevated place in the grounds from which the island and lagoon could be seen together that did not command a sight worth seeing, for any lover of the beautiful. To the left, immediately m front, is the [...]
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS Page 77 – THE EAST LAGOON BY MOONLIGHT THE EAST LAGOON BY MOONLIGHT.— The night scenes at the Fair were undoubtedly the most beautiful for those who liked dreamy pictures, or half darkness contrasted with a blaze of glorious lights, better than unvarying white beauty. The fireworks, the illumination about the Court of Honor, the colored effects upon the Wooded Island were all charming and, in addition to these, was [...]
Author Julian Hawthorne visited the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Like so many other visitors who recorded their impressions of visiting the World’s Fair, he offered some of his highest praise for the electrical lighting of the night scene in the Dream City, a “banquet of royal beauty.” Reprinted below is the fourth and final part of Julian Hawthorne’s “The Lady of the Lake” about his June visit to the fairgrounds and published in the August 1893 issue [...]
“Pictures from an Exposition: Visualizing the 1893 World’s Fair” has opened at the Newberry Library. “Pictures from an Exposition: Visualizing the 1893 World’s Fair” has opened at the Newberry Library in Chicago. The exhibition of nearly two hundred items from the World’s Columbian Exposition fills two galleries in the Library’s newly renovated main floor. Displays are organized into sections on: • Introduction • Construction • Maps and Bird’s Eye Views • Staff and Sculpture • Publicity and [...]
PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS Page 26 A VIEW TOWARD THE NORTHWEST.—From the roof of the Government Building some of the finest views of certain portions of the World's Fair grounds were had, and, among these, the one here presented is not the least attractive. It is from the north end of the roof and taken toward the northwest, it must have been in the early morning, for scarcely a figure is visible on the [...]
On November 25, 1899, George R. Davis died in Chicago. He served as the Director-General of the 1893 World’s Fair. This short biographic sketch of Davis appears in "My Country, Tis of Thee !" or, the United States of America; Past, Present and Future by Willis Fletcher Johnson and John Habberton, (John Y. Huber Company, 1892): A portrait of George R. Davis from Picturesque World's Fair (W. B. Conkey, 1894) The Director-General of the Exhibition, its chief [...]
The Clarence Darrow Memorial Bridge has seen better days. Closed since 2015 due to structural deterioration, this pedestrian bridge provides the only east-west path across Jackson Park between the Museum of Science and Industry at E. 57th Street on the north to almost E. 63rd Street / Hayes Drive on the south end. Its reconstruction and re-opening is welcome news to everyone who uses Jackson Park and especially to 1893 World’s Fair enthusiasts who enjoy visiting the old fairgrounds. [...]
