Lorado Taft Archives - Chicago's 1893 Worlds Fair

Ron Soule’s “Escape from the Emerald City” imagines an origin story for Oz at the 1893 World’s Fair
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Ron Soule’s “Escape from the Emerald City” imagines an origin story for Oz at the 1893 World’s Fair

FICTION, PRODUCTS

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 Scott|2023-12-21T06:05:37-06:00December 21st, 2023|Categories: FICTION, PRODUCTS|Tags: Captive Balloon, Electricity Building, Hagenbeck's Animal Arena, L. Frank Baum, Lorado Taft, Matilda Joslyn Gage, Susan B. Anthony, Thomas Edison, Tower of Light, Volcano of Kilauea|0 Comments

Echoes of the White City Part 3: “Fourteen Villages and a Jail”

Entering Battery D Armory, visitors to “Echoes of the White City” faced a replica in miniature of one of the greatest attractions of the 1893 World’s Fair

“World’s Fairs and the Death of Optimism”
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“World’s Fairs and the Death of Optimism”

NEWS

“World’s Fairs and the Death of Optimism”

Darran Anderson’s essay “World’s Fairs and the Death of Optimism” (citylab.com, October 3, 2018) addresses the fading luster of World’s Fairs and uses some examples from the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago to illustrate his point. “World’s Fairs fell from grace,” writes Anderson. “Who could blame nostalgia towards witnessing the Crystal Palace, the head of the Statue of Liberty in a Parisian park, the extra-terrestrial Trylon and Perisphere, or the Tower of the Sun? This was bolstered by [...]

By Scott|2018-10-19T16:14:35-05:00October 20th, 2018|Categories: NEWS|Tags: Dankmar Adler, Ferris Wheel, Golden Door, Lorado Taft, Louis Sullivan, Sophia Hayden, Transportation Building, White Rabbits, Woman's Building|1 Comment

Oct. 5, 2018: “Art and Design Chicago” episode “If You Build It….” on WTTW (Chicago)

Public Television station WTTW-11 in Chicago will be broadcasting a new four-part documentary series called Art and Design Chicago beginning on October 5 with an episode about the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. “If You Build It....”, hosted by Museum of Contemporary Art curator Naomi Beck, will explore the 1893 World’s Fair and sculptor Lorado Taft through stories told by artist Dessa Kirk and Mark Pohlad, Associate Professor of History of Art and Architecture at DePaul University. This first episode [...]

By Scott|2018-10-28T08:29:35-05:00September 21st, 2018|Categories: EVENTS (past), VIDEO|Tags: Lorado Taft|0 Comments