Midway Plaisance Archives - Chicago's 1893 Worlds Fair

The Amusement Zone of the 1893 Columbian Exposition featured on WTTW’s “Chicago Stories”
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The Amusement Zone of the 1893 Columbian Exposition featured on WTTW’s “Chicago Stories”

NEWS

The Amusement Zone of the 1893 Columbian Exposition featured on WTTW’s “Chicago Stories”

“The 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition proved that Chicagoans had a healthy appetite for amusement—and that fun could be monetized.” —WTTW’s Chicago Stories An episode of WTTW’s Chicago Stories airing on October 4, 2024, takes viewers on a ride through the history of regional amusement parks such as The White City, Riverview, and Kiddieland. “Amusement Parks” opens with a visit to the 1893 World’s Fair and some dazzling digital animation of vintage photographs. “The 1893 Columbian Exposition was a BIG [...]

By Scott|2024-10-24T10:16:25-05:00October 24th, 2024|Categories: NEWS|Tags: Ferris Wheel, Hagenbeck's Animal Arena, Midway Plaisance|0 Comments

25 Impressions of the 1893 World’s Fair
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25 Impressions of the 1893 World’s Fair

REPRINTS

25 Impressions of the 1893 World’s Fair

Toward the close of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, The Critic invited twenty-five notable scholars, writers, and leaders of the day to offer their brief impressions of the World’s Fair. At such a monumental event with so many novelties … what impressed them the most? It is interesting how frequently these contributors sing the same notes as they rhapsodize about the fairgrounds at night and the illumination of the Court of Honor, praise (except for Henry Fuller!) [...]

A Brief History of the Midway Plaisance
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A Brief History of the Midway Plaisance

NEWS

A Brief History of the Midway Plaisance

The Chicago Maroon student newspaper has published a brief history of the Midway Plaisance that runs through the University of Chicago campus. Feifei Mei’s “From Mudway Nuisance to Midway Plaisance” explores the mile-long park (not owned by the University) from Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux’s original design and name, its use as the entertainment district for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, evolution in the hands of the Chicago Park District, and modern road safety issues. A view [...]

By Scott|2024-01-28T12:31:50-06:00January 29th, 2024|Categories: NEWS|Tags: Midway Plaisance|3 Comments

The Marvel-ous Midway of “Loki” Season 2, Episode 3 “1893”
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The Marvel-ous Midway of “Loki” Season 2, Episode 3 “1893”

NEWS, VIDEO

The Marvel-ous Midway of “Loki” Season 2, Episode 3 “1893”

On a branched timeline in the Marvel® multiverse, a few time travelers, a Norse trickster god, and an artificial intelligence disguised as an orange clock (and thought to be a ghost) visit the Midway Plaisance of the 1893 World’s Fair. Loki Season 2, Episode 3 “1893,” which premiered on Oct. 19, 2023, treated viewers to one of the most beautiful and faithful depictions of the World’s Columbian Exposition fairgrounds yet made for film or television. This wide-angle view [...]

By Scott|2023-10-21T12:55:47-05:00October 21st, 2023|Categories: NEWS, VIDEO|Tags: Midway Plaisance|3 Comments

157. Picturesque World’s Fair – Camel and Driver in Cairo Street
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157. Picturesque World’s Fair – Camel and Driver in Cairo Street

REPRINTS

157. Picturesque World’s Fair – Camel and Driver in Cairo Street

CAMEL AND DRIVER IN CAIRO STREET.—The Cairo Street camels had varied duties to perform, at one time being hurried along with much mauling and gesticulation to convey a rider, or perhaps a couple, from one end of the street to the other and unload them hurriedly to make room for other experimenting people, and again, bedecked with cumbrous trappings, led along the same boisterous thoroughfare to take part in some procession alleged to be a duplicate of what may [...]

By Randy|2023-10-17T05:30:04-05:00October 17th, 2023|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: camels, Midway Plaisance, PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR, Street in Cairo|0 Comments

156. Picturesque World’s Fair – Interior View in Old Vienna
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156. Picturesque World’s Fair – Interior View in Old Vienna

REPRINTS

156. Picturesque World’s Fair – Interior View in Old Vienna

INTERIOR VIEW IN OLD VIENNA.—The memory of hours passed in the Austrian Village, or reproduction of a portion of the Vienna of a hundred and fifty years ago, is, perhaps, what will linger longest in the minds of those who "did" the Plaisance thoroughly during the past Exposition. The quaint, bustling scene presented on every side, the suppers in the open air and the delicious music afforded, combined to make the resort one worthy of many visits. The greatest [...]

By Randy|2023-10-10T17:10:17-05:00September 20th, 2023|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: Austrian Village (Old Vienna), Midway Plaisance, PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR|0 Comments

155. Picturesque World’s Fair – Entrance to the German Castle
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155. Picturesque World’s Fair – Entrance to the German Castle

REPRINTS

155. Picturesque World’s Fair – Entrance to the German Castle

ENTRANCE TO THE GERMAN CASTLE.--The entrance to the German Castle in the German Village, in the Midway Plainance, was the part of that structure which most recalled to mind a castle of the medieval barons, who had such particularly good times when the Emperor would let them alone and when raids upon their neighbors were always exciting and sometimes profitable. The moat was not very wide nor very deep; the drawbridge would not have accommodated a grand pageant of [...]

By Randy|2023-10-10T17:11:08-05:00August 22nd, 2023|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: German exhibit, German Village, Germany, Midway Plaisance, PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR|0 Comments

The Fair as a Spectacle, Part 3: An Enormous Whirligig of Pleasure
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The Fair as a Spectacle, Part 3: An Enormous Whirligig of Pleasure

REPRINTS

The Fair as a Spectacle, Part 3: An Enormous Whirligig of Pleasure

Continued from Part 2 [Note: This text includes names and descriptions now considered culturally disparaging. Please see our statement on “Potentially Offensive Text and Images.”] THE FAIR AS A SPECTACLE. How it seemed to a visitor—Strolling and dreaming by day and by night. By Charles Mulford Robinson Part 3: An Enormous Whirligig of Pleasure The entrance to the Plaisance was directly beyond this building. Serious purposed womanhood, as personified by the structure, stood before the Plaisance, blocking the way [...]

By Scott|2023-07-03T06:41:30-05:00July 2nd, 2023|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: Austrian Village (Old Vienna), Charles Mulford Robinson, Midway Plaisance, Street in Cairo, Woman's Building|3 Comments

This Way to the Egress of the Midway Plaisance
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This Way to the Egress of the Midway Plaisance

REPRINTS

This Way to the Egress of the Midway Plaisance

Had he lived to see it, many aspects of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition would have delighted P. T. Barnum. Visitors to the World’s Fair in Chicago could encounter various displays of “the biggest”—a golden colossus, a mammoth squash, a gigantic cactus, a huge walk-in flour barrel, massive chocolate statues, and an immense rotating wheel … to name but a few. A rather pedestrian object on the Midway Plaisance led to a funny scene that likely would have amused [...]

By Scott|2023-11-28T09:01:39-06:00August 28th, 2022|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: Midway Plaisance, P. T. Barnum, Teresa Dean|0 Comments

Changes Coming to Midway Plaisance
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Changes Coming to Midway Plaisance

NEWS

Changes Coming to Midway Plaisance

“Passing under the Stony Island viaduct, we are in a new world, which, while it does not pretend to instruct, still conveys quite an amount of real knowledge, though carefully enshrouded in a sugarcoating of amusement.” —“The World's Columbian Exposition, a View from the Ferris Wheel” Scientific American September 9, 1893, pp. 169 70. The Midway Plaisance, a six hundred-foot wide by one-mile-long strip of land connecting Jackson Park on the east to Washington Park on the west, served [...]

By Scott|2022-04-01T15:30:11-05:00April 3rd, 2022|Categories: NEWS|Tags: Midway Plaisance, Obama Presidential Center|0 Comments