How The 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition Played Into Chicago’s Rivalry With New York

WBEZ’s Curious City podcast “How The 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition Played Into Chicago’s Rivalry With New York” answers the question Where does Chicago’s inferiority complex toward New York come from and when did it start? Recorded live at the Museum of Science and Industry (MSI) in Chicago during their “Night at the Fair” After Hours event on June 15, 2018, this episode of Curious City exposes the roots of the rivalry between the two cities to be the fierce [...]

By Scott|2025-03-20T12:42:14-05:00August 1st, 2018|Categories: NEWS|Tags: , , |0 Comments
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How Chicago beat New York to get the 1893 World’s Fair

Colleen Connolly’s piece “How Chicago beat New York to get the 1893 World’s Fair” in the May 11 Chicago Tribune provides a short history of Chicago’s effort to win the bid to host the World’s Columbian Exposition. Testimony by Republican Rep. Robert Hitt of Illinois before the House of Representatives in February 1890 argued for holding the event in Chicago, then a city only 53 years old: “The people of Chicago are unanimous, hearty, enthusiastic; no word of bickering, no [...]

By Scott|2022-04-29T18:38:58-05:00May 12th, 2018|Categories: NEWS|Tags: , |2 Comments
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Fake News, 1892 edition

While it may feel like a new problem, fake news has been with us for a long time. Perhaps no day brings more “alternative facts” than does April Fool’s Day. Long before Russian troll farms, the New York press was at it, attempting to undermine the upcoming World’s Columbian Exposition that was set to open in Chicago on May 1, 1893. The January 11, 1892, issue of World’s Columbian Exposition Illustrated aimed to set the record straight in their column [...]

By Scott|2018-03-30T20:39:40-05:00April 1st, 2018|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , , |0 Comments
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Harriet Monroe’s History of the World’s Fair (Part 1)

“The World’s Columbian Exposition has never been so well revealed and appreciated as through her imagination and her eyes,” wrote renowned poet William Carlos Williams, describing fellow poet and publisher Harriet Monroe (1860–1936). “And her part in it was distinguished.” Two of Monroe’s distinguished accomplishments served as bookends to the 1893 World’s Fair. The Dedication Day Ceremony held on the fairgrounds on October 21, 1892, featured a reading of an excerpt of her monumental poem “The Columbian Ode.” Harriet [...]

By Scott|2024-04-04T11:39:23-05:00January 9th, 2018|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , , , , , , , , |0 Comments
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