Opening Day at the 1893 World’s Fair
“The Electric Button” [Image (colorized) from Frank Leslie’s Illustrated, May 18, 1893.] Opening Day at the World's Columbian Exposition, May 1, 1893, brought “the greatest crowd Chicago has ever seen or probably ever will witness” into Jackson Park. The tally of total visitors inside the fairground, was close to 400,000, with 242,000 people buying tickets at the gate and another 150,000 arriving with pre-purchased souvenir tickets. The event may have been the greatest crowd Chicago had ever seen, [...]