Palace of Fine Arts Archives - Chicago's 1893 Worlds Fair

The Myth of Marble: A Roman Statue of “Minerva” at the 1893 World’s Fair
Gallery
The Myth of Marble: A Roman Statue of “Minerva” at the 1893 World’s Fair

HISTORY

The Myth of Marble: A Roman Statue of “Minerva” at the 1893 World’s Fair

Chicago is abuzz about “Myth and Marble,” a fabulous new exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago running from March 15 to June 29, 2025. On display are fifty-eight magnificent sculptures of gods and goddesses, emperors and funerary monuments. All come from the Torlonia Collection of Rome, one of the world’s finest private collections of Greco-Roman antiquities. The artwork has been out of the public view for most of the past century. Statue of Athena from the Torlonia [...]

By Scott|2025-03-18T13:49:35-05:00March 21st, 2025|Categories: HISTORY|Tags: Minerva, Palace of Fine Arts, sculpture, staff, W. D. Richardson|0 Comments

Jackson Park Prints to Support Block Club Chicago
Gallery
Jackson Park Prints to Support Block Club Chicago

NEWS, PRODUCTS

Jackson Park Prints to Support Block Club Chicago

Block Club Chicago—a nonprofit news organization dedicated to delivering reliable, nonpartisan, and essential coverage of Chicago’s diverse neighborhoods—has two gorgeous poster prints depicting remnants of the 1893 World’s Fair. The 6-by-20-inch limited-edition prints by Steve Shanabruch print are premiums for donors who purchase, gift, or upgrade a Block Club subscription by December 31, 2024. The poster for Hyde Park shows a lovely vista of the Wooded Island and the original Palace of Fine Arts. The Woodlawn neighborhood poster features [...]

By Scott|2024-12-30T08:29:46-06:00December 30th, 2024|Categories: NEWS, PRODUCTS|Tags: Daniel Chester French, Palace of Fine Arts, Statue of the Republic, Wooded Island|0 Comments

25 Impressions of the 1893 World’s Fair
Gallery
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!) [...]

The Fair as a Spectacle, Part 2: In Search of the Picturesque
Gallery
The Fair as a Spectacle, Part 2: In Search of the Picturesque

REPRINTS

The Fair as a Spectacle, Part 2: In Search of the Picturesque

Continued from Part 1 [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 2: In Search of the Picturesque But in that brief view a lesson was also taught you which you took to heart at once. It was that the charm of the [...]

By Scott|2023-07-02T13:10:12-05:00July 1st, 2023|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: Charles Mulford Robinson, Christopher Columbus (statue by Lawrence), Columbian Guard, Court of Honor, Golden Door, gondolas, Ho-o-den, Japanese Tea House, MacMonnies Fountain, Palace of Fine Arts, rolling chairs, Transportation Building, Woman's Building, Wooded Island|1 Comment

The Making of the White City (Part 2)
Gallery
The Making of the White City (Part 2)

REPRINTS

The Making of the White City (Part 2)

[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 [...]

Childe Hassam painting of the 1893 World’s Fair sells for $44,000
Gallery
Childe Hassam painting of the 1893 World’s Fair sells for $44,000

ANTIQUES, NEWS

Childe Hassam painting of the 1893 World’s Fair sells for $44,000

American impressionist painter Childe Hassam (1859–1935) created several paintings of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition fairgrounds. He visited Chicago for the first time in 1892 to prepare his works that depicted what the World’s Fair would look like when open the following year. He also exhibited five oil paintings and five watercolors in the Palace of Fine Arts. An original 1893 World’s Fair painting by Hassam sold for $44,000 in the Heritage Auctions American Art Signature Auction #8099 on [...]

By Scott|2025-01-30T08:37:05-06:00November 13th, 2022|Categories: ANTIQUES, NEWS|Tags: Childe Hassam, Illinois State Building, Indiana State Building, Palace of Fine Arts|0 Comments

Singles Night at the 1893 World’s Fair
Gallery
Singles Night at the 1893 World’s Fair

REPRINTS

Singles Night at the 1893 World’s Fair

In the era before dating apps, how were singles to meet? One Chicagoan in 1893 proposed a special day on the fairgrounds of the World’s Columbian Exposition for not-so-young-and-still-unattached visitors. The October 21, 1893, issue of the Chicago Inter Ocean carried the following Letter to the Editor, signed “A. LS.” (presumably one of the “autumn lassies” mentioned in the letter?). Although the Fair held many “special days”—for groups ranging from North Dakotans to Nicaraguans, French Engineers to Fishermen—the author’s [...]

By Scott|2022-10-12T12:11:30-05:00October 30th, 2022|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: Palace of Fine Arts, W.W. Denslow|0 Comments

Did the Art Institute of Chicago lions come from the 1893 World’s Fair? (Pt 2)
Gallery
Did the Art Institute of Chicago lions come from the 1893 World’s Fair? (Pt 2)

HISTORY

Did the Art Institute of Chicago lions come from the 1893 World’s Fair? (Pt 2)

The pair of lion sculptures by Edward Kemeys that stand in front of the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) are not cast from sculptures at the 1893 World’s Fair. This misinformation, which appears to have originated in the late 1980s, now permeates descriptions of these iconic Chicago mascots in institutional, popular, and scholarly sources. A set of sixteen lion sculptures stood at the entrances to the Palace of Fine Arts at the World’s Columbian Exposition (WCE), and numerous contemporary sources credit their authorship to A. Phimister Proctor and Theodore Baur (not Kemeys). More importantly, the designs of Kemeys’ AIC lions clearly do not match any of the WCE lions.

By Scott|2022-07-14T06:22:03-05:00July 14th, 2022|Categories: HISTORY|Tags: Alexander Phimister Proctor, Art Institute of Chicago, Charles Hutchinson, Edward Kemeys, Julian Hawthorne, Marshall Field, Palace of Fine Arts, Theodore Baur|1 Comment

Did the Art Institute of Chicago lions come from the 1893 World’s Fair? (Pt 1)
Gallery
Did the Art Institute of Chicago lions come from the 1893 World’s Fair? (Pt 1)

HISTORY

Did the Art Institute of Chicago lions come from the 1893 World’s Fair? (Pt 1)

The pair of lion sculptures by Edward Kemeys that stand in front of the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) are not cast from sculptures at the 1893 World’s Fair. This misinformation, which appears to have originated in the late 1980s, now permeates descriptions of these iconic Chicago mascots in institutional, popular, and scholarly sources. A set of sixteen lion sculptures stood at the entrances to the Palace of Fine Arts at the World’s Columbian Exposition (WCE), and numerous contemporary sources credit their authorship to A. Phimister Proctor and Theodore Baur (not Kemeys). More importantly, the designs of Kemeys’ AIC lions clearly do not match any of the WCE lions.

By Scott|2025-01-30T08:39:03-06:00July 14th, 2022|Categories: HISTORY|Tags: Alexander Phimister Proctor, Art Institute of Chicago, Caesar (Statue), Edward Kemeys, Francis Millet, Julian Hawthorne, Moses P. Handy, Palace of Fine Arts, Theodore Baur, W. D. Richardson, W.W. Denslow|1 Comment

137. Picturesque World’s Fair – North and West from the Government Building
Gallery
137. Picturesque World’s Fair – North and West from the Government Building

REPRINTS

137. Picturesque World’s Fair – North and West from the Government Building

NORTH AND WEST FROM THE GOVERNMENT BUILDING.—From the dome of the Government Building the prospect north and west afforded as much variety as could be had from any point of observation of the Fair Grounds, since in other directions the view was either much shorter or was cut off by the huge department structures. The illustration shows the Fisheries in the foreground, the details of the south façade of the main building outlined very clearly at such short distance. [...]