“The couple gasped in horrified surprise.” Nude Art at the 1893 World’s Fair

The 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago exposed visitors to a new world. Many experienced what has been described as the "shock of the new” when facing awesome technological advances and the rich variety of human cultures on exhibition. Others felt a shock just from seeing the human form openly displayed. “No one can help noticing the frankness and more than pagan un-reserve with which contemporary artists are treating the nude, both in painting and in sculpture.” wrote Julian Hawthorne in his [...]

By |2019-05-27T16:07:12-05:00May 28th, 2019|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , , , |0 Comments
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Happy Mother’s Day. Enjoy some Sunshine and Flowers.

Sunshine and Flowers by Irving R. Wiles was exhibited at the 1893 World’s Fair. [Image from Art of the World Illustrated in the paintings, statuary, and architecture of the World's Columbian Exposition Volume II, edited by Ripley Hitchcock (Appleton, 1893).] Mother and child are featured Sunshine and Flowers, a painting by American artist Irving Ramsey Wiles exhibited at the 1893 World’s Fair. The oil painting hung on the north wall of Gallery 6 (United States section) in the [...]

By |2019-05-12T14:56:01-05:00May 12th, 2019|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , |0 Comments
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Fool of the Fair

We should expect to encounter a fool on April 1st, and visitors to the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition could have met a striking fool hanging in the Palace of Fine Arts. Thomas Shields Clarke's oil painting A Fool's Fool (1887) was on display at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. [Image from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.] A Fool's Fool (1887) was a work by artist Thomas Shields Clarke (1860–1920) on display in Gallery 7. The 39 [...]

By |2022-03-05T10:51:39-06:00April 1st, 2019|Categories: HISTORY|Tags: , , , |2 Comments
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THE LADY OF THE LAKE by Julian Hawthorne Part II: A Pure Delight of the Soul

Author Julian Hawthorne visited the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Reprinted below is the second part of Julian Hawthorne’s “The Lady of the Lake” about his June visit to the fairgrounds and published in the August 1893 issue of Lippincott’s Magazine. Part 1 can be found here. THE LADY OF THE LAKE by Julian Hawthorne The Palace of Fine Arts depicted in “Art Palace from the Southwest” by the Poole Brothers. [Image from Vistas of the Fair [...]

By |2019-05-26T16:34:21-05:00February 3rd, 2019|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , |1 Comment
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Pillars of the Fair: John Root and Henry Codman

Two pillars of the 1893 World’s Fair died unexpectedly before they could complete their work on the fairgrounds. Even the preliminary architectural contributions of both men, however, played a monumental role in the success of the Columbian Exposition. So, it was fitting that a small monument to the memory of these two leading designers graced the fairgrounds. John Wellborn Root (left) and Henry Sargent Codman (right). Glorious achievements January 13 marks the anniversary of the death of [...]

By |2022-12-10T10:11:00-06:00January 13th, 2019|Categories: HISTORY, LOST & FOUND|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , |2 Comments
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Japanese Vase from 1893 World’s Fair Was Hiding in Plain Sight

A rare Japanese vase made especially for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago has been hiding in plain sight in a California restaurant, reports the Chicago Tribune. The beautiful piece of World's Fair history will go up for auction next month. The recently identified Japanese vase from the 1893 World’s Fair, showing a dragon (symbolizing China) over waves. The vase decorated Spenger’s Fish Grotto in Berkeley, California, for many years. [Image courtesy Clars Auction Gallery.] Dragon [...]

By |2022-04-29T18:39:46-05:00January 9th, 2019|Categories: ANTIQUES, NEWS|Tags: , |1 Comment
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Dec. 8, 2018: “Chicago’s Two World’s Fairs” Symposium at the Newberry Library (Chicago)

The Newberry Library’s Pictures from an Exposition: Visualizing the 1893 World's Fair includes a series of rich programs about the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. On Saturday, December 8, 2018, the Newberry will host a symposium titled “Chicago’s Two World’s Fairs” featuring a morning  program on the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition and afternoon speakers discussing the  Century of Progress International Exposition of 1933-34. Columbian Exposition presentations run from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm and features these speakers and topics: Sarah Burns, “Breaking Up Is Hard [...]

By |2022-10-10T09:01:02-05:00November 17th, 2018|Categories: EVENTS (past)|Tags: , , , , |0 Comments
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John Singer Sargent at the World’s Columbian Exposition

John Singer Sargent (1856–1925) was one of the most talked-about American artists whose works were displayed at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. “Mr. Sargent easily leads the portrait painters,” wrote Ernest Knaufft in his review of art at the Exposition. “We should dislike to pick out any separate example, but taking him in the aggregate, he becomes the ideal painter for painters.” Another contemporary review of the Columbian Exposition art display observed that: Nine out of ten of our [...]

By |2024-01-07T08:46:22-06:00July 22nd, 2018|Categories: HISTORY|Tags: , , |1 Comment
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Velasco’s Valleys and Volcanos: Paintings of Mexico at the 1893 World’s Fair

An exhibit at the National Museum of Mexican Art this summer features the early artistic involvement and influence of Mexican immigrants in Chicago, beginning with the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893. Arte Diseño Xicágo: Mexican Inspiration from the World's Columbian Exposition to the Civil Rights Era runs through August 19, 2018, in the Main Gallery. Arte Diseño Xicágo Mexican Inspiration from the World's Columbian Exposition to the Civil Rights Era at the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago. [...]

By |2022-03-05T10:28:58-06:00July 14th, 2018|Categories: HISTORY|Tags: , , , , , |0 Comments
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Yachting to the World’s Fair

Visitors traveled to the 1893 World’s Fair by train, boat, carriage, horse, bicycle, and even by foot (sometimes very long distances). Below is an annotated excerpt from “Going to the Fair” in the June 1893 issue of Current Literature, in which the author describes the route to travel by yacht from New York to the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. “The Water Route” Certainly for the man who owns a boat capable of making the journey, no more delightful trip [...]

By |2018-06-03T09:25:54-05:00June 3rd, 2018|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , , |0 Comments
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