172. Picturesque World’s Fair – Camels and Drivers in Cairo Street

CAMELS AND DRIVERS IN CAIRO STREET.--There was no end to the variations of scenes presented by the camels and drivers in Cairo Street so often described, but in the actual life of the village never really monotonous. A very patient lot were the camels, else, under the abuse they received, both manual and verbal, they would have often turned upon their masters and beaten them down with their ungainly hoofs. It seemed to be, in his opinion, the duty [...]

By Randy|2025-02-09T16:21:35-06:00February 9th, 2025|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , |0 Comments

Ignacy Paderewski Battles the Midway Camel

Twenty-two-year-old Ignacy Jan Paderewski (November 18, 1860 – June 29, 1941) was already a rock star when he performed a concert for the opening of the 1893 World’s Fair. The Polish pianist’s adoring fans—enchanted as much by his luxuriant red locks as by his charismatic keyboard performance—succumbed to “Paddymania.” His distinguishing coiffure made Paderewski a common subject of caricatures and cartoons. One example places him back at the World’s Columbian Exposition, where one denizen of the Midway Plaisance was [...]

By Scott|2024-11-05T10:07:15-06:00November 18th, 2024|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , |0 Comments

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!) [...]

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: , , , |0 Comments

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 [...]

“A Medley of the Midway Plaisance” by A. B. Ward

The short story reprinted below is a romance set on the Midway Plaisance of the 1893 World’s Fair. Writing as “A. B. Ward,” Mrs. Alice Ward Bailey (1857–1922) was a prolific author of fiction around the turn of the twentieth century. The mawkish prose and bumpy pacing in this story may explain why the author is essentially forgotten today. Still, her dramatic sketch offers an intimate peek into the lives of fictional inhabitants of the Midway and invites us [...]

By Scott|2022-10-07T08:01:02-05:00October 7th, 2022|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , |0 Comments

109. Picturesque World’s Fair – Athletic Pastimes in A Street In Cairo

ATHLETIC PASTIMES IN A STREET IN CAIRO.— They were unquestionably a merry lot who made up the resident population of a Street in Cairo, so full of animal spirits as to often engage in their pastimes, even when there were no visitors in attendance. Naturally, among such people, with such lives as theirs had been, physical prowess was held in high esteem, and the hero of a combat with lance or scimiter was in their eyes a greater man [...]

By Randy|2020-12-06T08:39:19-06:00December 6th, 2020|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , |0 Comments

“Halcyon Days in the Dream City’’ Part 3: Cairo Street

Halcyon Days in the Dream City by Mrs. D. C. Taylor Continued from Part 2 A long stretch of high stone wall above which clearly outlined against the blue of the summer sky, is seen a confused medly [sic] of queer tiled roofs, glimpses of latticed and casement windows, and above all a tall minaret, the turban like top holding up star and crescent. We pay the magic twenty-five cents and step into a curving narrow street, lined with [...]

By Scott|2022-10-03T09:07:52-05:00November 4th, 2020|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , , , |0 Comments

103. Picturesque World’s Fair – Soloman Joseph and Ta-Ra-Ra Boom-De-Aye

SOLOMON JOSEPH AND TA-RA-RA BOOM-DE-AYE.—As a group of uncompromisingly rapacious and mannerless patronage-seekers the donkey boys of a Street in Cairo were probably never surpassed, and of these Solomon Joseph was admittedly the chief brigand. He was noisy, persistent and altogether intolerable in soliciting people to ride upon his dwarfish beasts, and was always grinning and good-natured. Of the two, the donkey shown in the picture had probably the greater number of lovable qualities, though even " Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-aye," [...]

By Randy|2020-08-02T03:03:17-05:00August 2nd, 2020|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , |0 Comments

THE CITY OF WONDERS: A Souvenir of the World’s Fair (Chapter 10)

THE CITY OF WONDERS A SOUVENIR OF THE WORLD'S FAIR by Mary Catherine Crowley (1894)

Echoes of the White City Part 2: “A Midway in Miniature”

For two weeks in November of 1894, an ersatz Midway Plaisance sprang to life inside of the Battery D Armory and Second Regiment Armory buildings in downtown Chicago.

PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR – Egyptian Swordsmen (p. 87)

PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS Page 87 – EGYPTIAN SWORDSMEN EGYPTIAN SWORDSMEN.— Among the attractions of a Street in Cairo were a number of swordsmen, some of them very expert in their profession. Their weapons were not of the style in use among Europeans and Americans, but resembled Japanese swords somewhat and had no guard above the hand grip. The blades were not, however, used much in a defensive way, that being left to the [...]

By Randy|2019-12-17T13:27:33-06:00September 30th, 2019|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , |1 Comment

THE LADY OF THE LAKE by Julian Hawthorne Part III: Curiosities of the Midway Plaisance

Author Julian Hawthorne visited the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Reprinted below is the third 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. The previous installments can be found in Part I and Part II. [NOTE: By today’s standards, some of Hawthorne’s remarks about the Midway Plaisance and citizens of the international villages sound racist. It was not uncommon for commentators [...]

Chicago Magazine Recalls the “Indecent Undulations” on the Midway Plaisance

A photograph of "Egyptian Dancing Girls" from Picturesque World’s Fair shows more modest attire than is often described for the "belly dancer" show on the Midway. The February 2019 issue of Chicago Magazine offers a historical survey of baring skin in the Windy City. “Unbuttoning Chicago’s History of Covering Up” opens with the 1893 World’s Fair, summarizing how the “belly dancers” in the Street in Cairo exhibit on the Midway Plaisance shocked some viewers, raised ire of the [...]

By Scott|2022-03-05T10:40:24-06:00January 26th, 2019|Categories: NEWS|Tags: , , , , |0 Comments

PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR – The Algerian Theatre (p. 72)

PICTURESQUE WORLD’S FAIR. AN ELABORATE COLLECTION OF COLORED VIEWS Page 72 – THE ALGERIAN THEATER THE ALGERIAN THEATRE.—The Algerian and Tunisian Village, in which the theatre was the chief attraction, was situated near the center of the Midway Plaisance and adjoining the Street in Cairo. The frontage, as may be seen in the illustration, was not remarkably pretentious, but the main building inside had a Moorish dome with towers and minarets, and its exterior was covered with the rich-hued [...]

By Randy|2018-12-31T05:50:05-06:00December 31st, 2018|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , , , , |0 Comments

Yerkes Observatory Faces Uncertain Future

Perched on a hilltop above Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, stands a magnificent structure having two significant connections to the 1893 World’s Fair. After more than 120 years of operation, this important legacy of the Columbian Exposition faces an uncertain future. Architect Henry Ives Cobb. (Image from The Graphic History of the Fair. (Graphic Co., 1894).] Henry Ives Cobb, born on August 18, 1859, in Brookline, Massachusetts, had become one of Chicago's most distinguished architects by the time of the [...]

Opening Day, Part 2: Presidential Procession to the Fairgrounds

Presidential Procession to the Fairgrounds This is Part 2 of our series “Opening Day of the World’s Fair,” which explores the events of May 1, 1893, at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The full series can be found here. Finely decorated with flags and bunting The Auditorium Building, where the Duke of Vergua stayed. [Image from the Rijksmueum, Amsterdam.] On the morning of Opening Day of the 1893 World’s Fair, the center of attraction in downtown Chicago [...]

Grover Cleveland’s Big Impression on the Midway

Today marks the anniversary of the birth of Stephen Grover Cleveland on March 18, 1837, in Caldwell, New Jersey. The second inauguration of Grover Cleveland as the 24th President of the United States was held on March 4, 1893, less than two months before the opening of the World’s Fair in Chicago on May 1. Having previously served as the 22nd president, Cleveland is the only U.S. president to serve two non-consecutive terms. Egyptian Temple Reproduction showing the [...]

By Scott|2018-03-16T17:07:37-05:00March 18th, 2018|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , , , , , |0 Comments

Souvenir Music from the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893

March, waltz, polka, and hoochie koochie your way back to the 1893 World’s Fair with Souvenir Music from the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, a new recording of vintage sheet music from Lake Forest College Press. Donald C. Meyer, Professor of Music at Lake Forest College, has assembled a fascinating collection of 18 pieces of music written for or about the Columbian Exposition. A trio of musicians (pianist Chris White, violinist Kate Carter, and baritone Brad Jungwirth) perform the [...]

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