1893 Viking Ship featured on “Backstory with Larry Potash”

The October 5, 2025, episode of Backstory with Larry Potash on WGN-TV featured a segment on “The Viking Ship That Took the World by Storm.” The feature story profiles the replica Viking ship that sailed from Norway to Chicago to be displayed at the 1893 World’s Fair. This treasured relic from the Columbian Exposition is preserved today in Geneva, Illinois, under the care of the Friends of the Viking Ship. The episode can be viewed online at https://wgntv.com/backstory/the-viking-ship-that-took-the-world-by-storm/. [...]

By Scott|2025-10-06T17:03:54-05:00October 6th, 2025|Categories: NEWS, VIDEO|Tags: |0 Comments

Oct. 21, 2024: “An Author’s Journey” (Geneva, IL)

On Monday, October 21, 2024, the Geneva Public Library is hosting Folo Watkins, author of By Whale Road to the World's Fair. He will share his experience researching and writing about the journey of the Viking ship to the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago. This presentation is offered in conjunction with the exhibit of the dragon head (newly named "Freya") from the Viking ship. Watkins’s presentation is from 1–2 pm, in person at the Geneva Public Library District 2nd [...]

By Scott|2025-01-15T18:47:42-06:00October 10th, 2024|Categories: EVENTS (past)|Tags: |0 Comments

Sep. 28, 2024: “The Viking Ship and the ‘Discovery’ of America” (online)

The Viking Ship is one of the most impressive relics from the 1893 World's Fair. Learn about the "Viking Ship and the 'Discovery' of America" at a webinar by Timothy Boyce hosted by the Swedish American Museum. This free costs $10 will be held online on Saturday, September 28, 2024, at 10 am. To register, visit: https://swedishamericanmuseum.org/product/33525

By Scott|2025-01-15T18:48:30-06:00September 22nd, 2024|Categories: EVENTS (past)|Tags: |0 Comments

Feb 7, 2023: The Viking Ship and the Chicago World’s Fair (online)

Learn about the "Viking Ship and the Chicago World's Fair" at a webinar by Timothy Boyce hosted by NorCham Chicago in collaboration with the Friends of the Viking Ship. This free event will be held vis Zoom on Wednesday, February 7, 2023, at 7:00 p.m. Please register at: https://www.norchamchicago.org/events/the-viking-ship-and-the-chicago-worlds-fair-1

By Scott|2024-02-10T08:49:43-06:00February 4th, 2024|Categories: EVENTS (past)|Tags: |0 Comments

Sep. 12, 2023: “Restoring Freya” (Geneva, IL)

The Geneva History Museum will offer a presentation on "Restoring Freya" on Tuesday, September 12 from 12- 1 pm. Freya is the new name for the newly restored dragon head and tail of the original Viking ship that sailed from Norway to the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago. Participants will learn all about the restoration process used by Third Coast Conservation on the century-old artifact. The Viking ship dragon head and tail are on display at the Museum through [...]

By Scott|2023-10-02T13:37:16-05:00September 8th, 2023|Categories: EVENTS (past)|Tags: |0 Comments

Feb. 4 – Dec. 23, 2023: “Viking’s Voyage” (Geneva History Museum, IL)

One of the largest surviving display artifacts of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition sits in a park in Geneva, Illinois. The Viking ship, a replica of the ancient Viking ship Gokstad, was built in Norway in 1892 and sailed to Chicago in 1893, surviving a long and dangerous non-stop crossing of the Atlantic Ocean. Since 1995, the ship has stood in Good Templar Park in Geneva, Illinois, and now is managed and preserved by the Friends of The Viking [...]

By Scott|2023-12-28T10:40:29-06:00February 11th, 2023|Categories: EVENTS (past), EXHIBITS (past)|Tags: |1 Comment

Listen to the journey of the Viking Ship to the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago

Few surviving artifacts from the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition are as treasured as the Viking, an exact replica of the Gokstad ship that sailed from Norway to be displayed at the Fair. Friends of the Viking Ship in Geneva, Illinois, work to preserve and educate about the Viking and her crew. They have released a new audiobook version of Viking: From Norway to America (Friends of the Viking Ship, 2014), an English translation of the memoir written by crew [...]

By Scott|2023-04-09T09:02:04-05:00October 10th, 2022|Categories: AUDIO, NEWS|Tags: |0 Comments

135. Picturesque World’s Fair – The Viking Ship

THE VIKING SHIP.—It was well that with the Columbian celebration honor should be paid to Leif Ericsson, undoubtedly the first European to land upon the shores of America, though due advantage was not taken of his great discovery and it was well, too, that the Viking Ship seen at the Fair should be a reproduction of one buried with its commander at about the time Leif Ericsson made his voyage. That was not far from the year 1000. The [...]

By Randy|2022-03-15T06:01:30-05:00February 8th, 2022|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , |0 Comments

114. Picturesque World’s Fair – The Norwegian Building

THE NORWEGIAN BUILDING.—Despite their political connection, Norway and Sweden had separate buildings at the World's Fair, each a credit to its country. The Norwegian Building was situated near the lake front and east of the North Pond, amid a group of trees familiar to those who have visited Jackson Park before an Exposition was thought of. In size the building was sixty by twenty-five feet, and was con-structed almost entirely of Norway pine. All the workmen employed and all [...]

By Randy|2021-03-07T11:18:00-06:00March 7th, 2021|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , , , , |0 Comments

The Voyage of “The Viking” Ship to the 1893 World’s Fair

“The presence of the Viking ship in one of our ports and her subsequent visit to Newport and New York and the trip up the Hudson, through the Erie Canal down the Great Lakes to Chicago and the ‘White City’ marks a historical event of no small importance.” —The Chautauquan, August 1893. The Viking from Norway at the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago. [Image from Scientific American, Aug. 19, 1893.] Few attractions at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition [...]

By Scott|2023-12-08T08:48:25-06:00July 12th, 2020|Categories: REPRINTS|Tags: , |1 Comment

Sept. 25, 2018: World’s Fair Auction #32 closes

Columbian Exposition collectors may be interested in World’s Fair Auction #32, now open for preview. Online bidding closes on September 25th, 2018, at 10:00 PM EDT. The auction catalog can be viewed at: http://www.worldsfairauction.com/cgi-bin/CATALL.CGI. Lots 14 through 57 relate to the 1893 World’s Fair, and include: a rare 14-by-11-inch poster of the Viking Ship; a milk glass tumbler depicting the Illinois State Building; a jig-saw puzzle picturing Horticultural Hall; a "Chicago Exposition 1893" globe inkwell; an ornate "Columbian Fair Souvenir" [...]

By Scott|2021-05-05T14:19:42-05:00September 7th, 2018|Categories: ANTIQUES, EVENTS (past), NEWS|Tags: , , , |0 Comments

What’s Left of the World’s Columbian Exposition?

“On its 125th birthday, what’s left from the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition?” asked the Chicago Sun-Times this week. They note four remnants: the Palace of Fine Arts (rebuilt and now the Museum of Science and Industry); the Wooded Island; an original ticket booth now standing in Oak Park; and the 1918 “Golden Lady” statue, which is a reduced replica of the original 65-foot “Big Mary” Statue of the Republic. Their map of Jackson Park, allowing you to slide between 1893 and [...]

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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