Soloists were William Sandford, euphonium; Charles Elder, clarinet; William Steele, cornet. Civic leaders in St. Louis, New York City, Washington DC, and Chicago expressed interest in hosting a fair to generate profits, boost real estate values, and promote their cities. Atwood. [32]:22. The Midway Plaisance, a park-like boulevard which extends west from Jackson Park, once formed the southern boundary of the University of Chicago, which was being built as the fair was closing (the university has since developed south of the Midway). [49] The other, called "Woman's Work in Savagery," included baskets, weavings, and African, Polynesian, and Native American arts. It was eventually reconstructed and restored and in 1999 it was installed at the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art. American participation in world's fairs had been a propaganda tool in the Cold War, and with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, that war was overwe won. In her 1995 text Manliness and Civilization, she writes, "The White City, with its vision of future perfection and of the advanced racial power of manly commerce and technology, constructed civilization as an ideal of white male power. Nearby was a working model Indian school, organized by the Office of Indian Affairs, that housed delegations of Native American students and their teachers from schools around the country for weeks at a time.[33]. The big debut Despite all of the concerns, Ferris built a giant amusement wheel that worked perfectly for the entire World's Fair. But in some ways, these may have been worse than having no representation. Burnham emphasized architecture and sculpture as central to the fair and assembled the period's top talent to design the buildings and grounds including Frederick Law Olmsted for the grounds. The White City of the World's Columbian Exposition inspired the Merchants Club of Chicago to commission Daniel Burnham to create the Plan of Chicago in 1909.[50]. Carvajal, Carol Styles and Horwood, Jane. PBS reports that it led to a renewed interest in Neoclassical architecture, and it may have influenced the creation of another, equally imaginative place. Most Americans had still never encountered this seemingly magical technology before, and they got a dramatic introduction. [37], Four United States territories also had pavilions located in one building: Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Utah. Horticultural Building, with Illinois Building in the background. The other building may be more familiar: it's one of the things in Ferris Bueller's Day Off you only notice as an adult. But it's. It had two different divisions: one where passengers were seated, and one where riders could stand or walk. According to Eric J. Sharpe, Tomoko Masuzawa, and others, the event was considered radical at the time, since it allowed non-Christian faiths to speak on their own behalf. [86] The Mrs Potts sad-iron system was on display. Daniel H. Burnham was selected as director of works, and George R. Davis as director-general. The effort to power the Fair with electricity, which became a demonstration piece for Westinghouse Electric and the alternating current system they had been developing for many years, took place at the end of what has been called the War of the currents between DC and AC. Chicago's flag was adopted in 1917. The first ballot showed Chicago with a large lead over New York, St. Louis, and Washington, DC, but short of a majority. [65] Columbian Exposition coins were also minted for the event. Jackson Park is a 551.5-acre (223.2 ha) park located on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois.It was designed in 1871 by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, then greatly remodeled in 1893 to serve as the site of the World's Columbian Exposition, making it one of the largest and most historically significant parks in the city.Some features attest to the legacy of the fair, including a . The pair organized their design around a series of artificial lagoons and waterways, complete with artificial islands. Not only was it safe, it was also incredibly popular. Chicago Fire Season 11: Ritter Actor Emotionally Responds To Mouch's The White City inspired cities to focus on the beautification of the components of the city in which municipal government had control; streets, municipal art, public buildings, and public spaces. Part of the space occupied by the Westinghouse Company was devoted to demonstrations of electrical devices developed by Nikola Tesla[71] including induction motors and the generators used to power the system. Why did they tear down the World Fair buildings? - Your Sage Tip They were treated more like animals in a zoo. The fair ended with the city in shock, as popular mayor Carter Harrison, Sr. was assassinated by Patrick Eugene Prendergast two days before the fair's closing. "[49] According to Bederman, people of color were barred entirely from participating in the organization of the White City and were instead given access only to the Midway exhibit, "which specialized in spectacles of barbarous races - 'authentic' villages of Samoans, Egyptians, Dahomans, Turks, and other exotic peoples, populated by actual imported 'natives. Up to the moment that the Chicago World's Fair opened to the public on May 1, 1893, crews scrambled to replant landscaping that had been washed away in a torrential rain storm. 2014. These products included Juicy Fruit gum, Cream of Wheat, Cracker Jacks, Shredded Wheat Cereal, and Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, among many others. Harris, N. (1993). The exhibition included a number of exhibits put on by black individuals and approved by white organizers of the fair, including exhibits by the sculptor Edmonia Lewis, a painting exhibit by scientist George Washington Carver, and a statistical exhibit by Joan Imogen Howard. "[49], In response to these failings, civil rights leaders Ida B. According to PBS, Emma Sickles, a staff member at the exhibit, was fired for speaking out against the Fair's mistreatment of Native Americans. The year was 1893, and the Great Economic Panic was already underway. Renowned brewer Captain Frederick Pabst (yes, those Pabsts) brought a beautiful green-domed pavilion complete with terracotta statues of gods and goddesses to Chicago to represent his brewery. In a Senate hearing held in January 1890, representative Thomas Barbour Bryan argued that the most important qualities for a world's fair were abundant supplies of good air and pure water,ample space, accommodations and transportation for all exhibits and visitors." He argued that New York had too many obstructions, and Chicago would be able to use large amounts of land around the city where there was "not a house to buy and not a rock to blast." and that it would be so located that "the artisan and the farmer and the shopkeeper and the man of humble means" would be able to access the fair easily. The cost of the damage was around $200 million. Explore The Devil in the White City | Choose Chicago 2014. [72] The rotating magnetic field that drove these motors was explained through a series of demonstrations including an Egg of Columbus that used the two-phase coil in the induction motors to spin a copper egg making it stand on end. Joint Committee on Ceremonies, Lederer, F. (1972). These included the Machinery Hall, the Agricultural Building, and the Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building. [17][18] The club felt that if the exposition was closed on Sunday, it would restrict those who could not take off work during the work-week from seeing it.[19]. The color of the material generally used to cover the buildings' faades (white staff) gave the fairgrounds its nickname, the White City. Westinghouse used them to undercut rival Thomas Edison's General Electric Company and win the bid to supply electricity to the Exposition. The fair continued until October 30, 1893. [103], The women artists at the Woman's Building included Anna Lownes,[104] A Baldwin 2-4-2 locomotive was showcased at the exposition, and subsequently the 2-4-2 type was known as the Columbia. In addition to recognizing the 400th anniversary of the "discovery of the New World" from the European perspective, the fair also served to show the world that Chicago had risen from the ashes of the Great Chicago Fire, which had destroyed much of the city in 1871. The Chicago Fire of 1871 and the 'Great Rebuilding' The Exposition became a temporary home for people representing some Native American tribes, and for people from Dahomey in West Africa (now Benin). French, Leanne; Grimm, Laura; Pak, Eudie. It seems like a waste that these Greco-Roman inspired buildings were demolished following the closure of the fair. The game lasted only 40 minutes, compared to the normal 90 minutes.[78]. The . Television clip. Wells and two other activists wrote and handed out a pamphlet on the same theme. After the Fair committee went over both proposals, Edison General Electric re-bid their costs at $554,000 but Westinghouse under bid them by 70 cents per lamp to get the contract. [89], The Woman's Building included a Woman's Building Library Exhibit, which had 7,000 books all by women. He departed from Persia on April 20, 1892, especially for the purpose of visiting the World's Columbian Exposition.[61]. Before the internet, the best way to showcase technology, art, and innovation while uniting different countries was at world's fairs. I Do Not Believe in the 1893 Chicago World's Fair One of the main attractions was the Basin, a huge pond in the Court of Honor which featured the 65-foot gold-gilded Statue of the Republic: a robed woman holding a globe and a staff. The World's Columbian Exposition: The White City and fairgrounds This week in history: World's Fair ends in tragedy - Chicago Sun-Times Dedication ceremonies for the fair were held on October 21, 1892, but the fairgrounds were not actually opened to the public until May 1, 1893. The Exposition is portrayed in the 2017 historical film, The Exposition appears in the season 1 episode "The World's Columbian Exposition" of the NBC series. Burnham's Chicago Plan of 1909 which was heavily influenced by his experiences overseeing the World's Fair might not exist. Eventually the tower collapsed, killing everyone left inside. Students will explore public art by asking: Who decides what is tasteful and what is offensive? They also associated African Americans with what they saw as the primitive Dahomeans something Frederick Douglass condemned in his speeches and pamphlet. The University of Illinois Military Band conducted by student leaders Charles Elder and Richard Sharpe played concerts twice daily in the Illinois Building 9 June to 24 June 1893. Although not available for purchase, The George Washington University maintains a small collection of exposition tickets for viewing and research purposes. Congress was called on to decide the location. Biography. Between October 8 and 10, 1871, a huge inferno ripped through the mostly wooden city. The exposition was an influential social and cultural event and had a profound effect on American architecture, the arts, American industrial optimism, and Chicago's image. [58] Early in July, a Wellesley College English teacher named Katharine Lee Bates visited the fair. [1][23] The importance of the Columbian Exposition is highlighted by the use of rueda de Chicago ("Chicago wheel") in many Latin American countries such as Costa Rica and Chile in reference to the Ferris wheel. Most were made from a mixture of plaster, cement, and a type of fiber called staff. Chicago had won the right to host the fair over several other cities, including New York City, Washington, D.C., and St. Louis.