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Opening Day At The 1893 Columbian Exposition
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1893 Columbian Exposition Chicago May 1, 1893 ~ October 30, 1893 The Story, The Souvenirs |
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Prior to the exposition's opening, more than 72,000 tons of exhibit materials were shipped to the grounds, 630 acres in Jackson Park in Chicago. It took three hectic years of preparation and work to produce the World's Columbian Exposition, celebrating the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's landing in America and promoting the progress of man in science, industry, and culture since that historic event.
The Columbian Exposition was actually held in 1893, a year later than had been planned. More than 200 buildings occupied the exposition's grounds. Over 250,000 displays ranging from milk sterilization machines to works of art were presented by nearly 70,000 individual exhibitors from forty-six nations. There were 25,836,073 admissions to the fair. The admission price was fifty cents; children under twelve paid twenty-five cents and those under six were admitted free. The Exposition provided the United States with a new holiday, Columbus Day, and a new method of inculcating patriotism in schoolchildren, the Pledge of Allegiance. Yet nothing says more about the power of the White City than that it inspired the Emerald City, children's writer L. Frank Baum never forgot the fair and used it as the model for Oz. The Columbian Exposition was a spectacle for the emerging technology that would power and transform the coming new century, mainly electricity. Scott Joplin introduced ragtime music at the fair, Charles A. Dana, editor of the New York Sun, dubbed Chicago "that windy city." The world's first Ferris Wheel, invented by George W. Ferris, was on the Midway. The 250-foot high steel structure had 36 cars carrying 60 persons each. Fully loaded, it could carry 2,160 people.
Planners selected a classical architectural theme for the fair. The buildings housed sixty-five exhibits that followed the theme of the building.
Some of the more popular exhibits were curiosities rather than serious displays of technology and progress. They included an eleven-ton cheese and a 1,500 pound chocolate Venus de Milo in the Hall of Agriculture and a seventy-foot-high tower of light bulbs in the Electricity Building.
11 Ton Cheese From Canada The Midway's features ranged from a replica "Street in Cairo" to carnival rides. The "Street in Cairo," one of the first amusements to introduce exotic dancing to America which included the popular exotic dancer known as Little Egypt, was the most successful Midway attraction. Pabst beer, Aunt Jemima syrup, Cracker Jacks, Shredded Wheat and Juicy Fruit gum, the first picture postcards to the American public, as well as two staples of the late-twentieth century diet, carbonated soda and hamburgers (invented in New Haven CT. at Louis' Lunch), were all "firsts" making their introduction at the fair. |
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The Souvenirs |
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