World's Columbian Exposition

The World's Columbian Exposition (also called The Chicago World's Fair), a World's Fair, was held in Chicago in 1893, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World. Chicago bested New York City, Washington, D.C. and St. Louis, Missouri, for the honor of hosting the fair. The fair had a profound effect on architecture, the arts, Chicago's self-image, and American industrial optimism. The Chicago Columbian Exposition was, in large part, designed by Daniel Burnham and Frederick Law Olmsted. It was the prototype of what Burnham and his colleagues thought a city should be. It was designed to follow Beaux Arts principles of design, namely, European Classical Architecture principles based on symmetry and balance.

The Exposition covered more than 600 acres (2.4 km2), featuring nearly 200 new buildings of classical architecture, canals and lagoons, and people and cultures from around the world. Over 27 million people (equivalent to about half the U.S. population) attended the Exposition during its six-month run. Its scale and grandeur far exceeded the other world fairs, and it became a symbol of then-emerging American Exceptionalism, much in the same way that the Great Exhibition became a symbol of the Victorian era United Kingdom.

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 fair continued until October 30, 1893. In addition to recognizing the 400th anniversary of the discovery of the New World, 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. On October 9, 1893, the day designated as Chicago Day, the fair set a record for outdoor event attendance, drawing 716,881 persons to the fair.

The exposition was located in Jackson Park and on the Midway Plaisance on 630 acres (2.5 km²) in the neighborhoods of South Shore, Jackson P...

The adage that " All roads lead to Rome " must, for the year 1893 at least, be changed to "All roads lead to Chicago," for from every land and clime the nations of the world are flocking to the " Phoenix City," that lies upon the shores of Lake Michigan; the proud and peerless young giant that fears no rival and succumbs to no calamity. Right royally, too, docs she welcome her invited guests, and with a boundless hospitality greets them, regardless of race or creed.

As most of these visitors are utterly unacquainted with Chicago, some means of obtaining full and reliable information becomes a necessity; hence this work, whose object is to enable all English-speaking people to understand thoroughly the best methods of reaching and seeing the Exposition, with as little expenditure of time, money, and vital energy as possible, and also to give them a perfect conception of its origin, designs, and plans, and the methods which have, in the great " White City," built up the grandest and loveliest aggregation of exhibition palaces (combined with the most glorious landscapes) that was ever created. These buildings, the statues, paintings, and other decorations, have in nearly every case been described for this work by the architects, sculptors, and artists who created them, in language so plain and forcible as to make even the technicalities of their art clear to the reader.

While not pretending to be a catalogue of the exhibits, yet the ground- plans herein, locating all exhibits, and the accurate indexed map point out to the visitor, in a clear and lucid way, how he may see the best and choicest of everything, so that he need waste no time upon trivial matters, such as may be seen at any time in any city of Europe or America.

Avoiding in this way mere dull, dry details, yet enabling the visitor to see everything, from the least to the greatest, the compiler has spared no pains in making the information herein thorough, complete, and comprehensive; and the publ...