The Chicago World's Fair of 1893


Book Description

128 rare, vintage photographs: 200 buildings — 79 of foreign governments, 38 of U.S. states — the original ferris wheel, first midway, Edison's kinetoscope, much more. 128 black-and-white photographs. Captions. Map. Index.













Chicago's 1893 World's Fair


Book Description

What came to be known as the World s Columbian Exposition was planned to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus s 1492 landfall in the New World. Chicago beat out New York City, St. Louis, Missouri, and Washington, DC, in its bid as host a coup for the Windy City. The site finally selected for the fair was Jackson Park, originally designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, a marshy area covered with dense, wild vegetation. Daniel H. Burnham and John W. Root were selected as chief architects, creating the famous White City. The fair featured several different thematic areas: the Great Buildings, Foreign Buildings, State Buildings, and the Midway Plaisance, a nearly mile-long area that featured exotic exhibits. The exposition also showcased the world s first Ferris Wheel and introduced fairgoers to new sensations like Cracker Jack, Pabst Beer, and ragtime music. The World s Columbian Exposition, covering 633 acres, opened on May 1, 1893. Admission prices were 50cents for adults, 25cents for children under 12 years of age, and free for children under six. Unfortunately, by 1896, most of the fair s buildings had been removed or destroyed, but this collection takes readers on a tour of the grounds as they looked in 1893."




Chicago 1933 World's Fair


Book Description

A Century of Progress, a millennium of Chicago. Chicago was no stranger to World's Fairs. The Windy City hosted the great 1893 World's Fair at the end of the 19th century, the fair which introduced the Ferris Wheel and electric lights on a grand scale to the world. Forty years later Chicago would try to one-up itself and celebrate the city's 100 year anniversary with The Sky RIde, art deco styling, the Sinclair Dinosaurs, Hall of Science, and creative applications of lighting that stunned millions of visitors. A Century of Progress heralded not just Chicago's history but also the past several decades of American advancement in electricity, transportation, agriculture, science, medicine, art, movies, and architecture. It was said that "if Washington could return to our land of railroads and steamboats and airplanes and electricity and telephones and radios and the myriad products of physics and chemistry and biology and geology, he would think that by some magic he had been transported to some marvelous fairyland." Written and designed by filmmaker and photographer, Mark Bussler (Expo: Magic of the White City, The 1893 World's Fair Ultra Massive Photographic Adventure Series and San Francisco 1915 World's Fair: The Panama-Pacific International Exposition) Chicago 1933 World's Fair: A Century of Progress in Photographs collects a wealth of stunning amateur, professional, and press photographs that chronicle this incredible event. Learn about the construction of the fair, the styling, the buildings, funding, and the fairgoers' experience of a lifetime! Chapter List: 010 - Introduction 014 - Chicago 1933 029 - The Fairgrounds 040 - Hall Of Science 059 - Administration Building 064 - Avenue of Flags 071 - U.S. Government Building and Hall of States 094 - The Sky Ride 108 - The Adler Planetarium 114 - Travel and Transport Building 124 - Electrical Building 142 - Company Buildings 166 - The Sinclair Dinosaurs 172 - Other Sights and Sounds




World of Fairs


Book Description

In the depths of the Great Depression, when America's future seemed bleak, nearly one hundred million people visited expositions celebrating the "century of progress." These fairs fired the national imagination and served as cultural icons on which Americans fixed their hopes for prosperity and power. World of Fairs continues Robert W. Rydell's unique cultural history—begun in his acclaimed All the World's a Fair—this time focusing on the interwar exhibitions. He shows how the ideas of a few—particularly artists, architects, and scientists—were broadcast to millions, proclaiming the arrival of modern America—a new empire of abundance build on old foundations of inequality. Rydell revisits several fairs, highlighting the 1926 Philadelphia Sesquicentennial, the 1931 Paris Colonial Exposition, the 1933-34 Chicago Century of Progress Exposition, the 1935-36 San Diego California Pacific Exposition, the 1936 Dallas Texas Centennial Exposition, the 1937 Cleveland Great Lakes and International Exposition, the 1939-40 San Francisco Golden Gate International Exposition, the 1939-40 New York World's Fair, and the 1958 Brussels Universal Exposition.




Photographic History of the World's Fair and Sketch of the City of Chicago


Book Description

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.




Chicago's 1933-34 World's Fair


Book Description

It took six years and cost $100 million, but on May 27, 1933, the gates swung open on the biggest birthday party the city of Chicago had ever seen. The Century of Progress Exposition, better known as the 1933-34 Chicago World's Fair, commemorated the amazing progress that had been made since the founding of the city just 100 years earlier. Many of America's largest companies joined with countries from around the world to showcase their histories and advertise their newest products. The road to opening day was not an easy one, with the Great Depression making it look like the fair might never be built, but thousands of small investors stepped forward to help close the financial gap. The fair went on to an unprecedented second season, and when the gates finally closed after the last of the 39 million visitors went home, it had achieved something quite rare among world's fairs: earning a profit. This collection of rare photographs, previously unpublished, highlights the major attractions of the fair and the astonishing changes made between seasons.




The Devil In The White City


Book Description

'An irresistible page-turner that reads like the most compelling, sleep defying fiction' TIME OUT One was an architect. The other a serial killer. This is the incredible story of these two men and their realization of the Chicago World's Fair of 1893, and its amazing 'White City'; one of the wonders of the world. The architect was Daniel H. Burnham, the driving force behind the White City, the massive, visionary landscape of white buildings set in a wonderland of canals and gardens. The killer was H. H. Holmes, a handsome doctor with striking blue eyes. He used the attraction of the great fair - and his own devilish charms - to lure scores of young women to their deaths. While Burnham overcame politics, infighting, personality clashes and Chicago's infamous weather to transform the swamps of Jackson Park into the greatest show on Earth, Holmes built his own edifice just west of the fairground. He called it the World's Fair Hotel. In reality it was a torture palace, a gas chamber, a crematorium. These two disparate but driven men are brought to life in this mesmerizing, murderous tale of the legendary Fair that transformed America and set it on course for the twentieth century . . .