View source for World's Columbian Exposition

{{Short description|1893 world's fair in Chicago, Illinois, US}}
{{For|the Chicago World's Fair held 1933–1934|Century of Progress}}
{{Use American English|date = November 2019}}
{{Use mdy dates|date = November 2019}}
{{Infobox World's Fair
| box_width       = 
| class           = Universal
| category        = Historical Expo
| image           = Looking West From Peristyle, Court of Honor and Grand Basin, 1893.jpg
| image_width     = 300px
| caption         = Chicago World's Columbian Exposition and [[Statue of the Republic|''The Republic'' statue]] and administration building in 1893
| year            = 1893
| name            = World's Columbian Exposition
| motto           = 
| building        = 
| area            = {{convert|690|acre|ha|abbr=off}}
| invent          = 
| visitors        = 27,300,000
| organized       =
| cnt             = 46
| org             = 
| biz             = 
| country         = United States
| city            = [[Chicago]]
| venue           = [[Jackson Park (Chicago)|Jackson Park]] and [[Midway Plaisance]] in [[Chicago]]
| coord           = {{coord|41|47|24|N|87|34|48|W|format=dms|type:landmark_region:US-IL}}
| cand            = 1882
| award           = 1890
| open            = {{start date and age|1893|05|01}}
| close           = {{end date|1893|10|30}}
| prevexpo        = [[Exposition Universelle (1889)]]
| prevcity        = [[Paris]]
| nextexpo        = [[Brussels International (1897)]]
| nextcity        = [[Brussels]]
| suppl           = 
| prevsuppl       = 
| prevsupcity     = 
| nextsuppl       = 
| nextsupcity     = 
| simuni          = 
| simspe          = 
| simhor          = 
| simoth          =
| website         = 
}}

The '''World's Columbian Exposition''', also known as the '''Chicago World's Fair''', was a [[world's fair]] held in [[Chicago]]  from May 1<ref>{{cite web |url = https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/address-the-opening-the-worlds-columbian-exposition-chicago-worlds-fair |title = Address at the Opening of the World's Columbian Exposition (Chicago World's Fair) |access-date = 2025-09-10}}</ref> to October 31, 1893, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of [[Christopher Columbus]]'s arrival in the [[New World]] in 1492.<ref name="WDL">{{cite web |url = http://www.wdl.org/en/item/11369/ |title = Bird's-Eye View of the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893 |website = [[World Digital Library]] |date = 1893 |access-date = 2013-07-17 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131014070106/http://www.wdl.org/en/item/11369/ |archive-date = 2013-10-14 |url-status = live }}</ref> The centerpiece of the Fair, held in [[Jackson Park (Chicago)|Jackson Park]], was a large water pool representing the voyage that Columbus took to the New World. Chicago won the right to host the fair over several competing cities, including [[New York City]], [[Washington, D.C.]], and [[St. Louis]]. The exposition was an influential social and cultural event and had a profound effect on American [[Architecture of the United States|architecture]], the arts, American industrial optimism, and Chicago's image.

The layout of the Chicago Columbian Exposition was predominantly designed by [[John Wellborn Root]], [[Daniel Burnham]], [[Frederick Law Olmsted]], and [[Charles B. Atwood]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=World's Columbian Exposition |url=https://global.britannica.com/event/Worlds-Columbian-Exposition |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |access-date=14 November 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170713022723/https://global.britannica.com/event/Worlds-Columbian-Exposition|archive-date=2017-07-13|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="devil" /> It was the prototype of what Burnham and his colleagues thought a city should be. It was designed to follow [[Beaux-Arts architecture|Beaux-Arts]] principles of design, namely [[neoclassical architecture]] principles based on symmetry, balance, and splendor. The color of the material generally used to cover the buildings' façades, white [[Staff (building material)|staff]], gave the fairgrounds its nickname, the White City. Many prominent architects designed its 14 "great buildings". Artists and musicians were featured in exhibits and many also made depictions and works of art inspired by the exposition. One particularly notable attraction was the world's first ferris wheel, standing at a height of 264 feet, which was designed to rival the [[Eiffel Tower]] built for the [[Exposition Universelle (1889)|1889 World's Fair]] four years earlier.<ref>{{Cite web |title=A Flight on the 1893 Ferris Wheel {{!}} NEH-Edsitement |url=https://edsitement.neh.gov/media-resources/flight-1893-ferris-wheel |access-date=2025-09-27 |website=edsitement.neh.gov |language=en}}</ref>

The exposition covered {{convert|690|acre|km2|1}}, featuring nearly 200 new but temporary buildings of predominantly neoclassical architecture, [[canal]]s and [[lagoon]]s, and people and cultures from 46 countries.<ref name="WDL" /> More than 27 million people attended the exposition during its six-month run. Its scale and grandeur far exceeded the other [[List of world's fairs|world's fairs]], and it became a symbol of supposed [[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 opened to the public until May 1, 1893. The fair continued until October 30, 1893. In addition to recognizing the 400th anniversary of the Europeans' discovery of the New World, the fair 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.<ref name="WDL" />

On October 9, 1893, the day designated as Chicago Day, the fair set a world record for outdoor event attendance, drawing 751,026 people. The debt for the fair was soon paid off with a check for $1.5 million (equivalent to ${{Format price|{{Inflation|US|1500000|1893}}}} in {{Inflation-year|US}}).<ref>{{Cite book|title = The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America|last = Larson|first = Erik|publisher = Vintage Books|year = 2003|isbn = 0-609-60844-4|location = New York|pages = 318–320}}</ref> Chicago has commemorated the fair with one of the stars on its [[Flag of Chicago|municipal flag]].<ref>{{cite web | title =Municipal Flag of Chicago | publisher =Chicago Public Library | year =2009 | url =http://www.chipublib.org/cplbooksmovies/cplarchive/symbols/flag.php | access-date =2009-03-04 | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20130615003832/http://www.chipublib.org/cplbooksmovies/cplarchive/symbols/flag.php | archive-date =2013-06-15 | url-status =live }}</ref>

== History ==

=== Planning and organization ===
[[File:1893 world columbian exposition.jpg|thumb|An advertisement for the Exposition, depicting a portrait of [[Christopher Columbus]]]]
[[File:Brooklyn Museum - Chicago World's Fair - Thomas Moran - overall.jpg|thumb|[[Thomas Moran]] – ''Chicago World's Fair'' – [[Brooklyn Museum]] painting of the Administration Building]]
[[File:Worldsfairvote8.jpg|thumb|The regional vote breakdown of the eighth World's Fair location selection ballot in the [[United States House of Representatives]]]]

Many prominent civic, professional, and commercial leaders from around the United States helped finance, coordinate, and manage the Fair, including Chicago shoe company owner Charles H. Schwab,<ref>{{cite news|title=Baker Has Resigned|date=19 August 1892|work=Chicago Daily Tribune|page=1}}</ref> Chicago railroad and manufacturing magnate [[John Whitfield Bunn]], and Connecticut banking, insurance, and iron products magnate [[Milo Barnum Richardson]], among many others.<ref>{{cite book|first=Moses Purnell |last=Handy|title =The Official Directory of the World's Columbian Exposition, May 1st to October 30th, 1893: A Reference Book of Exhibitors and Exhibits, and of the Officers and Members of the World's Columbian Commission Books of the Fairs|publisher =William B. Conkey Co.|date= 1893|page= [https://archive.org/details/officialdirector00worl/page/75 75] |url = https://archive.org/details/officialdirector00worl}}</ref><ref>See also: Memorial Volume. Joint Committee on Ceremonies, ''Dedicatory And Opening Ceremonies of the World's Columbian Exposition: Historical and Descriptive'', A. L. Stone: Chicago, 1893. p. 306.</ref>

The fair was planned in the early 1890s during the [[Gilded Age]] of rapid industrial growth, immigration, and class tension. World's fairs, such as London's 1851 [[Crystal Palace Exhibition]], had been successful in Europe as a way to bring together societies fragmented along class lines.

The first American attempt at a [[Centennial Exposition|world's fair in Philadelphia in 1876]] drew crowds, but was a financial failure. Nonetheless, ideas about distinguishing the 400th anniversary of Columbus' landing started in the late 1880s. 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. Congress was called on to decide the location. New York financiers [[J. P. Morgan]], [[Cornelius Vanderbilt]], and [[William Waldorf Astor]], among others, pledged $15 million to finance the fair if Congress awarded it to New York, while Chicagoans [[Charles T. Yerkes]], [[Marshall Field]], [[Philip Armour]], [[Gustavus Swift]], and [[Cyrus McCormick, Jr.]], offered to finance a Chicago fair. What finally persuaded Congress was Chicago banker [[Lyman Gage]], who raised several million additional dollars in a 24-hour period, over and above New York's final offer.<ref name=ec>{{Cite web |url=http://encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/1386.html |title="World's Columbian Exposition", ''Encyclopedia of Chicago'' |access-date=2011-11-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111121144300/http://encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/1386.html |archive-date=2011-11-21 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Chicago representatives not only fought for the world's fair for monetary reasons, but also for reasons of practicality. 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 located so that "the artisan and the farmer and the shopkeeper and the man of humble means" would be able to easily access the fair. Bryan continued to say that the fair was of "vital interest" to the West, and that the West wanted the location to be Chicago. The city spokesmen would continue to stress the essentials of a successful exposition and that only Chicago was fit to fill these exposition requirements.<ref>Lederer, F. (1972). "Competition for the World's Columbian Exposition: The Chicago Campaign". ''Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society'', 65(4), 382–394</ref>

The location of the fair was decided through several rounds of voting by the United States House of Representatives. The first ballot showed Chicago with a large lead over New York, St. Louis and Washington, D.C., but short of a majority. Chicago broke the 154-vote majority threshold on the eighth ballot, receiving 157 votes to New York's 107.<ref>Congressional Record, Volume XXI, First Session 1664–1665</ref>

The exposition corporation and national exposition commission settled on [[Jackson Park (Chicago)|Jackson Park]] and an area around it as the fair site. [[Burnham and Root|Daniel H. Burnham]] was selected as director of works, and [[George R. Davis (Illinois politician)|George R. Davis]] as director-general. 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.<ref name="WDL" /> The temporary buildings were designed in an ornate [[Neoclassical architecture|neoclassical]] style and painted white, resulting in the fair site being referred to as the "White City".<ref name=ec />

The Exposition's offices set up shop in the upper floors of the [[Rand McNally Building]] on Adams Street, the world's first all-steel-framed skyscraper. Davis' team organized the exhibits with the help of [[G. Brown Goode]] of the [[Smithsonian]]. The Midway was inspired by the [[1889 Paris Universal Exposition]], which included ethnological "villages".
<ref>{{cite web|url=http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ma96/wce/history.html|title=World's Columbian Exposition: The Official Fair – A History|access-date=2011-11-14|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111109103830/http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ma96/wce/history.html|archive-date=2011-11-09|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Civil rights leaders protested the refusal to include an African American exhibit. [[Frederick Douglass]], [[Ida B. Wells]], [[Irvine Garland Penn]], and [[Ferdinand Lee Barnett (Chicago)|Ferdinand Lee Barnet]] co-authored a pamphlet entitled "The Reason Why the Colored American is not in the World's Columbian Exposition – The Afro-American's Contribution to Columbian Literature" addressing the issue. Wells and Douglass argued, "when it is asked why we are excluded from the World's Columbian Exposition, the answer is Slavery."<ref name="Manliness and Civilization" /> Ten thousand copies of the pamphlet were circulated in the White City from the Haitian Embassy (where Douglass had been selected as its national representative), and the activists received responses from the delegations of England, Germany, France, Russia, and India.<ref name="Manliness and Civilization" />

The exhibition did include a limited number of exhibits put on by African Americans, including exhibits by the sculptor [[Edmonia Lewis]], a painting exhibit by scientist [[George Washington Carver]], and a statistical exhibit by [[Joan Imogen Howard]]. Black individuals were also featured in white exhibits, such as [[Nancy Green]]'s portrayal of the character [[Aunt Jemima]] for the R. T. Davis Milling Company.<ref>see introduction of 2013 edition of Rydell, Robert W. All the world's a fair: Visions of empire at American international expositions, 1876–1916. University of Chicago Press, 2013.</ref>

=== Operation ===
[[File:Weltausstellung-chicago brockhaus.jpg|thumb|An aerial view of the exposition at [[Jackson Park (Chicago)|Jackson Park]] in [[Brockhaus Enzyklopädie|Brockhaus' encyclopedia]]]]

The fair opened in May and ran through October 30, 1893. Forty-six nations participated in the fair, which was the first world's fair to have national pavilions.<ref>Birgit Breugal for the EXPO2000 Hannover GmbH Hannover, the EXPO-BOOK The Official Catalogue of EXPO2000 with CDROM</ref> They constructed exhibits and pavilions and named national "delegates"; for example, Haiti selected [[Frederick Douglass]] to be its delegate.<ref>Rydell, Robert W. (1987).[https://books.google.com/books?id=5TCMhe1WC9AC&q=all+the+worlds+a+fair&pg=PA53 ''All the World's a Fair: Visions of Empire at American International Expositions''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140824183026/http://www.google.com/books?id=5TCMhe1WC9AC&dq=all+the+worlds+a+fair&printsec=frontcover&source=bn#PPA53,M1 |date=2014-08-24 }}, p. 53. University of Chicago. {{ISBN|0-226-73240-1}}.</ref> The Exposition drew over 27 million visitors.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Viele|first=Nico|date=November 4, 2015|title=World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 comes alive on computer screens|url=https://newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/worlds-columbian-exposition-of-1893-comes-alive-on-computer-screens|access-date=2020-08-31|website=UCLA|language=en-US}}</ref> The fair was originally meant to be closed on Sundays, but the [[Chicago Woman's Club]] petitioned that it stay open.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/8286648//|title=Thursday|date=17 December 1892|work=The Junction City Weekly Union|access-date=10 January 2017|via=Newspapers.com {{open access}}}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=10 January 1893|title=To Urge Sunday Opening of the Fair|work=Chicago Daily Tribune|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/8286806//|access-date=10 January 2017|via=Newspapers.com {{open access}}}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/8286720//|title=Woman's Club Opposes Sunday Closing|date=11 December 1892|work=Chicago Daily Tribune|access-date=10 January 2017|via=Newspapers.com {{open access}}}}</ref>

The exposition was located in [[Jackson Park (Chicago)|Jackson Park]] and on the [[Midway Plaisance]] on {{convert|630|acre|km2}} in the neighborhoods of South Shore, Jackson Park Highlands, [[Hyde Park, Chicago|Hyde Park]], and [[Woodlawn, Chicago|Woodlawn]]. [[Charles H. Wacker]] was the director of the fair. The layout of the fairgrounds was created by Frederick Law Olmsted, and the Beaux-Arts architecture of the buildings was under the direction of Daniel Burnham, Director of Works for the fair. Renowned local architect [[Henry Ives Cobb]] designed several buildings for the exposition. The director of the American Academy in Rome, [[Francis Davis Millet]], directed the painted mural decorations. Indeed, it was a coming-of-age for the arts and architecture of the "[[American Renaissance]]", and it showcased the burgeoning neoclassical and [[Beaux-Arts architecture|Beaux-Arts]] styles.

=== Assassination of mayor and end of fair ===
{{further|Assassination of Carter Harrison III}}

[[File:Carter H. Harrison's last speech, World's Fair, October 28, 1893 (NBY 3023).jpg|thumb|[[Chicago Mayor]] [[Carter Harrison III]] delivers a speech to crowd during "American Cities Day" at the exposition on October 28, 1893. Harrison would be [[Assassination|assassinated]] later that day.]]

[[File:“Columbian Exposition” of 1892 - "My country, 'tis of thee!" or, The United States of America; past, present and future. A philosophic view of American history and of our present status... (14761686716) (cropped).jpg|thumb|"Columbian Exposition" of 1892 book cover art]]
The fair ended with the city in shock, as popular mayor [[Carter Harrison III]] was assassinated by [[Patrick Eugene Prendergast]] two days before the fair's closing.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1988-10-09-8802060487-story.html|title='He Deserved to be Shot,' Said the Mayor's Assassin |last=Sawyers|first=June|date=October 9, 1988|website=Chicago Tribune|language=en-US|access-date=2019-12-18}}</ref> Closing ceremonies were canceled in favor of a public memorial service.

Jackson Park was returned to its status as a public park, in much better shape than its original swampy form. The lagoon was reshaped to give it a more natural appearance, except for the straight-line northern end where it still laps up against the steps on the south side of the Palace of Fine Arts/Museum of Science & Industry building. 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). The university's football team, the Maroons, were the original "[[Monsters of the Midway]]." The exposition is mentioned in the university's [[Alma mater (song)|alma mater]]: "The City White hath fled the earth, / But where the azure waters lie, / A nobler city hath its birth, / The City Gray that ne'er shall die."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://uchicagoadmissions.tumblr.com/post/37229385082/today-we-gladly-sing-the-praise-of-her-whose|title=UChicago College Admissions|website=UChicago College Admissions|access-date=2019-12-18}}</ref>

== Attractions ==
{{more citations needed section|date=April 2019}}
[[File:The Ferris Wheel — Official Views Of The World's Columbian Exposition — 91 (cropped).jpg|thumb|[[Ferris Wheel (1893)|The original Ferris Wheel]]]]
[[File:WorldColumbianExpositionExhibitHall.jpg|thumb|An exhibit hall interior]]
[[File:German Government Building, William Henry Jackson, 1893.jpg|thumb|The German pavilion, which remained standing after the Expo]]

The World's Columbian Exposition was the first world's fair with an [[Amusement park|area for amusements]] that was strictly separated from the exhibition halls. This area, developed by a young music promoter, [[Sol Bloom]], concentrated on [[Midway Plaisance]] and introduced the term "midway" to American English to describe the area of a carnival or fair where [[sideshow]]s are located.<ref>{{Dictionary.com|midway|access-date=2019-05-20}}</ref> It included carnival rides, among them [[Ferris Wheel (1893)|the original Ferris Wheel]], built by [[George Washington Gale Ferris Jr.]]<ref name="WDL" /> This wheel was {{convert|264|ft|m|0}} high and had 36 cars, each of which could accommodate 40 people.<ref name="WDL" /><ref>Buel, James William. ''The Magic City: A Massive Portfolio of Original Photographic Views of the Great World's Fair'', Historical Publishing Company, St. Louis MO, 1894 reprinted by Arno Press, NY,  1974</ref> The importance of the Columbian Exposition is highlighted by the use of ''{{lang|es|rueda de Chicago}}'' ("Chicago wheel") in many Latin American countries such as Costa Rica and Chile in reference to the [[Ferris wheel]].<ref>Carvajal, Carol Styles and Horwood, Jane. Concise Oxford Spanish Dictionary: Spanish-English/English-Spanish. Oxford Press, 2004, p. 578.</ref> One attendee, [[George C. Tilyou]], later credited the sights he saw on the Chicago midway for inspiring him to create America's first major amusement park, [[Steeplechase Park]] in [[Coney Island]], New York.

The fair included life-size reproductions of Christopher Columbus' three ships, the ''[[Niña (ship)|Niña]]'' (real name ''Santa Clara''), the ''[[Pinta (ship)|Pinta]]'', and the ''[[Santa María (ship)|Santa María]]''. These were intended to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Columbus' discovery of the Americas. The ships were constructed in Spain and then sailed to America for the exposition.<ref name=Marling_1992>{{cite journal | title=Writing History with Artifacts: Columbus at the 1893 Chicago Fair | first=Karal Ann | last=Marling| journal=The Public Historian, Imposing the Past on the Present: History, the Public, and the Columbus Quincentenary| volume=14 | issue=4 | date=Autumn 1992 | pages=13–30 | url=https://berlinarchaeology.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/marling-1992-columbus-at-the-1893-worlds-fair.pdf| access-date=2023-04-16}}</ref> The celebration of Columbus was an intergovernmental project, coordinated by American special envoy [[William Eleroy Curtis]], the [[Maria Christina of Austria|Queen Regent of Spain]], and [[Pope Leo XIII]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=McEachen |first1=A.D. |title=Letters and Lectures of Captain Little |journal=Naval War College Review |date=February 1972 |volume=24 |issue=6 |pages=89–91 |jstor=44639691 |access-date=10 May 2023|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44639691}}</ref> The ships were a very popular exhibit.<ref>Trumble White, William Iglehart, and George R. Davis, The World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago 1893 (1893), at 493</ref><ref>James C. Clark, "What Happened to the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria that Sailed in 1892?", ''Orlando Sentinel'', May 10, 1992.</ref>

[[Eadweard Muybridge]] gave a series of lectures on the Science of Animal Locomotion in the Zoopraxographical Hall, built specially for that purpose on Midway Plaisance. He used his [[zoopraxiscope]] to show his [[Film|moving pictures]] to a paying public. The hall was the first commercial movie theater.<ref>{{cite book | last =Clegg | first =Brian | title =The Man Who Stopped Time | publisher =[[Joseph Henry Press]] | year =2007 | isbn =978-0-309-10112-7 | url =https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780309101127 }}</ref> Also demonstrated was [[Ottomar Anschütz]]'s [[electrotachyscope]], which used a [[Geissler tube]] to project the illusion of [[history of cinema|moving images]].

The "Street in Cairo" included the popular dancer known as [[Little Egypt (dancer)|Little Egypt]].<ref>{{cite web | title =The World's Columbian Exposition (1893) | work =The American Experience | publisher =PBS | year =1999 | url =https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/houdini-exposition/ | access-date =2009-12-21 | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20090416091304/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/houdini/peopleevents/pande08.html | archive-date =2009-04-16 | url-status =live }}</ref> She introduced America to the suggestive version of the [[belly dance]] known as the "[[The Streets of Cairo, or the Poor Little Country Maid|hootchy-kootchy]]", to a tune said to have been improvised by Sol Bloom (and now more commonly associated with snake charmers) which he had composed when his dancers had no music to dance to.<ref name="devil">{{Cite book | last =Larson | first =Erik | author-link =Erik Larson (author) | title =The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair that Changed America | publisher =Crown | year =2003 | location =New York | isbn =0-609-60844-4}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | last =Adams | first =Cecil | author-link =Cecil Adams | title =What is the origin of the song 'There's a place in France/Where the naked ladies dance?' Are bay leaves poisonous? | work =The Straight Dope | date =2007-02-27 | url =http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2695/what-is-the-origin-of-the-song-theres-a-place-in-france-where-the-naked-ladies-dance | access-date =2009-12-21 | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20100401080433/http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2695/what-is-the-origin-of-the-song-theres-a-place-in-france-where-the-naked-ladies-dance | archive-date =2010-04-01 | url-status =live }}</ref> Bloom did not copyright the song, putting it immediately in the [[public domain]]. This led to Bloom becoming one of the earliest people in U.S. history to make large sums of money from shows which were reminiscent of [[striptease]]s.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qKzbHAAACAAJ | title=Striptease: The Untold History of the Girlie Show | isbn=978-0-19-530076-5 | last1=Shteir | first1=Rachel | date=2004 | publisher=Oxford University Press }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://chicagoreader.com/blogs/the-origins-of-the-striptease-and-burlesque/ | title=The origins of the striptease and burlesque | date=May 10, 2012 }}</ref>

Although denied a spot at the fair, [[Buffalo Bill Cody]] decided to come to Chicago anyway, setting up his ''Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show'' just outside the edge of the exposition. Nearby, historian [[Frederick Jackson Turner]] gave academic lectures reflecting on the end of the frontier which Buffalo Bill represented.

[[Louis Comfort Tiffany]] made his reputation with a stunning chapel designed and built for the Exposition. After the Exposition the [[Tiffany Chapel]] was sold several times, even going back to Tiffany's estate. It was eventually reconstructed and restored and in 1999 it was installed at the [[Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art]].

[[File:Idaho State Building at World's Columbian Exposition 1893 Kirtland Cutter.jpg|thumb|[[Idaho Building (Chicago World's Fair)|Idaho Building]]]]
Architect [[Kirtland Cutter]]'s [[Idaho Building (Chicago World's Fair)|Idaho Building]], a rustic log construction, was a popular favorite,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=115|title=Cutter, Kirtland Kelsey (1860–1939), Architect|access-date=2005-09-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051119133915/http://historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=115|archive-date=2005-11-19|url-status=live}}</ref> visited by an estimated 18 million people.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.burrows.com/founders/furniture.html|title=Arts & Crafts Movement Furniture|access-date=2005-09-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050827084743/http://www.burrows.com/founders/furniture.html|archive-date=2005-08-27|url-status=live}}</ref> The building's design and interior furnishings were a major precursor of the [[Arts and Crafts movement]].

=== Anthropology ===
{{See also|Ernest Volk}}

There was an Anthropology Building at the World's Fair. Nearby, "The Cliff Dwellers" featured a rock and timber structure that was painted to recreate Battle Rock Mountain in Colorado, a stylized recreation of an American Indian cliff dwelling with pottery, weapons, and other relics on display.<ref name=DCS>Joseph M. Di Cola & David Stone (2012) [https://books.google.com/books?id=c7cdCGzfv8MC Chicago's 1893 World's Fair] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221229070247/https://books.google.ca/books?id=c7cdCGzfv8MC |date=December 29, 2022 }}, page 21</ref> There was also an [[Eskimo]] display. There were also birch bark [[wigwam]]s of the [[Penobscot]] tribe. 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.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Green |first1=Christopher T. |title=A Stage Set for Assimilation: The Model Indian School at the World's Columbian Exposition |journal=Winterthur Portfolio |date=2017 |volume=51 |issue=2/3 |pages=95–133 |doi=10.1086/694225 |s2cid=166160942 }}</ref>

=== Rail ===
[[File:John Bull at the Columbian Exposition-2.jpg|thumb|''[[John Bull (locomotive)|John Bull]]'' on display at the exposition.]]

The ''[[John Bull (locomotive)|John Bull]]'' locomotive was displayed. It was only 62 years old, having been built in 1831. It was the first locomotive acquisition by the [[Smithsonian Institution]]. The locomotive ran under its own power from [[Washington, DC]], to Chicago to participate, and returned to Washington under its own power again when the exposition closed. In 1981 it was the oldest surviving operable [[steam locomotive]] in the world when it ran under its own power again.

A [[Baldwin Locomotive Works|Baldwin]] [[2-4-2]] locomotive was showcased at the exposition, and subsequently the {{nowrap|2-4-2}} type was known as the ''Columbia''.

An original [[Switch frog|frog]] switch and portion of the superstructure of the famous 1826 [[Granite Railway]] in Massachusetts could be viewed. This was the first commercial railroad in the United States to evolve into a [[common carrier]] without an intervening closure. The railway brought granite stones from a rock quarry in [[Quincy, Massachusetts]], so that the [[Bunker Hill Monument]] could be erected in Boston. The frog switch is now on public view in [[Milton, Massachusetts|East Milton Square, Massachusetts]], on the original [[Right-of-way (transportation)|right-of-way]] of the Granite Railway.

Transportation by rail was the major mode of transportation. A 26-track train station was built at the southwest corner of the fair. While trains from around the country would unload there, there was a local train to shuttle tourists from the Chicago Grand Central Station to the fair. The newly built [[South Side Elevated Railroad|Chicago and South Side Rapid Transit Railroad]] also served passengers from [[Congress Terminal]] to the fairgrounds at [[Jackson Park station (World's Fair)|Jackson Park]]. The line exists today as part of the [[Chicago Transit Authority|CTA]] [[Green Line (CTA)|Green Line]].

=== Country and state exhibition buildings ===
Forty-six countries had pavilions at the exposition.<ref name="WDL" /> [[Union between Sweden and Norway|Norway]] participated by sending the ''[[Viking (replica Viking longship)|Viking]]'', a replica of the [[Gokstad ship]]. It was built in Norway and sailed across the [[Atlantic Ocean]] by 12 men, led by Captain Magnus Andersen. In 1919, this ship was moved to [[Lincoln Park]]. It was relocated in 1996 to Good Templar Park in [[Geneva, Illinois]], where it awaits renovation.<ref>{{cite web | last =Nepstad | first =Peter | author-link =Peter Nepstad | title =The Viking Shop in Jackson Park | publisher =Hyde Park Historical Society | url =http://www.hydeparkhistory.org/herald/VikingShip.pdf | access-date =2009-01-24 | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20090205134102/http://www.hydeparkhistory.org/herald/VikingShip.pdf | archive-date =2009-02-05 | url-status =live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news | last =Smith | first =Gerry | title =Viking ship from 1893 Chicago world's fair begins much-needed voyage to restoration | work =[[Chicago Tribune]] | publisher =Tribune Company | date =2008-06-26 | url =http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/theskyline/2008/06/viking-ship-fro.html | access-date =2009-01-24 | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20160821020041/http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/theskyline/2008/06/viking-ship-fro.html | archive-date =2016-08-21 | url-status =live }}</ref>

Thirty-four U.S. states also had their own pavilions.<ref name="WDL" /> The work of noted feminist author [[Kate McPhelim Cleary]] was featured during the opening of the Nebraska Day ceremonies at the fair, which included a reading of her poem "Nebraska".<ref>{{cite web|url = http://www.lopers.net/faculty/b/bloomfields/cleary/KCLitBio.htm |title =Kate McPhelim Cleary: A Gallant Lady Reclaimed|url-status = dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090107134359/http://www.lopers.net/faculty/b/bloomfields/cleary/KCLitBio.htm |archive-date=2009-01-07 |website= Lopers.net}}</ref> Among the state buildings present at the fair were California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas; each was meant to be architecturally representative of the corresponding states.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Behling|first=Laura L.|date=October 2002|title=Reification and Resistance: The Rhetoric of Black Womanhood at the Columbian Exposition, 1893|journal=Women's Studies in Communication|volume=25|issue=2|pages=173–196|doi=10.1080/07491409.2002.10162445|s2cid=144977109|issn=0749-1409}}</ref>

Four [[United States territories]] also had pavilions located in one building: [[Arizona]], [[New Mexico]], [[Oklahoma]], and [[Utah]].<ref name="WDL" />

Visitors to the Louisiana Pavilion were each given a seedling of a cypress tree. This resulted in the spread of cypress trees to areas where they were not native.  Cypress trees from those seedlings can be found in many areas of West Virginia, where they flourish in the climate.<ref>{{cite magazine |magazine = Wonderful West Virginia|date= August 2007 |page= 6|first = Kenneth L. |last = Carvell|title = Arboreal Mysteries Unraveled|url = http://www.wvdnr.gov/wwvmagazine/Archive/Batch2007/2007%20-%2008%20August.pdf}}</ref>

The [[Battleship Illinois (replica)|''Illinois'']] was a detailed, full-scale mockup of an [[Indiana-class battleship|''Indiana''-class battleship]], constructed as a naval exhibit.

=== Guns and artillery ===
[[File:The great Krupp building, Columbian Exposition, by Kilburn, B. W. (Benjamin West), 1827-1909.jpg|thumb|[[Stereoscopic]] image of the Great [[Krupp]] Building]]

The German firm [[Krupp]] had a pavilion of artillery, which apparently had cost one million dollars to stage,<ref name="Rosenberg2008" /> including a coastal gun of 42&nbsp;cm in bore (16.54&nbsp;inches) and a length of 33 calibres (45.93 feet, 14 meters). A breech-loaded gun, it weighed 120.46 [[long ton]]s (122.4 metric tons). According to the company's marketing: "It carried a charge projectile weighing from 2,200 to 2,500 pounds which, when driven by 900 pounds of [[brown powder]], was claimed to be able to penetrate at 2,200 yards a wrought-iron plate three feet thick if placed at right angles."<ref>John Birkinbine (1893) "Prominent Features of the World's Columbian Exposition", ''Engineers and engineering'', Volume 10, p. 292; for the metric values see {{cite book|author=Ludwig Beck|title=Die geschichte des eisens in technischer und kulturgeschiehtlicher beziehung: abt. Das XIX, jahrhundert von 1860 an bis zum schluss.|year=1903|publisher=F. Vieweg und sohn|page=1026}}</ref>

Nicknamed "The Thunderer", the gun had an advertised range of 15 miles. On this occasion [[John Schofield]] declared Krupps' guns "the greatest peacemakers in the world".<ref name="Rosenberg2008">{{cite book|author=Chaim M. Rosenberg|title=America at the fair: Chicago's 1893 World's Columbian Exposition|year=2008|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|isbn=978-0-7385-2521-1|pages=229–230}}</ref> This gun was later seen as a precursor of the company's World War I [[Dicke Berta]] howitzers.<ref name="Schirmer1937">{{cite book|author=Hermann Schirmer|title=Das Gerät der Artillerie vor, in und nach dem Weltkrieg: Das Gerät der schweren Artillerie|year=1937|publisher=Bernard & Graefe|page=132|quote=Der Schritt von einer kurze 42-cm-Kanone L/33 zu einer Haubitze mit geringerer Anfangsgeschwindigkeit und einem um etwa 1/5 geringeren Geschossgewicht war nich sehr gross.}}</ref>

=== Religions ===
The 1893 [[Parliament of the World's Religions]], which ran from September 11 to September 27, marked the first formal gathering of representatives of Eastern and Western spiritual traditions from around the world. 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.<ref name="Masuzawa">{{cite book |first=Tomoko |last=Masuzawa |title=The Invention of World Religions |location=Chicago |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-226-50989-1|pages=270–274}}</ref> For example, it is recognized as the first public mention of the [[Baháʼí Faith]] in North America;<ref name="Baháʼí-mentions">{{cite web | title = First Public Mentions of the Baháʼí Faith | publisher =Baháʼí Information Office of the UK | date =1998 | url =http://bahai-library.com/first_public_mentions_west | access-date = 25 September 2015}}</ref> it was not taken seriously by European scholars until the 1960s.<ref name="Masuzawa" />

=== Moving walkway ===
[[File:The Great Wharf, Moving Sidewalk.PNG|thumb|The Great Wharf, Moving Sidewalk]]

Along the banks of the lake ran a [[moving walkway]] designed by architect [[Joseph Lyman Silsbee]], the first of its kind open to the public.<ref>Bolotin, Norman, and Christine Laing.  ''The World's Columbian Exposition: the Chicago World's Fair of 1893''. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2002.</ref> Called ''The Great Wharf, Moving Sidewalk'', it carried patrons to the casino and allowed people to walk along or ride in seats.<ref name="Truman1893">{{Cite book | last =Truman | first =Benjamin | title =History of the World's Fair: Being a Complete and Authentic Description of the Columbian Exposition From Its Inception | publisher =J. W. Keller & Co. | year =1893 | location =Philadelphia}}</ref>

=== Horticulture ===
Horticultural exhibits at the Horticultural Hall included [[cacti]] and [[orchid]]s as well as other plants in a greenhouse.

== Architecture ==

=== White City ===
[[File:World Columbian Exposition - White City - 1.JPG|thumb|White City]]
Most of the buildings of the fair were designed in the [[neoclassical architecture]] style. The area at the Court of Honor was known as '''The White City'''. Façades were made not of stone, but of a mixture of plaster, cement, and jute fiber called [[Staff (building material)|staff]], which was painted white, giving the buildings their "gleam". Architecture critics derided the structures as "decorated sheds." The buildings were clad in white [[stucco]], which, in comparison to the [[tenement]]s of Chicago, seemed illuminated. It was also called the White City because of the extensive use of street lights, which made the boulevards and buildings usable at night.

In 1892, working under extremely tight deadlines to complete construction, director of works Daniel Burnham appointed [[Francis Davis Millet]] to replace the fair's official director of color-design, William Pretyman. Pretyman had resigned following a dispute with Burnham. After experimenting, Millet settled on a mix of oil and white lead [[whitewash]] that could be applied using compressed air [[spray paint]]ing to the buildings, taking considerably less time than traditional brush painting.<ref name="devil" /> Joseph Binks, maintenance supervisor at Chicago's [[Marshall Field's Wholesale Store]], who had been using this method to apply whitewash to the subbasement walls of the store, got the job to paint the Exposition buildings.<ref>finishingacademy.com, 1.1.1 The History of the Spray Booth</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bodyshopbusiness.com/the-history-of-sprayguns/|title=The History of Sprayguns – Body Shop Business|date=1 September 2000|access-date=2016-08-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160904164125/http://www.bodyshopbusiness.com/the-history-of-sprayguns/|archive-date=2016-09-04|url-status=live}}</ref> Claims this was the first use of spray painting may be apocryphal since journals from that time note this form of painting had already been in use in the railroad industry from the early 1880s.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/The-312/November-2011/The-Contentious-Historical-Origins-Spray-Paint/|title=The Contentious Historical Origins of Spray Paint|access-date=2016-08-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180719143105/http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/The-312/November-2011/The-Contentious-Historical-Origins-Spray-Paint/|archive-date=2018-07-19|url-status=live}}</ref>

Many of the buildings included sculptural details and, to meet the Exposition's opening deadline, chief architect Burnham sought the help of [[Chicago Art Institute]] instructor [[Lorado Taft]] to help complete them. Taft's efforts included employing a group of talented women sculptors from the Institute known as "the [[White Rabbits (sculptors)|White Rabbits]]" to finish some of the buildings, getting their name from Burnham's comment "Hire anyone, even white rabbits if they'll do the work."

The words "Thine alabaster cities gleam" from the song "[[America the Beautiful]]" were inspired by the White City.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.steynonline.com/12614/america-the-beautiful|title=America the Beautiful|date=July 3, 2022 }}</ref>

==== Role in the City Beautiful movement ====
[[File:The great white city, World's Columbian Exposition, by Kilburn, B. W. (Benjamin West), 1827-1909.jpg|thumb|The "Great White City"]]

The White City is largely credited for ushering in the [[City Beautiful movement]] and planting the seeds of modern city planning.  The highly integrated design of the landscapes, promenades, and structures provided a vision of what is possible when planners, landscape architects, and architects work together on a comprehensive design scheme.

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. The designs of the City Beautiful Movement (closely tied with the municipal art movement) are identifiable by their classical architecture, plan symmetry, picturesque views, and axial plans, as well as their magnificent scale.  Where the municipal art movement focused on beautifying one feature in a city, the City Beautiful movement began to make improvements on the scale of the district. 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.<ref>Levy, John M. (2009) Contemporary Urban Planning.</ref>

=== Great buildings ===
[[File:Agricultural Building at the Worlds Columbian Exposition, Chicago, Illinois, circa 1893.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|Painting of the Agricultural Building]]
[[File:Forestry Building World's Fair.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|The Forestry Building]]

There were fourteen main "great buildings"<ref name=DCS />{{rp|17}} centered around a giant reflective pool called the Grand Basin.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Visions of America: A History of the United States Since 1865|last = Keene|first = Jennifer|publisher = Pearson|year = 2013|isbn = 978-0-205-25163-6|location = London|pages = 508, 510}}</ref> Buildings included:
* The Administration Building, designed by [[Richard Morris Hunt]]
* The Agricultural Building, designed by [[Charles Follen McKim|Charles McKim]] of [[McKim, Mead & White]]
* The Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building, designed by [[George B. Post]]. If this building were standing today, it would rank third in volume (8,500,000m<sup>3</sup>) and eighth in footprint (130,000&nbsp;m<sup>2</sup>) on [[list of largest buildings]].<ref name=devil /> It exhibited works related to literature, science, art and music.
* The Mines and Mining Building, designed by [[Solon Spencer Beman]]
* The Electricity Building, designed by [[Henry Van Brunt]] and [[Frank M. Howe|Frank Maynard Howe]]
* The Machinery Hall, designed by [[Robert Swain Peabody]] of Peabody and Stearns
* [[The Woman's Building (Chicago)|The Woman's Building]], designed by [[Sophia Hayden Bennett|Sophia Hayden]]
* The Transportation Building, designed by [[Adler & Sullivan]]
* The Fisheries Building designed by [[Henry Ives Cobb]]<ref name=DCS />{{rp|23}}
* Forestry Building designed by [[Charles B. Atwood]]
* Horticultural Building designed by [[Jenney and Mundie]]
* Anthropology Building designed by [[Charles B. Atwood]]

=== Transportation Building ===
[[File:The Gilded Entrance to the Transportation Building (3405437784).jpg|thumb|Golden Arch at [[Louis Sullivan]]'s Transportation Building]]

[[Louis Sullivan]]'s polychrome proto-Modern Transportation Building was an outstanding exception to the prevailing style, as he tried to develop an organic American form. Years later, in 1922, he wrote that the classical style of the White City had set back modern American architecture by forty years.<ref>Sullivan, Louis (1924). ''Autobiography of an Idea''. New York City: Press of the American institute of Architects, Inc.. p. 325.</ref>

As detailed in [[Erik Larson (author)|Erik Larson]]'s popular history ''[[The Devil in the White City]]'', extraordinary effort was required to accomplish the exposition, and much of it was unfinished on opening day. The famous [[Ferris Wheel (1893)|Ferris Wheel]], which proved to be a major attendance draw and helped save the fair from bankruptcy, was not finished until June, because of waffling by the board of directors the previous year on whether to build it. Frequent debates and disagreements among the developers of the fair added many delays. The spurning of [[Buffalo Bill]]'s Wild West Show proved a serious financial mistake.  Buffalo Bill set up his highly popular show next door to the fair and brought in a great deal of revenue that he did not have to share with the developers. Nonetheless, construction and operation of the fair proved to be a windfall for Chicago workers during the serious economic recession that was sweeping the country.<ref name=devil />

=== Surviving structures ===
<gallery mode="packed" heights="200px">
File:1893 Nina Pinta Santa Maria replicas.jpg|alt=Nina, Pinta, Santa Maria replicas.|''[[Pinta (ship)|Pinta]]'', ''[[Santa María (ship)|Santa María]]'', and ''[[Niña (ship)|Niña]]'' replicas from Spain.
File:Viking, replica of the Gokstad Viking ship, at the Chicago World Fair 1893.jpg|alt=Viking, replica of the Gokstad Viking ship.|''[[Viking (replica Viking longship)|Viking]]'', a replica of the [[Gokstad ship]].
File:Chicago expo White City fire.jpg|alt=White City fire|After the fair, the White City on fire.
</gallery>

Almost all of the fair's structures were designed to be temporary;<ref>[https://www.beyondthewhitecity.org/worlds-columbian-exposition The City Beyond the White City, World’s Columbian Exposition, Contextualizing the Fair, .beyondthewhitecity.org]</ref> of the more than 200 buildings erected for the fair, the only two which still stand in place are the [[Palace of Fine Arts, Chicago|Palace of Fine Arts]] and the [[Art Institute of Chicago Building|World's Congress Auxiliary Building]]. From the time the fair closed until 1920, the Palace of Fine Arts housed the Field Columbian Museum (now the [[Field Museum of Natural History]], since relocated); in 1933 (having been completely rebuilt in permanent materials), the Palace building re-opened as the [[Museum of Science and Industry (Chicago)|Museum of Science and Industry]].<ref>[http://www.msichicago.org/explore/about-us/museum-facts/ About The Museum – Museum History] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160408184848/http://www.msichicago.org/explore/about-us/museum-facts |date=2016-04-08 }} – [[Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago]], USA</ref>  The second building, the World's Congress Building, was one of the few buildings not built in Jackson Park, instead it was built downtown in [[Grant Park (Chicago)|Grant Park]]. The cost of construction of the World's Congress Building was shared with the [[Art Institute of Chicago]], which, as planned, moved into the building (the museum's current home) after the close of the fair.

The three other significant buildings that survived the fair represented Norway, the Netherlands, and the State of Maine. The [[Norway]] Building was a recreation of a traditional wooden [[stave church]]. After the Fair it was relocated to Lake Geneva, and in 1935 was moved to a museum called [[Little Norway, Wisconsin|Little Norway]] in [[Blue Mounds, Wisconsin]]. In 2015 it was dismantled and shipped back to Norway, where it was restored and reassembled.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/the-journey-for-the-norway-building-comes-full-circle/article_e0a3ae2e-034b-58b9-8de3-dfc972bf41e7.html|title=The journey for the Norway Building comes full circle|last=Journal|first=Barry Adams {{!}} Wisconsin State|work=madison.com|access-date=2018-07-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180709172126/https://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/the-journey-for-the-norway-building-comes-full-circle/article_e0a3ae2e-034b-58b9-8de3-dfc972bf41e7.html|archive-date=2018-07-09|url-status=live}}</ref> The second is the [[Maine State Building]], designed by Charles Sumner Frost, which was purchased by the Ricker family of [[Poland Spring, Maine]]. They moved the building to their resort to serve as a library and art gallery. The Poland Spring Preservation Society now owns the building, which was listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]] in 1974. The third is [[The Dutch House (Brookline, Massachusetts)|The Dutch House]], which was moved to [[Brookline, Massachusetts]].

The [[Viking (replica Viking longship)|1893 Viking ship]] that was sailed to the Exposition from Norway by Captain Magnus Andersen is located in [[Geneva, Illinois]]. The ship is open to visitors on scheduled days April through October.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.vikingship.us|title=Friends of the Viking Ship|access-date=2018-11-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181011214705/http://www.vikingship.us/|archive-date=2018-10-11|url-status=live}}</ref>

The main altar at [[St. John Cantius in Chicago]], as well as its matching two side altars, are reputed to be from the Columbian Exposition.

Since many of the other buildings at the fair were intended to be temporary, they were removed after the fair. The White City so impressed visitors (at least before air pollution began to darken the façades) that plans were considered to refinish the exteriors in marble or some other material. These plans were abandoned in July 1894, when much of the fair grounds was destroyed in a fire.

=== Gallery ===
<gallery mode="packed" heights="200px">
File:Chi-fair-13-20080924.jpg|The Administration Building and Grand Court during the October 9, 1893, commemoration of the 22nd anniversary of the Chicago Fire.
File:Chicago expo Manufactures bldg.jpg|The Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building, seen from the southwest.
File:Chicago expo Horticultural bldg.jpg|Horticultural Building, with Illinois Building in the background.
File:Chicago expo Machinery Hall.jpg|A view toward the Peristyle from Machinery Hall.
File:Chicago expo Midway Plaisance.jpg|Midway Plaisance
File:The World's Columbian exposition, Chicago, 1893 (1893) (14593740420).jpg|[[Frederick MacMonnies]]' Columbian Fountain.
File:columex.jpg|"Canal of Venice" during Chicago World's Fair 1893
File:Die Gartenlaube (1893) b 417.jpg|President Cleveland opens the World's Fair, as depicted by Rudolf Cronau in 1893
</gallery>

=== Later criticisms ===
[[File:Dahomey Village--On The Midway — Official Views Of The World's Columbian Exposition — 110.jpg|thumb|right|Apart from official nation displays, non-white cultures were largely excluded from the main park and were instead found on the Midway.]]

[[Frank Lloyd Wright]] later wrote that "By this overwhelming rise of grandomania I was confirmed in my fear that a native architecture would be set back at least fifty years."<ref>''A Testament'' by Frank Lloyd Wright. Bramhall House. New York. 1957. (p 57)</ref>

According to [[University of Notre Dame]] history professor Gail Bederman, the event symbolized a male-dominated and Eurocentrist society. 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,"<ref name="Manliness and Civilization">{{cite book |last1=Bederman |first1=Gail |title=Manliness and Civilization: A Cultural History of Gender and Race in the United States, 1880–1917 |year=1996 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |location=Chicago |isbn=978-0-226-04139-1 |pages=35–40 |edition=1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KVtKszMHWbcC |access-date=30 July 2020}}</ref> though this critique largely overlooked the contributions within [[The Woman's Building (Chicago)|The Woman's Building]].

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.'"<ref name="Manliness and Civilization" />  Again, this sociopolitical commentary ignored the contributions of Japanese culture.{{sfn|Earle|1999|p=215}}

Two small exhibits were included in the White City's "Woman's Building" which addressed women of color. One, entitled "Afro-American" was installed in a distant corner of the building.<ref name="Manliness and Civilization" />  The other, called "Woman's Work in Savagery," included baskets, weavings, and African, Polynesian, and Native American arts. Though they were produced by living women of color, the materials were represented as relics from the distant past, embodying "the work of white women's own distant evolutionary foremothers."<ref name="Manliness and Civilization" />

=== Visitors ===
[[File:Front of ticket for admission to the World's Columbian Exposition.jpg|thumb|Front of ticket for admission to the World's Columbian Exposition]]

[[Helen Keller]], along with her mentor [[Anne Sullivan]] and Dr. [[Alexander Graham Bell]], visited the fair in summer 1893. Keller described the fair in her autobiography ''[[The Story of My Life (biography)|The Story of My Life]]''.<ref>{{cite web|title = The Story of My Life.|url = http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/keller/life/life.html|website = digital.library.upenn.edu |access-date = 2016-01-03|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160114165042/http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/keller/life/life.html|archive-date = 2016-01-14|url-status = live}}</ref> Early in July, a [[Wellesley College]] English teacher named [[Katharine Lee Bates]] visited the fair. The White City later inspired the reference to "alabaster cities" in her poem and lyrics "[[America the Beautiful]]".<ref>[http://www.falmouthhistoricalsociety.org/05/klbates.htm "Falmouth Museums on the Green"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090123112337/http://www.falmouthhistoricalsociety.org/05/klbates.htm |date=2009-01-23 }}, Falmouth Historical Society</ref> The exposition was extensively reported by Chicago publisher [[William D. Boyce]]'s reporters and artists.<ref name="pett1">{{harvnb|Petterchak|2003|pp=17–18}}</ref> There is a very detailed and vivid description of all facets of this fair by the [[Persians|Persian]] traveler Mirza Mohammad Ali Mo'in ol-Saltaneh written in [[Persian language|Persian]]. He departed from [[Iran|Persia]] on April 20, 1892, especially for the purpose of visiting the World's Columbian Exposition.<ref>Muʿīn al-Salṭana, Muḥammad ʿAlī (Hāǧǧ Mīrzā), Safarnāma-yi Šīkāgū : ḵāṭirāt-i Muḥammad ʿAlī Muʿīn al-Salṭana bih Urūpā wa Āmrīkā : 1310 Hiǧrī-yi Qamarī / bih kūšiš-i Humāyūn Šahīdī, [Tihrān] : Intišrāt-i ʿIlmī, 1984, 1363/[1984].</ref>

[[Pierre de Coubertin]] visited the fair with his friends [[Paul Bourget]] and [[Samuel Jean de Pozzi]]. He devotes the first chapter of his book ''Souvenirs d'Amérique et de Grèce'' (1897) to the visit. [[Swami Vivekananda]] visited the fair to attend the [[Parliament of the World's Religions]] and delivered his famous speech ''Sisters and Brothers of America!''.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.swamivivekanandaquotes.org/2014/05/sisters-and-brothers-of-america.html|title=Sisters And Brothers Of America|website=www.swamivivekanandaquotes.org|access-date=2016-10-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161022153943/http://www.swamivivekanandaquotes.org/2014/05/sisters-and-brothers-of-america.html|archive-date=2016-10-22|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Kubota Beisen]] was an official delegate of Japan. As an artist, he sketched hundreds of scenes, some of which were later used to make woodblock print books about the Exhibition.<ref>BIJYUTSUHIN GAFU vol. 4, 1893{{full citation needed|date=May 2019}}</ref> Serial killer [[H. H. Holmes]] attended the fair with two of his eventual victims, Annie and Minnie Williams.
[[Bulgaria]]n writer [[Aleko Konstantinov]] visited the fair and wrote his [[nonfiction]] book ''[[To Chicago and Back]]''.

== Souvenirs ==
[[File:Worldsfairticket.jpg|thumb|Ticket for Chicago Day]]

Examples of exposition souvenirs can be found in various American museum collections. One example, copyrighted in 1892 by John W. Green, is a folding [[hand fan]] with detailed illustrations of landscapes and architecture.<ref>{{cite web|title=Fan|url=https://statenisland.pastperfectonline.com/webobject/7684D459-5C2E-412F-BB18-191850529052|work=Online Collections Database|publisher=Staten Island Historical Society|access-date=6 January 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170916050938/https://statenisland.pastperfectonline.com/webobject/7684D459-5C2E-412F-BB18-191850529052|archive-date=2017-09-16|url-status=live}}</ref> Charles W Goldsmith produced a set of ten postcard designs, each in full colour, showing the buildings constructed for the exhibition.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Willoughby|first1=Martin |title=A History of Postcards|date=1992 |publisher=Bracken Books|location=London |isbn=1-85891-162-1|page=42}}</ref> [[Columbian half dollar|Columbian Exposition coins]] were also minted for the event.

== Electricity ==
[[File:Agricultural Building at Night (3409426351).jpg|thumb|Electricity was used to decorate the buildings with incandescent lights, illuminate fountains, and power three huge spotlights.]]

The effort to power the Fair with electricity, which became a demonstration piece for [[Westinghouse Electric (1886)|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.<ref>{{cite book|title=The World's Columbian Exposition |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F6cWRxU9go4C&q=westinghouse+World%27s+Columbian+Exposition&pg=PR21|access-date=2015-11-21 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160616192038/https://books.google.com/books?id=F6cWRxU9go4C&pg=PR21&dq=westinghouse+World's+Columbian+Exposition&hl=en&sa=X&ei=RPv2T5mzG8mQ0QHFj7nqBg&ved=0CDgQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=westinghouse%20World%27s%20Columbian%20Exposition&f=false |archive-date=2016-06-16 |isbn=978-0-313-26644-7 |last1=Bertuca |first1=David J. |last2=Hartman |first2=Donald K. |last3=Neumeister |first3=Susan M. |year=1996 |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic}}</ref> Westinghouse initially did not put in a bid to power the Fair but agreed to be the contractor for a local Chicago company that put in a low bid of US$510,000 to supply an alternating current-based system.<ref name="Richard Moran 2007, page 97">Richard Moran (2007) ''Executioner's Current: Thomas Edison, George Westinghouse, and the Invention of the Electric Chair'', [[Knopf Doubleday]], p. 97</ref>

Edison General Electric, which at the time was merging with the [[Thomson-Houston Electric Company]] to form [[General Electric]], put in a US$1.72 million bid to power the Fair and its planned 93,000 incandescent lamps with [[direct current]]. After the Fair committee went over both proposals, Edison General Electric re-bid their costs at $554,000 but Westinghouse underbid them by 70 cents per lamp to get the contract.<ref name="Richard Moran 2007, page 97" /><ref name=QRS>Quentin R. Skrabec, ''George Westinghouse: Gentle Genius'', pp. 135–137</ref> Westinghouse could not use the Edison incandescent lamp since the patent belonged to General Electric and they had successfully sued to stop use of all patent infringing designs. Since Edison specified a sealed globe of glass in his design Westinghouse found a way to sidestep the Edison patent by quickly developing a lamp with a ground-glass stopper in one end, based on a Sawyer-Man "stopper" lamp patent they already had. The lamps worked well but were short-lived, requiring a small army of workmen to constantly replace them.<ref name=QRS />{{rp|140}}

Westinghouse Electric had severely underbid the contract and struggled to supply all the equipment specified, including twelve 1,000-horsepower single-phase AC generators and all the lighting and other equipment required.<ref>L. J. Davis (2012) ''Fleet Fire: Thomas Edison and the Pioneers of the Electric Revolution'', [[Skyhorse Publishing]], Chapter 8: The Manufacture and the Magus</ref> They also had to fend off a last-minute lawsuit by General Electric claiming the Westinghouse Sawyer-Man-based stopper lamp infringed on the Edison incandescent lamp patent.<ref name=QRS />{{rp|142}}

The International Exposition was held in an Electricity Building which was devoted to electrical exhibits. A statue of [[Benjamin Franklin]] was displayed at the entrance. The exposition featured interior and exterior light and displays as well as displays of [[Thomas Edison]]'s [[kinetoscope]], [[search light]]s, a [[seismograph]], electric [[incubator (egg)|incubators]] for chicken eggs,<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/chicago-worlds-columbian-exposition-1893/ |title=American Experience &#124; Chicago: City of the Century &#124; People & Events |website=[[PBS]] |access-date=2017-09-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170310044812/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/chicago/peopleevents/e_court.html |archive-date=2017-03-10 |url-status=live }}</ref> and [[Morse code]] [[telegraph]].<ref name=DCS />{{rp|22}}

[[File:Nikola Tesla's personal exhibit at the 1893 Chicago World's Columbian Exposition Fair.png|thumb |Westinghouses' World's Fair presentation explaining [[Nikola Tesla|Tesla]]'s AC [[induction motor]]s and high frequency experiments]]
All the exhibits were from commercial enterprises. Participants included General Electric, Brush, [[Western Electric]], and Westinghouse. The Westinghouse Company displayed several [[polyphase system]]s. The exhibits included a [[Telephone switchboard|switchboard]], polyphase generators, step-up [[transformer]]s, transmission line, step-down transformers, commercial size [[induction motor]]s and [[synchronous motor]]s, and rotary direct current converters (including an operational railway motor). The working scaled system allowed the public a view of a system of polyphase power which could be transmitted over long distances, and be utilized, including the supply of direct current. Meters and other auxiliary devices were also present.

Part of the space occupied by the Westinghouse Company was devoted to demonstrations of electrical devices developed by [[Nikola Tesla]]<ref>Marc Seifer (1996) ''[[Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla]]'', p. 1744</ref> including [[induction motor]]s and the [[Electrical generator|generators]] used to power the system.<ref>John Patrick Barret, ''Electricity at the Columbian Exposition'', pp. 165–170.</ref> The [[rotating magnetic field]] that drove these motors was explained through a series of demonstrations including an ''[[Tesla's Egg of Columbus|Egg of Columbus]]'' that used the [[Two-phase electric power|two-phase]] coil in the induction motors to spin a copper egg making it stand on end.<ref>Hugo Gernsback, "Tesla's Egg of Columbus, How Tesla Performed the Feat of Columbus Without Cracking the Egg" ''Electrical Experimenter'', March 19, 1919, p. 774 [http://www.teslacollection.com/tesla_articles/1919/electrical_experimenter/h_gernsback/the_tesla_egg_of_columbus] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200327222415/http://www.teslacollection.com/tesla_articles/1919/electrical_experimenter/h_gernsback/the_tesla_egg_of_columbus|date=March 27, 2020}}</ref>

Tesla himself showed up for a week in August to attend the [[International Electrical Congress]], being held at the fair's Agriculture Hall, and put on a series of demonstrations of his wireless lighting system in a specially set up darkened room at the Westinghouse exhibit.<ref>Marc Seifer (1996) [[Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla]], p. 120</ref><ref>Thomas Commerford Martin, The Inventions, Researches and Writings of Nikola Tesla: With Special Reference to His Work in Polyphase Currents and High Potential Lighting, Electrical Engineer – 1894, Chapter XLII, p. 485 [https://archive.org/details/inventionsresear00martiala]</ref> These included demonstrations he had previously performed throughout America and Europe<ref name="auto1">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HIuK7iLO9zgC&q=Tesla+1893+World%27s+Fair++bulbs&pg=PA79|title=Tesla|access-date=2015-11-21|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160519102357/https://books.google.com/books?id=HIuK7iLO9zgC&pg=PA79&dq=Tesla+1893+World's+Fair++bulbs&hl=en&sa=X&ei=1cHxT_m3HeGR0QHm2Nn6Ag&ved=0CFQQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=Tesla%201893%20World%27s%20Fair%20%20bulbs&f=false|archive-date=2016-05-19|url-status=live|isbn=978-1-4516-7486-6|last1=Cheney|first1=Margaret|author1-link=Margaret Cheney (author)|date=2011-11-08|publisher=Simon and Schuster }}</ref> including using a nearby coil to light a wireless [[gas-discharge lamp]] held in his hand.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Nikola Tesla: A Spark of Genius|last=Dommermuth-Costa|first=Carol|page=90}}</ref><ref name="auto1" />

Also at the Fair, the [[Chicago Athletic Association Football team]] played one of the first [[night game#Gridiron football|night football]] games against [[Army Black Knights football|West Point]] (the earliest being on September 28, 1892, between [[Mansfield University of Pennsylvania|Mansfield State Normal]] and [[Wyoming Seminary]]). Chicago won the game, 14–0. The game lasted only 40 minutes, compared to the normal 90 minutes.<ref>{{cite journal | title=Chicago Lights Up Football World | journal=LA 4 Foundation | volume=XVIII | issue=II | year=2005 | pages=7–10 | url=http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/CFHSN/CFHSNv18/CFHSNv18n2c.pdf | author=Pruter, Robert | access-date=2011-09-12 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100613012622/http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/CFHSN/CFHSNv18/CFHSNv18n2c.pdf | archive-date=2010-06-13 | url-status=live }}</ref>

== Music ==

=== Musicians ===
[[File:1893 Birds Eye view of Chicago Worlds Columbian Exposition.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.5|Bird's Eye View, 1893]]
* [[John Philip Sousa]]′s Band played for the Exposition dedication celebration in Chicago, 10 October through 21 October 1892.
* [[Joseph Douglass]], classical violinist, who achieved wide recognition after his performance there and became the first African-American violinist to conduct a transcontinental tour and the first to tour as a concert violinist.<ref>Southern, p. 283</ref><ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.2307/779543|title=Black String Musicians: Ascending the Scale|author=Caldwell Titcomb|journal=Black Music Research Journal|volume=10 |issue=1|date=Spring 1990|pages=107–112|publisher=Center for Black Music Research – Columbia College Chicago and [[University of Illinois Press]]|jstor=779543}}</ref>
* [[Sissieretta Jones]], a soprano known as "the Black Patti" and an already-famous opera singer.<ref name="This is Ragtime">{{Cite book | title =This is Ragtime | author =Terry Waldo | publisher =Da Capo Press | year =1991 | isbn =978-0-306-80439-7 | url =https://archive.org/details/thisisragtime00wald }}</ref>
* A paper on African-American [[spiritual (music)|spirituals]] and [[ring shout|shouts]] by [[Abigail Christensen]] was read to attendees.<ref name="Brunvand">{{cite book|last=Brunvand|first=Jan Harold |author-link=Jan Harold Brunvand|title=American folklore: an encyclopedia|chapter=Christensen, Abigail Mandana ("Abbie") Holmes (1852–1938)|publisher=Taylor & Francis|year=1998|page=142|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l0N_sedAATAC&q=Abigail+Christensen+folklore&pg=PA142|isbn=978-0-8153-3350-0}}</ref>

There were many other black artists at the fair, ranging from [[minstrel]] and early ragtime groups to more formal [[Classical music|classical]] ensembles to street buskers.
*[[Scott Joplin]], pianist, from Texarkana, Texas; became widely known for his piano playing at the fair.

=== Other music and musicians ===
* The first [[Music of Indonesia|Indonesian music]] performance in the United States was at the exposition.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music|chapter=Indonesian Music|last=Diamond|first=Beverly|author2=Barbara Benary |pages=1011–1023}}</ref> The [[gamelan]] instruments used in the performance were later placed in the Field Museum of Natural History.
* A group of [[hula]] dancers led to increased awareness of [[music of Hawaii|Hawaiian music]] among Americans throughout the country.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music|chapter=Polynesian Music|last=Stillman|first=Amy Ku'uleialoha|pages=1047–1053}}</ref>
* [[Stoughton Musical Society]], the oldest choral society in the United States, presented the first concerts of early American music at the exposition.
* The first [[eisteddfod]] (a Welsh choral competition with a history spanning many centuries) held outside Wales was held in Chicago at the exposition.
* A 250-voice [[Mormon Tabernacle Choir]] competed in the Eisteddfod, taking the second place prize of $1,000. This was the first appearance of the choir outside the [[Utah Territory]].
* On August 12, 1893, [[Antonín Dvořák]] conducted a gala "Bohemian Day" concert at the exposition, besieged by visitors including the conductor of the [[Chicago Symphony]], who arranged for performance of Dvořák's ''[[String Quartet No. 12 (Dvořák)|American]]'' string quartet, just completed in [[Spillville, Iowa]], during a Dvořák family vacation in a Czech-speaking community there.<ref>{{cite web|title=Dvořák in America|url=http://www.dvoraknyc.org/dvorak-in-america/|website=Dvořák American Heritage Association |access-date=2015-12-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304081722/http://www.dvoraknyc.org/dvorak-in-america/|archive-date=2016-03-04|url-status=live}}</ref>
* American composer [[Amy Beach]] (1867–1944) was commissioned by the Board of Lady Managers of the fair to compose a choral work (Festival Jubilate, op. 17) for the opening of the Woman's Building.<ref name="auto">{{cite book|title=Brittain, Randy Charles. "Festival Jubilate, Op. 17 by Amy Cheney Beach (1867–1944): A Performing Edition." Ph.D. Dissertation: University of North Carolina, Greensboro, 1994.}}</ref>
* Sousa's Band played concerts in the south bandstand on the Great Plaza, 25 May to 28 June 1893.
* 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. Soloists were William Sandford, euphonium; Charles Elder, clarinet; William Steele, cornet. The band members slept on cots on the top floor of the building.
* On June 8, 1893, The Exposition Orchestra, an expanded version of the [[Chicago Symphony]] conducted by guest conductor Vojtěch I. Hlaváč, played the American premiere of [[Modest Mussorgsky]]'s ''[[A Night on Bald Mountain]]'' as part of a concert of Russian folk music.<ref>Program notes by Phillip Huscher for a performance by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Riccardo Muti at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, Urbana, Ill. 24 September 2016. pp. 6–7.</ref>
* A pipe organ containing over 3,900 pipes, one of the largest in the world at the time, was built by the Farrand & Votey Organ Company to the specifications of Chicago organist [[Clarence Eddy]]. It was one of the first great organs to rely on electrical connections from its keys to its pipes.<ref>{{cite web |title=The great pipe organ|url=https://michigantoday.umich.edu/2010/05/12/a7735/|website=Michigan Today |date=May 12, 2010|access-date=2021-12-14}}</ref>
* Musicologist Anna Morsch and composer [[Charlotte Sporleder]] presented a program of German music.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Généalogie de Charlotte Wilhelmine Eringarde Freiin Spiegel von und zu Peckelsheim|url=https://gw.geneanet.org/hsielsht?lang=fr&n=freiin+spiegel+von+und+zu+peckelsheim&oc=0&p=charlotte+wilhelmine+eringarde|access-date=2021-12-31|website=Geneanet|language=fr}}</ref>
* Composer and pianist [[Anita Socola Specht]] won the title "best amateur pianist in the United States," although some of the judges told her, "You are not an amateur, you are an artist!"<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mount|first=May W.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O9o-AAAAYAAJ&q=Anita+Socola+composer |title=Some Notables of New Orleans: Biographical and Descriptive Sketches of the Artists of New Orleans, and Their Work|date=1896|publisher=The Author|language=en}}</ref>

== Art ==
[[File:Worlds Columbian Exposition Souvenier Map, 1893.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.5|Souvenir Map, 1893, Jackson Park at left hosted the main fair exhibitions, while the Midway, the narrow extension to the left, hosted various amusements]]

=== American artists exhibiting ===
{{Main|List of American painters exhibited at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition|List of American sculptors exhibited at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition}}

==== Painters ====
{{Div col|colwidth=30em}}
* [[Adam Emory Albright]]<ref name="Carr" />{{rp|202}}
* [[Henry Alexander (painter)|Henry Alexander]]<ref name="Carr" />{{rp|202}}
* [[Maitland Armstrong]]<ref name="Carr" />{{rp|203}}
* [[William Jacob Baer]]<ref name="Carr" />{{rp|203}}
* [[William Bliss Baker]]<ref name="Carr" />{{rp|204}}
* [[Cecilia Beaux]]<ref name="Carr" />{{rp|204}}
* [[James Carroll Beckwith]]<ref name="Carr" />{{rp|205}}
* [[Enella Benedict ]]<ref name="Carr" />{{rp|206}}
* [[Frank Weston Benson]]<ref name="Carr" />{{rp|206}}
* [[Daniel Folger Bigelow ]]<ref name="Carr" />{{rp|207}}
* [[Ralph Albert Blakelock ]]<ref name="Carr" />{{rp|207–08}}
* [[Edwin Howland Blashfield]]<ref name="Carr" />{{rp|208}}
* [[Mary Cassatt]]<ref name="womensbuilding1893">{{cite web|title=Women's Building: 1893 World's Exposition|work=Women's Art at the World's Columbian Fair & Exposition, Chicago 1893|access-date=2014-11-09|url=http://arcadiasystems.org/academia/cassatt5.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141010222441/http://arcadiasystems.org/academia/cassatt5.html|archive-date=2014-10-10|url-status=live}}</ref>
* [[Sarah Paxton Ball Dodson]]<ref name="american1893page4">{{cite web|title=United States Women Painters: 1893 Exposition |page =4|work=Women's Art at the World's Columbian Fair & Exposition, Chicago 1893|access-date=2014-11-09|url=http://arcadiasystems.org/academia/cassatt6b.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141109165002/http://arcadiasystems.org/academia/cassatt6b.html|archive-date=2014-11-09|url-status=live}}</ref>
* [[Thomas Eakins]]
* Charles Morgan McIlhenney<ref name="Carr" />{{rp|386}}
* [[Gari Melchers]]<ref name="Carr" />{{rp|386–87}}
* [[Anna Lea Merritt]]<ref name="americanwomen1893">{{cite web|title=United States Women Painters: 1893 Exposition|page= 8|work=Women's Art at the World's Columbian Fair & Exposition, Chicago 1893|access-date=2014-11-09|url=http://arcadiasystems.org/academia/cassatt6g.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141109164816/http://arcadiasystems.org/academia/cassatt6g.html|archive-date=2014-11-09|url-status=live}}</ref>
* John Harrison Mills<ref name="Carr" />{{rp|370}}
* [[Robert Crannell Minor]]<ref name="Carr" />{{rp|390}}
* [[Louis Moeller]]
* [[Harry Humphrey Moore]]<ref name="Carr" />{{rp|390–91}}
* [[Edward Moran]]
* [[John Singer Sargent]]

==== Sculptors ====
* [[Sarah Fisher Ames]], sculptor<ref name="U.S. Senate">{{cite web |title=U.S. Senate: Abraham Lincoln |url=https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/art/artifact/Sculpture_21_00013.htm |website=U.S. Senate |access-date=22 December 2018}}</ref>
* [[John J. Boyle (sculptor)|John J. Boyle]] sculptor<ref>{{Cite web|last=Tollis |first=Thayer|date=2016 |title=American Sculpture at the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893 |website=www.metmuseum.org |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/cwfs/hd_cwfs.htm|access-date=2022-01-14 |series=Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History; Essays}}</ref>
* [[Cyrus Edwin Dallin]], sculptor – ''[[Signal of Peace]]''<ref name="Carr" />{{rp|362}}
* [[Charles Grafly]] – ''Bust of Daedalus''
* [[Mary Lawrence (sculptor)|Mary Lawrence]], sculptor<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.vanderkrogt.net/statues/object.php?webpage=CO&record=usil10|title=Chicago – Columbus Landing on San Salvador|access-date=2014-11-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141217154759/http://www.vanderkrogt.net/statues/object.php?webpage=CO&record=usil10|archive-date=2014-12-17|url-status=live}}</ref>
* [[Edward Kemeys]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Lions {{!}} Chicago Park District |url=https://www.chicagoparkdistrict.com/parks-facilities/lions |website=www.chicagoparkdistrict.com |publisher=Chicago Park District |access-date=13 May 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Myers |first1=Quinn |title=Ask Geoffrey: The History of the Art Institute Lions |url=https://news.wttw.com/2019/10/02/ask-geoffrey-history-art-institute-lions |website=WTTW News |access-date=12 May 2021 |language=en |date=2 October 2019}}</ref>
* [[Theo Alice Ruggles Kitson]] (as Theo Alice Ruggles)<ref name="Carr" />{{rp|376}}
* [[Aloys Loeher]]
* [[Carol Brooks MacNeil]] (as Caroline Brooks)<ref name="Carr" />{{rp|165}}
* [[Helen Farnsworth Mears]]<ref name=DAmSculp>{{cite book|editor-last=Opitz|editor-first=Glenn B. |title=Dictionary of American Sculptors: 18th century to the present|year=1984|publisher=Apollo |location=New York|isbn=0-938290-03-7|page=[https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofamer00opit/page/268 268]|url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofamer00opit/page/268}}</ref>
* [[Samuel Murray (sculptor)|Samuel Murray]] – ''Bust of Walt Whitman''
* [[William Rudolf O'Donovan]] – ''Bust of Thomas Eakins''<ref name="Carr" />{{rp|371–72}}
* [[Bessie Potter Vonnoh|Bessie Potter]]<ref name="Carr" />{{rp|374}}
* Peter Moran<ref name="Carr" />{{rp|396}}
* George D. Peterson
* [[Preston Powers]]<ref name="Carr" />{{rp|374}}
* [[Katherine T. Hooper Prescott|Katherine Prescott]]<ref name="Carr" />{{rp|374}}
* [[A. Phimister Proctor]]<ref name="Carr" />{{rp|374}}
* [[John Rogers (sculptor)|John Rogers]]<ref name="Carr" />{{rp|374}}
* [[Carl Rohl-Smith]]<ref name=Carr>Carr, Carolyn Kinder, et al., ''Revisiting the White City: American Art at the 1893 World's Fair'', National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C. 1993</ref>{{rp|p. 376}}
* [[Lorado Taft]]<ref name="Carr" />{{rp|378}}
* [[Douglas Tilden]]<ref name="Carr" />{{rp|375}}
* [[Luella A. Varney Serrao|Luella Varney]]<ref>{{cite web|last1=Nichols|first1=K. L. |title=International Women Sculptors: 1893 Chicago World's Fair and Exposition |url=http://arcadiasystems.org/academia/cassatt4d.html|access-date=2017-01-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170109185508/http://arcadiasystems.org/academia/cassatt4d.html |archive-date=2017-01-09|url-status=live}}</ref>
{{Div col end}}

=== Japanese art ===
Japan's artistic contribution was mainly in [[Japanese pottery and porcelain|porcelain]], [[cloisonné]] enamel, metalwork and embroidery.{{sfn|Earle|1999|p=215}} While 55 paintings and 24 sculptures came from Japan, 271 of the 290 exhibits in the Palace of Fine Arts were Japanese.{{sfn|Earle|1999|p=215}} Artists represented included [[Makuzu Kozan|Miyagawa Kozan]], [[Yabu Meizan]], [[Namikawa Sōsuke]], and Suzuki Chokichi.{{sfn|Earle|1999|p=213}}

=== Women artists exhibiting ===
{{further|List of women artists exhibited at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition|The Woman's Building (Chicago)}}
[[File:Woman's Building Lemaire poster.png|thumb|Woman's Building Lemaire poster]]

The women artists at the [[The Woman's Building (Chicago)|Woman's Building]] included [[Anna Lownes]],<ref name="Tufts(U.S.)1987">{{cite book|author1=Eleanor Tufts|author2=National Museum of Women in the Arts (U.S.)|author3=International Exhibitions Foundation|title=American women artists, 1830–1930|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EvxPAAAAMAAJ|year=1987|publisher=International Exhibitions Foundation for the National Museum of Women in the Arts|isbn=978-0-940979-01-7|author1-link=Eleanor Tufts}}</ref> Viennese painter [[Rosa Schweninger]], and many others.<ref name="austrian1893">{{cite web|title=Austrian Women Painters: 1893 Chicago World's Fair & Exposition|work=Women's Art at the World's Columbian Fair & Exposition, Chicago 1893|access-date=2014-11-09|url=http://arcadiasystems.org/academia/cassatt10dd.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141109164709/http://arcadiasystems.org/academia/cassatt10dd.html|archive-date=2014-11-09|url-status=live}}</ref> American composer [[Amy Cheney Beach]] was commissioned by the [[Board of Lady Managers of the World's Columbian Commission|Board of Lady Managers]] of the fair to compose a choral work (Festival Jubilate, op. 17) for the opening of the Woman's Building.<ref name="auto" /> The [[Mary Florence Potts|Mrs Potts sad-iron system]] was on display.<ref name=FairFavorite>{{cite web |url=http://elliepresents.com/interpretations/a-visit-with-mrs-potts-2/ |title=A Visit with Mrs. Potts |author=<!--Not stated--> |website=Costumed Interpretations |publisher=Ellie Presents |access-date=May 13, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170820033301/http://elliepresents.com/interpretations/a-visit-with-mrs-potts-2/ |archive-date=2017-08-20 |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Ami Mali Hicks]]' stencil design was selected to adorn the [[frieze]] in the assembly room of the Women's Building.<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.-->|title=Miss Amy Hick's Design |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/13198810/miss_amy_hicks_design_the_world_new/|access-date=19 August 2017|newspaper=[[The New York World]]|date=April 8, 1893|location=New York|page=8|via=[[Newspapers.com]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170819233708/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/13198810/miss_amy_hicks_design_the_world_new/|archive-date=2017-08-19|url-status=live}} {{open access}}</ref> Musicologist Anna Morsch and composer [[Charlotte Sporleder]] presented a program of German music.<ref name=":0" />

The Woman's Building included a Woman's Building Library Exhibit, which had 7,000 books – all by women. The Woman's Building Library was meant to show the cumulative contribution of the world's women to literature.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Library An Illustrated History|last=Murray |first=Stuart |publisher=Skyhorse Publishing |year=2009|isbn=978-1-60239-706-4|location=New York, NY|page=[https://archive.org/details/libraryillustrat0000murr/page/207 207] |url=https://archive.org/details/libraryillustrat0000murr/page/207}}</ref>

== "Greatest Refrigerator on Earth" fire tragedy ==
A large Romanesque structure called "Greatest Refrigerator on Earth" stored thousands of pounds of the Exposition's food and held an ice-skating rink for patrons.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=Cold Storage Building |url=https://chicagology.com/columbiaexpo/fair058/ |access-date=2022-04-12 |website=chicagology |language=en-US |quote=It was known as the “Greatest Refrigerator on Earth,” and was estimated to be 130 by 255 feet. The lower level provided cold storage for the thousands of pounds of food served every day at the fair; while the upper story featured an ice skating rink for fair patrons.}}</ref> The large structure demonstrated artificial freezing, a recent development, and was planned by architect [[Franklin Pierce Burnham|Franklin P. Burnham]]. The structure's floor space was {{Convert|130|by|255|feet}} and its height reached almost {{Convert|200|feet}}. On the evening of July 10, 1893, the "Greatest Refrigerator on Earth" caught fire. Two firemen entered, one sliding down a rope and another on a line of hose, and both were trapped in the burning refrigerator. A total of fifteen people died, twelve firefighters and three civilians, in front of a crowd of more than a thousand fairgoers.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Connolly |first=Colleen |title=Tragedy at the 1893 World's Fair: Fire killed 16 while crowds watched |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/commentary/ct-perspec-flashback-worlds-fair-1893-fire-columbian-exposition-0729-20180718-story.html |access-date=2022-04-12 |website=chicagotribune.com |date=July 28, 2018 |quote=“In a funeral pyre … imprisoned by flames,” read the headline of a front-page story of the Chicago Daily Tribune on July 11, 1893. A day earlier, 16 people, including 12 firefighters, had died in a blaze at one of the buildings in Jackson Park during the World’s Columbian Exposition. It was the fair’s first tragedy, and it was witnessed by thousands of fairgoers.}}</ref> The only artifact that survived the fire was a twelve-foot copper statue of Christopher Columbus, which was kept as a monument to the men who lost their lives and is kept by the [[fire museum]] of Chicago.<ref name=":2" />

== Notable firsts ==

=== Concepts ===
[[File:Mammoth and Giant Octopus.jpg|thumb|Mammoth and Giant Octopus, display at the Columbian World's Fair, 1893]]

* [[Frederick Jackson Turner]] lectured on his [[Frontier thesis]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Frederick Jackson Turner|url=https://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/s_z/turner.htm|work=Pbs.com|publisher=PBS|access-date=27 March 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140217010045/http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/s_z/turner.htm|archive-date=2014-02-17|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* The [[Pledge of Allegiance (United States)|Pledge of Allegiance]] was first performed at the exposition by a mass of school children lined up in military fashion.<ref>{{cite book |last=Giddings |first=Paula |url=https://archive.org/details/idaswordamonglio0000gidd/page/270/mode/2up |title=Ida: A Sword Among Lions |date=2008 |publisher=HarperCollins |isbn=978-0-06-051921-6 |page=270 |url-access=registration}}</ref>
* Contribution to Chicago's nickname, the "[[Windy City (nickname)|Windy City]]".  Some argue that [[Charles Anderson Dana]] of the ''[[New York Sun (historical)|New York Sun]]'' coined the term related to the hype of the city's promoters. Other evidence, however, suggests the term was used as early as 1881 in relation to either Chicago's "windbag" politicians or to its weather.<ref name=devil />

=== Commemorations ===
* [[United States Mint]] offered its first commemorative coins: the [[Columbian Exposition quarter dollar]] and [[Columbian Exposition half dollar]]<ref>{{cite web|title=Commemoratives from 1892 to 1954|url=http://www.usmint.gov/mint_programs/commemoratives/?action=premodern|work=The United States Mint.gov|access-date=20 February 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140227074752/http://www.usmint.gov/mint_programs/commemoratives/?action=premodern|archive-date=2014-02-27|url-status=live}}</ref>
* The [[United States Post Office Department]] produced its first picture [[postcard]]s and [[Columbian Issue|Columbian Issue commemorative stamps]].<ref>{{cite web|title=The Columbian Exposition and the Nation's First Commemorative Stamps|url=http://www.postalmuseum.si.edu/ColumbianExposition/index.html|work=National Postal Museum|access-date=27 March 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304205928/http://postalmuseum.si.edu/ColumbianExposition/index.html|archive-date=2016-03-04|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Edibles and potables ===
* [[Juicy Fruit]] gum<ref name="lib.uchicago.edu">{{cite web |title=The Wrigley Spearman at Work and Play |url=https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/collex/exhibits/sweet-home-chicago/history-chocolate-and-candy-making-chicago/wrigley-spearmen-work-and-play/ |website=University of Chicago Library |access-date=19 June 2021}}</ref>
* [[Quaker Oats]]<ref name="lib.uchicago.edu" />
* [[Shredded Wheat]]<ref name="Hill 73–74">{{cite book|last=Hill|first=Genna|title=The 2011 Chicago North Side Real Estate Guide: Bucktown, Wicker Park, Lincoln Park, Lake View, Gold Coast, Streeterville. Andersonville, Wrigleyville, Ravenswood and More|date=Sep 24, 2010|publisher=Wexford House Books|pages=73–74}}</ref>
* [[Pabst Blue Ribbon]]<ref name="devil" />
* [[Vienna Sausage]] started selling its frankfurters and sausages near one of the entrances to the Midway Plaisance, just outside the Old Vienna Village. The company later became known as [[Vienna Beef]], famously recognized as "Chicago's Hot Dog".<ref>Chicago's Greatest Year – 1893 by Joseph Gustaitis pp. 210–213</ref>

=== Inventions and manufacturing advances ===
[[File:PSM V44 D054 An electric kitchen.jpg|thumb|Electric kitchen]]

* A device that made plates for printing books in [[Braille]], unveiled by [[List of people from Jacksonville, Illinois#Authors and academics|Frank Haven Hall]], who met [[Helen Keller]] and her teacher [[Anne Sullivan]] at the exhibit.<ref name=devil />
* [[Moving walkway]], or travelator
* The [[third rail]] giving electric power to elevated trains led directly to its first continuing US use.<ref name="test">''The Chicago "L"'' by Greg Borzo</ref>
* The "clasp locker", a clumsy slide fastener and forerunner to the [[zipper]] was demonstrated by [[Whitcomb L. Judson]]
* [[Elongated coin]]s (the squashed penny)
* [[Ferris Wheel (1893)|Ferris Wheel]]
* First fully electrical kitchen including an automatic dishwasher<ref name=devil />
* Phosphorescent lamps (a precursor to [[fluorescent lamps]])<ref name=devil />
* [[John T. Shayne & Company]], the local Chicago furrier helped America gain respect on the world stage of manufacturing
* [[Clark cell]] as a standard for measuring [[volt]]age
* A first prototype of a [[Aerosol spray|pressurized aerosol spray]], by [[Francis Davis Millet]].
* The first practical [[Electric car|electric automobile]], invented by [[William Morrison (chemist)|William Morrison]].

=== Organizations ===
* Congress of Mathematicians, precursor to [[International Congress of Mathematicians]]<ref>{{cite book|editor=Case, Bettye Anne|editor-link=Bettye Anne Case|title=A Century of Mathematical Meetings|chapter=''Come to the Fair: The Chicago Mathematical Congress of 1893'' by David E. Rowe and Karen Hunger Parshall|year=1996|publisher=[[American Mathematical Society]]|page=65|isbn=978-0-8218-0465-0|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UnkYqxyWGz8C&pg=PA65}}</ref>
* [[Interfaith dialogue]] (the [[Parliament of the World's Religions]])
** First recorded public mention of the [[Baháʼí Faith]] in North America<ref name="Baháʼí-mentions" />

=== Performances ===
* The poet and humorist [[Benjamin Franklin King, Jr.]] first performed at the exposition.
* Bodybuilder [[Eugen Sandow]] demonstrated feats of strength, promoted by [[Florenz Ziegfeld Jr.|Florenz Ziegfeld]].
* Magician [[Harry Houdini]] and his brother [[Theodore Hardeen|Theodore]] performed their magic act at the Midway.

== Later years ==
[[File:Notable Chicagoans Revive World's Fair Memories (1923).png|thumb|upright=1.15|In 1923, notable Chicagoans associated with the fair met again.]]
{|align=right
|-
! style="color:#black; background:#f8eaba; font-size:100%; text-align:center;" colspan="2"|Postal memorabilia
|-
|<gallery mode="packed" heights="110">
File:1892USstamp$5Columbus.jpg|{{center|[[Postage stamps and postal history of the United States#Columbian Issue|Columbus postage]] issued at the Exposition}}
File:World's Fair Postmark 1893Aug29.jpg|{{center|1893 [[postmark]] used at the Exposition}}
File:The Fisheries Building, World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, Illinois, 1893.jpg|The Fisheries Building at the Exposition
</gallery>
|}

The exposition was one influence leading to the rise of the [[City Beautiful movement]].<ref>Talen, Emily  (2005).''New Urbanism and American Planning: The Conflict of Cultures'', p. 118. Routledge. {{ISBN|0-415-70133-3}}.</ref> Results included grand buildings and fountains built around [[Frederick Law Olmsted|Olmstedian]] parks, shallow pools of water on axis to central buildings, larger park systems, broad boulevards and parkways and, after the start of the 20th century, zoning laws and planned suburbs.  Examples of the City Beautiful movement's works include the City of Chicago, the [[Columbia University]] campus, and the [[National Mall]] in Washington, D.C.

After the fair closed, J.C. Rogers, a banker from [[Wamego, Kansas]], purchased several pieces of art that had hung in the rotunda of the U.S. Government Building.  He also purchased architectural elements, artifacts and buildings from the fair.  He shipped his purchases to Wamego.  Many of the items, including the artwork, were used to decorate his theater, now known as [[the Columbian Theatre]].

Memorabilia such as books, tokens, published photographs, and well-printed admission tickets saved by guests are popular among collectors.

The [[George Washington University]] maintains a small collection of exposition tickets for viewing and research purposes.  The collection is currently cared for by GWU's Special Collections Research Center, located in the Estelle and Melvin [[Gelman Library]].<ref name="Guide to the World's Columbian Exposition Ticket Collection, 1893">[http://library.gwu.edu/ead/ms2274.xml Guide to the World's Columbian Exposition Ticket Collection, 1893] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141030210630/http://library.gwu.edu/ead/ms2274.xml |date=2014-10-30 }}, Special Collections Research Center, Estelle and Melvin Gelman Library, The George Washington University</ref>

When the exposition ended the Ferris Wheel was moved to Chicago's north side, next to an exclusive neighborhood. An unsuccessful Circuit Court action was filed against the owners of the wheel to have it moved. The wheel stayed there until it was moved to [[St. Louis]] for the [[1904 World's Fair]].<ref name="pett1" />

The Columbian Exposition has celebrated many anniversaries since the fair in 1893. The Chicago Historical Society held an exhibition to commemorate the fair. The Grand Illusions exhibition was centered around the idea that the Columbian Exposition was made up of a series of illusions. The commemorative exhibition contained partial reconstructions, a video detailing the fair, and a catalogue similar to the one sold at the World's Fair of 1893.<ref>Harris, N. (1993). Grand Illusions Chicago' World's Fair of 1893. Chicago: Chicago Historical Society.</ref>

== Academic views ==
[[Henry Adams]] wrote in his 1907 [[The Education of Henry Adams|''Education'']]: "The Exposition denied philosophy ... [S]ince Noah’s Ark, no such Babel of loose and ill-jointed, such vague and ill-defined and unrelated thoughts and half-thoughts and experimental out-cries... had ruffled the surface of the Lakes."<ref name=":1">[[Michel-Rolph Trouillot|Trouillot, Michel-Rolph]]. ''Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History''. E-book, Boston: Beacon Press, 2015, https://hdl.handle.net/2027/heb04595.0001.001.</ref>{{Rp|page=128}}

[[Michel-Rolph Trouillot]] wrote that the academic aspect of the event was not very important, even though the [[Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology|Harvard Peabody Museum]], the [[Smithsonian Institution]], and [[Franz Boas]] made contributions.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|page=128}}

== In popular culture ==
* The Exposition is portrayed in the 2017 historical film, ''[[The Current War]],'' concerning the competition between [[George Westinghouse]] and [[Thomas Edison]] to establish the dominant form of electricity in the United States.
* ''[[1893: A World's Fair Mystery]]'', an [[interactive fiction]] (text adventure) by Peter Nepstad that recreates the Exposition in detail.
* ''[[Against the Day]]'', a fictional novel that takes place during the Exposition during the first act.
* ''[[The Devil in the White City]]'', a non-fiction book intertwining the true tales of the architect behind the Exposition and serial killer [[H. H. Holmes]].
* ''Timebound'', a time travel novel by [[Rysa Walker]], culminates at the Exposition.
* ''[[Expo: Magic of the White City]]'', a 2005 documentary film about the Exposition by [[Mark Bussler]].
* The Exposition served as the setting for ''Against Odds,'' a novel by [[Emma Murdock Van Deventer]].
* ''[[Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth]]'', a graphic novel by [[Chris Ware]] set in part at the Exposition.
* ''[[Wonder of the Worlds]]'', an adventure novel by Sesh Heri, where Nikola Tesla, Mark Twain, and Houdini pursue Martian agents who have stolen a powerful crystal from Tesla at the Exposition.
* ''[[The Will of an Eccentric]]'', an adventure novel by [[Jules Verne]]. The Exposition is evoked with admiration in the early chapters.
* The Exposition appears in the season 1 episode "The World's Columbian Exposition" of the NBC series ''[[Timeless (American TV series)|Timeless]]''.
* The Exposition is referenced in [[Sufjan Stevens]]'s song in his album ''[[Illinois (Sufjan Stevens album)|Illinois]]'', "Come On! Feel The Illinoise!", which consists of two parts. Part 1 is titled, "World's Columbian Exposition".
* The Exposition plays a role in the historical novel, ''Owen Glen'', by [[Ben Ames Williams]].
* Mystery Train Island, a video game level on [[Poptropica]] released in 2011, is based on and is partially set at the Exposition, referred to as the 1893 Chicago World's Fair in the game.
* ''[[BioShock Infinite]]'', a 2013 video game. The floating city-state of [[Columbia (name)|Columbia]] was created at the Exposition and toured across the world to promote [[American exceptionalism]].
* The exposition is a key setting of the novel ''[[The City Beautiful (novel)|The City Beautiful]]'' by Aden Polydoros.
* The exposition appears in the travel book by [[Aleko Konstantinov]], ''[[To Chicago and Back]]''.
* The young adult novel ''Fair Weather'' by Illinois native author [[Richard Peck (writer)|Richard Peck]] takes thirteen-year-old Rosie Beckett and her family from their downstate family farm to the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago.
* ''[[The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me]]'', a 2022 video game which was inspired by [[H. H. Holmes]] murder castle.
* The Exposition appears in "[[1893 (Loki)|1893]]", the third episode of the [[Loki season 2|second season]] of the [[Marvel Cinematic Universe]] (MCU) television series ''[[Loki (TV series)|Loki]]'' (2023). In the episode, [[Loki (Marvel Cinematic Universe)#2012 variant|Loki]] and [[Mobius M. Mobius (Marvel Cinematic Universe)|Mobius M. Mobius]] attend the Exposition in search of [[Ravonna Renslayer (Marvel Cinematic Universe)|Ravonna Renslayer]] and [[Miss Minutes]], and encounter [[Victor Timely (Marvel Cinematic Universe)|Victor Timely]], a variant of [[Kang the Conqueror (Marvel Cinematic Universe)|Kang the Conqueror]], whose help they need to save the [[Multiverse (Marvel Cinematic Universe)|multiverse]].
* The Exposition also appears in the post-credits scene of the MCU film ''[[Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania]]'' (2023), which uses footage from ''Loki'' despite being released before it.

== See also ==
{{Portal|Chicago|Victorian era}}
* ''[[Signal of Peace]]''
* ''[[Kwanusila]]''
* [[List of world expositions]]
* [[List of world's fairs]]
* [[Benjamin W. Kilburn]], stereoscopic view concession
* [[H. H. Holmes]], serial killer associated with the 1893 World's Fair
* [[St. John Cantius Church (Chicago)]], whose main altar, as well as its matching two side altars, reputedly originate from the 1893 Columbian Exposition
* [[Spectacle Reef Light]]
* World's Largest Stove
* [[World's Largest Cedar Bucket]]
* [[Fairy lamp]], candle sets popularized at Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee were used to illuminate an island at the Expo
* [[St. Louis Autumnal Festival Association]]

== Notes ==
{{reflist}}

== References ==
{{Div col|colwidth=30em}}
* The project documenting The World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 – [http://columbus.iit.edu/ Website main page], [http://columbus.iit.edu/about.html About the project]
* {{cite book |author =Crawford, Richard |isbn =0-393-04810-1 |publisher =W. W. Norton & Company |title =America's Musical Life: A History |url =https://archive.org/details/americasmusicall0000craw |url-access =registration |year =2001}}
* {{Cite book|title=Splendors of Meiji : treasures of imperial Japan : masterpieces from the Khalili Collection|last=Earle|first=Joe |publisher=Broughton International Inc|year=1999 |isbn=1-874780-13-7 |location=St. Petersburg, Fla. |oclc=42476594}}
* {{cite book|location=New York|isbn=0-393-03843-2|title=Music of Black Americans|first=Eileen |publisher=W.W. Norton & Co.|year=1997|last=Southern}}
* {{Cite book|last=Petterchak|first=Janice A.|title=Lone Scout: W. D. Boyce and American Boy Scouting|year=2003|publisher=Legacy Press |place=Rochester, Illinois|isbn=0-9653198-7-3}}
* Neuberger, Mary. 2006. "To Chicago and Back: Alecko Konstantinov, Rose Oil, and the Smell of Modernity" in ''Slavic Review'', Fall 2006.
* Larson, Erik. The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America. New York: Vintage Books a Division of Random House, Inc., 2003.
* [http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/history/holmes/index_1.html Ramsland, Katherine. “H. H. Holmes: Master of Illusion”. crime library. 2014. October 1, 2014.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141204012912/http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/history/holmes/index_1.html |date=December 4, 2014 }}
* Redman, Samuel J. ''Bone Rooms: From Scientific Racism to Human Prehistory in Museums''. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 2016.
* [http://www.myfoxchicago.com/story/22111095/chilling-tour-inside-secret-tunnel-of-serial-killer-hh-holmes-murder-castle Placko, Dane. “Chilling Tour inside Serial Killer H. H. Holmes’ ‘Murder Castle’”. My Fox Chicago. Apr. 28, 2014. Oct 2, 2014.]
* [http://www.biography.com/people/hh-holmes-307622#trial-and-execution French, Leanne; Grimm, Laura; Pak, Eudie. “H. H. Holmes Biography”]. [[The Biography Channel|Biography]]. 2014. October 1, 2014.
* French, Leanne; Grimm, Laura; Pak, Eudie. H. H. Holmes – The World Fair. Television clip. Biography. 2014. [[A&E Networks|A&E Television Networks, LLC]], 2014. Video from biography.com.
* French, Leanne; Grimm, Laura; Pak, Eudie. H. H. Holmes – Chicago Expansion. Television clip. Biography. 2014. A&E Television Networks, LLC, 2014. Video from biography.com.
* French, Leanne; Grimm, Laura; Pak, Eudie. H. H. Holmes – Finding the Victims. Television Clip. Biography. 2014. A&E Television Networks, LLC, 2014. Video from biography.com.
* French, Leanne; Grimm, Laura; Pak, Eudie. H. H. Holmes – Full Biography. Television clip. Biography. 2014. A&E Television Networks, LLC, 2014. Video from biography.com.

{{Div col end}}

== Further reading ==
{{Div col|colwidth=30em}}
* Appelbaum, Stanley (1980). ''The Chicago World's Fair of 1893.'' New York: Dover Publications, Inc. {{ISBN|0-486-23990-X}}
* Arnold, C.D. ''Portfolio of Views: The World's Columbian Exposition''. National Chemigraph Company, Chicago & St. Louis, 1893.
* [[Hubert Howe Bancroft|Bancroft, Hubert Howe]]. ''The Book of the Fair: An Historical and Descriptive Presentation of the World's Science, Art and Industry, As Viewed through the Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1893''. New York: Bounty, 1894.
* Barrett, John Patrick, ''[https://archive.org/details/electricityatco00barrgoog Electricity at the Columbian Exposition]''. R.R. Donnelley, 1894.
*{{Cite book |last=Beck |first=David |title=Unfair Labor? American Indians and the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |year=2019 |isbn=978-1-4962-1484-3 |location=Lincoln |oclc=1100071235}}
* Bertuca, David, ed. ''World's Columbian Exposition: A Centennial Bibliographic Guide''. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1996. {{ISBN|0-313-26644-1}}
* Buel, James William. ''The Magic City.''  New York: Arno Press, 1974. {{ISBN|0-405-06364-4}}
* Burg, David F. ''Chicago's White City of 1893.'' Lexington: The [[University Press of Kentucky]], 1976. {{ISBN|0-8131-0140-9}}
* Corn, Wanda M. ''Women Building History: Public Art at the 1893 Columbian Exposition.'' Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011.
* Dybwad, G. L., and Joy V. Bliss, ''Annotated Bibliography: World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago 1893''. Book Stops Here, 1992. {{ISBN|0-9631612-0-2}}
* Eagle, Mary Kavanaugh Oldham, d. 1903, ed. [http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/eagle/congress/congress.html ''The Congress of Women: Held in the Woman's Building, World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, U. S. A., 1893, With Portraits, Biographies and Addresses'']. Chicago: Monarch Book Company, 1894.
* Elliott, Maud Howe, 1854–1948, ed. [http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/elliott/art/art.html ''Art and Handicraft in the Woman's Building of the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893'']. Chicago and New York: Rand, McNally and Co., 1894.
* Gonzalez, Robert Alexander. ''[https://utpress.utexas.edu/9781477326671/ Designing Pan-America: U.S. Architectural Visions for the Western Hemisphere]''. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press, 2011.
*Green, Christopher T. [https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/694225 "A Stage Set for Assimilation: The Model Indian School at the World’s Columbian Exposition"]. ''Winterthur Portfolio''. Vol. 51, No. 2/3 (Summer/Autumn 2017).
* ''[https://archive.org/details/glimpsesofworlds00lair Glimpses of the World's Fair: A Selection of Gems of the White City Seen Through A Camera]'', [[Laird & Lee]] Publishers, Chicago: 1893, accessed February 13, 2009.
* [[International Congress of Mathematicians]], [https://archive.org/details/mathematicalpap00socigoog Mathematical papers read at the International Mathematical Congress] : held in connection with the World's Columbian exposition, Chicago, 1893 (1st : 1893 : Chicago).
* Jaegerová, Anna. ''[https://is.muni.cz/th/enm5z/ Ideals of Authenticity: Euro-American Sculptural Representations of Native Americans at the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893]''. Diploma thesis. July 8, 2021. [[Masaryk University]], Faculty of Arts.
* [[Erik Larson (author)|Larson, Erik]]. ''[[The Devil in the White City|Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America]].'' New York: Crown, 2003. {{ISBN|0-375-72560-1}}.
* Ormos, István: ''Cairo in Chicago : Cairo street at the world's Columbian exposition of 1893'', Le Caire : Institut Francais d'Archéologie Orientale (IFAO), 2021; {{ISBN | 978-2-7247-0766-3}}
* ''Photographs of the World's Fair: an elaborate collection of photographs of the buildings, grounds and exhibits of the World's Columbian Exposition with a special description of The Famous Midway Plaisance''. Chicago: Werner, 1894.
* Peck, Richard, ''Fair Weather'', an adventure novel about a 13-year-old being away from home for the first time and visiting the fair.
* Reed, Christopher Robert. ''"All the World Is Here!" The Black Presence at White City''.  Bloomington: [[Indiana University Press]], 2000.  {{ISBN|0-253-21535-8}}
* Rydell, Robert, and Carolyn Kinder Carr, eds. ''Revisiting the White City: American Art at the 1893 World's Fair''.  Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1993.  {{ISBN|0-937311-02-2}}
* Silkenat, David. "Workers in the White City: Working Class Culture at the World's Columbian Exposition," Illinois State Historical Journal 2011 (104): 266-300.
* [[Ida B. Wells|Wells, Ida B.]]  [http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/wells/exposition/exposition.html ''The Reason Why the Colored American Is Not in the World's Columbian Exposition: The Afro-American's Contribution to Columbian Literature.'']  Originally published 1893.  Reprint ed., edited by Robert W. Rydell.  Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 1999.  {{ISBN|0-252-06784-3}}
* World's Columbian Exposition (1893 : Chicago, Ill.). Board of Lady Managers. [http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/clarke/library/library.html ''List of Books Sent by Home and Foreign Committees to the Library of the Woman's Building, World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893''] by World's Columbian Exposition (1893 : Chicago). Board of Lady Managers; edited by Edith E. Clarke. Chicago: n. pub., ca. 1894. A bibliography.
* Yandell, Enid. [http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/hayes/flat/flat.html ''Three Girls in a Flat''] by Enid Yandell, Jean Loughborough and Laura Hayes. Chicago: Bright, Leonard and Co., 1892. Biographical account of women at the fair.
{{Div col end}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category|World's Columbian Exposition}}
{{Library resources box|onlinebooks=yes}}
{{Wikisource|Portal:World's Columbian Exposition|World's Columbian Exposition}}
* [http://www.bie-paris.org/site/en/1893-chicago Expo 1893 Chicago] at Bureau International des Expositions
* [http://www.worldsfairchicago1893.com/ The 1893 World's Fair in Chicago] (worldsfairchicago1893.com). A standalone website that covers all aspects of the Exposition
* [http://chicago1893.com/ Chicago 1893] is a media project about the Exposition which includes a book, film, and augmented reality
* [https://web.archive.org/web/19970411230109/http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA96/WCE/title.html The Columbian Exposition in American culture.]
* [http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/fa267/1893fair.html Photographs of the 1893 Columbian Exposition] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070813222820/http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/fa267/1893fair.html |date=August 13, 2007 }}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20160314111208/http://www.chicagohs.org/history/expo/map.html Interactive map of Columbian Exposition]
* [http://www.chicagonow.com/chicago-strange-haunted-history/2013/12/ring-in-the-new-year-at-navy-pier-with-a-bell-from-the-white-city/ The Story of the Columbian Expo Battleship ''Illinois Bell'']
*[https://archive.today/20130729085602/http://www.shapell.org/manuscript.aspx?benjamin-harrison-columbus-discovery-america-worlds-exposition President Benjamin Harrison: Celebrating the 400th Anniversary of the Discovery of America] Shapell Manuscript Foundation
* [http://livinghistoryofillinois.com/1893_worlds_columbian_exposition_chicago_illinois.html The 1893 World's Columbian Exposition Reading Room.]
* [http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/search/index?filters%5Bdate%5D%5B%5D=1893-1893&filters%5Btopic%5D=Exhibitions&keywords=&&year_begin=1893&year_end=1893 Robert N. Dennis Collection of Stereoscopic Views: Exhibitions 1893]. Search results, at New York Public Library Digital Collections
* [http://findingaid.winterthur.org/html/HTML_Finding_Aids/COL0046.htm The Winterthur Library] Overview of an archival collection on the World's Columbian Exposition.
* [http://www.columbiantheatre.com/ Columbian Theatre] History and information about artwork from the U.S. Government Building.
* [http://ecuip.lib.uchicago.edu/diglib/social/worldsfair_1893/index.html Photographs and interactive map from the 1893 Columbian Exposition from the University of Chicago]
* [http://www.ust.ucla.edu/ustweb/Projects/columbian_expo.htm Video simulations from the 1893 Columbian Exposition from UCLA's Urban Simulation Team] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150812233419/http://www.ust.ucla.edu/ustweb/Projects/columbian_expo.htm |date=August 12, 2015 }}
* [http://www.americanmusicpreservation.com/chicago.htm 1893 Columbian Exposition Concerts]
* [http://www.erbzine.com/mag12/1275.html Edgar Rice Burroughs' Amazing Summer of '93 – Columbian Exposition]
* [http://www.gtj.org.uk/small/item/GTJ31358/ International Eisteddfod chair, Chicago, 1893]
* [http://digital.hagley.org/cdm4/results.php?CISOOP1=exact&CISOFIELD1=CISOSEARCHALL&CISOROOT=/p268001coll8&CISOBOX1=World's+Columbian+Exposition,+Chicago,+Illinois Photographs of the Exposition from the] [[Hagley Digital Archives]]
* [http://collections.lib.uwm.edu/u?/agdm,1305 Map of Chicago Columbian Exposition from the American Geographical Society Library]
* [http://worldmap.harvard.edu/maps/1893Chicago Interactive Map of the Chicago Columbian Exposition, created in the Harvard Worldmap Platform]
* [https://archive.today/20130729092151/http://www.shapell.org/manuscript.aspx?president-benjamin-harrison-worlds-columbian-exposition President Harrison: Worlds Columbian Exposition] Shapell Manuscript Foundation
* [http://library.gwu.edu/ead/ms2274.xml Guide to the World's Columbian Exposition Ticket Collection, 1893, Special Collections Research Center, Estelle and Melvin Gelman Library, The George Washington University] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141030210630/http://library.gwu.edu/ead/ms2274.xml |date=October 30, 2014 }}
* [https://libguides.fieldmuseum.org/1893 Guide to World's Columbian Exposition resources] at [https://www.fieldmuseum.org/science/research/area/library Field Museum Library]
* [https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/scrc/findingaids/view.php?eadid=ICU.SPCL.EXPO1893 Guide to the World's Columbian Exposition Records 1891–1930] at the [https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/scrc/ University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center]

{{List of world's fairs in the United States}}
{{List of world exhibitions}}
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[[Category:World's Columbian Exposition| ]]
[[Category:Festivals established in 1893]]
[[Category:1890s in Chicago]]
[[Category:1893 in Illinois]]
[[Category:1890s architecture in the United States]]
[[Category:World's fairs in Chicago]]
[[Category:Architecture in Chicago]]
[[Category:South Side, Chicago]]
[[Category:Mesoamerican art exhibitions]]
[[Category:Pre-Columbian art exhibitions]]
[[Category:Beaux-Arts architecture in Illinois]]
[[Category:Gilded Age]]