|
Columbian
Exposition - 1893
Copyright
2005 David R. Phillps
The World's Columbian Exposition — also known as The
Chicago World's Fair — was a World's Fair held in
Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of
Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World. Chicago
bested New York City; Washington, D.C.; and St. Louis,
Missouri, for the honor of hosting the fair. The fair
had a profound effect on architecture, the arts,
Chicago's self-image, and American industrial optimism.
The Chicago Columbian Exposition was, in large part,
designed by Daniel Burnham and Frederick Law Olmsted. It
was the prototype of what Burnham and his colleagues
thought a city should be. It was designed to follow
Beaux Arts principles of design, namely, European
Classical Architecture principles based on symmetry and
balance.
The exposition covered more than 600 acres (2.4 km2),
featuring nearly 200 new buildings of classical
architecture, canals and lagoons, and people and
cultures from around the world. Over 27 million people
(equivalent to about half the U.S. population) attended
the exposition during its six-month run. Its scale and
grandeur far exceeded the other world fairs, and it
became a symbol of the emerging American Exceptionalism,
much in the same way that the Great Exhibition became a
symbol of the Victorian era United Kingdom.
Dedication ceremonies for the fair were held on October
21, 1892, but the fairgrounds were not actually opened
to the public until May 1, 1893. The fair continued
until October 30, 1893. In addition to recognizing the
400th anniversary of the discovery of the New World, the
fair also served to show the world that Chicago had
risen from the ashes of the Great Chicago Fire, which
had destroyed much of the city in 1871. On October 9,
1893, the day designated as Chicago Day, the fair set a
record for outdoor event attendance, drawing 716,881
persons to the fair.
Historic Pictures ∙
Corporate Photographs ∙ Historical
Chicago Photographs ∙ Professional Art Consultant ∙ Old Chicago
Pictures ∙ Historical Chicago Pictures ∙ Columbian Exposition
Photos ∙ Classic Chicago Photographs ∙
1890s Photographs of Chicago ∙ Vintage Chicago Pictures ∙ Digital
Photography ∙ Vintage Photographs Chicago ∙ Historical Photo Archive ∙ Chicago
Photography ∙ Columbian Exposition ∙ Art Photographs ∙ Office Decoration
∙ Pictures of Columbian Exposition
|
