When the World Came to Chicago

Grand Basin and Court of Honor, looking west from Peristyle, 1893Source: C.D. Arnold Photographic Collection, Volume II, Plate 5. Special Collections, Chicago Public Library

Court of Honor from the Administration Building, 1893Source: C.D. Arnold Photographic Collection, Volume III, Plate 1. Special Collections, Chicago Public Library

Transportation Building, central portion, looking east, 1893Source: C.D. Arnold Photographic Collection, Volume V, Plate 70. Special Collections, Chicago Public Library

Central portion of the Horticultural Building, 1893Source: C.D. Arnold Photographic Collection, Volume III, Plate 40. Special Collections, Chicago Public Library

Official Souvenir Postcard, 1893Source: World’s Columbian Exposition Ephemera Collection, Box 2, Folder 12. Special Collections, Chicago Public Library

World’s Columbian Exposition Waltz Sheet Music Cover, 1893Source: World’s Columbian Exposition Ephemera Collection, Box 2, Folder 22. Special Collections, Chicago Public Library

Ticket Stubs, 1893Source: World’s Columbian Exposition Ephemera Collection, Box 4, Folder 32. Special Collections, Chicago Public Library

Ferris Wheel from Northwest, 1893Source: C.D. Arnold Photographic Collection, Volume III, Plate 97. Special Collections, Chicago Public Library

View from the Ferris Wheel: “Up We Go,” 1893Source: World’s Columbian Exposition Snapshots Collection, Box 2, Image 90. Special Collections, Chicago Public Library

Cairo Street with Egyptian Temple, Midway Plaisance, 1893Source: C.D. Arnold Photographis Collection, Volume 10, Plate 54. Special Collections, Chicago Public Library

Balloon Ascension, 1893Source: C.D. Arnold Photographic Collection, Volume 3, Plate 99. Special Collections, Chicago Public Library

Advertisement, Woonsocket Arctics Rubber Boot, 1893Source: World’s Columbian Exposition Ephemera Collection, Box 4, Folder 26. Special Collections, Chicago Public Library

Advertisement and Map of Fairgrounds, Singer Manufacturing Company, 1893Source: World’s Columbian Exposition Ephemera Collection, Box 4, Folder 15. Special Collections, Chicago Public Library

Advertisment, Pabst Beer, Milwaukee, 1893Source: World’s Columbian Exposition Ephemera Collection, Box 4, Folder 7. Chicago Public Library, Special Collections

There were fair skies and a buzz in the air 125 years ago over the Windy City on May 1, 1893. It was the first day of Chicago's hard won effort to host the newest world's fair, themed the World's Columbian Exposition. Three quarters of a million people filled the park on opening day, and nearly 28 million would visit the fair over the next six months.

President Grover Cleveland opened the fair. In the ceremony's crowning event, the president "pressed the electric key...and set the vast machinery of the vast Exposition in motion." The Tribune's review of the opening commented not only on the events of the day, but also looked forward to the coming months that would help define the fair's legacy: "the fruits of human activity, which are stored within the vaulted buildings...are bounded only by the horizon of time. In them are wrapt the progress of a thousand onward years."

The fairgrounds earned the nickname the "White City" on account of the 200 some Beaux Arts style temporary buildings, all painted white, that covered Jackson Park. The "White City" served as inspiration for poet Katherine Lee Bates, "alabaster cities" in her poem "America, the Beautiful" and may have inspired the Emerald City dreamed up by Wizard of Oz author, L. Frank Baum. The fair's official photographer, C.D. Arnold documented the building of the "White City" and fair.

Souvenir advertisements and ephemera are reminders of some of the products that were first introduced or made popular at the fair. Companies and products, like Pabst Brewing Company and Juicy Fruit chewing gum are still familiar today. Others have faded into memory, much like the temporary structures that housed them.

Along with these official photographs and trade cards, reminders of the World's Columbian Exposition can still be found. At Chicago Public Library the research collections in Special Collections include artifacts, papers of fair builder and director James. W. Ellsworth and snapshot collections among others. These collections, and others across the city, help document the fair from 125 years ago, and ensure that it will have a lasting memory into the future.