WORLD'S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION 6359 WORLD'S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION 



Never before had an undertaking of this 

 kind been carried out on such a vast scale. 

 The Exposition had been two years in the mak- 

 ing, not including the time required for plan- 

 ning and advertising. On February 25, 1890, 

 Congress had passed a bill awarding the Expo- 

 sition to Chicago over the claims of many 

 rivals for the honor and providing liberal 

 financial aid. It also authorized a World's 

 Columbian Commission, which consisted of 

 delegates from the different states and terri- 

 tories, with Thomas W. Palmer, former Senator 

 from Michigan, as president. An ideal site was 

 found in spacious Jackson Park, on the shores 

 of Lake Michigan, in the southern part of the 

 city. To this were joined an additional stretch 

 of beach, giving a water line of fully two miles, 

 and a broad boulevard christened the Midway 

 Plaisance connecting Jackson Park with the 

 neighboring Washington Park. Altogether, the 

 ition occupied 666 acres. 



Buildings. As one entered the grounds, the 

 main buildings appeared like fairy palaces. 

 They were built of a composition called staff, 

 largely plaster of Paris, which made them 

 gleam like marble, so that people came to 

 speak of this wonderland as the "White City." 

 It was a liberal education in architecture to 

 study these buildings, for they represented 

 many different types classic, Renaissance, 

 Spanish, rustic and modern. 



The largest of them all in fact, the biggest 

 exposition building ever constructed up to that 

 time was the Manufactures and Liberal Arts 

 Building, covering nearly forty acres. The 

 Transportation Building, with its imposing 

 Golden Doorway, furnished in its exhibits an 

 inspiring object lesson on how the world goes 

 a-traveling, beginning with the most primitive 

 vehicles and bringing the lesson by degrees, 

 through models of the Viking ship, the Pintn. 

 Nina and Santa Maria of Columbus' fleet, the 

 George Washington coach, and so on, down to 

 the marvelous steamers, battleships, locomo- 

 tives and other conveyances of the imxicra 

 day. The Forestry Building needed no name 

 i its entrance, for its column-, tin unfin- 

 ished trunks of trees brought from different 

 states and countries, told its story. The Palace 

 of Fine Arts. .-!> In ring a remarkable art col- 

 ..n. \\.i- limit for i" rm.mencr and later was 

 known u l<i Columbian Museum of 



Natural Hi-tory (see FIELD COLUMBIAN Mi - 

 SEUM). A point of interest in connection \\iih 

 ill-- Woman's Building was that it wt 

 by a woman architect. 



Other interesting structures were Machinery 

 Hall and the Administration, Agricultural, Elec- 

 trical, Government, Horticultural, Mines and 

 Mining, and Fisheries buildings. The state 

 building of Virginia was a replica of Mount 

 Vernon, the beloved home of Washington ; that 

 of Massachusetts, a copy of John Hancock's 

 house ; that of Florida, a model of Fort Marion. 

 Many of the foreign buildings were typical of 

 the national architecture; for instance, the 

 Swiss chalet, the English manor house, the 

 quaint Swedish and German country houses. 

 Spain's contribution was peculiarly in harmony 

 with the spirit of the Exposition, for it was a 

 faithful copy of the Convent of La Rabida, 

 which knew Columbus the Mariner before ever 

 he became Columbus the Discoverer. The 

 convent was retained after the exposition as a 

 fresh-air sanitarium for children. 



Special Features. The Midway Plaisance 

 was a place for fun and frolic, a fascinating 

 avenue of adventure, the home of all the 

 strange sights and sounds of all the world. 

 Here were grouped hundreds of popular amuse* 

 ment features, above them towering the great 

 Ferris Wheel, with its swinging coaches in 

 which one could be carried 264 feet into the air. 

 One could circle the globe in the space of an 

 afternoon, for here were the Streets of Cairo, 

 the Moorish Palace, the Japanese Bazaar. tin- 

 Irish, Javanese, Eskimo, Samoan and Dahomey 

 villages, and duplicates of many other .sights. 



A favorite resort, too, was the 11*00* / 

 land, set like a jewel in one of the several 

 lagoons, with its Japanese tea houses and its 

 festoons of colored lanterns swinging amid the 

 trees and the roses. Grouped about the la- 

 goons, and in the great open space known as 

 the Court t of Honor, were fountains, arches, 

 columns and sculptured groups that lent added 

 beauty and richness to the grounds. The Mac- 

 Mount,* Fountain, the colossal statue of 

 R> public, by French, and the sculpture called 

 The Triumph oj Columbus, were some of the 

 most remarkable art features of the Exposi- 

 tion. 



Many international conventions for tin di- 

 cufcsion of world questions along scientific. 

 cational, philosophic, commercial and 

 similar lines were held during the Exposition, 

 under tli" dinrtion of a special comin 

 called the Worlds Congress Auxiliary. One 

 hese congress*- >d of 



/. igions, was particularly interesting because 

 to it came delegates representing nearly every 

 religious faith now practiced. 



