TRANSACTIONS OF SKCTION 0. 859 



Everyone by this time must be familiar with the form of the triangular piece of 

 ground on which the exhibition will be held : it skirts the south-western shore of 

 Lake Michigan and covers an area nearly twice as large as that of Hyde Park. 

 There is thus sufficient space to allow of the construction of many miles of public 

 walks, and also for the erection of a series of great buildings — to say nothing of very 

 numerous pavilions — which will be devoted to different branches of art and indus- 

 try, and which collectively will cover no less than 150 acres, or about twice as 

 much as the covered area of the Paris Exhibition of 1889. 



There are uo fewer than eleven main buildings, devoted respectively to Agricul- 

 ture, Machinery, Manufactures and Liberal Arts, Electricity, Mines and Mining, 

 Transportation, Horticulture, Women's Industry, the Fine Arts, Fisheries, and the 

 Exhibits of the United States Government. Besides these there is also a great 

 monumental building reserved for the Administration. This latter occupies a 

 dominating position at the end of a vast court, around which are grouped five of 

 the principal structures above referred to, and devoted respectively to Agriculture, 

 measuring 500 feet by 800 feet ; Machinery, 492 feet by 846 feet ; Manufactures and 

 Liberal Arts, 787 feet by 1,687 feet ; Electricity, 345 feet by 700 feet ; and Mines and 

 Mining, 350 feet by 700 feet. The effective areas of these buildings are further 

 increased by very extensive annexes, especially those devoted to Agriculture, which 

 include several great pavilions for live stock, forestry, dairy farming, and extensive 

 ranges of sheds for the exhibition of cattle. The principal fafades of these five 

 buildings just mentioned form the north and south enclosures to the great central 

 coiu't, at the western end of which is the Administration building, while the eastern 

 end is extended into the lake by a pier of large dimensions. In the centre of the 

 court is a basin, which will be enriched by monumental fountains, and which forms 

 a connection between the extensive and ornamental waterways of Jackson Park 

 and Lake Michigan. Each of the principal buildings, so far at all events as archi- 

 tectural effects are concerned, has been designed by a different American architect, 

 all of them selected on account of their eminence in the profession. Certain lead- 

 ing conditions have been observed by them so as to secure harmony in the general 

 effects, both as regards proportions and classic character ; in other respects each 

 architect has had an entirely free hand in his designs. The buildings themselves, 

 which are magnificent in dimensions and most elaborate in detail, will thus form 

 exhibits illustrating the development to which the science of architecture has been 

 brought in the United States. As the remaining principal buildings on Jackson 

 Park are more or less independent of one another, greater freedom of design was 

 permitted to the architects, but they are also intended to serve as exhibits contri- 

 buted by Chicago architects. The Transportation building, 250 feet by 960 feet, 

 is simple in its outline and almost barbaric in the richness of its decoration ; 

 the Horticultural building, almost as big as our own Crystal Palace, is, like 

 it, a magnificent example of construction in iron and glass. The "NN'^omen's 

 building, 196 feet by 386 feet, is the design of a lady architect, and is severely 

 classic in its outline. The Art galleries will undoubtedly be the most beautiful 

 structures that have ever been seen at any exhibition. The leading characteristic 

 of the Fisheries building will be its picturesqueness, and the United States 

 Government is erecting a structure remarkable for its elaborate architectural 

 effect and the beauty of its decoration. There is no room to speak of the 

 many pavilions that will be scattered over the ground ; they will include con- 

 tributions from every State of the Union, from every nation exhibiting, as well as 

 those erected by the numerous exhibitors privileged to occupy buildings for them- 

 selves. The most varied and interesting of these will occupy a space of ground 

 projecting from Jackson Park, and which will form practically a street of nations 

 a mile long. The work of the exhibition has now advanced so far that it is within 

 measurable distance of completion, and it will scarcely be doing justice to the 

 Chicago executive to say that in extent, beauty, and completeness it will as far 

 surpass the Paris Exhibition of 1889 as that exhibition eclipsed all its predecessors. 



The Administration building, of which the main feature is a dome 120 feet in 

 diameter, rising to a height of 275 feet from the ground, is a beautiful example of 

 boldness in design ; in the other buildings, with one exception, there is nothing 



