World's Columbian Exposition ephemera collection

The World's Columbian Exposition, best known as the Chicago World's Fair, was organized in celebration of the Columbian quadricentennial. The expansive fairgrounds were opened to the public on May 1, 1893 until October 30, 1893. These grounds were designed by Frederick Law Olmstead and covered more than 630 acres across Jackson Park and the Midway Plaisance. Daniel Burnham oversaw the construction of nearly 200 new buildings for the fair.

The fair is recognized today as one of the defining moments of American cultural history and was especially influential in the fields of architecture and urban planning across the nation. The fair was also colloquially known as the White City for its uniformly white buildings built in the Beaux Arts and classical architecture styles and illuminated by innovative electric lights. Over 27 million people visited the exhibition halls which featured a great number of exhibitions on science, technology, art and the humanities alongside popular attractions such as sideshows, ethnic villages and displays of traditional ethnic dances, daily concerts by John Philip Sousa’s concert band, and the world’s first Ferris Wheel. The duality of modes of attractions found within the World’s Columbian Exposition fairgrounds exemplified Gilded Age class disparities. While the design and arrangement of its structures within the ‘White City’ represent the pinnacle of upper-class culture and arts, the adjacent Midway Plaisance with its ‘exotic’ displays and ‘lowbrow’ attractions became the amusement locale of choice for the working-class visitors.

Visitors were eager to take a piece of the fair home with them. There were countless souvenir stands throughout the fair that sold everything from books and maps to cups and saltshakers. Commemorative plates, cups, and spoons were very popular souvenirs at the fair. In 1894, shortly after the fair’s close, a fire swept through the fairgrounds resulting in the destruction of many structures. Despite this, the triumph of the World's Columbian Exposition revivified the American world's fair movement and set a standard against which every subsequent exposition would be measured.