America at the Fair

by Chaim M. Rosenberg

  “Looking East in the Grand Court” is one of the many lithographs of the Fair done for the Chicago Tribune art supplement by Charles Graham. Born in Rock Island, Illinois in 1852, Graham was a self-taught painter. He also worked for Harper’s Weekly and Collier’s. Graham died in 1911.

  As the director of construction, Burnham had a free hand to design a master plan and to select the architects and engineers to carry it out. The Chicago school of architecture showed American boldness and individuality, but Burnham favored a neoclassical, unified, and more European look to the Fair. He wanted the buildings to fit harmoniously together, and to this end he chose the more established eastern architects over the freer style of the Chicagoans. Burnham traveled on a Pullman car to New York to meet with the leading eastern architects. The meeting was held at the Players Club on December 22, 1890. Gathered there were Richard Morris Hunt, Charles McKim, and George Post from New York and Robert Peabody who had traveled from Boston. Also invited was Henry Van Brunt, who maintained offices in Boston and Kansas City. McKim, Peabody, and Hunt had studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and brought French architectural style to America. On his return from New York to Chicago, Burnham faced the anger of the Chicago press for excluding local architects from those selected to design the principal buildings of the Fair. He was able to quiet his critics by adding the Chicago-based firms of Adler & Sullivan and William Jenney, even though Sullivan and Jenney both hailed from Massachusetts and Dankmar Adler was born in Germany.

  In January 1891 Burnham and his architects were each offered the handsome fee of $10,000 (worth 30 times as much in 2007 dollars). John Root prepared the early sketches of the buildings to create the harmony of design Burnham sought. The eastern architects traveled to Chicago and, along with the Chicago men, visited Jackson Park. On January 10, 1891, Root invited his fellow architects to his home on Astor Place for dinner. At the conclusion of the festivities the gracious Root saw each of his guests to their carriages. That night he caught a cold and put himself to bed. On the evening of January 12, the architects met at the offices of Burnham & Root. John Root could not attend because of illness and in his place, Burnham chaired the historic meeting where America’s leading architects agreed to the master plan for the Fair and the design style of the key buildings. Daniel Burnham advised his fellow architects to “make no little plans, they have no magic to stir men’s blood.” The architects returned to their offices to begin the detailed work for their buildings. Richard Hunt was assigned the Administration Building, George Post the Manufactures Building, McKim, Mead & White the Agricultural Building, William Jenney the Horticultural Building, Adler & Sullivan the Transportation Building, Peabody & Stearns the Machinery Building, and Van Brunt & Howe the Electricity Building. The part of the fairgrounds where the major exhibition halls were built was known as the Court of Honor, with the other buildings positioned around that focal area. The Fish and Fisheries Building was assigned to Henry Ives Cobb, and the Mines and Mining Building to Solon S. Berman. While all these arrangements were being settled, 41-year-old John Root developed pneumonia and died on January 15, 1891. Two days later he was buried at Chicago’s Graceland cemetery.

  This illustration of the Electricity Building was painted by Richard Jack and shows the statue of Benjamin Franklin that stood at the entrance. Note the elegant fashions of the times, for both men and women.

  Charles B. Atwood (1848–1895) was less well known than the other architects who designed the grand buildings for the Fair. He was born near Worcester, Massachusetts and trained at the Lawrence Scientific School at Harvard College. After graduation he worked as a draftsman in the Boston office of William Ware and Henry Van Brunt, whose firm had designed the Memorial Hall and Episcopal Divinity School at Harvard. After Atwood left Ware & Van Brunt he briefly established his own office, also in Boston. He moved to Chicago in 1892 when he was chosen by Daniel Burnham as the designer-in-chief of the Fair to replace the deceased John Root. Atwood expanded on Root’s preliminary sketches and designed the Dairy, Anthropology, and Forestry Buildings as well as the elaborate Peristyle and the Palace of Fine Arts. Atwood was also responsible for the plumbing house, the service buildings, the railway station, the photography building, and the sewage plant. In all Atwood is credited with the design of over 60 of the 200 buildings at the World’s Columbian Exposition. Atwood’s Peristyle and his Palace of Fine Arts were among the most distinguished buildings at the Fair. After the Fair, Atwood remained with D. H. Burnham & Company and worked on the annex of Marshall Field department store, other downtown Chicago buildings, and the Ellicott Square building in Buffalo. In 1895, Burnham set off on an extended tour of the Mediterranean. The quality of Atwood’s work declined precipitously while Burnham was away. On December 10, Atwood was let go when it became clear that he was addicted to opiates. Nine days later, not yet 50 years of age, Charles Atwood died, probably of a drug overdose (Schaffer 2003). His obituary in the Chicago Tribune on December 21, 1895 was more kind, saying that he died of overwork. Most of the buildings he designed for the Fair have gone, but his masterpiece, the Palace of Fine Arts, survives to this day on its original site as the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry.

  The central pavilion of the Horticultural Building is shown in this painting by L. Marold. An exquisitely dressed woman engages her male admirers in conversation.

  With plans in hand Burnham was ready to begin construction. A wooden shack was built for him on site so he could spend most of his time supervising his dream city by the lake. Twelve thousand workers were hired to do the work. The first shovel of Jackson Park earth was removed in February 1891 and four months later the construction of the first building, Mines and Mining, was begun. Seventy-five million board feet of wood and eighteen thousand tons of steel and iron were used to build the 14 principal buildings and 200 other pavilions for the states, foreign countries, restaurants, businesses, sanitary facilities, refrigeration plant, and railroad stations. To save costs, the exhibition buildings were designed as temporary structures, intended to be torn down at the end of the fair. The framing was done with iron or wood and covered with staff, a mixture of gypsum, glycerin, and dextrine, and then spray-painted white. Two thousand carloads of staff were brought to the fairgrounds. Sixty-four million gallons of water were used each day in the construction effort. The costs were huge. Over $5 million was spent preparing and beautifying the site. Altogether, the cost of the buildings, electric lighting, bridges, railroads, steam plant, and statuary exceeded $25 million. The money (worth $1 billion in 2007 dollars), came from the federal, state, and local governments, bond purchases, foreign governments, and wealthy citizens.

  Fire was a serious concern at the World’s Columbian Exposition. The Great Fire that consumed much of Chicago in October 1871 was still a fresh memory. The Aetna insurance company of Hartford was the first of many to be represented in Chicago. Few of the 129 insurance companies active in Chicago in 1871 were financially sound enough to handle the losses from the Great Fire. Half of the companies declared bankruptcy and others could not pay the claims in full. In the aftermath of the fire, Chicago issued stringent fire prevention rules that aided the recovery of the insurance industry (Grossman, Keating & Reiff 2004). Many insurance companies were represented at the Fair. In 1893, the Prudential boasted $9 million in investments and resources and claimed to have paid out over $11 million during the previous 17 years. Another prominent company was the New York Life Insurance Company, founded in 1845, with assets of $137 million and with over 224,000 policies in force. The insurance industry was put to the test on July 10, 1893 when the Cold Storage Building at the Fair caught fire. The six-story building, topped by a wooden tower, housed perishable food supplies for the vendors. The fire started in the tower and quickly spread to the rest of the building. Fourteen Chicago firefighters perished before their colleagues were able to extinguish the blaze and prevent its spread to other buildings. Despite their construction with wood and plaster, none of the other buildings
was destroyed by fire during the Fair.

  Four Hundred Year Anniversary

  With the Fair still far from completion, October 21, 1892 was selected by the board as the day to celebrate Columbus’s arrival in the New World, even though the historic date was October 12. On that clear and crisp fall day hundreds of thousands of people gathered in the mud and slush of Jackson Park to view the grand parade. The crowds were held back by a double line of soldiers, while 15,000 troops and many dignitaries from all parts of the nation took part. The festivities began at 11:15 a.m. with troops on horseback leaving Washington Park, parading through the Midway Plaisance, and toward the still-incomplete Manufactures Building. The cavalry was followed by members of the bicycle corps and then troops on foot. Regiments from Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, and the Ninth Colored Cavalry were loudly applauded. Also on parade were carriages carrying the 22nd vice president of the United States, Levi Parsons Morton, the director-general of the Fair, and several state governors.1

  In the afternoon of October 21, 1892 the newly-formed Chicago Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Theodore Thomas, struck up the specially written “Columbia March” followed by the singing of a 5,000-voice choir. Speeches followed, Christopher Columbus was honored, and the buildings of the Fair were dedicated. The crowds went home, allowing the workmen to get back to their work. The winter of 1892–1893 was particularly harsh, with temperatures well below normal and heavy snowfalls that turned to mud in the spring. But the job was completed in time for the official opening of May 1, 1893.

  Board of Lady Managers

  The Board of Lady Managers for the 1893 Fair was appointed by an act of Congress on April 25, 1890. Bertha Palmer, president of the board, was also the first lady of the Fair and high priestess of Chicago society. Born Bertha Honore in Louisville, Kentucky in 1849, she met Potter Palmer while on a shopping spree with her mother in his Chicago dry-goods store. Bertha was 21 and Palmer was 44 years old when they met. Palmer moved from dry goods to real estate and became immensely wealthy as the owner of the Palmer House hotel. Bertha and her husband chose Henry Ives Cobb to built their North Side mansion with its roof-top ballroom and picture gallery. Bertha filled her gallery with dozens of the Impressionist paintings she brought back from shopping trips to Paris. Monet, Renoir, Degas, Pissaro, and Sisley were her favorites. She kept her paintings until her death, when they were left to the Art Institute of Chicago. Famous for her charm, intelligence, elegance, and jewelry, Bertha Palmer promoted family life and charity and made sure that her values were prominently displayed at the Fair. After her husband died in 1902, Mrs. Palmer spent more of her time in her homes in Paris and London. In 1910, captivated by the warm climate, she bought 80,000 acres near Sarasota, Florida—fully one-third of Sarasota County—where she raised cattle and planted citrus groves. Her winter home, The Oaks at Spanish Point, sat on 350 acres. Bertha Palmer died of pneumonia in her Florida home on May 6, 1918, leaving an estate worth $15 million.

  Mrs. Potter Palmer was assisted by eight vice presidents and a committee of over 100 women from all parts of the nation. Nearly all were, like Mrs. Palmer, the wives of wealthy and influential men. American women did not yet have the vote, but these ladies exercised their power through family connections and social contacts. While the Fair faintly acknowledged the sufferings of the working poor, the well-heeled lady managers wanted to present a more genteel image of the female as mother, artist, writer, hostess, and healer.

  The board hired 21-year-old Sophia Hayden, a recent graduate in architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as the architect for the Womens Building. Sophia Hayden was born in Santiago, Chile to an American father and South American mother. At age six she was sent to Boston to live with her father’s parents. She showed a flair for drawing and was the first woman to receive a degree in architecture from MIT, and was one of a mere handful of female architects in the whole of the United States. Hayden designed her Womens Building in the Italian Renaissance style. Facing the lagoon, the building was 400 feet in length and 200 feet in width. Some complained that the design lacked inspiration, that it was too timid and too delicate. Space in the Womens Building was given to the various social causes sponsored by the wealthy. Benevolent associations, temperance societies, church groups, and alumnae associations all had their displays. On the first floor was a model hospital ward and a model kindergarten. The second floor displayed a woman’s dressing room, a committee room, and a kitchen. The library was stacked with books by women writers. There were exhibits of embroidery, knitting, lace, basket weaving, and fans, a thermometer to measure the temperature of a child’s food, a glass to measure medications, and a set of crockery made specially for typhoid cases. The sculptures and the art work in the building were all executed by women, including murals by Mary Cassatt, Mary Louise Fairchild, and Lucia Fairchild Fuller. One of the prizewinners at the Womens Building was Mae E. Orr, who won the gold medal in the world championship for speed in typewriting. Orr used a Remington typewriter to achieve her victory.

  The elaborately engraved entrance tickets to the Fair were prepared by the American Bank Note Company of New York. The company was founded in 1810 by Robert Scot, who was appointed by Thomas Jefferson in 1793 as the first chief engraver of the U.S. Mint. The company issued stamps and bank notes for other countries. Note Harlow Higinbotham’s bold and precise signature, which appeared on every ticket.

  Sophia Hayden received only $1,000 for her design, far less than the male architects. The difficulties she experienced in Chicago caused her to have a breakdown and she never designed another building in her long life.

  Opening Festivities

  The 400th anniversary of Columbus’ journey to the New World was celebrated in other cities as well as in Chicago. On October 12, 1892, 50,000 troops marched in New York City to the applause of millions who watched from the sidewalks. On April 24, 1893, a fleet of 35 ships with 10,000 sailors on board departed Fort Munroe, Virginia and reached New York three days later. The fleet was led by the U.S. steamship Dolphin, followed by other American naval vessels and ships from Spain, Britain, Germany, Holland, Russia, and Italy. The largest were the Russian Dimitri Donskoi carrying 570 men, the British Blake, and the Argentinian Nueve de Julio (Andrews 1896). Accompanying the steamships were three tiny ships of sail. Built in Spain, they were exact copies of the 75-foot Santa Maria, the 70-foot Pinta, and the 65-foot Niña that carried Columbus and his crew in 1492 on their historic voyage. Over a million people lined both banks of the Hudson River to watch the flotilla as it was reviewed by President Grover Cleveland. Each battleship fired a 21-gun salute as it passed the reviewing stand. After the New York festivities, the Pinta, Niña, and Santa Maria made their way through the St. Lawrence River and the Great Lakes to reach the Fair in July 1893. Berthed in Jackson Park, the Spanish ships were major attractions, leaving people to marvel how such small vessels could cross the Atlantic.

  From New York, the president and his party made their way to Chicago by rail and arrived on April 29. The president and Mrs. Cleveland were taken to the luxurious Lexington Hotel at the corner of Michigan Avenue and 22nd Street, where they stayed during the opening festivities of the Fair.2

  On May 1, 1893 the president and his party were driven to the Fair for the official opening, with a quarter of a million people on hand to watch the ceremonies. Maestro Thomas led the orchestra and the choir of 10,000 voices in the singing of Handel’s thunderous Hallelujah Chorus followed by the national anthem. In a short speech, President Cleveland praised American entrepreneurship and creativity. At nine o’clock that evening he touched the golden key that sent an electric current to activate the giant Allis steam engine and the 60 other steam engines housed in Machinery Hall. The great machines came to life, activating the fountains, the street lights, and the great searchlights. The World’s Columbian Exposition was officially open. Burnham’s design, bathed in light, became known as “The White City” or “The Alabaster City.” Most people were dazzled b
y its classical harmony, but some protested, with Louis Sullivan, that the overall design was a European import that set back American architecture by half a century (Trachtenberg 1982).

  Travel to the Fair

  As a city built on the railroads and a lake, Chicago was well prepared for the millions of visitors expected to attend the Fair. Two hundred and sixty passenger and mail trains arrived and left Chicago each day. Every 24 hours some 400 freight trains carrying grains, meat, and other merchandise entered or left Chicago stations. Another 600 local and suburban trains arrived and left each day. Added to this were Chicago’s plentiful street trolleys, powered by horse, cable, or overhead electricity. Hacks and hansom cabs completed the city’s transportation network (Rand McNally 1893). The Illinois Central Railroad ran to the west of the fairgrounds. Passengers alighted at 12 platforms at the terminal station facing the entrance gates. The electric trolley ran along the western boundary of the park and the elevated line deposited passengers at a station near the Transportation Building. Visitors could depart Chicago from the Van Buren Street wharf on one of the 25 steamers, leaving every 10 minutes for a 45 minute journey to the Columbian Pier. The round trip on the steamers cost 25¢. From the pier people took their seats on the electric-powered movable sidewalk that carried them the half-mile to the turnstiles at a cost of 5¢. The Fair also had anchorage space on Lake Michigan for up to 500 private yachts. But most of the 28 million people who visited arrived at the fairgrounds by train. The trains ran from Chicago’s Union Station south to the Fair’s Terminal Station. The elevated railroad ran along 63rd Street before entering the fairground. The electric streetcar line ran along 64th Street. The street trolleys, elevated line, suburban trains, and water transportation had the capacity of carrying up to 100,000 people each hour to the fairgrounds. Inside the fairgrounds, the General Electric Company’s Intramural Railway gave passengers a 20-minute tour of the lagoon, the buildings, and the lake, at a cost of 10¢ per person.