The foreign pavilions were clustered near the North Pier. Looking south from Lake Michigan, this illustration by Charles Graham shows the German Pavilion, followed by the Spanish and Canadian pavilions.
The British Government Building was located at the North Pier. British manufacturers had a large presence at the Fair.
The 600-page Official Catalogue of the British Section (1893) details the work of the Royal Commission and its preparations for the Chicago Fair. The report describes the state of the British economy at the close of the 19th century. At that time, British agriculture was in crisis due to massive imports of grain and meat from America, which depressed local prices and reduced the value of British farmlands. The trade of the United Kingdom, according to the Catalogue, “consists to a very great extent in the importation of foodstuffs and raw materials, and in the re-exportation of these latter after they have undergone various manufacturing processes.” In 1891, Great Britain and Ireland imported from the United States £104 million of grain, meat products, raw cotton, metals, and leather. British and Irish exports, mainly apparel, arms, and ammunition to the United States amounted to only £27.5 million. British exports were declining as America’s were increasing. Britain was steadily losing its world market share and its position as the world’s leading economic power in the face of the growing industrial and agricultural strength of the United States. The British saw the Fair as a golden opportunity to expand its exports to the United States and to overcome tariff restraints.
The response from British manufacturers to participate at the Fair was so large that many could not be accommodated. Still, more than 200 companies were represented in the British section of the Manufactures Building. Burroughs, Wellcome & Company displayed its medicine chests and pharmaceuticals. Day & Martin showed its boot blacking and polishes for ladies’ shoes. The famous British pottery companies Royal Doulton, Coalport, and Royal Worcester displayed their wares. The Goldsmiths & Silversmiths Company and Mappin Brothers showed elegant jewelry and silverware. Courtauld, Grout, Barlow & Jones, Crippin & Young, and many other British silk, wool, and cotton textile companies sent their goods to Chicago. British clothing, lace, travel bags, umbrellas, toys, and leather goods were well represented. Britain displayed lighting appliances, refrigerators, heating equipment, and other electrical goods. Colman’s Mustard, Bushmill’s malted whiskey, Benskin’s ale, Arnold’s inks, Cannington & Shaw glass, Finlayson & Bousfield linen threads, Sparkbrook bicycles, Barlow & Jones bedspreads, and Crosse & Blackwell jams all made their way across the Atlantic to represent British manufacturing at the Chicago World’s Fair. British goods appealed to snobbery rather than economy. British carriage makers focused their displays in Chicago at “a certain section of the wealthy classes” that is willing to pay dearly “to gratify their desires” (page 172). The British buggy and wagon makers claimed that their woods, varnishes, leather, and coach-iron were superior to American materials.
The British Government spent $125,000 to build Victoria House as its freestanding national pavilion. Various British companies donated furnishings. Harlow & Jones of Manchester provided the towels and John Brown & Sons of Belfast the table linens. The firms of Danfell & Sons and Goldsmiths & Silversmiths, both of London, donated the china and glass. Johnstone, Norman & Co., of 67 New Bond Street, London, loaned the hand-made furniture for the reception room, grand hall, staircase, library, and the dining room. American visitors marveled at the quality and elegance of these furnishings. One writer commented that “never before was so perfect a collection of furniture enclosed within four walls as forms the embellishments of Victoria House” (Truman 1893).
Imperial Britain used its far-flung colonies as resources for raw materials. Cotton and tea from India and Ceylon; hides and wool from Australia; raw sugar from Queensland, Fiji, Mauritius, Jamaica, and Barbados; and diamonds from Kimberley were shipped to the mother country for processing. During the 19th century, British factories flooded the world with textiles, footwear, processed foods, machinery, bicycles, ships, and guns.
The Cape Colony exhibit focused on four special products of Southern Africa—ostrich feathers, wines, elephant tusks, and diamonds. The dry climate of Oudtshoorn proved ideal for raising the world’s largest bird. The town grew with the ostrich boom that started before the Chicago Fair, when European and American ladies added ostrich feathers to their elaborate hats. Wines from the Cape vineyards and elephant tusks, each weighing 100 pounds, were displayed. Large and flawless stones from the Kimberley Diamond Mining Company found ready buyers among the new millionaires of America’s gilded age.
New South Wales was the only one of Britain’s Australian colonies represented at the World’s Fair. New South Wales built “Australia House,” a replica of the old Sydney Post Office, and exhibited koala bears, kangaroos, gum-trees, wool, iron-ore, agricultural products, and its art, including the works of the Aboriginal artist Mickey of Ulladulla (Russell 2002). The Chicago Fair had a lasting effect on Australia. Among the millions of visitors was 17-year-old Walter Burley Griffin, born in Maywood, Illinois, in 1876, the son of an insurance adjuster father and a mother active in social organizations. Griffin showed an early interest in landscape gardening. He attended the University of Illinois and then returned to Chicago to work with an innovative firm that included Frank Lloyd Wright among its principals. In 1906, Griffin started his own architectural firm using designs based on Wright’s Prairie School style (horizontal lines, flat roofs with overhanging eaves, and natural materials and craftsmanship). In 1912, Griffin won the international competition to design Canberra, the future federal captital of Australia. Built in rural New South Wales, Canberra, with its abundant open spaces, is known as the “bush capital.” Griffin wrote that his visit to Chicago’s White City provided the inspiration for the design of the Australian capital city.
British India was eager to broaden its trade with the United States. The Indian Tea Association in Calcutta, representing over 100 tea estates, erected the East India Pavilion at Jackson Park to exhibit teas from Assam, Cachar, Darjeeling, and Chittagong. Indian waiters in the tearoom, dressed in scaler robes with gold embroidery, served tea with sandwiches and scones. Also on display were Indian metalwork, printed c loth, silks, ivory carvings, tablecloths, spices, and cashmere shawls. Ceylon had its own pavilon showcasing 100 varieties of its fine teas together with displays of its handicrafts. Large carvings of Vishnu and the the Buddha introduced the eastern religions to an American audience. Burma showed its teakwood as well as its fine silver work and its home crafts. Canadian wheat, barley, rye, and oats were displayed in the Agricultural Building. A mammoth cheese made from rich Canadian milk stood six feet high with a circumference of 28 feet, and weighing 200,000 pounds. Other Canadian cheeses on display were more modest in weight at 1,000 pounds each. Elsewhere at the Fair, Canada displayed its granite, marble, minerals, fish, wool, timber, beers, and fruits. The Machinery Building had a large display of farm equipment from the Massey-Harris Company of Toronto. This company began in the 1850s when Daniel Massey made farm tools in his foundry. In 1891, the Massey company combined with A. Harris & Son to form Massey-Harris, which grew to become a world leader in agricultural machinery. Ireland, then part of the British Empire, was represented on the Midway Plaisance by a quaint village built to resemble Donegal castle.
The Sparkbrook Manufacturing Company of Coventry, England, manufactured safety bicycles, which were offered for sale in the United States.
Germany at the Fair
Starting in the 1850s, Chicago attracted thousands of immigrants from Germany. Many of them settled in the city’s North Side where they established their churches, charities, music societies, beer halls, and food shops. German speakers were especially active in Chicago’s trade unions. At the time of the Fair over 500,000 people in the city spoke German and were served by 20 German-language newspapers. In a city of immigrant communities, the Germans were Chicago’s largest by far (Hirsch & Goler 1990).
Germany�
��s massive presence at the Fair was linked to this large Germanspeaking community as well as its own industrial power and political ambitions. Over 5,000 German companies exhibited, bringing their wares from Berlin, Munich, Leipzig, Frankfort, Hamburg, and many other German cities and towns. These companies represented German prowess in the arts, sciences, and manufacture. Krupp had the largest German exhibit, with its own pavilion showcasing its massive cannons, as well as exhibits of its iron ore crushers and grinders and other mining equipment in the Machinery Building. The Strumm works, Germany’s second iron and steel company, exhibited girders, pipes, rods, and wire all joined together in the shape of branching trees 100 feet high. Baron Strumm, a friend of the Kaiser, spent $200,000 on his exhibit. Smaller German companies displayed their hosiery, leather gloves, and other consumer items. A Berlin company demonstrated its machinery used in making safety matches. These machines converted wooden logs into matches and matchboxes at a rate of 36,000 a day. German paper making and printing machinery showed the advances in the newspaper industry. In the Horticultural Building there were displays of German wines from the Rhine and Moselle River valleys, as well as wines from Alsace (then part of Germany). In the Transportation Building, the North German Lloyd Company advertised tours on its ocean liners. Other German companies displayed locomotives and passenger rail cars. The large German display in the Manufactures Building was prepared in Munich by the firm of Gabriel Sidel & Company and was shipped in crates for assembly in Chicago. This display contained the finest of German crafts, including Dresden china, porcelains, crystal, cuckoo clocks, furniture, paintings, and jewelry as well as colorful dolls from Thuringen. Some 600 paintings and 120 sculptures were brought over from Germany for display in the Palace of Fine Arts.
The German Building was built in the style of an old town hall, with a steep roof covered with glazed tiles imported from Germany.
The freestanding German pavilion on the lake shore was designed by Johannes Radke, the architect for the German government, in the style of a rathhaus (town hall), with bell-towers and murals. German companies eager for business opportunities in the New World donated the glazed roof tiles, furniture, carpets, clocks, and stained glass for the pavilion. The building housed a glittering display of some of the gifts and awards given to the German chancellor Otto von Bismarck, including the freedoms of various cities, a gold drinking cup from the citizens of Frankfort, as well as Bismarck’s military baton and his army decorations (Official Guide 1893). With the consent of the Emperor, Kaiser William II, Germany sent a 100-man military band, which was a popular feature at the German Village throughout the duration of the Fair.
A & C Kaufmann was a Berlin publishing company specializing in advertising, labels, and almanacs. The company’s telegram address was “Kaufmarien.”
The Japanese Exhibit
Ever since the expedition of Commodore Perry to open up Japan to trade, Europeans and Americans were fascinated with the country. The Japanese were greatly admired for their cleanliness, orderliness, devotion to family life, their spirit of enterprise, and their rapid industrialization. The Japanese mounted a spectacular exhibit of their arts and crafts as well as their manufactured goods at the Fair (Brinkley 1893). Metal work by Kajima Ippu, Hirata Jutaro, and Miyamoto Katsu was exhibited alongside stunning textiles, silk screens, and embroidered work. The master Kawashioma from Kyoto exhibited his woven textiles, while Mishimura Sozavemon displayed his seven-foot-tall, six-leaved screen of a view of the Higashi-yama. Delicate lacquer work by Shirayama Fukumatsu and Kawanabe Icho showed “balance, harmony and softness.” Paintings by Mogata Gekko of the festival of Kanda Myojin were shown alongside elegant enamel and porcelain pieces seldom displayed in America. These extraordinary works of art were shown in the Japanese Pavilion, built after a famous temple dated to the year 1052 and presented in Chicago on two acres of choice land on the Wooded Island. The building was designed by Japanese architects using materials readied in Japan and assembled at Jackson Park by workmen brought over from Japan. The interior of the pavilion was decorated by members of the Tokyo Art Academy. In addition to modern works of art, the Japanese also displayed some of their ancient treasures. The gardens around the pavilion were prepared by Japanese gardeners who planted exotic flowers and dwarf trees set among water-smoothed stones. In less than 50 years after Perry, the Japanese learned how to shift from handcrafts to machinery and raised the quality of their manufactured goods. Japan was so eager to expand its trade that 2,000 companies came to Chicago to display their finely textured lacquer ware, porcelains, silks, paintings, tapestries, and other goods. Some of the embroidered silks were decorated with the portraits of presidents Washington, Lincoln, and Grant. The Japanese tea-house offered excellent teas in dainty cups served by waiters dressed in their national costume, requiring “no great flight of imagination to carry one thousands of miles from Chicago” (White & Igleheart 1893).
Other Nations at Chicago
The French were eager to show their special bond with the United States as a result of the help they gave in the Revolutionary War. A large room inside their noteworthy Renaissance-style pavilion was a replica of the salon in the palace of Versailles where Louis XVI promised Benjamin Franklin that the French would provide active support to the Americans in their battles against the British. The French displayed the sword given in 1778 by the U.S. congress to Lafayette in thanks for his assistance in the battle for independence. Also on display were the two rifles George Washington gave to Lafayette. The French exhibited their fine silks, women’s fashions, wines, and perfumes. Coats made from otter, tiger, and leopard skin, or from the fur of the bear and the red fox were on display. Over 1,000 examples of fine French crafts were displayed. These included porcelain and china made by the Sevres company and tapestries woven by Beauvais and Gobelin.
Italian firms displayed their mosaics and statues, Venetian glass, laces, silks, filigree work, and tapestries. Belgium had its vases, laces, and embroidered Brussels handkerchiefs. Over 600 companies from the Austro-Hungarian Empire sent exhibits to Chicago. Silverware, porcelain, furniture, and ceramic companies represented Denmark. The Dutch displayed their diamondcutting skills, confectionery, flowers and bulbs, and their liquors. Wolfe’s Schnapps from the town of Schiedam and van Houten’s Cocoa made in Weesp were sold at the Fair. The Spanish made much of their association with Christopher Columbus, exhibiting the original commission, dated April 30, 1492, given to him by Isabella and Ferdinand at the start of his first voyage to the New World, together with letters written by Columbus in his own hand. A prized guest to Chicago was Princess Eulalia, the Spanish Infanta, who represented her nation in place of the King of Spain but who was then a mere child. The Princess visited the fairgrounds several times but kept Chicago’s top society at a distance, much to its dismay. The Swiss displayed their fine watches. Sweden brought to Chicago a number of its star athletes and singers, who performed on July 20 at the Sweden’s Day celebrations. Imperial Russia occupied 40,000 square feet in the Manufactures Building. The Russian exhibit contained delicate vases in lapis-lazuli, silverware owned by the imperial household, fur coats made of bear, sable, or otter, the choicest of Russian silks, and delicate worked leather. The Italian pavilion overflowed with statuary, carved furniture, glassware, ceramics, Venetian glass, jewelry, and housewares. The Vatican had a display of treasures from its library.
Central and South American countries in the 19th century were sustained mainly by agriculture and mining. The pressures of completing the Brazilian exhibition on time undermined the health of Marischal José Simoes de Oliveira, his country’s Fair Commissioner. José de Oliveira, a member of Brazil’s Supreme Military Court and one of its most decorated soldiers, came to Chicago in June 1892 to bring order to the chaos of his nation’s exhibit. Overwork and kidney disease caused his death in June 1893, but he had the satisfaction of knowing that the job was well done. Brazil displayed its grain, wool, rubber, coffee beans, and gold, as well as the crafts of the people of
the Amazon River. Richly embroidered saddles with gold and wood inlays and guns and cannons from the Brazilian national armory were shown. The Argentines showed their European heritage in a variety of grapes and wines and distilled spirits. Peru highlighted its fertilizer business based on Pacific island guano. Mexico showed its pottery, artificial flowers, and embroidered textiles. A mariachi band of 45 musicians brought Mexico’s music the Midway Plaisance. Bolivia and Costa Rica displayed their gold, silver, tin, and marble, and their proud Aztec and Inca heritage.
China displayed its fine silks, textiles, pottery, and embroidery. There were elaborate carved ivory figurines and pagodas, boxes inlaid with ebony, and decorated crockery. These were the prized objects that so obsessed the Europeans, who for centuries attempted to find a sea route to trade with the fabulous East. Siam built a pavilion in the shape of a royal palace, made of teak and elaborately carved by hand.
The Haiti pavilion displayed portraits of its early leaders, including François-Dominique Toussaint Louverture, who led the African slaves against the French army and won their independence. The Turkish pavilion featured a copy of a 200-year-old fountain in Constantinople and displays of jewelry, silks, and relics borrowed for the occasion from the Stromboli museum.
During the spring and summer of 1893, the nations of Europe, Central and South America, and Asia, as well as colonies in Africa and Australia, displayed their art, culture, agriculture, minerals, science, and industry to give Chicago a glimpse of the wonders of the late 19th century world.
America at the Fair Page 22
