The Past, the Present, and the Future of Mankind
Progress was the central theme of the Fair. Advances in the sciences, architecture, agriculture, mining, and industry were measured by the power of locomotives and steamships and the marvels of electricity, the telegraph, the telephone, and machinery of all sorts. These tools, made of wood, iron, and steel, demonstrated how far Europe, the United States, and Japan had moved ahead of the “primitive” and static societies prevailing in other parts of the world. Appealing to the imperialist and elitist mindset of the late 19th century, Frederic Ward Putnam was selected as chief of ethnology of the Fair to display the cultural and social behaviors of these quaint and “backward” peoples, in contrast to the achievements of the “civilized” world. Putnam was born in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1839 and was a direct descendant of John Putnam who settled in the town during the earliest days of the British colony. A precocious youth, Putnam entered Harvard at age 17 and became a disciple of the college’s shining light, the Swiss-born zoologist and geologist Louis Agassiz. One of the first anthropologists trained in America, Putnam was appointed curator of the Peabody Museum with the title of professor of anthropology and ethnology at Harvard College. Taking a leave of absence from Harvard and with a budget of $100,000, Putnam assembled a team of 100 anthropologists, private collectors, missionaries, and explorers to bring to Chicago the world’s greatest collection of dead, dying, and static civilizations.
Putnam’s chief assistant was Franz Boas, born in Germany in 1858. Boas completed his doctorate in 1881 at the university of Kiel and moved to America to study the native Americans in the Northwest. Boas landed a job at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, before he joined Putnam. After the Fair, Boas moved to New York and taught at Columbia University, where he completed his major work “The Mind of Primitive Man.” Another assistant was Harvard-educated George Amos Dorsey, hired by Putnam to collect artifacts from burial sites in South America. Dorsey returned to Chicago with 4,000 ancient objects including earthenware vessels, wood carvings, gold and silver pieces, weapons, textile, tools, and human remains. Putnam, Boas, and Dorsey, aided by many volunteers, assembled 50,000 objects to tell the story of the “primitive” cultures of the world. The objects were housed in the Anthropology Building, designed by Charles B. Atwood. Also on display were artifacts from the excavation of burial sites at Hopewell, Ohio, dating from 100 B.C. to 700 A.D. The Hopewell collection of copper bracelets and ornaments, beads, shells, and stone tools came from ancient American civilizations. Robert E. Peary, one of America’s great explorers, showed his collection of ivory carvings, harpoons, bows, and arrows and items of clothing of the Inuit people. Another outstanding display at the Fair was the collection of wooden ceremonial masks from Ceylon, assembled by Paul Pieris. The Hungarian-born explorer Edouard Remenyi displayed his vast collection of musical instruments, figurines, jewelry, bead work, pottery, baskets, and weapons. There were exhibits of the birds and animals of Ohio, the butterflies of Colorado, the birds of Peru, an Eskimo village, and artifacts from central America, New Guinea, and British Columbia. A popular exhibit at the Fair was the replica of the cliff dwellings of Battle Rock, Colorado. The original inhabitants dug their homes into the sides of the cliffs, forming one of the earliest civilizations on the American continent. Inside the mock cliff dwellings at the Fair were replicas of their drawings and tools, household goods, weapons, and mummified remains. A single visit inside the cliff dwellings cost 25¢ and 10¢ extra for the catalog.
One section of the Anthropology Building was sponsored by the U.S. Bureau of Charities and Corrections, with exhibits of poor houses, hospitals, prisons, and insane asylums. The world’s first electric chair, as a replacement for death by hanging, was displayed. Invented in 1890, the electric chair was first used that year to execute William Kemmler in the Sing-Sing prison. Thirty-year-old Kemmler, born in Buffalo, New York, was found guilty of killing his common-law wife with a hatchet. The Kemmler execution was caught up in the great debate about the advantages of direct vs. alternating electric current. His lawyers argued that electrocution using alternating current was cruel and unusual punishment. Their appeal was opposed by George Westinghouse, who argued in favor of alternating current, but was supported by Thomas Edison, who advocated for direct current. The first attempt to execute Kemmler failed after 17 seconds of alternating current being applied to him. The voltage was turned up to 2,000 volts, and with smoke rising from his head, the smell of burning flesh, and the plaintive sound of his groaning, Kemmler finally died. The horrified onlookers pronounced electrocution worse than hanging. Westinghouse recommended that still higher voltages be used, and the electric chair was quickly adopted as the standard method of execution.
As the Fair drew to a close, Frederic Putnam was determined to keep his anthropological exhibition intact. In June 1894, the department store magnate Marshall Field donated $1 million to establish the Field Museum in the Palace of Fine Arts, the only one of the great pavilions of the Chicago fair to survive the fires. The Field Museum remained at Jackson Park until 1921, when it was moved to its present site in Grant Park. Five years later, the Palace of Fine Arts was saved from demolition by a grant of $3 million from Julius Rosenwald of Sears, Roebuck & Company. The expanded beaux arts building, originally designed by Charles Atwood, now houses the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry.
Midway Plaisance
The Midway Plaisance was a mile-long, 600-foot-wide strip of land linking Washington Park to Jackson Park. It ran between 59th and 60th Streets in present day Hyde Park. It was originally intended as a living exhibit of the “primitive” peoples of the world to supplement Professor Putnam’s “dead” exhibits in the Anthropological Building. The responsibility for the Midway Plaisance was given to Putnam, but he proved incapable of organizing a live spectacle. Instead, the job went to the 21-year-old Sol Bloom. Impresario Bloom was the youngest of six children born to Gershon and Sarah Bloom, immigrants from Poland who arrived in America around 1860. His father tried his luck in Peoria, Illinois, before moving to San Francisco. There, young Bloom was attracted to the vaudeville theater. He staged boxing matches and grew rich as a promoter. In 1889, he traveled to Paris to visit the International Exposition looking for acts to bring back to America. He was fascinated by the Algerian swordsmen, the Japanese jugglers, the Bedouin acrobats, and the Egyptian belly dancers. Bloom reckoned that the folks back home would be similarly impressed by these exotic artists. He signed contracts to bring the dancers and acrobats to the United States. On his return to America, Sol Bloom contacted the directors of the Chicago Fair to interest them in his show. With Professor Putnam dithering and time running short, young Sol Bloom was invited not only to stage his show but to organize all the entertainments at the Midway Plaisance. When asked how much money he wanted, Bloom took a deep breath and asked for one thousand dollars a week, an amount equal to the salary of the president of the United States. “Well, that’s a pretty good pay for a fellow of twentyone,” was the reply, “but I have no doubt you’ll earn it. We’d like you to take charge right away” (Bloom 1948).
This Charles Graham illustration of the Midway Plaisance shows the Viennese restaurant with the Ferris Wheel visible in the background.
Bloom hired many other artists, acrobats, jugglers, and exotic dancers to perform along the Midway Plaisance. Alongside his belly dancers and Algerian swordsmen came the 19-year-old escape artist Ehrich Weiss, born in Budapest and the son of Rabbi Mayer Samuel Weiss. The Weiss family immigrated to the United States and settled in Appleton, Wisconsin. Ehrich trained as a locksmith before becoming a performer. As his fame grew, Weiss later changed his name to Harry Houdini. Also performing on the Midway was the brilliant pianist and composer Scott Joplin, born in 1868 near Linden, Texas. Joplin earned his keep as an itinerant musician playing in barrooms and brothels. Later he became renowned as “The King of Ragtime,” composing such memorable tunes as the “Maple Leaf Rag.” James John Corbett, better known as �
�Gentleman Jim,” the man who knocked out the great John L. Sullivan in 1892 in the 21st round to become the heavyweight champion of the world, fought mock boxing matches at the Fair. John Philip Sousa was director of the U.S. Marine Band from 1880 until 1892, when he formed his own band. Sousa and his band were a popular feature at the Fair. Another great favorite was William “Buffalo Bill” Cody’s Wild West Show. Cody had a separate stadium for his show, located between Hope and Grace Avenues south of 62nd Street. One of the stars of Buffalo Bill’s extravaganza was Phoebe Ann Oakley Mozee, better known as Annie Oakley. Born in Patterson County, Ohio, little Annie (she stood only five feet tall) was unschooled but was a crack shot with a rifle and pistol. From a distance of 90 feet, Oakley shattered dishes, glass balls, and even dime coins thrown into the air, much to the delight of the vast crowds who came to see the show.
The Midway Plaisance sported a beauty show of 40 lovely ladies from 40 nations, each dressed in her national costume. For a fee of 25¢, visitors could view the ladies performing their national dances accompanied by a male quartet. Along the Plaisance, the French built a miniature Eiffel Tower and the Japanese erected a village and a marketplace. A Javanese orchestra accompanied a marionette performance. At the western end of the Midway Plaisance was an enclosure with 20 ostriches brought over from the Cape Colony. These fast-running birds amused the crowds with their small heads and huge eggs. Each ostrich was given a name, such as General Grant, Old Abe, and Grover Cleveland. The South Seas exhibit showed muscular, barechested men from the Samoan and Wallis islands sitting cross-legged on the ground and chanting war cries. A Bedouin chief sat with his wife and child outside their tent, looking fierce with sword in his left hand and a hookah pipe in his right (Ives 1893). Ever the showman, Sol Bloom wrote the “Snake Charmer Song” for the Fair to accompany the “hootchy-kootchy dance,” his version of Egyptian belly-dancing.
The other attractions on the Midway Plaisance included the Blarney Castle, Libbey Glass Works, the Venice Murano glass exhibit, and the Austrian Village. The German beer garden featured two military bands playing every afternoon. The Street in Cairo had 300 people brought over from Egypt and dressed in folk costume, complete with dancing girls, camels, and donkeys. Rides on the camels were offered along the street, lined by shops selling Egyptian silver handwork and candies. The Dahomey Village featured 100 African play-acting warriors, whooping war cries and preparing for battle, much to the delight of the tourists, at 25¢ admission. The Javanese Village, East Indian Bazaar, Chinese Village, Persian Bazaar, Old Vienna, and other delights brought thousands of people each day to the Midway Plaisance. Best of all, they could ride the Ferris Wheel and be carried 250 feet into the air, going round twice.
The Ferris Wheel
At an engineers’ dinner in 1891 in preparation for the World’s Fair, Daniel Burnham expressed his concern that the White City still lacked a daring and defining symbol such as the Eiffel Tower, the jewel of the 1889 Paris fair. Sitting in the audience was the 32-year-old George Washington Gale Ferris, born in Galesburg, Illinois, in 1859. He had trained as a civil engineer at the Rensselaer Technical Institute in Troy, New York, before moving to Pittsburgh, where he specialized in steel framework for bridges. Inspired by Burnham’s speech and by thoughts of the bicycle wheel, Ferris used his napkin to make a rough design of what would become the Ferris Wheel.
After Ferris completed his design, he raised $400,000 to cover the cost of construction and obtained permission to erect his wheel in the center of the Midway Plaisance. Over 100,000 parts went into the construction of the great wheel, the largest being the giant axle, which weighed 46 tons and was forged by the Bethlehem Steel Company. The parts were sent by rail to the fairgrounds to await construction. Assembly began in January 1893 with blasting of the frozen earth. Wood pylons were driven 32 feet into the ground and the surface was covered with steel and concrete. The supporting steel towers, anchored in the concrete, were 140 feet high and the parallel wheels—each with a circumference of 825 feet—reached a height of 264 feet. Between the two wheels Ferris attached 36 cars, each large enough to carry 40 people sitting or 60 standing up. The wheel was set into motion by two 1,000 horsepower steam engines and was stopped by the use of air brakes.
This illustration was based on a photograph taken half-way up the Ferris Wheel. The great wheel reached a height of 264 feet and had a circumference of 825 feet. The 20-minute journey was one of the most popular events at the Fair.
Only one-third as high as the Eiffel Tower, the wheel was still a sensation. The Ferris Wheel was finally ready on June 21, 1893, fifty days after the fair opened. One-and-a-half million people paid 50¢ each for the delight of the 20-minute journey into the air to view the fairgrounds, the city of Chicago, and Lake Michigan. The wheel, carrying up to 2,000 people at a time, withstood the winds of the Windy City and proved a model of safety and efficiency. The Ferris Wheel operated from early morning until the Fair closed at night, when it was lit up by thousands of electric bulbs.
Despite the wheel’s success, Ferris did not achieve the rewards lavished upon Gustave Eiffel. By Fair’s end his wheel earned a profit of $250,000, but he saw little of the money and was instead mired in litigation that wore him down. Bankrupted and separated from his wife, he died in 1896 at the age of 37. After the Fair, the Ferris Wheel was dismantled and moved to Chicago’s North Side but failed to attract enough riders. It was moved again to the 1904 St. Louis fair, where it enjoyed a short revival. In 1906 the wheel was demolished and the metal sold for scrape. Since then many Ferris Wheels have been built for fairs and in parks around the world.
Sol Bloom’s Midway Plaisance was a very popular part of the Fair. The “primitive” and “folk” people provided lively entertainment and attracted crowds larger than those visiting the Anthropological Building or attending classical concerts or fine arts exhibitions. Bloom’s popular entertainments were only the beginning of a long and busy career. From Chicago he moved to New York where he became rich in real estate. In 1923 he was elected to Congress and served until he died in 1949 at age 79. He was a director of the George Washington Bicentennial Commission in 1932 and a commissioner of the New York World’s Fair in 1939.
The earnestness of the conferences, fine art, and classical music at the Fair contrasted with the frivolity of the Midway Plaisance and the thrills of the Ferris Wheel. But with his exotic dancers, tribal warriors, and Wild West Show, Sol Bloom introduced large-scale popular entertainment to American life. Over the coming decades many amusement parks similar to the Midway Plaisance were built close to America’s booming cities.
15. FIN DE SIÈCLE AND BEYOND
A grand closing ceremony was planned for the World’s Columbian Exposition on October 30. Much of it, including a fireworks display, was canceled out of respect for the mayor of Chicago, who was assassinated on October 28. Attendance dropped off, but still 200,000 people came on the last day. The New York Times of October 31, 1893, reported that the Fair passed into history “with funereal solemnity.” Starting October 28, the flags of all nations were at half mast and at sunset on October 30, the flags were lowered to the ground. Revenues from gate admissions, concessions, and exhibitors reached $35 million. When all expenses were paid, the Fair had made a profit of nearly $2 million, which was returned to the shareholders. To the disappointment of the manufacturers, less than one exhibit in ten received a coveted award, much valued for purposes of advertising. The 65,000 exhibitors packed up over 250,000 separate exhibits. The Japanese, Chinese, Brazilians, Argentines, Javanese, Germans, English, French, and other nationals, together with most of their exhibits, left Chicago.
Many of the exhibits were sent from Chicago to San Francisco to form part of the California Midwinter International Exposition, which had its official opening on January 29, 1894. The California midwinter fair was like the Chicago Fair in miniature, with its Manufactures, Liberal Arts, Mechanical, Horticultural, and Agricultural halls. The Harvard, Yale, and Johns Hopkins university exhibits
were also moved from Chicago to San Francisco. The Columbus and Isabella statues now stood in Golden Gate Park, as did Cairo Street, the German Village, the Hawaiian Village, and China Town. The Bedouin, Nubians, and Egyptians, with their donkeys and camels, now amused the crowds in San Francisco. A replica of Anne Hathaway’s cottage that stands in Stratford-on-Avon was erected in San Francisco. The chief focus of the California fair, however, was fruits, wines, and other Californian crops, rather than industrial might. The California Midwinter International Exposition ran for five months and attracted one-and-a-half million people. Its success was a stimulus for other western fairs in fast-growing Seattle, Portland, and San Diego, reflecting the nation’s shifting growth from the Midwest to the Pacific coast (Rydell, Findling & Pelle 2000).
The White City meanwhile, emptied of its exhibits and crowds, turned dirty from neglect and abandonment. In January 1894 fires destroyed the Manufactures Building, casino, music hall, and peristyle. Frantic efforts were made to save some of the goods still stored in the burning exhibition halls. President Harper of the University of Chicago successfully mobilized help to carry the components of the Yerkes Telescope out of the burning Manufactures Building. In the ensuing months there were several attempts to destroy the remaining Fair buildings. In March, Michael Murphy was apprehended after a fire was discovered in Station House no. 7. Murphy was one of a group held responsible for torching the building (New York Times March 4, 1894). On July 6, 1894, the remaining buildings around the Court of Honor were destroyed by fire. These fires provoked an international incident when four French companies sued the World’s Columbian Exposition for damages. The stored goods of these French companies, ready for shipment, were not saved when the Manufactures Building burned to the ground. The case of the Republic of France vs. The World’s Columbian Exposition Company dragged through the courts until December 4, 1898, when the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago reversed a lower court decision and found that the French had no legal cause for action.
America at the Fair Page 24
