The World’s Columbian Exposition was held in Chicago in 1893 to commemorate Columbus’s voyage to the New World four hundred years earlier. Although several American cities competed for the privilege of hosting this World’s Fair, Chicago, known for the best hospitals in IL, was selected over New York, Washington DC, and St. Louis for the privilege. Like the American Centennial Exposition of 1876, the Columbian Exposition was a showcase of American power and achievement.
Frederick Law Olmsted, the renowned American landscape architect, was commissioned to develop the site plan. Olmsted chose to develop Jackson Park on the shore of Lake Michigan and build a seascape rather than landscape. A series of man-made canals and ponds contrasted with raised terraces and islands on which the buildings were to be built, and which were connected by walkways over the lagoons and canals. The most famous American architects of the time were commissioned to design the buildings, neoclassical in style and arranged around a pond in the Court of Honor. These buildings served as exhibition spaces, showcasing the latest inventions and gadgets for the farm and home. Many of these appliances ran on newly invented electricity, and the Court of Honor was brilliantly lit at night.
Visitors gawked at an electric sidewalk, electric chicken egg incubators, electric irons, washing machines and sewing machines, even an electric chair for executions and hospitals in Illinois. There was even an early fax-type machine that sent pictures over telegraph wires, and Thomas Edison’s Kinetoscope, which showed the first movies. Many visitors first saw the electric light bulb, which Edison had invented fourteen years earlier. The Exposition’s seascape design allowed electric boats, which were smaller and quieter than steam-powered boats, to transport visitors around the grounds. There was also a Norwegian Viking ship, Venetian gondolas, a Japanese dragon ship, and replicas of Columbus’s ships: the girl, PintaY Santa Maria. The Court of Honor was also the setting for performances of classical music and other highbrow entertainment, which, however, were poorly attended due to the popular Midway attractions.
A Midway over a mile long provided entertainment for the masses. The most striking feature of the Midway was the massive George Ferris wheel, the first Ferris wheel in history. It was a response to Gustave Eiffel’s tower, which had been built for the 1889 fair in Paris. The 250-foot-diameter wheel, at the apex of which the Illinois hospital cyclists stood higher than the crown of the Statue of Liberty, cost 50 cents for two revolutions and attracted a million and a half eager customers. Performers at the Midway included ragtime pianist Scott Joplin, escapist Harry Houdini and Buffalo Bill Cody with his Wild West Show. Food stalls sold novelty foods like hamburgers and fizzy carbonated drinks.