Why is it called the White City? The White House Correspondents' Association has an online shop, where it sells a T-shirt that is funnier than most . See Curtis M. Hinsley and David R. Wilcox, eds.. Built in Norway and transported to Chicago, it was a recreation of a Norwegian chapel. Nearly 120 years later, the sandy shores and quiet grounds of Jackson Park bear little resemblance to the magnificent White City, but echoes remain. Nicknamed the White City, the fairs grand Neoclassical buildings were planned as a cohesive whole in a landscaped setting; they made a lasting impression on millions of visitors. We accomplished all of this years ago, in the wake of the Chicago Fire, and we couldnt get the Olympics today? she laughs. May 9, 2017 Matt Blitz. "[16] Joseph was the proprietor of the Hotel Sherman (originally called the Sherman House) but in an article about self-made millionaires, the Chicago Tribune noted that he was not only a hotel magnate but "principal stockholder in the White City Amusement and Construction Company. Adding to the wonder, the fair was entirely lit and powered by George Westinghouses system of alternating current power. the grandeur of the White City, electrically lighted at night, temporarily led to a resurgent interest in Classical architecture. Just a few years before the Columbian Exposition, a farmer in Norway had discovered in his field the Gokstad, a buried Viking ship. Though the official guide to the Fair called these symbols an invitation of liberty to the nations of the earth, the eagle (the national bird of the United States) on top of the globe sent a message that all the earth was U.S. domain. He has a hand-painted piano that was displayed in the California building. It is the last of several nicknames in the poem; the others hint at the cities major industrial activities, for example the meat-packing industry and railroad industry. One of America's first documented serial killers, H. H. Holmes, was active in Chicago throughout the World's Fair. Corrections? [22][23] It also featured a roller coaster and the Garden Follies Dancers. These grand exteriors, inspired by European architecture and a contemporary Beaux Arts-inspired panache, were only for looks. Ferris giant spinning wheel, a bold amusement attraction that became the Columbian Expositions Eiffel Tower. On America the Beautiful, see, Official Views of the Worlds Columbian Exposition, (Learn more about the ideas behind and construction of the Worlds Fair in this introductory essay.). Sadly, few buildings were made to last. [5], An etymology popularized by tour guides suggests that it refers to the rebuilding of the city following the Great Chicago Fire in 1871. But reminders are still around Chicagoland and the Midwest today. Holmes, the notorious serial killer, the other about the creation of the 1893 Worlds Fair in Chicago. Women look at Holmes as he walks through Chicago. Philadelphians selected no fewer than 10 paintings by Thomas Eakins to exhibit at the Fair, among them, (which had been painted for the 1876 Centennial Exhibition but rejected for its depiction of gore). A young doctor, H. H. Holmes, steps off a train in Chicago, and he enjoys the city because of its smoke, chaos, and ability to hide dark acts. Its flag was adopted in 1917 after the design by Wallace Rice won a City Council sponsored competition. What's the origin of 'The city that works'? They were built with stucco and then painted with compressed-air squirt guns for quickness. The story revolves around a controversial detective who holds strange beliefs about the psychological nature of his suspects, and Larson loved the book because he felt like he was transported to 1890s New York. Chuck Goudie, a reporter for ABC7 Chicago, asserted that the nickname is based on a single misleading Iraq War statistic: from 2003 to 2012, 4,265 people were killed in Chicago, nearly equal to the number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq in the same period. With its introduction translated into French and German in order to reach a broad audience, the pamphlet explained the history of slavery, the ever-growing horrors of lynching, and contrasted those with the achievements Black citizens had made in business, education, science, and the arts. [4] The College Inn, a restaurant, could seat 2,500 diners at a time. The housing development was to be called Parkway Gardens, and at the time, it was seen as a hopeful sign that a neglected neighborhood would have new housing. For the film, see. The Worlds Columbian Exposition of 1893, declared by its contemporary critics to be the most magical and opulent fair to date, would become a charred wasteland just a few months after closing. an allegorical figure of the United States (illustrated at the top of this page), which stood more than 65 feet tall, holding an eagle perching on top of a globe in one hand, and a staff topped by a Phrygian cap in the other. [12] A year later, the park's roller coaster also malfunctioned, injuring twelve people. Often noted as the inspiration for the City Beautiful movement, the fair proved to be a turning point both Read More In World's Columbian Exposition On July 21, 1919, the dirigible run crashed into the Illinois Trust & Savings Building on LaSalle Street, killing twelve and injuring twenty-eight. He was arrested, pending an investigation of the tragedy, but later released without charges. The . The White City glimmered in the warm summer sun. [25] In 1942, the Congress of Racial Equality was involved in one of these rallies. The novel inspired Larson to write a non-fiction book about a murderer in that time period. Here are a few you can visit: Museum of Science and Industry: Originally the Palace of Fine Arts, this building re-opened in 1894 as the Field Columbian Museum, to hold artifacts from the fair. After the fair, the museum occupied the building, for which it had paid half of the construction costs. Official Guide to the Worlds Columbian Exposition, National Crimes: A New National Data Set of Lynchings in the United States, 1883 to 1941, The Reason Why The Colored American is Not in the Worlds Columbian Exposition, North American Indian population size, A.D. 1500 to 1985, https://smarthistory.org/white-city-and-fairgrounds/, Hamlin Garland in a letter to his parents, 1893. [4] Both B. F. Goodrich and Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company assembled dirigibles at the park for the United States Navy. Factory pollution and dust clogged the air. "If you had always assumed that Chicago earned its nickname as the Windy City from the chilly gusts coming off Lake Michigan, you would be wrong. [3] It eventually introduced the world to the Goodyear Blimp, which was first assembled at the park. Today, the professional stamp dealer, based in Cleveland, maintains a unique collection of artifacts. And Why NYE Organizers Chose It", "Meet the Man Who Coined the Word 'Chiberia', "Pic of the Week: Chicago Lives up to 'Chiberia' Nickname after Cold Snap Turns City to Ice", "Despite 'Chiraq' Label, Data Show Chicago Not Even Close to Iraq", "Chiraq: What's in a Nickname? In 1901, he helped Washington to realize the master plan created almost a century earlier by Pierre LEnfant. The black city was the dark counterpart of the white city. To her left, the soaring archways of the Mines and Electricity Buildings welcomed her inside, while a seemingly endless row of columns decorated the front of the Machinery Building. Designed by top architects from the East Coast and Chicago, the grand facades included tall columns, intricate ornaments, giant domes and massive sculptures. A headline in the Cincinnati Enquirer stated: "That Windy City. HE included the process of how the fair became the Worlds Fair and how it was built, but he also gave insight to the sick under story of Henry Holmes. Thomas Barbour Bryan, the man regarded as the father of Elmhurst, was tasked with persuading Chicago city leaders and international figures to support the fair. The original statue was destroyed a few months after the worlds fair, when a giant blaze claimed many buildings. Perhaps one of the most striking lessons which the Columbian Exposition taught was that African slavery in America had not, after all, been an unmixed evil, concluded one 1894 book dedicated to the Fair, for of a truth, the advanced social conditions of American Africans over that of their barbarous countrymen is most encouraging and wonderful., separate but equal public accommodations for white and Black citizens in its, decision, and in 1903 ruled that Congress did not have to honor treaties made with Indigenous nations. The legends were true Captain Magnus Anderson knew it. Karine Jean-Pierre | 1.7K views, 59 likes, 3 loves, 75 comments, 8 shares, Facebook Watch Videos from RT: Press briefing by White House Press Secretary. Exhibits were arranged by the Smithsonian Institutes George B. Goode, who sought more than just machinery. Although it had become the nations second-largest city, it was a metropolis built on industry, by names like McCormick, Pullman, and Field. Theres also an assortment of collectibles, from glassware saved by the family of Elmhursts first mayor, to postcards and a salt dish made of shells, resembling the Nia, Pinta and Santa Maria. At the core of the fair was an area that quickly became known as the White City for its buildings with white stucco siding and its streets illuminated by electric lights. The first known repeated effort to label Chicago with this nickname is from 1876 and involves Chicago's rivalry with Cincinnati.The popularity of the nickname endures to this day, more than a century . Native American and anthropological treasures told the story of American and world history. In the nineteenth century, cities were filthy places. They felt that White City was the place to launch the crusade in a very spectacular fashion. The white city was characterized by its beautiful buildings, the opportunities, and the dreamlike quality that attracted so many men and women. Buffalo Bills Wild West offered visitors a dramatized version of the American plains. White mobs flooded the city's Black neighborhoods, lighting homes on fire and attacking residents. Chicago has been called the "Great American City," and in his latest book troping on that title, my colleague Robert J. Sampson draws on more than a decade of research in the "Windy City" to argue . The White City - The 1893 World's Fair The White City The majority of the buildings from the World's Fair were white because they were meant to be temporary. [21] The park also featured the first Shoot-the-Chutes ride in Chicago. Only 22 years later, Chicago celebrated its comeback by holding the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, with its memorable "White City." One of the Exposition buildings was rebuilt to become the Museum of Science and Industry. One of the big things Ive learned is that American and international fairs were these huge investments and showcases that drew millions of visitors from around the world, she says. Chicagos next worlds fair, hosted in 1933 and 34, was far different from the Columbian Exposition. Haydens design echoed those of the other exhibition halls in celebrating the styles of Italy as the highest form of architecture, but contemporaries, like the, , remarked on the buildings soft and soothing atmosphere of womanliness and the evidence within that womens achievements were the more refined avenues of effort which culminate in the home, the hospital, the church, and in personal adornment. [12], Within the structure, murals by women artists depicted the mythical progress of women over the centuries: the two largest, on either end of the building, were the murals by Mary Fairchild MacMonnies (painter and wife of Frederick), Primitive Woman, showing women carrying jugs of water on their heads and welcoming men back from the hunt, and, If our visitor continued into the southeastern corner of the Fair, she may have been greeted by a few unusual sights: a set of Penobscot bark tipis from the Northern Woodlands region of Maine and Quebec, a Kwakw, village was the work of the Department of Anthropology at the Fair.