They crossed paths with others from around the world and walked away with a new perspective on Chicago. The millions of visitors who came to Chicago during the fair took home new ideas in commerce, industry, technology and entertainment. The influence of the White City also extended to downtown, where the Art Institute of Chicago was built for the 1893 fair. The Field Museum, which Burnham’s architecture firm helped plan, was the first occupant of the Palace of Fine Arts (in the 1920s, it moved to a different Neo-Classical building). The Museum of Science and Industry is housed in the former Palace of Fine Arts from the world’s fair. They also influenced the designs of the museums that now stand on Chicago’s lakefront. The grand Neo-Classical buildings of the White City-temples to industry and civilization-became templates for banks and public buildings across the country. The plan offered Chicago a blueprint for growth and influenced city planning around the world. Bennett’s 1909 Plan of Chicago was a culmination of lessons learned at the fair. While the fair’s buildings were not designed to be permanent structures, their architects used the grandeur and romance of Beaux-Arts classicism to legitimize the architecture of the pavilions and evoke solidity in this young city. The White City showcased chief architect Daniel Burnham’s ideas for a “City Beautiful” movement. The site of the exposition itself gained the nickname the “White City” due to the appearance of its massive white buildings. Entertainment venues and hotels sprung up in nearby Hyde Park and Woodlawn too, some of which would evolve into major resort destinations through the mid-20th century. New corridors of development grew along the lake and the new elevated “L” train line (today’s CTA Green Line) and new housing blocks were built for the fair’s workers. How did the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition impact the architecture of Chicago? Most directly, the fair promoted the rapid urbanization of the South Side. So momentous was the fair that it is represented as a star on the Chicago flag. Locals, too, were proud of the enormous progress and growth that were achieved in the two decades following the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. The fair built awareness among visitors that Chicago was taking its place as the “second city” after New York. More than 150,000 people passed through the grounds each day during its six-month run, making it larger than all of the U.S. Congress awarded Chicago the opportunity to host the fair over the other candidate cities of New York, Washington D.C. Carving out some 600 acres of Frederick Law Olmsted’s Jackson Park, the exposition was a major milestone. The World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 was the first world’s fair held in Chicago. Many people, including Wells, considered “Negro Day” to be a superficial gesture and were reluctant to participate, but Douglass took this opportunity to address the problems facing black Americans in the United States.How did the 1893 World’s Fair impact Chicago and its architecture? World, meet Chicago ![]() Douglass gave me a desk and spent the days putting this pamphlet in the hands of foreigners."Īfter extensive protests and negotiations, fair officials offered a special day for African American visitors. Every day I was on duty at the Haitian building, where Mr. We circulated ten thousand copies of this little book during the remaining three months of the fair. Barnett produced the pamphlet The Reason Why the Colored American Is Not in the World’s Columbian Exposition.Īs described by Wells, the 1893 pamphlet "was a clear, plain statement of facts concerning the oppression put upon the colored people in this land of the free and home of the brave. Garland Penn, and Wells' future husband Ferdinand L. Frederick Douglass, noted abolitionist and civil rights activist, represented the Haitian government-the stand-in as the center for the black community-at the fair. Wells and her allies accused the exposition committee of purposefully excluding African Americans and portraying the African American community in a negative light. Soon after her arrival in Chicago, Wells continued on her campaign for justice when she joined fellow African American activists in a boycott of the World’s Columbian Exposition, the internationally-famous world's fair held in Chicago to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' arrival in the New World in 1492.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |