America at the Fair Read online

  Goodspeed got down to work to raise the matching funds from the leading citizens of Chicago, most of whom were not Baptists. Marshall Field donated open land between 56th and 59th Street in Hyde Park. This land abutted the Midway Plaisance between 59th and 60th Streets, the amusement park that would delight millions during the Fair. Martin A. Ryerson, who made his fortune in lumber, real estate, banking, and the Elgin Watch Company, contributed generously. Silas Cobb, the son of a Vermont farmer, gained his wealth in real estate, railroads, and banking, and contributed funds for the chemistry building. Leo Mandel, the German-born son of a Jewish dry goods dealer and himself the owner of a leading Chicago department store, paid for the university’s assembly hall.

  With proven local participation, Rockefeller became increasingly enthusiastic about the idea of building a great university in Chicago. He wished to develop a Midwestern “natural aristocracy” of intellect and scholarship, rather than emulate the patterns of privilege and money seen in the eastern colleges. Rockefeller steadily increased his support for the university. In 1891 he gave $510,000 and in 1892 an additional $1.35 million. The campus for the University of Chicago was designed by Henry Ives Cobb, born in Brookline, Massachusetts in 1859. He trained at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard before joining the Boston architectural firm of Peabody & Stearns. In 1882 Cobb moved to Chicago, where he designed Potter Palmer’s mansion on Lake Shore Drive and the Fish & Fisheries Building at the World’s Columbian Exposition. Rockefeller authorized President Harper to bring the best and the brightest minds to the university. Harper recruited John Dewey, James Hayden Tufts, and George Herbert Mead to teach philosophy, Albion Small to teach sociology, and the novelist Robert Herrick for the English department. These scholars were all sons of New England. The University of Chicago was incorporated in 1890 and the first class of 750 students entered in 1892. One quarter of the students were women and a small number were Jews, Catholics, or blacks. The university was founded by the Baptists but was co-educational and nondenominational from the onset. Over the years, John D. Rockefeller gave millions more to support his university, but visited it only twice.

  The Columbus Pitcher was made for the 1893 Fair by Copeland Spode pottery company. In 1894, Burley & Company of Chicago commissioned a similar pitcher for sale at its store on State Street.

  The 60-foot Yerkes telescope was built by the Cleveland-based firm of Warner & Swasey. The telescope was saved when the Manufactures Building burned after the close of the Fair. Because of smog, the University of Chicago later permanently installed the telescope at the Yerkes Observatory in William’s Bay, Wisconsin.

  One of the prized assets of the University of Chicago was its Yerkes telescope. Charles Tyson Yerkes (1837–1905) made his fortune from the Chicago cable trolley system. It appealed to his vanity to pay for the naming rights to the world’s largest telescope. The 60-foot telescope, moved by electricity and its main lens 40 inches in diameter, was prominently mounted at the center of the Manufactures Building at the Fair. The giant telescope was built by the Cleveland-based engineering firm of Warner & Swasey. Both Worcester Reed Warner and Ambrose Swasey, the principals of the firm, were New Englanders who moved west. At the end of the Fair, due to the high level of pollution, the Yerkes telescope could not remain in Chicago but instead was installed at the Yerkes Observatory in William’s Bay, Wisconsin. Warner & Swasey also built the McCormick Telescope, installed at the University of Virginia, as a gift from Leander, brother of Cyrus McCormick.

  The third major cultural event of the time was the birth in 1890 of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Philharmonic societies in Chicago, such as the Musical Union, Mozart Society, and the Mendelssohn Society dated back to the 1850s. But many of Chicago’s theaters, music halls, and music schools were destroyed in the fire of 1871, and most serious musicians left the city. In the years after the fire the large German population encouraged the return of Wagner’s music and German opera and gifted amateurs or occasional touring orchestras gave concerts. In 1890, a group of businessmen under the leadership of Charles Norman Fay formed the Orchestral Association and raised the money to invite the conductor Theodore Thomas to move to Chicago. Thomas, who had long struggled to find a home in America for serious music, jumped at the chance of establishing a permanent professional orchestra “of the highest character” in Chicago. (Upton 1892). Theodore Thomas and his professional orchestra gave their inaugural concert on October 16, 1891, playing Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1. The vast Auditorium concert hall with 4,000 seats proved too big and in 1904, the Chicago Symphony moved to its permanent home with the construction of the 2,566-seat Orchestra Hall on Michigan Avenue.

  The Chicago of 1893 was a city of superlatives. The city already had 16 buildings taller than 13 stories high. The tallest was the 20-story Masonic Temple at State and Randolph Streets. The Board of Trade, Chamber of Commerce, Great Northern Hotel, and the Monadnock Building were among the tallest. Chicago was the largest cattle market in the world, and the largest in lumber, grain, and meat packing. The city had the world’s largest stock yards, largest grain storage facilities, most extensive railroad network, biggest office buildings, and finest hotels. Within city limits were the world’s largest agricultural machinery factories, largest retail dry goods store, and the headquarters of Montgomery Ward and Sears, Roebuck, the two largest mail order businesses. With its new art institute, university, and symphony orchestra, the young and brash Chicago had the makings of a great city and seemed destined to pass New York to become the largest city in America. Now it would host the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, which would be much bigger than London’s Crystal Palace Exhibition of 1851, and bigger even than the 1889 Paris Exposition.

  4. THE WORLD’S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION

  The first international exhibition was held in London in 1851. Known as the Great Exhibition or the Crystal Palace, the fair proclaimed Britain’s position as the greatest empire and the world’s leading industrial power. The fair’s 14,000 exhibitors attracted six million visitors who came to see the latest in textile looms, farm equipment, machine tools, and locomotives. America’s budding industry was represented by 500 exhibits, most of which lacked the refinement of European craftsmanship. Instead of delicate lace, tapestries, carpets, and tableware, the Americans displayed cotton and tobacco plants, cast-iron stoves, false teeth, railroad switches, and rubber shoes and boots. Queen Victoria was not impressed by her visit to the American section of Crystal Palace (Hawke 1989). A few of the American exhibits reached the standards of the Europeans. Jonas Chickering, the Boston piano maker, and Cyrus McCormick’s mechanical harvesting machine each won a gold medal. Another American success at the 1851 fair was the Robbins & Lawrence Armory of Windsor, Vermont. Richard Lawrence had devised a method to construct rifles using interchangeable parts, and teamed up with S. E. Robbins, a local businessman, to sell his product. If a part was faulty, it could be removed by a few turns of a screwdriver and a new part inserted. The British government ordered 25,000 Robbins & Lawrence rifles. During the Civil War, the Vermont company supplied rifles to the Union army.

  Using the Crystal Palace as a prototype, Paris and Vienna followed London’s example to stage their own great fairs. The United States took its turn in 1876 with a fair in Philadelphia to celebrate the centennial of the birth of the nation. Another 1889 exposition held in Paris commemorated the centennial of the French Revolution. Set in the Champ de Mars, the exposition was dominated by Gustave Eiffel’s tower, rising to a height of 986 feet, or 75 stories, and weighing over 7,300 tons. The Paris fair was lit by electricity and offered a range of amusements including restaurants, military bands, and an exotic village housing 400 indigenous people from various Asian and African countries, wearing their native dress and performing traditional ceremonies and tasks. The Paris fair was a great success and attracted 55,000 exhibitors and over 28 million visitors.

  The approach of the 400th anniversary of the arriv
al of Christopher Columbus in the New World was the stimulus for another world’s fair on American soil. New York, Washington, D.C., St. Louis, and Chicago all expressed interest in hosting the fair. Each of the four cities used its political clout and promises of financial backing to support its candidacy. With the help of its congressional delegation and the promise to raise $10 million, Chicago in the final ballot received 157 votes, New York 107, St. Louis 25, and Washington 18. The bill passed through the House of Representatives and the Senate and on April 28, 1890, was signed by President Benjamin Harrison. Chicago would be the site of the World’s Columbian Exposition and the U.S. government agreed to provide additional millions of dollars to help display “the arts, industries, manufactures and the products of the soil, mine and sea.” Invitations were extended to all the nations of the world to participate in the Fair.

  The man chosen by the mayor of Chicago to be president of the board of directors for the World’s Columbian Exposition was Lyman Judson Gage. Born in De Ruyter, New York in 1836, Gage moved to Chicago as a young man and advanced from cashier to president of the First National Bank of Chicago. (Gage later served as secretary of the treasury under Presidents McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt.) Gage resigned his position with the Fair early, and the presidency of the board went instead to Harlow N. Higinbotham, whose parents left New York state in 1834 and were among the early settlers of Illinois. Higinbotham started his career as a clerk working for Cooley, Farewell & Company and later as a bookkeeper for Marshall Field. His diligence and skill came to the attention of the principals of the company, and in 1878 he became a partner in the dry goods emporium. Harlow N. Higinbotham’s prominent and precise signature appeared on every ticket issued at the Fair.

  The members of the board of directors of the 1893 Fair were a veritable who’s-who of men of influence in Chicago. Ferdinand W. Peck, first vice president, was a key figure in the Auditorium Building, which housed Chicago’s largest hotel and concert hall. The second vice president, Robert Alexander Waller, made his money in the insurance business. Other members of the board included Charles L. Hutchinson of the Board of Trade; Carter H. Harrison, past and future mayor of Chicago; Milton Kirk, owner of a soap company; Andrew McNally of the Rand McNally printing company; Eldridge Keith of the Metropolitan National Bank; John Odell of the Union National bank; Charles T. Yerkes, owner of a trolley car company; A. M. Rothschild, owner of a department store at State & van Buren Streets; and Charles H. Schwab of Foreman Bros. banking company at 29 South La Salle Street. The executive committee met regularly at the Rand McNally Building on Adams Street and elected sub-committees in liberal arts, manufacturing, agriculture, transportation, machinery, finance, and the other segments of the Fair. Charles L. Hutchinson was appointed chairman of the Fine Arts committee, John Odell to Manufacturers and Machinery, Edward P. Ripley to Transportation, Robert C. Clowry to Electricity, and Ferdinand W. Peck to Finance. Edward Ripley was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, descended from settlers who arrived in 1630. For generations, the Ripleys of New England had earned their keep as blacksmiths until Edward moved west, found a job on the railroads, and worked his way up to president of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway. Robert Clowry started work as a humble telegrapher and ended as president of the Western Union Telegraph Company.

  The Triumphal Arch and Peristyle, designed by Charles Atwood, carries the motto: “Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” These grand buildings were sited at the eastern end of the Grand Basin, facing the Statue of the Republic. On January 8, 1894, the nearby Casino, Music Hall, and Liberal Arts Building were destroyed by fire along with the Peristyle.

  These self-made men authorized the sale of stock (one million shares at $10 each) to finance the Fair. The shares were bought by 30,000 individuals and institutions in Chicago and guaranteed that the Fair would be held in their city. The Chicago city government raised a further $6.5 million through the sale of bonds (Mayer & Wade 1969). The banks, hotels, department stores, railroads, railroad cars, steamships, telegraph services, and printing presses owned by the various members of the board benefited mightily from the success of the World’s Columbian Exposition.

  President Harrison appointed the National Commission to supervise the Fair. The president of the commission was Thomas Witherell Palmer, a distinguished former U.S. senator from Michigan. Palmer had the right pedigree for the job. His mother’s family descended directly from Roger Williams, who arrived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1631 but fled from there to establish the settlement of Providence in Rhode Island. Palmer’s father traced his ancestry to a soldier who fought the British at Bunker Hill. Palmer was assisted by no fewer than five vice presidents, sixteen commissioners-at-large or alternates, and two representatives, one Republican and one Democrat, from each state or territory. The National Commission, involving some 150 people, met for the first time at the Grand Pacific Hotel in Chicago on June 25, 1890. The commission selected the 50-year-old Colonel George R. Davis as director-general of the Exposition. Davis was born into a Quaker family from Palmer, Massachusetts. During the Civil War, he enlisted in the 8th regiment of the Massachusetts infantry and saw battle in North Carolina. Later, he served under General Sheridan in the Indian campaign of 1868–1869. Davis settled in Illinois and served in the U.S. Congress, where he advocated for Chicago as the site of the Fair. A handsome man, with a full head of hair, mustache, and beard, Davis could get things done. He worked with numerous committees and handled the often conflicting interests of the National Commission under Thomas Palmer and the local board of trustees under Harlow Higinbotham. His tact and diplomacy served him well during his three-year tenure as the key administrator of the World’s Columbian Exposition. Davis was determined to make Chicago the greatest fair ever. However, the prestige and size of the board and the commission did not translate into speed of action. President Harrison’s declaration of December 24, 1890, left Chicago less than two years until the 400th anniversary of the arrival of Columbus in the New World. It was soon decided to delay the opening of the Fair until May 1, 1893.

  The Site and the Architects

  The time taken to select a site for the Fair was the first delay. Chicago was fortunate that its early planners set aside over 2,000 acres for its many parks, several of which were considered for the Fair. Lincoln Park, with a statue of Abraham Lincoln at the entrance, sat on 250 acres on the North Side and was home to the vast botanical gardens with 100,000 plants and also to the zoological garden, with its collection of bears, prairie dogs, antelopes, buffalo, and foxes. Lincoln Park also had aviaries, greenhouses, and a Palm House, similar to the one at London’s Kew Gardens. Garfield Park lay inland, four miles west of City Hall. It was first called Central Park but its name was changed in honor of President James Garfield soon after his death in 1881. The West Side had the large Humboldt Park and the South Side had Washington Park, a mile from Lake Michigan and Jackson Park.

  The immense Manufactures Building is shown at the center of this picture and the U.S. Government Building is at the left. In the foreground is the Japanese Bridge linking the Wooded Island to the rest of the fairground.

  The man selected to choose the site and design the fairgrounds was America’s preeminent landscape architect, Frederick Law Olmsted (1822–1903). Olmsted’s previous achievements included New York’s Central Park, the park system for Buffalo, and the Niagara Reservation at Niagara Falls. In 1878 he moved to Boston to develop an urban park system for that congested city. The 68-year-old Olmsted arrived in Chicago on August 9, 1890, accompanied by his able assistant Henry Sargent Codman. The scion of an old established Boston family, Codman had trained in Paris before returning to Boston to become a trusted member of Olmsted’s design team. Olmsted and Codman made a tour of the possible sites. They considered each of Chicago’s major parks as well as a downtown site. Jackson Park—593 acres of sand, scrub oak, and grass—was the least developed of Chicago’s parks but had the great advantage of facing Lake Michigan, with
its everchanging moods and colors, and was also close to several railroad lines. Olmsted chose Jackson Park and submitted his design for the fairgrounds. Olmsted & Company were officially appointed consultant landscape architects, with the responsibility for carrying out the design. Olmsted assigned Henry Codman to supervise the massive work. Codman moved to Chicago, attended numerous committee meetings, cooperated with the architects, and worked feverishly to achieve Olmsted’s bold design. These plans called for digging a navigable canal, a central lagoon, and a grand basin around which the main buildings were constructed. Large dredging machines dug the canal and lagoon, which filled with the waters of Lake Michigan. The earth scooped up by the machines was used to build the hillocks on which trees, grass, and flowers were planted. Olmsted’s plans called for a wooded island to remain in the center of the lagoon. Bridges were built over the water to the exhibition buildings. A vast railroad station offloaded passengers at the entrance to the fairgrounds. A dock was built to accommodate the steamers coming from downtown Chicago and places further afield. Codman did not live to see the completion of his major work. Four months before the Fair opened, while still in his 20s, he died following surgery to remove an inflamed appendix.

  In November 1890 the Grounds and Buildings committee officially promoted Daniel Hudson Burnham from consultant to lead architect and director of construction for the planned Fair, with his partner John Wellborn Root chosen as chief consulting architect. Burnham was born in Henderson, New York in 1846. His ancestors were Puritan New Englanders who arrived in the New World during the 17th century. In 1855 his father, Edwin Burnham, moved the family to Chicago where he found success as a drug wholesaler. Daniel was influenced by his Swedenborgian upbringing and had a deep sense of mission that found expression in architecture. This ambition was aided by the remarkable partnership he formed with John Root. John Root was born in 1850, a son of the South. When Atlanta fell during the Civil War, young John was spirited aboard a British blockade runner to safety in Liverpool, England. At the end of the war, Root returned to the United States and moved to Chicago. The affable Burnham garnered the business for the firm, organized the projects, and raised the money, while Root served as the creative side of the partnership. Well before the Fair, the firm of Burnham & Root had designed private houses, railroad stations, hospitals, churches, and schools. The firm made its name in the Chicago school of architecture with the Masonic Temple building, the Montauk Block (1882), the Rookery Building (1888), the Rand McNally Building (1890), and the Monadnock building (1889–1891) on South Dearborn Street.