Editing World's Columbian Exposition (section)

== Architecture ==

=== White City ===
[[File:World Columbian Exposition - White City - 1.JPG|thumb|White City]]
Most of the buildings of the fair were designed in the [[neoclassical architecture]] style. The area at the Court of Honor was known as '''The White City'''. Façades were made not of stone, but of a mixture of plaster, cement, and jute fiber called [[Staff (building material)|staff]], which was painted white, giving the buildings their "gleam". Architecture critics derided the structures as "decorated sheds.” The buildings were clad in white [[stucco]], which, in comparison to the [[tenement]]s of Chicago, seemed illuminated. It was also called the White City because of the extensive use of street lights, which made the boulevards and buildings usable at night.

In 1892, working under extremely tight deadlines to complete construction, director of works Daniel Burnham appointed [[Francis Davis Millet]] to replace the fair's official director of color-design, William Pretyman. Pretyman had resigned following a dispute with Burnham. After experimenting, Millet settled on a mix of oil and white lead [[whitewash]] that could be applied using compressed air [[spray paint]]ing to the buildings, taking considerably less time than traditional brush painting.<ref name="devil" /> Joseph Binks, maintenance supervisor at Chicago's [[Marshall Field's Wholesale Store]], who had been using this method to apply whitewash to the subbasement walls of the store, got the job to paint the Exposition buildings.<ref>finishingacademy.com, 1.1.1 The History of the Spray Booth</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bodyshopbusiness.com/the-history-of-sprayguns/|title=The History of Sprayguns – Body Shop Business|date=1 September 2000|access-date=2016-08-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160904164125/http://www.bodyshopbusiness.com/the-history-of-sprayguns/|archive-date=2016-09-04|url-status=live}}</ref> Claims this was the first use of spray painting may be apocryphal since journals from that time note this form of painting had already been in use in the railroad industry from the early 1880s.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/The-312/November-2011/The-Contentious-Historical-Origins-Spray-Paint/|title=The Contentious Historical Origins of Spray Paint|access-date=2016-08-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180719143105/http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/The-312/November-2011/The-Contentious-Historical-Origins-Spray-Paint/|archive-date=2018-07-19|url-status=live}}</ref>

Many of the buildings included sculptural details and, to meet the Exposition's opening deadline, chief architect Burnham sought the help of [[Chicago Art Institute]] instructor [[Lorado Taft]] to help complete them. Taft's efforts included employing a group of talented women sculptors from the Institute known as "the [[White Rabbits (sculptors)|White Rabbits]]" to finish some of the buildings, getting their name from Burnham's comment "Hire anyone, even white rabbits if they'll do the work."

The words "Thine alabaster cities gleam" from the song "[[America the Beautiful]]" were inspired by the White City.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.steynonline.com/12614/america-the-beautiful|title=America the Beautiful|date=July 3, 2022 }}</ref>

==== Role in the City Beautiful movement ====
[[File:The great white city, World's Columbian Exposition, by Kilburn, B. W. (Benjamin West), 1827-1909.jpg|thumb|The "Great White City"]]

The White City is largely credited for ushering in the [[City Beautiful movement]] and planting the seeds of modern city planning.  The highly integrated design of the landscapes, promenades, and structures provided a vision of what is possible when planners, landscape architects, and architects work together on a comprehensive design scheme.

The White City inspired cities to focus on the beautification of the components of the city in which municipal government had control; streets, municipal art, public buildings, and public spaces. The designs of the City Beautiful Movement (closely tied with the municipal art movement) are identifiable by their classical architecture, plan symmetry, picturesque views, and axial plans, as well as their magnificent scale.  Where the municipal art movement focused on beautifying one feature in a city, the City Beautiful movement began to make improvements on the scale of the district. The White City of the World's Columbian Exposition inspired the [[Merchants Club]] of Chicago to commission [[Daniel Burnham]] to create the Plan of Chicago in 1909.<ref>Levy, John M. (2009) Contemporary Urban Planning.</ref>

=== Great buildings ===
[[File:Agricultural Building at the Worlds Columbian Exposition, Chicago, Illinois, circa 1893.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|Painting of the Agricultural Building]]
[[File:Forestry Building World's Fair.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|The Forestry Building]]

There were fourteen main "great buildings"<ref name=DCS />{{rp|17}} centered around a giant reflective pool called the Grand Basin.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Visions of America: A History of the United States Since 1865|last = Keene|first = Jennifer|publisher = Pearson|year = 2013|isbn = 978-0-205-25163-6|location = London|pages = 508, 510}}</ref> Buildings included:
* The Administration Building, designed by [[Richard Morris Hunt]]
* The Agricultural Building, designed by [[Charles Follen McKim|Charles McKim]] of [[McKim, Mead & White]]
* The Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building, designed by [[George B. Post]]. If this building were standing today, it would rank third in volume (8,500,000m<sup>3</sup>) and eighth in footprint (130,000&nbsp;m<sup>2</sup>) on [[list of largest buildings]].<ref name=devil /> It exhibited works related to literature, science, art and music.
* The Mines and Mining Building, designed by [[Solon Spencer Beman]]
* The Electricity Building, designed by [[Henry Van Brunt]] and [[Frank M. Howe|Frank Maynard Howe]]
* The Machinery Hall, designed by [[Robert Swain Peabody]] of Peabody and Stearns
* [[The Woman's Building (Chicago)|The Woman's Building]], designed by [[Sophia Hayden Bennett|Sophia Hayden]]
* The Transportation Building, designed by [[Adler & Sullivan]]
* The Fisheries Building designed by [[Henry Ives Cobb]]<ref name=DCS />{{rp|23}}
* Forestry Building designed by [[Charles B. Atwood]]
* Horticultural Building designed by [[Jenney and Mundie]]
* Anthropology Building designed by [[Charles B. Atwood]]

=== Transportation Building ===
[[File:The Gilded Entrance to the Transportation Building (3405437784).jpg|thumb|Golden Arch at [[Louis Sullivan]]'s Transportation Building]]

[[Louis Sullivan]]'s polychrome proto-Modern Transportation Building was an outstanding exception to the prevailing style, as he tried to develop an organic American form. Years later, in 1922, he wrote that the classical style of the White City had set back modern American architecture by forty years.<ref>Sullivan, Louis (1924). ''Autobiography of an Idea''. New York City: Press of the American institute of Architects, Inc.. p. 325.</ref>

As detailed in [[Erik Larson (author)|Erik Larson]]'s popular history ''[[The Devil in the White City]]'', extraordinary effort was required to accomplish the exposition, and much of it was unfinished on opening day. The famous [[Ferris Wheel (1893)|Ferris Wheel]], which proved to be a major attendance draw and helped save the fair from bankruptcy, was not finished until June, because of waffling by the board of directors the previous year on whether to build it. Frequent debates and disagreements among the developers of the fair added many delays. The spurning of [[Buffalo Bill]]'s Wild West Show proved a serious financial mistake.  Buffalo Bill set up his highly popular show next door to the fair and brought in a great deal of revenue that he did not have to share with the developers. Nonetheless, construction and operation of the fair proved to be a windfall for Chicago workers during the serious economic recession that was sweeping the country.<ref name=devil />

=== Surviving structures ===
<gallery mode="packed" heights="200px">
File:1893 Nina Pinta Santa Maria replicas.jpg|alt=Nina, Pinta, Santa Maria replicas.|''[[Pinta (ship)|Pinta]]'', ''[[Santa María (ship)|Santa María]]'', and ''[[Niña (ship)|Niña]]'' replicas from Spain.
File:Viking, replica of the Gokstad Viking ship, at the Chicago World Fair 1893.jpg|alt=Viking, replica of the Gokstad Viking ship.|''[[Viking (replica Viking longship)|Viking]]'', a replica of the [[Gokstad ship]].
File:Chicago expo White City fire.jpg|alt=White City fire|After the fair, the White City on fire.
</gallery>

Almost all of the fair's structures were designed to be temporary;<ref>[https://www.beyondthewhitecity.org/worlds-columbian-exposition The City Beyond the White City, World’s Columbian Exposition, Contextualizing the Fair, .beyondthewhitecity.org]</ref> of the more than 200 buildings erected for the fair, the only two which still stand in place are the [[Palace of Fine Arts, Chicago|Palace of Fine Arts]] and the [[Art Institute of Chicago Building|World's Congress Auxiliary Building]]. From the time the fair closed until 1920, the Palace of Fine Arts housed the Field Columbian Museum (now the [[Field Museum of Natural History]], since relocated); in 1933 (having been completely rebuilt in permanent materials), the Palace building re-opened as the [[Museum of Science and Industry (Chicago)|Museum of Science and Industry]].<ref>[http://www.msichicago.org/explore/about-us/museum-facts/ About The Museum – Museum History] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160408184848/http://www.msichicago.org/explore/about-us/museum-facts |date=2016-04-08 }} – [[Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago]], USA</ref>  The second building, the World's Congress Building, was one of the few buildings not built in Jackson Park, instead it was built downtown in [[Grant Park (Chicago)|Grant Park]]. The cost of construction of the World's Congress Building was shared with the [[Art Institute of Chicago]], which, as planned, moved into the building (the museum's current home) after the close of the fair.

The three other significant buildings that survived the fair represented Norway, the Netherlands, and the State of Maine. The [[Norway]] Building was a recreation of a traditional wooden [[stave church]]. After the Fair it was relocated to Lake Geneva, and in 1935 was moved to a museum called [[Little Norway, Wisconsin|Little Norway]] in [[Blue Mounds, Wisconsin]]. In 2015 it was dismantled and shipped back to Norway, where it was restored and reassembled.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/the-journey-for-the-norway-building-comes-full-circle/article_e0a3ae2e-034b-58b9-8de3-dfc972bf41e7.html|title=The journey for the Norway Building comes full circle|last=Journal|first=Barry Adams {{!}} Wisconsin State|work=madison.com|access-date=2018-07-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180709172126/https://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/the-journey-for-the-norway-building-comes-full-circle/article_e0a3ae2e-034b-58b9-8de3-dfc972bf41e7.html|archive-date=2018-07-09|url-status=live}}</ref> The second is the [[Maine State Building]], designed by Charles Sumner Frost, which was purchased by the Ricker family of [[Poland Spring, Maine]]. They moved the building to their resort to serve as a library and art gallery. The Poland Spring Preservation Society now owns the building, which was listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]] in 1974. The third is [[The Dutch House (Brookline, Massachusetts)|The Dutch House]], which was moved to [[Brookline, Massachusetts]].

The [[Viking (replica Viking longship)|1893 Viking ship]] that was sailed to the Exposition from Norway by Captain Magnus Andersen is located in [[Geneva, Illinois]]. The ship is open to visitors on scheduled days April through October.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.vikingship.us|title=Friends of the Viking Ship|access-date=2018-11-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181011214705/http://www.vikingship.us/|archive-date=2018-10-11|url-status=live}}</ref>

The main altar at [[St. John Cantius in Chicago]], as well as its matching two side altars, are reputed to be from the Columbian Exposition.

Since many of the other buildings at the fair were intended to be temporary, they were removed after the fair. The White City so impressed visitors (at least before air pollution began to darken the façades) that plans were considered to refinish the exteriors in marble or some other material. These plans were abandoned in July 1894, when much of the fair grounds was destroyed in a fire.

=== Gallery ===
<gallery mode="packed" heights="200px">
File:Chi-fair-13-20080924.jpg|The Administration Building and Grand Court during the October 9, 1893, commemoration of the 22nd anniversary of the Chicago Fire.
File:Chicago expo Manufactures bldg.jpg|The Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building, seen from the southwest.
File:Chicago expo Horticultural bldg.jpg|Horticultural Building, with Illinois Building in the background.
File:Chicago expo Machinery Hall.jpg|A view toward the Peristyle from Machinery Hall.
File:Chicago expo Midway Plaisance.jpg|Midway Plaisance
File:The World's Columbian exposition, Chicago, 1893 (1893) (14593740420).jpg|[[Frederick MacMonnies]]' Columbian Fountain.
File:columex.jpg|"Canal of Venice" during Chicago World's Fair 1893
File:Die Gartenlaube (1893) b 417.jpg|President Cleveland opens the World's Fair, as depicted by Rudolf Cronau in 1893
</gallery>

=== Later criticisms ===
[[File:Dahomey Village--On The Midway — Official Views Of The World's Columbian Exposition — 110.jpg|thumb|right|Apart from official nation displays, non-white cultures were largely excluded from the main park and were instead found on the Midway.]]

[[Frank Lloyd Wright]] later wrote that "By this overwhelming rise of grandomania I was confirmed in my fear that a native architecture would be set back at least fifty years."<ref>''A Testament'' by Frank Lloyd Wright. Bramhall House. New York. 1957. (p 57)</ref>

According to [[University of Notre Dame]] history professor Gail Bederman, the event symbolized a male-dominated and Eurocentrist society. In her 1995 text ''Manliness and Civilization'', she writes, "The White City, with its vision of future perfection and of the advanced racial power of manly commerce and technology, constructed civilization as an ideal of white male power."<ref name="Manliness and Civilization">{{cite book |last1=Bederman |first1=Gail |title=Manliness and Civilization: A Cultural History of Gender and Race in the United States, 1880–1917 |year=1996 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |location=Chicago |isbn=978-0-226-04139-1 |pages=35–40 |edition=1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KVtKszMHWbcC |access-date=30 July 2020}}</ref> According to Bederman, people of color were barred entirely from participating in the organization of the White City and were instead given access only to the Midway exhibit, "which specialized in spectacles of barbarous races – 'authentic' villages of Samoans, Egyptians, Dahomans, Turks, and other exotic peoples, populated by actual imported 'natives.'"<ref name="Manliness and Civilization" />

Two small exhibits were included in the White City's "Woman's Building" which addressed women of color. One, entitled "Afro-American" was installed in a distant corner of the building.<ref name="Manliness and Civilization" />  The other, called "Woman's Work in Savagery," included baskets, weavings, and African, Polynesian, and Native American arts. Though they were produced by living women of color, the materials were represented as relics from the distant past, embodying "the work of white women's own distant evolutionary foremothers."<ref name="Manliness and Civilization" />

=== Visitors ===
[[File:Front of ticket for admission to the World's Columbian Exposition.jpg|thumb|Front of ticket for admission to the World's Columbian Exposition]]

[[Helen Keller]], along with her mentor [[Anne Sullivan]] and Dr. [[Alexander Graham Bell]], visited the fair in summer 1893. Keller described the fair in her autobiography ''[[The Story of My Life (biography)|The Story of My Life]]''.<ref>{{cite web|title = The Story of My Life.|url = http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/keller/life/life.html|website = digital.library.upenn.edu |access-date = 2016-01-03|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160114165042/http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/keller/life/life.html|archive-date = 2016-01-14|url-status = live}}</ref> Early in July, a [[Wellesley College]] English teacher named [[Katharine Lee Bates]] visited the fair. The White City later inspired the reference to "alabaster cities" in her poem and lyrics "[[America the Beautiful]]".<ref>[http://www.falmouthhistoricalsociety.org/05/klbates.htm "Falmouth Museums on the Green"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090123112337/http://www.falmouthhistoricalsociety.org/05/klbates.htm |date=2009-01-23 }}, Falmouth Historical Society</ref> The exposition was extensively reported by Chicago publisher [[William D. Boyce]]'s reporters and artists.<ref name="pett1">{{harvnb|Petterchak|2003|pp=17–18}}</ref> There is a very detailed and vivid description of all facets of this fair by the [[Persians|Persian]] traveler Mirza Mohammad Ali Mo'in ol-Saltaneh written in [[Persian language|Persian]]. He departed from [[Iran|Persia]] on April 20, 1892, especially for the purpose of visiting the World's Columbian Exposition.<ref>Muʿīn al-Salṭana, Muḥammad ʿAlī (Hāǧǧ Mīrzā), Safarnāma-yi Šīkāgū : ḵāṭirāt-i Muḥammad ʿAlī Muʿīn al-Salṭana bih Urūpā wa Āmrīkā : 1310 Hiǧrī-yi Qamarī / bih kūšiš-i Humāyūn Šahīdī, [Tihrān] : Intišrāt-i ʿIlmī, 1984, 1363/[1984].</ref>

[[Pierre de Coubertin]] visited the fair with his friends [[Paul Bourget]] and [[Samuel Jean de Pozzi]]. He devotes the first chapter of his book ''Souvenirs d'Amérique et de Grèce'' (1897) to the visit. [[Swami Vivekananda]] visited the fair to attend the [[Parliament of the World's Religions]] and delivered his famous speech ''Sisters and Brothers of America!''.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.swamivivekanandaquotes.org/2014/05/sisters-and-brothers-of-america.html|title=Sisters And Brothers Of America|website=www.swamivivekanandaquotes.org|access-date=2016-10-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161022153943/http://www.swamivivekanandaquotes.org/2014/05/sisters-and-brothers-of-america.html|archive-date=2016-10-22|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Kubota Beisen]] was an official delegate of Japan. As an artist, he sketched hundreds of scenes, some of which were later used to make woodblock print books about the Exhibition.<ref>BIJYUTSUHIN GAFU vol. 4, 1893{{full citation needed|date=May 2019}}</ref> Serial killer [[H. H. Holmes]] attended the fair with two of his eventual victims, Annie and Minnie Williams.
[[Bulgaria]]n writer [[Aleko Konstantinov]] visited the fair and wrote his [[nonfiction]] book ''[[To Chicago and Back]]''.