World's Columbian Expostion
A.K.A Chicago World's Fair
The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The large pool in the photo above represented the voyage that Columbus took to the "New World". Unlike NYC, Washington DC, and St. Louis, Chicago won the right to host the fair. This fair was a socially influencial and cultural event and had a big effect on American architecture, the arts, American industrial optimism and Chicago's overall image.
The whole fair covered 690 acres, featuring nearly 200 new buildings of predominantly neoclassical artchitecture, canals and lagoons. The layout of the fair was mostly designed by John Wellborn Root, Daniel Burnham, Frederick Law Olmsted and Charles B Atwood. It was a prototype of what Burnham and his colleagues thought a city should be, following Beaux-Arts principles of design. Neoclasical Architecture principles based on symmetry, balance and splendor.
The fair opened in May and ran til October 30, 1893. A total of forty six nations participated in the fair, constructing exhibits and pavillions and naming national "delegates". The fair drew over 27 million visitors. The fair took place in Jackson Park and on the Midway PLaisance in the neighborhoods of South Shore, Jackson Park Highlands, Hyde Park and Woodlawn. However tragety struck when the fair ended with the city in shock as the popular mayor, Carter Harrison, Sr. was assassinated by Patrick Eugene Prendergast two days before the closing of the fair. All closing ceremonies were canceled for a public memorial service. Jackson Park was then retured back to its usual public park status with a much less swampy form than when it started off.
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One of the many attractions at the fair was John Bull's locomotives on display. Being built in 1831 the locomotive was only 62 years old and was the first locomotive to aqcuisition by the Smithsonian Institution. It ran under its own power from Washington D.C to chicago so that it could participate in the fair and then returned right back to Washington with its own power still. In 1981 it was the oldest surviving operable steam locomotive in the world when it yet again ran on its own power.
Norway participated by sending the Viking, a replica of the Gokstad ship. In 1919 the viking ship was moved to Licoln Park and relocated in 1996 to Good Templar Park in Geneva, Illinois where its currently awaiting renovation.