Let's be fair; World
Chicago's Columbian Exposition 1893
I am going to tackle the biggest, baddest World's Fair of them all and address most of the questions and conspiracies surrounding the event. The Chicago World Fair and the Columbian Exposition of 1893 are the same fair and will be addressed as (CWF). All the world's fairs pre-WWI were built using the same methods of construction and although many world fairs featured themed buildings; they all share the same Romanesque, Greek Ionian architectural design for main buildings. So I feel strongly that by dissecting this one, any questions about the construction of the other World Fairs should be answered satisfactorily.
I will provide all links as needed throughout this essay and list my books read at the end. But honestly the real fact checking begins by you reading everything listed in the bibliography. That,s about 2000 pages of history. If you do not want to read all of that or cannot afford the books not available online then I guess you have to trust me.
NOTE: I will not go through every detail and specifics of the CWF that is not pertinent or applicable to the debunking of its myths circulating online. Leave in the comments below a question and I will answer it if I can. Questions like: Why was there an Egyptian Temple in the Electric Building? If you are going to try to disprove my facts then you better have sound proofs. Also, I do not have the time to go back and find each sentence and page for you. The sources will be listed at the end.
The Chicago WFs Columbian Exposition was dubbed the "White City" from its white plastered buildings and wide boardwalks. The ancients' idea of design was that if what's inside a building is special and wonderful the outside had to reflect the inside. So was the idea here. The best of the modern world encase in the majestic shell of history's greatest innovators and architects, the Greeks and Romans. The fair inspired Frank Buam to write Wizard of Oz and featured individual state and country inspired buildings. Peoples from around the world showed their crafts and manufacturing prowess. Most countries were eager to show off their new inventions and everyone shared their own future visions to come.
At a time when most people could only afford to read of foreign affairs and exotic climes, a CWF presented a chance to absorb culture like never before. Not since great men conquered great lands and tributes marched through the front doors has someone been able to take in so much world is so little time. It was to be a pompous spectacle unmatched for all visitors nationally and abroad to see and exchange culture. For the leisure crowd (upper class) it was a learning center, resort and a place to been seen and rub shoulders with the shakers and breakers of the time. The CWF tried to bring everyone together of the Victorian mind during an era of rapid growth and industrialization that left many worldwide yearning for the old times and to shake off fin de siecle. After the civil war, America wanted nothing less than one people, one nation and one religion. Stress and anxiety were at an all time high and everyone wanted an escape.
Three links below should show you around a bit. Is it a primer for you with good books to browse through and a map which is scaled of the CWF. I will approach this Q&A style. Expect tangents and anecdotes.
https://chicagology.com/columbiaexpo/
https://dcc.newberry.org/?p=14449
https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/collections/maps/chi1890/
1Q. No good pictures of construction taking place, thus proving it was built long ago.
1A. As photography was still expensive at the time of the CWF and photos taken were to be sold for profit. Visitors wanted clear pictures of what they visited to remember and not a heap of rubble. Dailies wanted to sell the project to people and needed good shots. So why would you want an early picture of a building and not a finished one to show people. It's common dollars and sense. That being said, there are hundreds of photos of it being built.
Workers in 1900 paid .12 cents for a baseball card sized photo. That was a half hour of work for the average worker. Equal to $5.50 today. For .12 cents in 1900 you could buy: 5lbs of flour, pound of steaks. 10 lbs potatoes, pound of bacon, 2 movie tickets, half gallon of milk, 2lbs of sugar or 2 bottle of coke.
These figures make me realize how much we get screwed today. Using the sites and figures below you will find that our avg salary today is lower than in 1900. This is based on the purchasing price of gold...oh ..you didn't know? $2451.28 in 1900 and 2409.63 in 2019. Doubt me?.... see how much the groceries above cost today. All of them are the same in equivalence or more expensive now. Meaning you have even less purchasing power.
https://www.familytree.com/blog/cost-of-that-19th-century-photo/
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/title/bulletin-united-states-bureau-labor-3943/july-1904-477611/wages-cost-living-498379?start_page=26
https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/1900?amount=1
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/24/how-much-money-americans-earn-at-every-age.html
https://www.payscale.com/data/peak-earnings
https://www.reference.com/history/much-did-things-cost-1900-9e40559daa251473
https://www.ngccoin.com/coin-explorer/liberty-head-5-pscid-64/1900-5-ms-coinid-18400
http://coinapps.com/gold/gram/calculator/
https://www.goldpriceoz.com/gold-price-calculator/
Statues being made in a building on the fair's grounds.
Staff was used to construct all facades and statues and its mixture is described on the link below. Right hand corner.
https://mohistory.org/exhibitsLegacy/Fair/WF/HTML/Artifacts/constucting/image2.html
CWF buildings with scaffolding
The famous pier unfinished with pallets of materials
Flooring for exhibits being laid, pilings in ground
2A. Wikipedia says: Bids 1882, Awards 1890 Opened May 1, 1893 Closed Oct 30, 1893
Final cost of exposition $125,000,000. Kings, potentiates, US companies, wealthiest of U.S. financiers and magnets, the Pope, U.S. Gov and many states all contributed to the cause.
That is $3,874,821,428.57 today. ....ya know...chump change. So money wasn't an issue when you consider the whole civilized world put in for this. Illinois put up 10mil itself.
Ticket to the fair cost .50 cents...$15.50 today. One and a half hours of work in 1900 and one and half hours of work in 2020. A cup of tea was also .50 cents at CWF.
So with funding secured, over 10,000 builders and artisans were hired to complete the CWF by 1893. By hiring the best architect, Daniel Burnham, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Burnham and constructing buildings onsite to manufacture all statuary and architectural pieces, they were able to build the place in two years. Each state and country had their own exhibits to build and welcome centers to construct.
It is important to realize that the mammoth buildings of the CWF were nothing more than empty warehouses. Until vendors and event organizers built their exhibits and even smaller buildings inside, these elongated warehouses, they would remain empty and of a simple skeletal construction inside. Made of iron and cheap wood, also called scantling, inside and lavishly decorated on the exterior using what was called staff. Columns, facades and decor was made in sections and delivered to the build site. Only one building, The Machinery Building, was both an attraction and powered the fair.
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So lets talk about that speed of build.
Comparisons:
Boeing Everett Factory - 98.3 acres, 13,385,378 cubic metres (472,700,200 cu ft), largest building in the world by volume. Built 1966 -opened May 1, 1967. This massive modern facility was built to make airplanes and took only one year to build and could fit Disneyland in it plus parking.
https://duchessofdisneyland.com/park-history/aerial-views-of-disneyland-over-time/
https://science.howstuffworks.com/transport/flight/modern/boeings-everett-facility-is-largest-building-on-earth.htm
https://www.rhinobldg.com/the-worlds-largest-steel-building-part-1/
https://en.wikiarquitectura.com/building/boeing-factory-in-everette/
Mason's Temple - Also built by Burnham (CWF architect) in the same year the CWF Commission started and in the same city. Was the tallest building in the world till 1929 also took one year to be built.
https://www.emporis.com/buildings/102685/masonic-temple-chicago-il-usa
<http://www.scientificamericanpast.com/Scientific American 1890 to 1899/5/lg/sci2101894.htm>
Most modern day sky scrapers take 4 years to complete. 6 to 8 for the tallest ones.
6823x10479 total spread on 556 acres with annexes. Columbian Exposition Administration Building 277 foot tall 100 ft of it was a dome. Most buildings 4 stories high or less.Avg height of 23 structures measured is 41ft. 10000 workers. The largest building was 1687x787, used 3 million feet of lumber and 5 rail carts of nails. All state exhibits were built by the states and the interiors were furnished by exhibitors. I did not include the pier of 250x2500 because it was not a building and had per-existing structure before it. Total cubic feet 2,918,967,370
For Boeing:
The main building is 2952 x 2952 on 98.7 acres with annexes of 2025 x 2652 total of 4977 x 5604 119ft tall throughout. 2500 workers. Two of the four annexes were built after construction but research does not say which ones. So deduct 950x950 if you will but I did add sqft for stockades and a livestock exhibit at which were open air from the CWF. I think I was more than generous. Total cubic feet 3,319,041,850
So from the data, the CWF took 2 years with 10000 workers to make 2.9 million sqft. An amazing feet for 1893 but completely doable. The Boeing plant took one year 2500 workers to make 3.3 million sqft 70 years later. For the Boeing plant to have been built in one year is more amazing then the CWF. Imagine constructing a building that can fit over Disneyland in CA and and still have room for parking and to do it in one year!?!? And doing it all without CADD which was still in it's infancy at MIT in the late 1960s. One advantage Boeing had over CWF is that arc welding was used extensively and was not commonly used until the late 1890s. However, it was used at the CWF to a limited degree and the CWF relied mostly on riveting beams and bolting down beams to footings. Of the 10000 workers involved, it is unclear how many were artisans and how many were construction workers at the CWF but since artisan made the facades and columns, one has to assume they had a hand in putting them up correctly. Also pneumatic tools were used at the CWF and were driven by steam pumps from the engine building.
I work in the construction field and I tell you that not much has changed as far as the equipment used in the late 1900s and today. Many of the buildings at the CWF housed the foundries and material building equipment to make most things onsite which sped up construction. This equipment was removed for exhibits later. Also worth mentioning is that railroad tracks were built to ship supplies directly into the CWF. Power for lights was available allowing work at night too.
3Q: Build all this for it just to be open a few months?
3A: Yes, Chicago winters can be brutal. The man-made lakes would have froze and the "staff" facades and statues would have deteriorated. Also the exhibitors from other countries and states had already been away from home over a year or more building the expositions and its exhibits. It was not to be a permanent attraction but more of a living museum.
4Q: The power was secret tech. How did they have electricity? How could they power 556 acres? Where the lights came from? Tesla Tesla Tesla???
4A: History of Electricity https://www.thehistoricalarchive.com/happenings/57/the-history-of-electricity-a-timeline/ you need this first.
I could cite from multiple sources about this but I think this page from "History of the World's Fair" from 1893 sums it best.
See...without exhibits these buildings would an empty warehouses..
Is....is that...Tesla's name on there... but...but I thought he was. a..gagagaghost!!! Ha!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla%27s_Egg_of_Columbus
The Machine Building powered the Electric Building. The Electric Building had incredible displays of arc and incandescent lights and columns lit by reflected crystals as light passed through them. Multicolored hues danced on the walls and sky above from hanging lights and crystal. The Machine building also powered a conveyour belts system that was linked to other machinery in exhibits. There also a dance floor outside the exhibit with an orchestra and above the revelry hung crystals attached to strings and lights would be turned to shine on them and produce rainbows of colors in the air. Many visitors for the first time in their lives seen lights and colors of that nature. Mind blown 1890s style y'all!!!
To learn more, read "History of the World's Fair" by Major Truman and read the entire chapter from the page above. The chapter features the engines used, pumps, dimensions,
specs.... I paid $60 for an original and as a
bibliophile I can tell you that there will be no second prints
or editions of originals. That is a rare commodity when researching past event. Often
we read online or paper books that have been edited with each printing and could
missed some important facts. Not so here, any real original book from
the period will and should be a first edition. I will also like to mention "Electricity at the World’s Fair of 1893 Columbian Exposition Special" by John Barrett. Barrett's book I have not read but it appears to go in depth with pictures of the engines and pumps used at the CWF. It can be found with a chapter one preview and pictures.
Many books were made to sell at the CWF and millions of people visited so a lot of material exist for everyone to check out.
5Q: Is there any buildings left from the CWF to collaborate your claim it really happened so that I can get off my ass and go match the place to a photo at the event?
5A: Yes! Besides numerous sites auctioning and selling memorabilia and collectibles from the CWF, we have a few buildings that survived.
Bonus: virtual tour included in one of the links.
https://drloihjournal.blogspot.com/2018/06/the-seven-surviving-structures-of-the-chicago-worlds-columbian-exposition-1893.html
https://allthatsinteresting.com/1893-chicago-worlds-fair
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/relics-of-the-world-s-fair-chicago
https://worldsfairchicago1893.com/2018/07/15/the-long-journey-of-the-norway-building/
http://vi.vipr.ebaydesc.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItemDescV4&item=190627267555&t=1505515154000&category=4164&seller=lhowardestates&excSoj=1&excTrk=1&lsite=0&ittenable=true&domain=ebay.com&descgauge=1&cspheader=1&oneClk=2&secureDesc=0&oversion=d8959393
Where some items from exhibit ended up:
https://worldsfairchicago1893.com/home/sites/exhibits-about-the-fair/
C-Span talk about CWF:
https://www.c-span.org/video/?477995-1/1893-columbian-exposition-library-congress
Conclusion:
Chicago was given the elusive moniker "world city" in the late 1900s and was also known as the "Paris of America" and the "City of the Century". It beat out St Louis, Salt Lake City, Washington and NYC for the honor of hosting the World's Fair. After the great fire of 1871, it become one of the fastest growing cities in the US and had excess to all the laborers the CWF needed and the top of the line equipment for building. Buildings were going up left and right and city planners/architects like Burnham made decision with taste and economy when approaching it's layout. Steam powered equivalents of cranes, excavators and earth movers existed and were employed to build massive buildings like never before. Chicago for the next hundred years would be known for it's steel and meat production and as a hub of commerce due to its central US position and the worldwide branding it got from the CWF.
https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/collections/maps/chi1890/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVPlKef6quc
The Columbian Exposition (Chicago World's Fair) was not built by Tartars or made with long lost or secret technology from people a long time ago. It was humans doing what we do best and that is recreating heaven on Earth based on our own twisted ideologies.
I know some of you guys will not let go of this World's Fair "mystery" because you have invested into a belief based or hearsay or you made a book or video about it contrary to the evidence widely available and opposing you. Why do you think these photos on the internet are fake? Or the stories behind them are fake? If you truly read a book from the period or several, how could you think that this worldwide endeavour was not on the level? Take one thing on here and tear it apart and prove without a shadow of a doubt it is a lie or faked. You can't. It's real. It happened the way it was written it happened. People can do great things when they aren't fighting and raping. Maybe some of you feel I am being disingenuous or a "shill" or whatever. Drop the bag you keep hauling around for this world's fair shit....just drop it. Step over the bag of shit and move on with your life. Bigger mysteries to solve.
With all the available period books and memorabilia of just a little over a hundred years old readily available on and offline; there should be no question to the authenticity of the worlds fairs and time in which they were built. Do you really, with an adult mind, think people sold fake souvenir guides in the 1890s to a fake fair attendants in a fake fair that only a secret cabal knew as a ancient city that was built long ago for you question later in 2020??? If it wasn't for what was left of the CWF from old books and guides, no one alive today would know it existed at all. It's existence is based on the proofs you deny are real. You cannot say it's a real Roman temple from a lost civilizations and also at the same time say that the other things in the pictures are fake. One could then say the buildings are fake and the other things are real. You cannot pick and choose what you want to believe when presenting facts. I could put hundreds of photos on here but If you deniers would actually read a book or two about the CWF and see how it all came together any mystery in your mind would dissipate.
Bibliography:
In addition to the links and books provided throughout this essay, I read many articles and pages on archive.org months before I bought books on the subject matter. It would be impossible to find each one read. However, Archive.org is the best place for researching the world fairs.
Books: Louisiana & The Fair Exposition of the World by JW Buel 1905 Volume 1
The Magic City by J. Buel A Photograph Portfolio 1893 Chicago Worlds Fair 1894
1892 Worlds Columbian Exposition Illustrated Journal Chicago Worlds Fair (a periodical produced for two years (1892-1893) highlighting the construction of the fair)
History of the World's Fair 1893 by Major Ben Truman
The following books deal with the spirit of the age:
Invented Futures: Fin De Siecle Fantasies by Poddar and Andrew
Fin de Siecle and Its Legacy by Teich and Porter
More links:
https://racingnelliebly.com/weirdscience/columbian-exposition-electricity-transformed-america/
https://www.ebay.com/itm/160-RARE-OLD-BOOKS-ON-THE-CHICAGO-WORLDS-FAIR-COLUMBIAN-EXPOSITION-1893-ON-DVD/114498605259?_trkparms=aid%3D1110006%26algo%3DHOMESPLICE.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D225086%26meid%3D31fc276a332c449e80e92d1aa114be9f%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D4%26rkt%3D12%26mehot%3Dpf%26sd%3D254792299736%26itm%3D114498605259%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D0%26pg%3D2047675%26algv%3DSimplAMLv5PairwiseWebWithDarwoV3BBEV2b&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851
https://www.grunge.com/237135/the-incredible-story-of-the-1893-worlds-fair/
Many scrapbooks and dairies for sell that mention the CWF. Most well known diary and best seller at the time:
http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~meredythspages/genealogy/worldsfair1893.htm
This site below boast an impressive book list to search for and read:
https://www.thehistoricalarchive.com/categories/Fairs-and-Festivals/index.html
Want to smell like the CWF...they got you covered
https://www.etsy.com/listing/919675303/1893-a-unisex-fragrance-inspired-by-the?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=columbian+exposition&ref=sr_gallery-1-49&organic_search_click=1
History and dating of photos:
https://familyhistorydaily.com/expert-help/19th-century-photo-types-a-breakdown-to-help-you-date-old-family-pictures/
https://forgottennewengland.com/2012/02/16/dating-old-photographs-the-clues-that-tintypes-hold-1890/
http://www.victorianweb.org/photos/chron.html
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