Fun Trivia From Newsweek About the 1893 Chicago World's Fair

Clankeye

A short article in Newsweek points out that the Pledge of Allegiance, shredded wheat, and the Ferris wheel all made their debuts at the 1893 Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago.

Commemorative collectors also know that the first US commemorative coins-- the 1892/93 Columbian halves and the Isabella quarter also debuted because of this show.

In 1889 France had gotten the world's attention with their fair, which saw the unveiling of the Eiffel Tower. The Chicago Exposition was America's turn to step up and show everyone what we could do.

A quick and interesting little article. Thought I'd throw it out there.

Clankeye

nwcs

Here is a whole page my brother has done on the Columbian Expo. Link

BNE

The fair was held on the midway of what now is the campus of my alma mater: the University of Chicago. (It is still referred to as the midway.)

Clankeye

Oh wow! Thank you, NWCS.

Carl

baccaruda

The World Fairs are very interesting.

I have 2 huge file boxes from the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. All original documents from 1928-1935 much of which deals with the Century of Progress in Chicago (which apparently was quite an event).

There's a letter to the museum in there concerning Chrysler Corporation's plans for the Fair, ink-signed by Walter Chrysler.


The best part - got all this stuff at a garage sale for $5 maybe 20 years ago.

nwcs

My brother also has pages for the 1982 World's Fair and Faberge Eggs. My brother's site

truthteller

If I am not mistaken, it was the debut of the world's largest Ferris wheel.

TRUTH

keets

as a distraction from coins on eBay i'm putting together a set of the admission tickets from the Fair. there are plenty of them out there, so i'm trying to find nice crisp tickets with low serial numbers and the stub still attached. harder than it appears and easy to forget for months at a time. oh yeah, and then there's that darn quarter..........

al h.

Clankeye

<< <i>oh yeah, and then there's that darn quarter.......... >>



I love those darn quarters, Keets. They have been good luck for me over the years.

I like what you are doing with the ticket stubs.

Baccaruda: That's interesting about the papers. $5... isn't it amazing what you can find? I think it's really important that people such as yourself are finding and keeping things like that. My father did it with old photographs. He saved a whole pictoral history of the small town he grew up in when a lot of the deceased town photographer's work was headed for the junkyard.

Clankeye

keets

hey clank

the local dealer has an AU58 in a "safe" PCI holder that i just haven't convinced myself to buy yet. i think it's a significant issue from the standpoint of the year/occasion and the denomination, much like some of the commemerative gold dollars. i tend to collect type coins depending on time period, significance within the hobby and with commems, the person or event. the gay 90's have some interesting stuff. i epsecially like some of the educational notes from that period but can't afford to buy any in the condition i'd want.

al h.

baccaruda

clankeye:

that old timer was gonna throw it all away! when i saw it, it looked interesting - old western union telegrams, postcards etc. for $5 what the heck. he got it from a friend who worked at the museum who took the fileboxes when they were gonna throw them out. he said they'd been sitting in his basement for about 30 years. 30 years and was never curious enough to look at them?

sorry i love talking about them, they're my archeological find.

there are original letters from heads of industry at the time - all signed. Goodyear T&R, Goodyear Zeppelin, GE, Mahoney-Ryan (the company that built the spirit of St. Louis, docs from 1929 - 2 years after the flight), Chrysler, Dodge Brothers, Kodak. Western Unions, handwritten correspondence, blueprints, old sepia-toned photos, newpapers clippings (one with a blurb about a Chicago gangland murder on the back circa 1927), advertising brochures from the COP 1933. Signed letters from George Eastman (Kodak), Walter Chrysler, 3-4 pieces of correspondence from Henry Ford concerning the Edison Institute of Technology (funded by him) headed "Henry Ford, Dearborn, MI" and closed "from the office of Henry Ford" - unfortunately signed by someone else. Correspondence from the Edison Institute with the list of officers on the side - Thomas Edison listed as a member. Correspondence between the museum and Lambert Airfield in St. Louis and Mahoney-Ryan Aircraft Corp. concerning them building a scale model "Spirit of St. Louis" for the museum - all dated 1929!

I'm not sure if I've found everything interesting yet - and after about 15 years with them. $5. and to think people are paying hundreds of dollars for those stupid little metal buses from the 1933 Century of Progress.

Alright - back to coins...