18931 May – 30 October 1893 · Jackson Park, Chicago
World's Columbian Exposition
Chicago marked four centuries since Columbus with a world's fair in Jackson Park, planned by Daniel Burnham and Frederick Law Olmsted, which drew about 27 million visits. Its white classical 'White City' inspired the City Beautiful movement in American planning. Alongside it, the Parliament of the World's Religions heard Swami Vivekananda, while Ida B. Wells and Frederick Douglass protested the near-exclusion of Black Americans.
Sites
- Site 1: Museum of Science and IndustryThe fair's Palace of Fine Arts, rebuilt in stone and now a museum.Map ↗
- Site 2: Wooded Island and the Statue of the Republic, Jackson ParkOlmsted's lagoons and a gilded smaller replica of the fair's great statue.Map ↗
- Site 3: Art Institute of Chicago, Michigan Avenue buildingBuilt for the fair's congresses and the Parliament of Religions; the street outside is signed Swami Vivekananda Way.Map ↗
Guides who take you there
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Also in Chicago
More from the 18th & 19th Century
Read more: reference. Summary written by History-Tours.com.