Browse Items (194 total)

This is an image of part of the Chinese display. The amount of items, chairs, tables, cloth, and pottery show that the Chinese came to impress. However, the neatness of the display shows that the workers put time and effort into making the display…

A mural depicting the surrender of French troops to the German Empire at Sedan in 1870. While this particular mural was completed in 1884, it retains the aspects of the painting shown at the Philadelphia Centennial that angered W.D. Howells, with one…

This is a matchbox made of plated tin with an image of the Agricultural building of the Chicago World's Fair from 1893 on the front. It is curved on the one side where it reads "Wax Vestas Made in England" . A vesta is a smaller, English version of a…

The Corliss Engine, as exhibited at the Centennial Exhibition by President Grant, powered all the machines in machinery hall- and stood as a large testament to the American horsepower. In his classic nearly-poetic style, Howells described the massive…

The Corliss steam engine inside Machinery Hall, which President Grant symbolically started in a display of American development. (see corresponding post)

ben horwitz

The caption to this comic should read in the first frame "Go, my son, go and study the civilization of the Occident" and "I am industriously studying the civilization of these Americans but it is very expensive. Please send me a bag of dollars" in…

Despite China's late arrival to the Centennial and limited space for their exhibit, China's exhibit was made extremely unique by their use of partitions along the perimeter and the addition of a roof to the exhibit. This enclosure blocked…

This print is from Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Historical Register of the Centennial Exposition. It shows a variety of westerners being presented with various vases by Chinese vendors at the exhibition. Interestingly, the graphical center of the print…

This is the outside of Dahomey Village, a recreation of a West African village. The visitors, all white and dressed in modern Western clothes make a sharp contrast with the posters outside the village of half naked men with weapons. Also, the…

This is an article from Chicago Tribune, Electricity at the Fair, broadcasting the electrified Chicago World Fair in 1893. Chicago Tribune is a newspaper media worldwide. There is a specific article introducing the electricity in the Chicago Fair,…