The World's Columbian Exposition of 1893: Sources and Further Reading
Sources
Bolotin, Norm, and Christine Laing. Chicago’s Grand Midway: a Walk Around the World at the Columbian Exposition. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2017.
Bolotin, Norm, and Christine Laing. The World’s Columbian Exposition: the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2002. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/worldscolumbiane0000bolo.
Harris, Neil, Wim de. Wit, Robert W. Rydell, and James Burkhart. Gilbert. Grand Illusions: Chicago’s World’s Fair of 1893. Chicago, Ill: Chicago Historical Society, 1993.
“Ida B. Wells: African Americans at the World's Columbian Exposition.” In Encyclopedia of Chicago. Chicago: Chicago Historical Society, 2005. http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/1495.html.
Reed, Christopher Robert. All the World Is Here!: the Black Presence at White City. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000.
Rydell, Robert W. “World's Columbian Exposition.” In Encyclopedia of Chicago. Chicago: Chicago Historical Society, 2005. http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/1386.html.
Wells, Ida B. The Reason Why the Colored American Is Not in the World’s Columbian Exposition: The Afro-American’s Contribution to Columbian Literature. Chicago: [s.n.], 1893. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/reasonwhycolored00unse.
Further Reading
Explore what the Chicago Architecture Center has to say about the notable architecture of the 1893 World’s Fair.
Listen to an album from Lake Forest College and the Chicago History Museum featuring souvenir music that capitalized on the Fair craze in Chicago and across the country.
Learn more about Illinois native George Ferris’ great wheel by visiting the Illinois Digital Heritage Hub’s Highlights blogpost about the Ferris Wheel.
Read a first-hand diary account held by The Newberry of a teenage boy from Irvington, Indiana, Errett McLeod Graham, visiting the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago with his family for three weeks.
Experience another side of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Erik Larson’s National Book Award finalist The Devil in the White City, a book about Daniel Burnham’s construction of the great Chicago World’s Fair of 1893, and the prolific serial killer who used the fair as a lure.