by Richard Peck
The fair inspired another Chicago man, L. Frank Baum, to create a mythical land in his series of books beginning with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The White City became, on the page, the Emerald City. The Czech composer Antonín Dvořák was moved by the fair to write his New World Symphony, and Scott Joplin went on to syncopate a new century in ragtime.
The fair’s founders aimed to educate the populace, but the populace flocked to the fair, and the Midway, to have a good time. They rode George Ferris’s great wheel for the thrill and the view, not because it was a mechanical miracle. The wheel that had become the true symbol, the Eiffel Tower, of the fair outlived it to be set up again in St. Louis for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904. Only then was it dismembered, and its metal bones now lie under the Forest Park golf course in St. Louis.
But not before it inspired thousands more, smaller Ferris wheels. The Midway itself, with its bouncy blend of beer gardens, bears on bicycles, peep shows, joy rides, and such personalities as Lillian Russell, Gentleman Jim Corbett, and the gyrating Little Egypt became the American carnival, touring every small town by rail and road before it took root again and became the theme park. Buffalo Bill’s Wild West and Congress of Rough Riders of the World outgrossed both fair and Midway, inspiring a new, purely American entertainment, the rodeo.
The world was never the same again. Products introduced in the pavilions and along the Midway—hamburgers, carbonated drinks, Cream of Wheat, Juicy Fruit gum among them—became staples of the consumerist society.
Perhaps a more important legacy of the fair was the collective memory of those who glimpsed its wonders as their first vision of the world as it was, and as it might be. In millions of minds the great wheel kept turning in the summer sky above the incandescent White City that seemed to banish darkness and doubt.
PHOTO CREDITS
Cover: Chromolithograph of the Ferris wheel, World’s Columbian Exposition, 1893, by permission of the Chicago Historical Society (ICHi-23666). Artist: Charles Graham.
Pages vi-vii: Court of Honor looking east toward the Grand Plaza, World’s Columbian Exposition, 1893, by permission of the Chicago Historical Society (photo 00119). Photographer: C. D. Arnold.
Page 37: Buffalo Bill’s Wild West and Congress of Rough Riders of the World, souvenir booklet cover, 1893, by permission of the Chicago Historical Society (ICHi-29777). Creators: Cody and Salsbury.
Page 71: Western Entrance of Midway Plaisance, World’s Columbian Exposition, 1893, by permission of the Paul V. Galvin Library Digital History Collection, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago. Photographer unknown.
Page 97: Woman’s Building, with footbridge in foreground, World’s Columbian Exposition, 1893, by permission of the Chicago Historical Society (ICHi-16265). Photographer: Harrison.
Page 121: Lillian Russell, year unknown, by permission of the Chicago Historical Society (ICHi-31653). Photographer unknown.
Page 136: View from roof of Manufacturers & Liberal Arts building, World’s Columbian Exposition, 1893, by permission of the Chicago Historical Society (ICHi-02525). Photographer: C. D. Arnold.
Page 138: Col. William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody, year unknown, by permission of the Chicago Historical Society (ICHi-31653). Photographer: Stacy.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Richard Peck, the acclaimed author of more than twenty-five novels, has received numerous awards for his work, including the Newbery Medal for A Year Down Yonder, the Newbery Honor for its prequel, A Long Way from Chicago, and the Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement in young adult literature. Mr. Peck grew up in Decatur, Illinois, and now lives in New York City.
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