Opening the Vaults: Wonders of the 1893 World’s Fair
Exhibition Walkthrough
Opening Gallery
The opening gallery captures the sheer scope and size of the fair – it
was huge, it was expensive, it was beautiful and exciting. Collections came
from all over the world at a time when the world was viewed as one vast
resource. People saw things they had never seen before: taxidermy and
animal skeletons, fossils, meteorites, artifacts from ancient cultures, raw
materials from South America and Asia.
In the exhibition’s first gallery, archival photographs and large scale
projections give a sense of what it was like to visit the fair. Visitors will see
tickets to the World’s Columbian Exposition, the fair’s financial ledger, the
charter of the Field Columbian Museum (today’s Field Museum), the first
ticket sold to the Museum, and a sword (yes, a sword!), part of the uniform for
exposition guards which were later reused as Museum guard uniforms.
Beauty and Appreciation
Animal skeletons and taxidermy helped to provide a glimpse of places
where most World’s Fair visitors could never travel. In this section of the
exhibition, visitors will see an array of large taxidermied animals, including a
lion, and of articulated skeletons of fish, reptiles, and mammals.
This gallery introduces Carl Akeley, who worked for Ward’s Scientific
Establishment (one of the fair’s exhibitors). After the fair ended, he came to
work at the Field Columbian Museum where he continued to pioneer the art
of taxidermy. Today, Akeley’s animal dioramas are famous in museums
around the country, and his exploits in the field are the stuff of legend. (One
of the photographs in the gallery shows him standing next to a leopard he
killed with his bare hands!)
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Scientists continue to study the Field Museum Zoology collections
dating back to 1893 conducting research that is possible only with historical
collections.
Demonstrating Natural Resources
The botany collections at the World’s Fair were intended to
demonstrate the resources available in other countries and United States.
For example, nations sent samples of woods, fibers, resins, oils, and seeds.
Visitors will see an apothecary-like display with botanical samples still in
their original containers that illustrate the sheer mass and variety of what
was presented at the fair.
Many of these things are commonplace today but had never been seen
before by most people in the late 19th century. For instance, Chicago’s own
Wrigley Company introduced Juicy Fruit gum at the fair; gum was made
from a resin called chicle, on display in this section.
Understanding and Misunderstanding
Throughout the World’s Columbian Exposition, displays captured the
public’s enthusiasm for science, though many of the displays were presented
as curiosities. Superstition lingered in the displays of these objects, like
fossilized worms called Gnome’s Candles.
Meteorites are also on display, as are minerals and crystals in a
rainbow array of colors, and large fossils from prehistoric animals. There was
only one dinosaur on display at the fair. It was part of the Museum’s
founding collections, but was so inaccurate that (according to rumor) it got
tossed out.
Displaying other cultures: issues and changes
The World’s Columbian Exposition brought the World to Chicago—in
every sense. The 1893 World’s Fair was the first time most visitors were
exposed to people of non-European cultures. Here, visitors see artifacts from
America’s past and from different cultural villages featured at the fair.
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Anthropologists and the general public’s approach to non-Western
cultures reflected the time, and was quite different from today. This section
addresses how the study of other cultures has changed since the late 19th
century, and continues to change.
Highlights include a large Samoan drum, Peruvian mummies, and a
Javanese gamelan. Used in performances at the Java (now called Indonesia)
Village on the Midway, the gamelan is made up of several different musical
instruments and requires scores of musicians to play; it is displayed along
with an interactive that allows visitors to hear it and experiment themselves.
Another interactive will allow visitors to explore the Peruvian mummies
through their CT scans.
Conclusion
The exhibition’s closing gallery features photographs of the fair and
today’s Field Museum. This space gives visitors the opportunity to reflect
upon the past and see how the legacy of the fair lives on through present day
research, exhibitions, and the continued importance of the collections.
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