ATDTDA (1): "White City"

[Tim Strzechowski]

"Observers of the Fair had remarked how, as one moved up and down its Midway, the more European, civilized, and . . . well, frankly, white exhibits located closer to the center of the "White City" seemed to be, whereas the farther from that alabaster Metropolis one ventured, the more evident grew the signs of cultural darkness and savagery" (p. 22).


from Eric Larson, The Devil in the White City:

Eighteen ninety-two broke cold, with six inches of snow on the ground and temperatures falling to ten degrees below zero, certainly not the coldest weather Chicago had ever experienced but cold enough to clot the valves of all three of the city water system's intake valves and temporarily halt the flow of Chicago's drinking water.  Despite the weather, work at Jackson Park progressed [...] The Woman's Building was nearly finished, all its scaffolding gone; the giant Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building had begun rising above its foundation.  In all, the workforce in the park numbered four thousand.  The ranks included a carpenter and furniture-maker named Elias Disney, who in coming years would tell many stories about the construction of this magical realm beside the lake.  His son Walt would take note (p. 153).

[...]

On paper at least, the fair's Midway Plaisance began to take shape.  Professor Putnam had believed the Midway ought first and foremost to provide an education about alien cultures.  Sol Bloom felt no such duty.  The Midway was to be fun, a great pleasure garden stretching for more than a mile from Jackson Park all the way to the border of Washington Park.  It would thrill, titillate, and if all went well perhaps even shock.  He considered his great strength to be "spectacle advertising."  He placed notices in publications around the world to make it known that the Midway was to be an exotic realm of unusual sights, sounds, and scents.  There would be authentic villages from far-off lands inhabited by authentic villagers -- even Pygmies [...] (pp. 159 - 60).
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