American Historical Ephemera & Photography

Bird's-Eye View of the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893. Chicago: Rand, McNally & Co., 1898. 25 1/2 x 20 1/2 in. (light toning, creasing at folds, small damp stain at right center). Map features a numbered list of attractions corresponding to numbers on the map including #98, the original "Ferris Wheel," constructed by George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr., as the centerpiece of the Midway.

[With:] Orange cotton "1492 Souvenir" badge  from "Speakers Stand / at the / Dedication / of the / World's Columbian / Exposition." Chicago, Friday, 21 October 1892. 3 x 6 3/4 in. (creases, fraying to edges). Badge accompanied by 1898 letter from Heber de Long on The Lincoln Socials letterhead to the Honorable S. Fillmore Bennett, requesting "a few lines or bars of that song ["Sweet By-and-By"] to be framed" and enclosing as thanks "a souvenir of the World's Fair - These badges were  few in number and sent to such persons as the President., Governors, & etc., and were made from the decorations of the great speaker's stand in the Manufacturers Building oct. 1892."

[Also with:] The Monthly Bulletin. Chicago: Chicago House Wrecking Co., May 1899. No. 18. 4pp, 9 1/8 x 12 in. (damp stain at top left, creasing, light chipping especially along top right edge). A fascinating publication listing items for sale via mail order catalog from the The Chicago House Wrecking Company. Organized in Illinois in 1893 by Russian immigrant Moses Harris, the company specialized in demolishing buildings and then selling the building materials and contents to the general public, a business plan first executed at the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition of 1893. Pursuant to a contract dated May 8, 1894, and for the sum of $80,000, the company wrecked and removed the
building materials and resulting debris from twenty fair buildings.
The Company went on to wreck the TransMississippi Exposition at Omaha, Nebraska, in 1899; the Pan-American Exposition held at Buffalo, New York, in 1901; and the Louisiana Purchase Exposition at St. Louis,
Missouri, in 1904; and other spaces and buildings unrelated to World's Fairs.

[Also with:] Plan of Machinery Hall, World's Columbian Exposition. 22 3/4 x 12 1/8 in. (adhered to mat, large tear at top center, completely separated along entire length of right side approx. 2 in. from edge).