The World's Columbian Exposition
Visitors to the Chicago World’s Fair were stunned by its splendor. As the New York Times reported,
Foreigners and Americans Alike Agree that All Description Is Inadequate to the Magnificence of the Buildings and the Extent of the Displays at the Great Exposition….
Every one whose good fortune it has been to visit and thoroughly "do" the great "White City" on Lake Michigan, wherein the nations of the world are holding their Columbian Exposition, has nothing but praise unstinted for the complete magnificence of the exhibition.
Eastern people who have visited the World's Fair have been amazed at the grandeur and immensity of what they had been accustomed to hear belittled, and on their return they have nothing but words of praise and admiration to express.
Fairgoers arrived by train or boat at the Exposition’s greatest sight, the “White City” of enormous neoclassical exhibit halls arrayed around the central Court of Honor. One of these halls, the Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building, was the largest building ever constructed. This massive edifice is shown at the center of this bird’s eye view of the fair:
In addition to showcasing industrial progress, the Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building housed the Fair’s educational exhibits. A visitor could find the Michigan State Normal School's display and the rest of the Michigan Public Schools exhibit near the southeast corner of the mezzanine.
From the Court of Honor, a visitor might ride a boat past the Wooded Isle landscaped by Frederick Law Olmstead to see the pavilions representing 21 nations and 46 states, including Michigan.
Further afield a visitor could enjoy the amusements of the Midway, chief among them the original Ferris Wheel. Intended as Chicago’s answer to the Eiffel Tower, the star attraction of the 1889 Paris Exposition, George Ferris’ wheel (pictured below) stood 262 feet tall and could carry 2,160 people.
Normalites at the Fair
Normal students and faculty anticipated the opening of the Fair for months. In January 1892 the Normal News urged readers to raise funds for the Michigan Public Schools exhibit:
We are deeply concerned in the exhibit by which our great state shall be represented. We stand at the front in every department of education, and we must do ourselves justice at the World’s Exposition.
In the May 1892 Normal News, student D. C. Vanburen presented the Exposition as the culmination of 400 years of American history:
What means this desire for representation at the Columbian Exposition? It means that the fame of America has spread throughout the earth. All nations respect her and desire closer relations with her.
An October 1892 Normal News report on Dedication Day festivities editorialized, “This is by far the greatest exposition the world has ever seen.” A March 10, 1893 News story by student T. H. Townsend tempered eager expectation with reflection:
Each day is taking us nearer that “Commemoration” known as the “World’s Columbian Exposition,” and as we stop for a moment to think how comparatively few years have passed away since the corner stone of civilization on this continent was laid, we are deeply impressed with the marvelous rapidity with which this nation has grown.
Student Carrie Barber delivered an oration on “Woman's Work at the World's Fair" in the Normal News Oratorical Contest on May 19, and in the May 26 Normal News she published an essay with the same title. Barber reflected on the progress signified by the Exposition’s inclusion of a Woman’s Building:
It means advancement in every way. It means a wider recognition of woman’s work and talent; it means that old ideas regarding woman’s capability for practical work are fast dying out.
The 1893 Aurora yearbook likewise described the energy and excitement that surrounded preparations for the Fair:
This is exhibition year for our country and each institution in the land, straining every nerve to excel, puts forth the best possible specimen of its work
Normal School students and faculty flocked to the Fair. The April 28, 1893 edition of the Normal News included several short notices about students who had left school to seek work in Chicago, along with an item about Principal Sill traveling to Chicago to inspect preparations:
A. F. Benson has gone with the multitude to Chicago.
H. E. Johnson expects to go to Chicago soon to work on the World’s Fair grounds.
Mr. Frank Coon has left school to accept a position as guard at the World’s Fair.
Principal Sill was in Chicago the first of the week looking after the Educational exhibit of Michigan.
F. C. Cahow has gone to Chicago to roll a chair at the World’s Fair. Whitehead, Parsons, Dansingburg, and Andrews have gone to sing.
Mr. F. C. Cahow left last Tuesday for Chicago to take a position as guide at the World’s Fair. Mr. Cahow leaves many friends behind, who wish for him the best of success.
On May 12, the Normal News reported:
Normal students having positions at the World’s Fair, send glowing accounts of the great exposition. They say its magnitude can be little appreciated until seen.
Diarist Jennie Pease D’Ooge described a visit to the Exposition with her husband Professor Benjamin D’Ooge in the first half of July. She recorded multiple visits to the Art Gallery and the state buildings, and complained of having “been too much with Ben to look at machinery and trees and wheels.” She also chronicled excursions to the Midway to see the ostrich farm, Streets of Cairo, and Javanese Village attractions, to ride the Ferris Wheel, and to take in Buffalo Bill’s “stupendous” Wild West Show.
Normal faculty and alumni also participated in the International Congress of Education, one of many congresses held in conjunction with the Columbian Exposition at the recently constructed Art Institute building in downtown Chicago. The Education Congress took place July 25-28, with related sessions extending over two weeks. Participants included alumna Nina C. Vandewalker, Training School kindergarten teacher Maud E. Cannell, Professor of Physical Science Edwin A. Strong, and Principal John M. B. Sill. Alumnus Ferris Fitch spoke in a panel discussion about the appointment and tenure of superintendents, and former Principal Malcolm MacVicar gave a paper on the distinctive nature of Normal School work. The Normal’s most prominent representative, however, was distinguished alumnus Irwin Shepard, who in his capacity as Secretary of the National Educational Association served as the General Secretary of the Congress and presided over its general sessions.
By autumn, the excitement of the Exposition year was fading. In September the Normal News reported,
H. E. Johnson leaves his position as Columbian guard to return to school.
Still, at least one student skipped fall classes to experience the Fair, as the News reported in October:
Mr. Chas. H. Norton spent the week beginning Oct. 8 at the World's Fair. He reports a splendid time.
The Exposition was a defining experience for a generation of Normal students. A questionnaire distributed to members of the Class of 1894 asked, “Did you attend the Columbian Exposition?” In response to the prompt, “Name most wonderful thing you ever saw,” student Ernest P. Goodrich wrote, “World’s Columbian Exposition + Comet of 1880.”