8-1++Amazing+Facts+Wiki

FYI USING WIKI

 * We all are so used to the discussion forum for Blackboard. Here in Wiki if you **click the edit button on the far right** you will be able to write directly onto this page-making our discussion more dynamic. Give it a whirl!!
 * **Both Cohorts will share the Amazing Facts forum as well as the Higher Order questions Wiki**.


 * 1) ==**//What are three amazing facts you discovered about the 1893 Columbian Exposition?//**==
 * 2) ==**//Enter each of them separately with your initials. It would be great if you can also indicate the sources you used.//**==
 * 3) ==As more get added see if your fact fits with those of someone else. Try to enter the facts so that they cluster with similar ones. (e.g. enter any about the ferris wheel under MH-B1).==

MH-B 1: The Ferris Wheel was still under construction for the first few months of the Fair. MB 1: The cars on the ferris wheel were 24 feet long, 13 feet wide, and 10 feet high and weighed 26,000 pounds

MH-B2. A one ton cheese!! Hard to believe

JT - In one of the exhibits there was a 1,500 pound chocolate Venus de Milo! Crazy. That and the big block of cheese remind me of the butter sculptures I see at the Ohio State Fair I go to at home every summer! (http://www.chicagohs.org/history/expo/ex1.html)

MH-B 3:The Devil in White City is a great read--I was fascinated by how it showed Daniel Burnham and the serial killer as different faces of a man obsessed with grandeur and achievements.

KS 2. There was a “Columbian Liberty Bell" that was created and it was intended to travel the world though it disappeared after the fair. www.hydepark.org/historicpres/ColumbianExp.htm#mystery

KS 3. United States had their first fair in Philadelphia, but the exposition lost money. http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/1386.html

KS 1. The elongated coins that people normally collect at Disney World or the zoo actually first appeared at this fair. www.1893columbianexpo.com

DS-1 The World's Columbian Exposition was celebrating the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus

DS-2 It also commemorated the anniversary of the Chicago fire in October of 1871

DS-3 The Farris Wheel was what drew people in, the Columbian Exposition was to be bigger than the Exposition in Paris

BV-1 The whiteness of the White City became increasingly offensive to African Americans as plans for the fair unfolded

BV-2 Angered by the politics of exclusion and tokenism, some African Americans, led by Ida B. Wells, urged African Americans to boycott the fair. But, Frederick Douglass, who served as Haiti's representative at the exposition, disagreed and urged African Americans to participate as fully as possible.

BV-3 Multiple tragedies marked the end of the fair. A smallpox epidemic that originated at the fair in midsummer spread throughout the city by early autumn. Then, just before the gala closing ceremonies were to be held, Mayor Carter Harrison was assassinated. Finally, shortly after the fair's close, a fire swept through the fairgrounds, destroying many of the buildings.

MB - 2: The Columbian Exposition was the venue for the debut of consumer products such as Cream of Wheat, Shredded Wheat, Pabst Beer, Aunt Jemima syrup, and Juicy Fruit gum.

MB - 3: Many silver spoons can currently be bought from the world's fair on ebay.

JT - As I recall from reading "The Devil in the White City" and "Sin in the Second City" many young ladies were brought to Chicago around the time of the Exposition with the promise of jobs, and were instead forced to work in brothels.

JT - 46 different nations participated in the Expo! I wonder if there had been that many nations present in one place any time before this...(http://www.chicagohs.org/history/expo/ex2a.html)

LC – F. W. Rueckheim introduced a confection of popcorn, peanuts and molasses at the fair; it was given the name Cracker Jack in 1896 (Wikipedia) LC- At the fair, popular “Street in Cairo” dancer known as Little Egypt introduced America to the suggestive version of the belly dance known as the "hootchy-cootchy " (Wikipedia) LC – Scott Joplin’s performance at the exposition introduced ragtime music to new audiences, increasing its popularity (Wikipedia)

AP -“The concession stands brought in over $4 million, the Ferris Wheel turned a profit, and when all the calculations were complete, the Exposition itself more than broke even, with a $1 million surplus to be returned to its 30,000 stockholders.” [|http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ma96/wce/legacy.html] AP - the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition and Fair in Chicago had 27 million visitors [|(http://members.cox.net/academia/cassatt8.html)]