Racism at Chicago's 1893 World's Columbian Exposition.

---

In historical writing and analysis, PRESENTISM introduces present-day ideas and perspectives into depictions or interpretations of the past. Presentism is a form of cultural bias that creates a distorted understanding of the subject matter. Reading modern notions of morality into the past is committing the error of presentism. Historical accounts are written by people and can be slanted, so I try my hardest to present fact-based and well-researched articles.

Facts don't require one's approval or acceptance.

I present [PG-13] articles without regard to race, color, political party, or religious beliefs, including Atheism, national origin, citizenship status, gender, LGBTQ+ status, disability, military status, or educational level. What I present are facts — NOT Alternative Facts — about the subject. You won't find articles or readers' comments that spread rumors, lies, hateful statements, and people instigating arguments or fights.

FOR HISTORICAL CLARITY

When I write about the INDIGENOUS PEOPLE, I follow this historical terminology:

• The use of old commonly used terms, disrespectful today, i.e., REDMAN or REDMEN, SAVAGES, and HALF-BREED are explained in this article.

Writing about AFRICAN-AMERICAN history, I follow these race terms:

• "NEGRO" was the term used until the mid-1960s.
• "BLACK" started being used in the mid-1960s.
• "AFRICAN-AMERICAN" [Afro-American] began usage in the late 1980s.

— PLEASE PRACTICE HISTORICISM —

THE INTERPRETATION OF THE PAST IN ITS OWN CONTEXT.

 

---

The World's Columbian Exposition held in Chicago in 1893 symbolized the ascendancy of the United States among the world powers. It reflected the self-confidence and optimism of America in an age in which its citizens believed to be the most advanced in history. Negroes, only one generation removed from slavery, viewed the Exposition enthusiastically as a showcase for Negro achievement. In practice, however, they found themselves excluded from prestigious positions on the Exposition Commission, almost completely barred from all but menial employment, and practically unrepresented in the exhibits. 

The "Official Catalogue (10¢, $3.00 today) of Exhibits on the Midway Plaisance of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition" advertised the South Sea Islands Village performances. Performers line up before the show "the songs and dances of Samoa, Fiji, Romutah and Wallis Islands" at the South Sea Island Theatre. Admission was 25¢  ($8.00 today).

Because all its buildings had white exteriors, the fair was nicknamed "The White City," but Negro visitors dubbed it "the great American white elephant," or "the white American's World's Fair." Negroes sharply disagreed among themselves concerning the most effective methods of dealing with the discrimination they encountered, but they agreed in their disappointment and disillusionment.

The Exposition received official recognition from the United States government and was financed partly by Congressional appropriations. In 1890, President Benjamin Harrison (1889-1893) appointed a large national commission representing all the states and territories to supervise plans for the celebration. Negroes were hurt when they learned that the entire commission was "simon-pure (absolutely genuine) and lily-white (a person or organization that rejects any culture other than white Americans)'' and charged that a Negro commissioner was unthinkable to the President because the appointment "would savor too much of sentimentality, and be ... distasteful to the majority of the commissioners themselves." 

Leaders in the National Convention of Colored Men and the Negro Press Association urged the President to add a Negro to the Commission. The humiliation of being ignored by the White House was almost equaled by the embarrassment of begging for what Negroes regarded as their right to representation. In March 1891, Harrison assured one delegation of Negroes that he was sympathetic but that there were simply no vacancies on the Commission. However, he named Hale G. Parker, a St. Louis school principal, as an alternate commissioner shortly afterward. Negroes might not have protested if this token appointment had been made initially. Still, when the selection was announced, Harrison was criticized because Parker's duties were of a "nonactive character." 

Furthermore, the President was held at least partly responsible for the absence of Negroes from the Exposition's Board of Lady Managers,' headed by Mrs. Potter Palmer, a Chicago socialite originally from Kentucky. This board contained nine Chicagoans and two members and two alternates from each state and territory. The board members ignored requests by Negroes for representation and appointed a white woman from Kentucky "to represent the colored people." The Lady Managers pointed to dissension among various Chicago "factions of Negroes," each one clamoring for recognition to justify this action. The Negro factions were indeed feuding with each other, and the Lady Managers circulated the document widely with the following patronizing passage:

The Board of Lady Managers would most earnestly urge the leaders of the various factions to sacrifice all ambition for personal advancement and work together for the good of the whole, thus seizing this great opportunity to show the world what marvelous growth and advancement have been made by the colored race and what a magnificent future is before them.

Negroes realized that they had received an intended slight from the aristocratic Mrs. Palmer.

As late as the end of 1891, the colored women of Chicago were still fighting with each other. The appointment of a Negro, Mrs. Fannie Barrier Williams, prominent club woman, civic worker, and wife of the lawyer S. Laing Williams, to the Fair's Bureau of Publicity, was allegedly dropped because several other Negroes considered her objectionable. The Freeman considered the feuding in Chicago as all too typical of race behavior in many cities: "It is a hellish, disgraceful and lamentable characteristic of the Negro race, to be the first to pull down their own ... because of jealousy and envy. ... Talk about race pride, there is no such thing." 

On December 30, 1892, Exposition officials announced the appointment of a Negro, Mrs. A. M. Curtis, wife of a prominent physician, as Secretary of Colored Interests. Mrs. Curtis was supposed to see that exhibits by Negroes received fair play, but a Chicago daily newspaper pointed out that although her desk was in Mrs. Palmer's office, she had no real power. 

Chicago Tribune, Saturday, December 31, 1892.

The transparent gesture placated no one, and the Cleveland Gazette charged that she was only "a sort of general utility clerk" whose real task was "to get Negroes in line." Within a few months, she resigned, her brief stay only emphasizing that Negroes were excluded from prestigious, policy-making positions.

Frederick Douglass and the noted anti-lynching crusader, Ida B. Wells, decided that visitors to the Fair should know that Negroes were "studiously kept out of representation in any official capacity and given menial places." Through the Negro press, they asked the Negro public to contribute five thousand dollars toward printing the booklet, "The Reason Why The Colored American Is Not In The World's Columbian Exposition" (pdf). Since the document was intended primarily for foreign visitors, the authors proposed to distribute the booklet, without charge, in English, French, German, and Spanish editions. 

This suggestion was condemned scathingly by many Negro editors. The Methodist Union denied the existence of discrimination. It held that no other ethnic minorities in the United States would print such a booklet, which was "calculated to make Negroes the butt of ridicule in the eyes... of the world. We are," the Methodist Union insisted, "going to Chicago as American citizens," not "as an odd race." The accommodating Indianapolis Freeman argued that although Negroes suffered from racial discrimination, they demeaned themselves by publicly admitting it to foreign visitors. The editor cautioned that foreigners could not ameliorate (make something bad better) the conditions under which Negroes were forced to live. Those complaints about mistreatment would increase white hostility in the United States. The Douglass-Wells booklet was also condemned because Negroes should conserve wealth instead of wasting it. One journal held that $5,000 could be spent more wisely by establishing a national orphan asylum. Another objected to a public solicitation because the collection of nickels and dimes from washerwomen furnished ammunition to believers in the "infantile mental and financial capacity of Negroes."

The Cleveland Gazette, Afro-American Advocate, Coffeyville, Kansas (1891-1893); Philadelphia Tribune; Richmond Planet; and Topeka Call were among the newspapers supporting Douglass and Miss Wells. They held that every Negro should lend financial support to the venture because the entire race would benefit from the broadest possible distribution of the booklet. The Topeka Call especially condemned the jealousy of those editors who were "pouring hot shot" on Douglass. In mid-1893, four months after the Douglass-Wells appeal to the Negro press for funds, the contributions received were described by Miss Wells as "very few and far between." Since only a few hundred dollars had been collected, the authors limited themselves to an edition in English.

Not only was there a lack of Negro representation on the honorary committees, but there was also discrimination in employment. Aside from porters, the Negro staff included only an Army chaplain detailed from the War Department, a nurse, two messengers, and three or four clerks. One of these "under clerks" worked in the Bureau of Publicity as the representative of the Negro press. The Chicago Conservator and the Indianapolis Freeman complained that the post should have been given to an editor of a Negro weekly, but "the assignment of any colored man of national reputation to any work in the World's Fair management is apparently against the policy of the powers that be."

It is doubtful whether Negro visitors experienced discrimination at the restaurants and amusements on the Exposition grounds. In a survey of several Negro newspapers, the writers found only one instance of racial exclusion at the Fair. In August 1893, the Indianapolis Freeman reported that a Negro woman from Lexington was refused entertainment in the Kentucky Building at the Fair. Perhaps the buildings of other Southern states also discriminated against Negro visitors, but in the Negro press, there were no references to such treatment. However, there were accounts of Negroes having dined in the California building and the Bureau of Public Comfort. If racial discrimination had been pervasive, almost certainly, that fact would have been mentioned by Negroes visiting Chicago for meetings of the Colored Men's Protective Association and other organizations. The Chicago press reported complaints by Negroes against the Exposition management, but discrimination in public accommodations was not among the grievances.

The Chicago Times newspaper (1854 until 1895  when it merged with the Chicago Herald), publisher of the picture book "Portfolio of the Midway Types," said of the Dahomey Village: “Its inhabitants were just the sort of people the managers of the Exposition did not attend banquet or surfeit (an excessive amount) with receptions.”

An important issue on which Negroes divided sharply related to the nature and character of the participation by Negroes in the exhibits. Basically, Negroes wanted representation without discrimination, but when discrimination became apparent many urged that a separate area for exhibits by Negroes would be desirable. The New York Age noted that few Negroes would have pressed for a Negro Annex if they had not been ignored so consistently by the Exposition officials. Many Negroes opposed any type of segregation, and late in 1890, a Chicago mass meeting adopted a resolution presented by Ferdinand L. Barnett, a prominent lawyer and one of the founders of the Conservator, urging those Exposition officials to make a special effort to encourage exhibits by Negroes and to display them in appropriate departments throughout the Fair. On the other hand, desiring to ensure participation by Negroes and to allow them to demonstrate advancement, J.C. Price, the president of Livingstone College and of the Afro-American League and, at the time, one of the half-dozen leading Negroes in the country, suggested that the Exposition should feature a Negro Annex or Negro department. Another Negro criticized any Negro who was "willing to dump his handiwork into a promiscuous heap with all nations and still expect identical credit. ... If we possess genius, our white brother assumes that the fact has not been established to his satisfaction . ... Under this condition can we afford to forego any and all legitimate means to make a place for ourselves?" 

Pressed by both sides, the board of managers listened to neither. In the spring of 1891, it ruled against racially separate exhibits. Still, instead of making a special effort to encourage Negroes to exhibit throughout the Fair, they told them to submit their displays to screening committees established in the various states. Since the great majority of Negroes lived in the South, it was evident that they could expect little attention to their interests at best. Yet Negroes attempted to follo\v the advice of Fair officials. Several newspapers urged the formation of local industrial associations to awaken interest in producing exhibits; readers were advised to forget past insults and prove to the world that they were not a passive, dependent, and uncreative people. However, few such organizations were set up, although the Negro World Columbian Association asked to be notified of "all handiwork or creditable evidence" that could be displayed suitably in Chicago. The Columbian Association and other groups petitioned Congress for a collection and compilation of statistics demonstrating the progress of Negroes since Emancipation to be displayed as part of the United States government exhibit at the Fair. Still, the legislators in Washington refused to pass the bill.

The Dahomey Village at the California Midwinter Fair, 1894.

Hale Parker, the Negro appointed alternate Commissioner, initially endorsed the managers' decision on the exhibits and regarded a Negro Annex as "offensive and defensive" and held that "We wish ... to be measured by the universal yardstick and if we fall short the world knows why. But for one, I do not fear the test, and those who have ... made a careful observation of the material progress of the colored people have no reason to fear an eclipse in the glory and grandeur of the fair." Later, however, candidly admitting his inability to influence Exposition officials, he conceded that exhibits by Negroes "in many instances, would have to be submitted to the judgment of their enemies in States of the Union not likely to court or encourage the "social equality" of exhibits and the commercial brotherhood of their producers." Nevertheless, fearing that discrimination by the Exposition managers would cause some potential Negro exhibitors to boycott the Exposition as an "unclean thing," Parker condemned false racial pride. "Nothing short of prohibition from the fairgrounds could operate as a valid reason for not exhibiting," he insisted.

The Fair opened on May 1, 1893. Negro visitors expressed disappointment at the scarcity of exhibits by Negroes. One of them wrote: "There is a lump which comes up in my throat as I pass around through all this ... and see but little to represent us here." However, they took pride in the Haitian and Liberian pavilions. They noticed that several Negroes from New York and Philadelphia displayed needlework and drawings in the Women's Building. Booths represented Wilberforce University, Tennessee Central College (now defunct), Atlanta University, and Hampton Institute in other parts of the Exposition. 

Less edifying was a sideshow on the Midway, consisting of a Dahomey Village. Negro leaders did not approve of the Midway activities involving Africans from Dahomey, and the Dahomians objected to questions about their past cannibalism.

Dahomey Village consisted of three houses, one fitted up for a museum, a group of huts for the women, and others for the men. In addition, there were four open sheds used for cooking. The rustic front of the exhibit was constructed of wood brought from Dahomey, and on platforms on each side of the gates were seated two sentinel warriors of that country attired in their native costume. There were forty women and sixty men in the village. The various dances and other ceremonials peculiar to these people were exhibited, and their songs, chants, and war cry were given. They also sold unique products of their mechanical skill, such as quaint hand-carved objects, domestic and warlike utensils, etc. During the later months of the Fair, it was found necessary by the fair's management to place a strange placard just outside the entrance. It was a request to all visitors that they refrain from questioning the natives of the village regarding the past cannibal habits of themselves and their ancestors, as it was very annoying to them.

Frederick Douglass contemptuously commented that the Exposition managers evidently wanted Negro Americans to be represented by the "barbaric rites" of "African savages brought here to act the monkey." 

Racism seems to have been planned in advance by the fair's board of directors.

On the Midway Plaisance, a mile long and 600 feet wide strip of land, visitors encountered a lesson in “race science” and social Darwinism. Here they saw “living exhibits”— representatives of the world’s “races,” including Africans, Asians, and American Indians. The two German and two Irish villages were located nearest to the White City. The farther west you went were villages representing the Middle East, West Asia, and East Asia. So, the closer one got to the Midway exit gate at the west end of the Midway, visitors were descend to the savage races, the African of Dahomey (with a history of cannibalism) and the North American Indians, each of which has its place at the far end of the Plaisance. Fear was so prevalent that the fair management posted a placard just outside the entrance to the Dahomey village. It was a request to all visitors that they refrain from questioning the natives of the village regarding their past cannibal habits of themselves and their ancestors, as it was very annoying to them.

Undoubtedly, the best way of looking at these races was to behold them in the ascending scale, starting at the west entrance gate, moving eastward toward the 'White City" main fair, starting with the lowest specimens of humanity, reaching continually upward to the highest stage with the thought of evolution, until you arrived at the fair proper.

The fair’s organizers promoted the idea that the “savage races” were dangerous by warning that the Dahomey women are as fierce if not fiercer than the men, and all of them have to be watched day and night for fear they may use their spears for other purposes than a barbaric embellishment of their dances. The stern warning reinforced many Americans’ fears that negroes could not be trusted and were naturally predisposed to immoral and criminal behavior and thus kept away from white people through segregation.

If the proposal for a Negro Annex aroused controversy among negroes, a veritable furor arose when the Exposition managers announced a Colored Jubilee Day on August 25, 1893. To many Negroes, already infuriated by discrimination at the Exposition, the idea of a "Negro Day" was intolerable. On this issue, even Frederick Douglass and Ida Wells were in disagreement.

The celebration was originally suggested by several Negroes on the East Coast who proposed that a day be set aside for folk music, speeches, and general thanksgiving. Exposition officials agreed, having already scheduled similar celebrations for Swedish, German, Irish, and other nationalities. Douglass lauded this opportunity to display Negro culture and "the real position" of Negroes. However, Miss Wells declared that the celebration was a mockery intended to patronize them. She accused Exposition officials of seeking to entice lower-class Negroes by providing two thousand watermelons. The degrading vision she presented was quite different from Douglass' portrait: 

The sell-respect of the race is sold for a mess of pottage and the spectacle of the class of our people who will come on that excursion roaming around the grounds munching watermelon will do more to lower the race in the estimation of the world than anything else. The sight of the horde that would be attracted there by the dazzling prospect of plenty of free watermelons to eat, will give our enemies all the illustration they wish as an excuse for not treating the negroes with the equality of other citizens. 

Miss Wells received plenty of newspaper support. The Cleveland Gazette advised self-respecting Negroes to ignore the Exposition since the only privilege they received was to spend money there. The Topeka Call approvingly published a memorial written by a group of Negroes in Chicago, who insisted that since "there is to be no 'white American citizen's day,' why should there be a 'colored American citizen's day'?" 

As the celebration approached, prominent Negroes such as the former Congressman J . Mercer Langston and the famous singer Sisserietta Jones (the "Black Patti") refused to participate. The Colored Men's Protective Association, which held its national meetings in Chicago, would not endorse the program. A group of Chicago ministers planned suburban excursions to discourage attendance by Negroes. 

Douglass, who insisted that Negro Day (aka Colored People's Day) was a small but valuable concession extracted from racist Fair officials, was annoyed by the "petulance" of the editors and in a lecture to them, claimed that "all we have ever received has come to us in small concessions and it is not the part of wisdom to despise the day of small things." The Negro promoters of the celebration tried to ensure a large audience by working through Negro fraternal organizations. Obviously, the sponsors were on the defensive because they assured Negroes that Colored People's Day would not be an occasion of discredit or ridicule and pleaded with them to come and show whites how "refined, dignified, and cultured" Negroes really were.

Contemporary accounts in the Negro press differ on the degree to which the celebration was a success. The Indianapolis Freeman reported that less than a thousand Negroes showed up, while the Topeka Call estimated several thousand entered the Exposition grounds. Besides Douglass, notables on the platform included Bishops Henry M. Turner of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and Alexander Walters of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. The rising young poet, Paul Laurence Dunbar, recited his poem, "The Colored American." Musical selections were presented by the concert singers Harry T. Burleigh and Madame Delseria Plato. Even the Freeman, which recorded the occasion as a "dismal failure," agreed that the musical portion of the program was "a glittering success."

Douglass, giving the main address of the day, used the occasion not to praise the Fair but to vindicate the progress made by Negro Americans despite conditions of persecution and injustice and to denounce the policies of the fair managers. He denied "with scorn and indignation the allegation ... that our small participation in this World's Columbian Exposition is due either to our ignorance or to our want of public spirit." That Negroes were "outside of the World's Fair is only consistent with the fact that we are excluded from every respectable calling." He excoriated Northern whites for catering to their former enemies in the white South were cheating, whipping, and killing Negroes were everyday occurrences while at the same time discriminating against Negroes, who were their friends. "In your fawning upon these cruel slayers, you slap us in the face. With the same shallow prejudice which keeps us in the lowering rank in your estimation, this exposition denied mere recognition to eight million and one-tenth of its own people. Kentucky and the rest object, and thus you see not a colored face in a single worthy place on these grounds. ... Why in Heaven's name," he exclaimed, "do you take to your breast the serpent that once stung, and crush down the race that grasped the saber and helped make the nation one and therefore the exposition possible?" 

Ida Wells was so impressed when she read the reports of this speech in the newspapers that she immediately apologized to the distinguished elder statesman. Douglass' speech had articulated brilliantly Negro alienation and disillusionment with the actions of Northern whites in general and with the fair in particular. In fact, he made it crystal clear that for Negroes the fair symbolized not the material progress of America but a moral regression — the reconciliation of the North and South at the expense of Negroes.  

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

The Children's Building History at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

---

In historical writing and analysis, PRESENTISM introduces present-day ideas and perspectives into depictions or interpretations of the past. Presentism is a form of cultural bias that creates a distorted understanding of the subject matter. Reading modern notions of morality into the past is committing the error of presentism. Historical accounts are written by people and can be slanted, so I try my hardest to present fact-based and well-researched articles.

Facts don't require one's approval or acceptance.

I present [PG-13] articles without regard to race, color, political party, or religious beliefs, including Atheism, national origin, citizenship status, gender, LGBTQ+ status, disability, military status, or educational level. What I present are facts — NOT Alternative Facts — about the subject. You won't find articles or readers' comments that spread rumors, lies, hateful statements, and people instigating arguments or fights.

FOR HISTORICAL CLARITY

When I write about the INDIGENOUS PEOPLE, I follow this historical terminology:

• The use of old commonly used terms, disrespectful today, i.e., REDMAN or REDMEN, SAVAGES, and HALF-BREED are explained in this article.

Writing about AFRICAN-AMERICAN history, I follow these race terms:

• "NEGRO" was the term used until the mid-1960s.
• "BLACK" started being used in the mid-1960s.
• "AFRICAN-AMERICAN" [Afro-American] began usage in the late 1980s.

— PLEASE PRACTICE HISTORICISM —

THE INTERPRETATION OF THE PAST IN ITS OWN CONTEXT.

 

---

The World's Columbian Exposition included entertainment for all visitors, including children.

No building in the entire Columbian Exposition city had a more fabulous way it sprang up than the Children's Building. It was later in its inception than any other, had less material to work with–since it had no aid from the exposition authorities proper–and the whole plan had to be wrought out within the briefest possible time and in the face of almost entire apathy upon the part of the outside public.

The Children's Building

Indeed, it was looked upon in many quarters as chimerical (impossible to achieve) and with no adequate reason for being. But a few wise and earnest women held to the scheme. They knew what far-reaching influences would go out from their idea if it could be materialized, and they persevered with an astonishing result.

In the first place, the Board of Lady Managers assumed the responsibility of raising the money for such a building. The various States pledged themselves to their proportion of the cost. 

A desirable location was secured adjoining the Woman's Building (11) to the north and the Horticultural Building (9) to the south.

The Children's Building was in the Fair proper, on the east side of the Midway Plaisance.

But contributions came in slowly. The Friday Club of Chicago, a social and literary association mostly comprised of young women, became interested in the enterprise's success. They arranged a Bazaar, which was held in the house of Mrs. Potter Palmer (Bertha Honoré Palmer), President of the Board of Lady Managers, and realized there from $35,000 ($1 million today). Children from all over America assisted in raising money by employing bazaars, musicals, dramatic entertainments, and subscriptions, in some cases as high as $1.00 ($30 today).

Mrs. Potter Palmer (Bertha Honoré Palmer).
President of the Board of Lady Managers for the
World's Columbian Exposition. (1893 photograph)

Mrs. Palmer hosted "The Columbian Bazaar" in her mansion on Lake Shore Drive on December 7-9, 1892. 

The Palmer Mansion, constructed in 1882–1885 at 1350 N. Lake Shore Drive, was once the largest private residence in Chicago. It was located in the Near North Side community and faced Lake Michigan. Potter Palmer was a prominent Chicago businessman responsible for much of the development of State Street. The construction of the Palmer Mansion established the "Gold Coast" neighborhood and is still one of the most affluent neighborhoods in Chicago. The mansion was demolished in 1950.

The Palmer Mansion's three-story main hall.

Sponsored by the Friday Club at her invitation, the bazaar raised more than enough money to complete the Children's Building.

The building itself was 150 x 90 feet. It was built of staff (a kind of artificial stone used for covering and ornamenting temporary buildings) and decorated in colors, light blue predominating. 

The Agatite Cement Plaster Company from Kansas City, Missouri, produced a plaster substitute used to create a pleasing architectural effect at a low cost. It was used as an outside covering of the walls of the World's Fair Buildings at Chicago, which were temporary structures. Chicago named a street after this company; Agatite Avenue (4432N - 800W to 8642W). 

Amongst other decorations were sixteen medallions of the children of other nations in their national costumes–Indians, Japanese, Dutch, French, Spanish, etc.

The inspiring spirit of it all was Mrs. George L. Dunlap. It was her energy and enthusiasm that brought it to its completion. Her idea from the beginning was an educational one. The Children's Building was not merely a rest stop for tired mothers, nor only a nursery where children could be cared for while mothers made the sightseeing round.

That feature of public comfort—although amply provided for—was to be but an incident in the plan, not the vital and essential purpose. With a place for the shelter, comfort, and care of the little ones was to be combined illustrative departments upon all subjects of importance to the moral and physical well-being of childhood. According to the newest enlightenment of the end of the 19th century, every phase of the rearing and education of children was to be outlined in such a palpable and practical fashion that no mother could enter the doors without being stimulated and inspired in motherhood.

Hence not a detail that could be of educational value had been omitted.

Although the Children's Building didn't open on May 1st, by June, the fair dedicated the Children's Building that was meant to be "for the little folks, from the tiniest cradle on the second floor to the playground on the roof."

Attendants were provided throughout the building to assist children and parents alike.

The gymnasium took up the first floor of the building. Physical development is aptly illustrated by the North American Turners (German-American gymnastic clubs called Turnverein). It was devoted to physical culture and was a favorite attraction for young visitors. Starting at ten o'clock each morning, children took turns swinging from parallel bars, rings, and trapezes. They climbed poles and jumped over vaulting horses. Both boys and girls enjoyed the gym so much that long lines formed outside the building as children waited for their chance to use the equipment. Since there were few children's playgrounds in the 1800s, the gym offered children a unique opportunity to play outside their homes.

Gymnasium in the Children's Building

Gymnasium in the Children's Building

The second floor of the building housed the model Kindergarten under the management of the International Kindergarten Association. Young girls attended the "Kitchengarden," where they learned to dress, make beds, sweep, wash clothes, and cook. In the care of Miss Emily Huntington of New York, the inventor of the system that the Cooking School from the Drexel Institute in Philadelphia made famous. The Romona Indian School, consisting of thirty Indian children, which Michael H. Smith, the Secretary of the Interior, had given permission to have transported from Sante Fe, New Mexico. 

Pennsylvania equipped and maintained a department in the Children's Building, showing the remarkable progress in teaching very young deaf mutes to speak. Miss Mary Garrett, Secretary of the "Home for Teaching Deaf Mutes to Speak," was in charge of this department. Demonstrations were given daily.

There were displays of children's toys made in different countries, from the rudimentary playthings of the Eskimo children to the almost sentient ones of France. These toys were not only to be looked at but will be used to entertain the children. France, a leading toy manufacturer then, sent the most life-like toys, including "mechanical toy men who performed almost human feats of skill… and toy animals invested with the intelligence of trained domestic beasts." Toy exhibits came from other countries, including Russia, Germany, Sweden, and Japan. The children themselves contributed some of the most exciting toys. One young boy contributed a spinning top he invented and patented in Washington D.C.

The Library in the Children's Building

Educational opportunities were provided for children of every age group in the Children's Building. A request sent out by the Board of Lady Managers to foreign countries asking for contributions of children's literature was met with a prompt response, and hundreds of volumes were received. The committee on literature for children of the Congress Auxiliary assumed the furnishing of the library. Regarding books, the idea was to select the library from the child's and youth's standards, not from the adult's point of view. The books the children most longed for were on the shelves rather than the books their elders thought most suitable to them. To get at an average preference in children, boys and girls of all ages were consulted and asked to send lists of their favorite books.

Mrs. Clara Doty Bates, chairman of the committee on literature for children of the Congress Auxiliary, placed the matter before many public and private schools. The committee chairman received hundreds of letters from children, which she used to make up her final catalog. 

But an unexpected obstacle—indeed so formidable that it wholly blocked the way in that direction–now appeared. It was that the publishers had been so industriously solicited from numerous other quarters that they looked upon this final straw as the one that made the burden unendurable. They declined to send even the very modest number of books asked for. It looked like the library would be of a novel kind—one without books.

Baffled in that direction, a new plan was made. If the library could not be representative, it could at least be interesting. Many writers for children in Europe and America were requested by personal letter to send one book, with an autograph inside. This plan had proved most effective. A fascinating collection of authors' copies had been made. So much for the nucleus of the library.

The library decorations consisted of more than a hundred portraits of writers—photographs with autographs affixed whenever possible—and prints, from the life-size to the mere cabinet cards.

St. Nicholas, Harper's Young People, Wide Awake, and the Youth's Companion made exhibits of original sketches from their publications that were illustrated. A complete magazine was produced with valuable manuscripts, autographs, etc., and step-by-step instructions.

Each month several copies of all the favorite children's periodicals were made available. These were for the use of the children. Many illustrated books have been sent, stipulating that children were to have them in constant service.

Girls and boys ages eleven to fifteen attended clay modeling workshops. A Sloyd (a manual training system based on experience gained in woodworking, originally developed in Sweden) workshop was supported by Mrs. Quincy Shaw of Boston.

The Day Nursery

The Department of Public Comfort was intended primarily for the benefit of children. The most popular part of the Children's Building was the crèche (a nursery where babies and young children were cared for during the working day) on the ground floor, where parents could drop off their babies and toddlers while visiting other exhibits at the fair. 

Crèche for Babies, Children's Building. Please... don't ask about the doll hanging on the wall. I don't know.

The public could view the babies and toddlers through windowed partitions. One visitor described the nursery as having the brightest rooms in the building… presided over by trained nurses… there were rows of cradles for infants, spring chairs hung from the ceiling where babies could jump up and down, and rows of beds for those a little older, with toys of all kinds.

In the center was a place they called the pond. It was an enclosure fenced off as a playground (playpen) for little people who could only crawl. Many spectators were enthralled by the sight of the happy little ones. Some fairgoers believed that the building was strictly for infants and babies. Parents could drop off a child with a nursemaid during the day and return for the child in the evening. Unfortunately, the building organizers underestimated the popularity of the nursery. As a result, nurses turned away hundreds of parents and their children daily because they didn't have enough staff or space.

A lecture hall was available for musical and dramatic entertainments, carefully planned to suit the intelligence of children of varying ages. Stereopticon (a slide projector that combines two images to create a three-dimensional effect) lectures were given to the older boys and girls about foreign countries, their languages, manners, customs, and important facts connected with their history. Mr. T.H. McAllister of New York had generously given the use of the most approved stereopticon for this purpose and the services of an operator of the same during the entire Exposition. 

Children of all ages attended lectures on foreign countries, their history, and their customs. After the lectures, the instructors would take the groups of children to see the exhibits from the countries they had just heard about.

Distinguished people in the city attending various Congresses were secured for brief talks along their particular lines of work. In this way, the country's youth will be brought into direct contact with the men and women who have accomplished notable things in the world of thought.

There was a beautiful playground on the roof to crown the children's building, and it was enclosed with strong wire netting to ensure safety. The playground was also a garden, with vines, flowers, and birds flying about in perfect freedom.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

The Unbelievable Story of the Chicago Congress Plaza Hotel, and its Haunted History.

Originally constructed in 1893, the "Auditorium Annex" opened in 1893, featuring public areas using Chicago Street Paver Bricks, gaslights, and horse-drawn carriages. The hotel was built to accommodate the throngs of visitors expected from the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. 

The first section is the north tower of the Auditorium Annex.

The original conception was an annex with a façade designed to complement Louis Sullivan’s Auditorium Building across the street, which housed a remarkable hotel, theater, and office complex at that time.

The Auditorium Annex was built by famous hotel developer R.H. Southgate. The first section, or the north tower, was designed by Clinton Warren, with Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler serving as consultants.

Peacock Alley, Circa 1908.

“Peacock Alley,” a celebrated feature of the new hotel, was an underground marble passageway that connected the new hotel annex with the Auditorium Theatre.

The south tower, constructed between 1902 and 1907, was designed by the renowned architectural firm of Holabird and Roche. It included a magnificent banquet hall, now known as the Gold [Ball] Room, which would become the first hotel ballroom in America to use air-conditioning. 

Another ballroom, called the Florentine [Ball] Room, was added to the North Tower in 1909. These two famous public rooms, combined with the Elizabethan Room and the Pompeian Room hosted Chicago’s most elite social events.

Over the years, various owners have continuously updated the hotel to keep pace with the conveniences offered by modern accommodations properties. Even the name has been changed. By 1908, the hotel had created its own identity and boasted about its 1,000+ guest rooms.

To differentiate the Auditorium Annex Hotel from the "Auditorium Theatre" on the north side of Congress Street, it was renamed "The Congress Hotel." The new name was derived from its location on the southwest corner of Congress Street and Michigan Avenue and across Michigan Avenue from the Congress Plaza in Grant Park. 

The next fifty years brought a succession of owners and improvement programs to the Congress Hotel. A 1916-17 guestroom enhancement project altered the lighting scheme by substituting electrical outlets and desk lamps for hanging chandeliers

The original bathroom plumbing fixtures were replaced in a 1923-24 renovation. In the early 1930s, the former Elizabethan Room on the ground floor was transformed into a stylish nightclub featuring a revolving bandstand. Renamed the Joseph Urban Room, it would become the 1935-36 headquarters for an NBC Radio show featuring the legendary Benny Goodman.

Benny Goodman And His Orchestra, live from the Urban Room at the Congress Hotel In Chicago. Originally Aired January 6, 1936, 30 minute program.

Following the outbreak of World War II, the Government purchased the Congress Hotel and used it as a headquarters for U.S. Army officers. In 1945, a group of Chicagoans banded together to purchase the hotel and reopen it to the public. Five years later, Pick Hotel Corporation purchased the property and embarked on a multi-million dollar remodeling and modernization program. The 1950-52 renovation involved the creation of a mural-encircled lobby, a new front desk, new corridors, new third-floor public rooms, new Congressional and Presidential Suites, and a new supper club called the "Glass Hat."

The New Glass Hat — Congress Hotel, Chicago
Chicago's smartest Supper Club! A completely new room at the south end of the world-famous Peacock Alley offers the finest in luxurious dining, dancing, and entertainment. Michigan Avenue at Congress Street.

In the early 1960s, another modernization program included the construction of a new ballroom and the addition of escalators, a novelty for hotels during that era. Even though the hotel building boom during those years, the Congress Hotel retained its unique character by blending the old with the new. In contrast to many formulaic hotel chains and standardized property layouts, the Congress Hotel guest rooms and suites remain larger, with high ceilings, large bathrooms, and wider window expanses.

The abundant public spaces, large lobbies, and long corridors providing freedom of movement are rarely seen in the tighter confines of space-saving properties built as a place to sleep rather than a family destination, a business meeting, or a getaway spot.

Many famous people stayed at the Congress Plaza Hotel, including several U.S. Presidents. In fact, the hotel was once known as the “Home of Presidents” among Chicago hotels. Presidents Grover Cleveland, William McKinley, Teddy Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson, Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Franklin Roosevelt all rallied their partisans to discuss campaign strategies in the heart of Chicago.

"The White House presented this chair to the owners of the Congress Hotel. It was a favorite of Presidents Polk, VanBuren, Harrison, and Harding... and it's a favorite of ours too!"

The Congress Plaza Hotel has played a prominent role in some of Chicago’s most important and famous political conventions. Many memorable interviews, caucuses, and deliberations were staged here. In 1912, former President Teddy Roosevelt’s comment to the local media coined the famous “Bull Moose” nickname for his newly created Progressive Party. In 1932, the hotel was back in the limelight serving as the command post for President-elect Franklin Roosevelt and the Democratic Party.

During the summer of 1952, a national television audience was given a front-row seat with the Republican Credentials Committee as they gathered in the Gold [Ball] Room. In 1971, nearly 3,000 people packed the Great Hall when President Richard Nixon addressed the Midwest Chapters of the AARP and National Retired Teachers Association.

THE HAUNTINGS OF THE CONGRESS HOTEL

NOTE: There are a lot of versions of these stories all over the Internet. I did quite a bit of research on each one of the following folklore, myth, half-true, and fictional stories and presented the truth or the most plausible versions. This section is for entertainment purposes only.

AL CAPONE

The Myth: One of the most notable and notorious residents of the Congress Hotel was said to be Al Capone, supposedly residing in a suite on the 8th floor of the North Tower. Rumor has it that Capone and his cohorts ran their headquarters from the hotel, and at one time owned the hotel for a while. There have been whispers about Capone's Chicago Outfit committing gruesome crimes at the hotel. His spirit is said to haunt the halls. These claims have come under scrutiny.

The Truth: Al Capone never actually stayed at the Congress Hotel, at least not under his own name, but guests and employees claim to see Capone's ghost from time to time, walking the halls and hearing the clickety-clack of his two-tone wingtip shoes. Why would Capone haunt the Congress Hotel anyway?

PEG LEG JOHNNY

Other less notorious but just as notable names haunt the hotel halls. Hotel staff and guests have reported and named a ghostly figure of "Peg-Leg Johnny," who appears to be a hobo. Little is known about this vagrant. Sightings of him have been reported lurking around the South Tower, in guest rooms on different floors, in the hotel lobby, and in dining areas. The incorrigible spirit turns lights and electronics on and off and generally scares and causes havoc for guests. It's thought that Johnny had been murdered in the hotel sometime in the early half of the 19th century. 

Facsimile of Peg Leg Johnny

THE HAND OF MYSTERY

Then there's the workman who supposedly got buried behind the balcony of the Gold [Ball] Room in the plaster wall when the hotel was being built. The hand is called the "Hand of Mystery," referring to his gloved hand. It’s deteriorated enough that it’s clearly not just a work glove that was plastered over. For the record, the wall it’s coming out of isn’t nearly thick enough for anyone to be buried in it.

The "Hand of Mystery" appears to have fingers and a thumb.

THE FLORENTINE [BALL] ROOM 

Staff at the Congress Hotel report electrical appliances turning on and off on their own, whispering women, humming men, phantom gunshots, and Teddy Roosevelt's ghost has been seen in the Florentine [Ball] Room in the wee hours of the morning. Several security guards have sold stories about hearing music coming from the Ballroom. The piano plays itself (it's not a player piano either). Not a whole sonata or anything, just a few random notes, but a note or two is enough to give anybody the willies. It's also rumored that some of the bridesmaids at wedding parties who gather around the piano for photographs do not show up in the pictures. This is another place at the Congress Hotel where some employees don’t like to go near.

The Original Florentine Room.

THE GOLD [BALL] ROOM

Spookier-looking than the Florentine [Ball] Room, there’s really not as much ghost activity here. One guard reported that he’d seen Peg Leg Johnny here once. There are stories about the adjacent kitchen area, though. Disconnected equipment is said to start by itself—while unplugged.

The Gold [Ball] Room.

THE SHADOW GUY

The Shadow Guy gets reported by guests a lot—a shadowy figure who shows up and scares the bejeebers out of people. One security guard said he chased the shadow up to the roof one time, but then the apparition vanished. After searching the Chicago Tribune archives, I believe, with a high degree of surety, that I found out who the Shadow Guy was.

SUICIDE ON HIS WEDDING EVE.

Chicago Tribune, April 1900

Captain Louis Ostheim, First United States Artillery, was found dead in his room at the Auditorium Annex at 9 o'clock last night, Sunday, April 8, 1900. There was a bullet wound in his right temple. Under his body was a new revolver. The body lay on the side. Life apparently had been extinct since Saturday night. 

According to announcements in the Chicago papers Captain Louis Ostheim and Mrs. Eva Bruce Wood were to be married today at the residence of the bride's uncle, Walter B. Phister, 479 Kenwood Avenue. Only members of family were to be present. After the ceremony, Captain Ostheim and his bride were to leave immediately for the East, visiting Philiadelphia, the Captain's former home, and other cities. After May 1 they were to be at home at Fort Screven, Savanah, Georgia, where the Captain's battery is stationed.

Among the articles found in the Captain's room were two wedding rings. One was of heavy gold and inscribed as follows: "EVA TO LOUIS - April 9, 1900". — The other, was smaller and more delicately made. Inside was engraved: "LOUIS TO EVA - April 9, 1900."

The Captain was last seen alive on Saturday night at 9 o'clock, when he asked Clerk Arthur O'Connell for the key to his room. The cause of the suicide was a mystery. Nothing was left in the room to throw any light on the matter. This is the first case of self-destruction reported at the Auditorium Annex since it began business six years ago.

THE SEALED GUEST ROOM

The Myth: Guests that stayed in room number 666 in the North Tower (the room number kept changing until they, hotel staff and tour guides, finally settled on room 441 as the one being haunted) made more calls to security and the front desk than those staying in any other room in the hotel. People reported seeing the dark figure of a woman who kicks or shakes them awake while in bed. Reports of seeing objects moving and hearing terrifying noises have also been reported. The room inspired Stephen King to write his famous 1999 short story "1408," about a hotel room that is notorious for causing suicides (1408 was released as a full-length film in 2007). The room is so frightening that the door was sealed shut.

Room 666 Removed Door and Sealed Shut at the Congress Hotel, Chicago.

The Facts: The stories that one room is so haunted they had to lock it shut probably grew from old stories about room 666 being sealed off; a storage closet occupies the space where room 666 would be, as told to me on the phone April 15, 2021 by the hotel office. The stories about room 441 being the most haunted are fairly recent. For a long time, tour guides would just come up with a random room number when they talked about which room was the most haunted. It seems like they've settled on room 441 after it was written about a few times and ghost tour companies started repeating it on their tours. 

The story about Congress Hotel's most haunted guest room being the basis of Stephen King’s book and movie titled "1408" is outright fiction that author and parapsychology enthusiast Ursula Bielski [1] made up [2] for one of her books. Bielski claims in her book that “some researchers have come to the conclusion” that King used the Congress Hotel story as the basis for writing "1408," but didn’t say who the researchers were or how they arrived at that conclusion. Stephen King himself never mentions the Congress Hotel in his intro to “1408.” King says that it’s his attempt at the old “haunted room at the inn” story that every horror writer should eventually try writing.

THE LITTLE BOY

Not to be outdone, the spirit of a young boy has been reported running around the 13th floor of the north tower of the Congress Hotel. He and his brother were thrown out the window by their mother, followed immediately by the mother jumping to her death. 

Like Peg-Leg Johnny, the boy has spent decades being mischievous, but his shenanigans are largely limited to chasing guests, moving furniture, and the like. No sightings of his mother have ever been reported.

"ASKS ROOSEVELT TO AID REFUGEES; CITES 3 DEATHS."

Chicago Tribune, August 1939

Mrs. Adele Langer

An appeal to President Roosevelt to permit persecuted European refugees to remain in America beyond the time fixed in their temporary immigration permits, was dispatched yesterday by the Czech National Alliance of America.

The plea, contained in a letter signed by  R.A. Ginsburg, was prompted by the death plunge from the 13th floor of North Tower of the Congress Hotel in Chicago last Thursday, August 3, 1939, of Mrs. Adele Langer, 43, a Jewish refugee from Nazi occupied of Czechoslovakia, and her two small sons, Jan Misha, 4½, and Karel Tommy, 6. The Langers were in America with their husband and father, Karel Langer, Sr., 46 years old, on a six months' visitation visa. Karel Langer, who until Hitler's march on Czechoslovakia was owner of the $1.5 million ($28,408,000 today) Hynek Marprles textile mills in Prague. He sold the firm, the largest in the counrty, voluntarily, but for a nominal sum that they might escape, and escape quickly. "I practically gave it away to my oldest employes."

 

A coronor's jury decided that Mrs. langer plunged to her death with her sons while temporarily insane. The insanity arose from despondency at having been forced to leave her home and relatives in Prague to escape Nazi persecution of Jews.

A triple funeral for the Langers will be held this morning at the Bohemian National Cemetery [5255 N Pulaski Road Chicago] - (Pulaski Road was known as Crawford Avenue until 1935)

NOTE: The Nazi Germany occupation of Czechoslovakia began with the German annexation of Sudetenland in 1938, continued with the March 1939 invasion of the Czech lands and creation of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. WWII begins on September 1, 1939. Not a good time for Jews to be sent back to Czechoslovakia because their visitation visa is about to expire.

SERIAL KILLER H.H. HOLMES

While the Congress Hotel was clearly teeming with apparitions, the hotel’s creepiest legacy is connected to one of its real-life patrons, America’s first serial killer, Herman Webster Mudgett, better known as Dr. Henry Howard Holmes (H.H. Holmes). Holmes is known to have loitered around the Auditorium Annex Hotel lobby in search of new victims. He was remembered most recently in the book "Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson, where a retelling of Holmes’ story reveals that the psychopath would lure young women back to his "Murder Castle" at 601-603 West 63rd Street and torture them to death.

H.H. Holmes Murder Castle on the corner of Wallace and 63rd streets in Chicago. The 63rd Street View. Circa 1890s

MISCELLANEOUS STORIES

Legend has it that a lone man roams the eighth floor, where the elevator is said to frequently stop and doors open and close, even though no one is inside or pushed the button to call the elevator from the floor foyer.

The Congress Hotel uses the stories of these hauntings as a marketing tool. No guests that I know of have ever been injured by a ghost or spirit.

NOTE:  Originally named "Auditorium Annex," then changed to the "Congress Plaza Hotel," then renamed to the "Congress Hotel," then the "Pick Congress Hotel," and today, it's called the "The Congress Plaza Hotel & Convention Center." You can call the hotel at (312) 427-3800 and hear how they answer their phones.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

---

[1] Ursula Bielski authored and co-authored these Chicago area historical FICTION books:

• Chicago Haunts: Ghostly Lore of the Windy City - 10/1997; 10/1998
• Graveyards of Chicago: The People, History, Art, and Lore of Cook County Cemeteries - 11/1999; 10/2013
• More Chicago Haunts: Scenes from Myth and Memory - 10/2000
• Creepy Chicago: A Ghosthunter's Tales of the City's Scariest Sites - 8/2003
• Chicago Haunts 3: Locked up Stories from an October City - 8/2009
• Haunts of the White City: Ghost Stories from the World's Fair, the Great Fire and Victorian Chicago - 9/2019
• The Haunting of Joliet Prison: The Brutal Past & Paranormal Present of One of the World's Most Notorious Penitentiaries - 8/2020 

[2] On good authority from Author and Historian Adam Selzer, who worked for Ursula Bielski for a time. While he worked for her, Selzer called out Ursula about the fake Stephen King story, and Bielski said, “Well, it makes a good story.”