Book – Beginning October 25, 2013, the Field Museum of Natural History will be offering a special exhibit, Opening the Vaults: Wonders of the 1893 World’s Fair. The exhibit will feature objects that have rarely—or never—been on display since they amazed fair goers over a hundred years ago, including a meteorite so feared it was kept chained in a dungeon. The exhibit will also explore how the fair brought visitors closer than ever to unique wonders like exotic animals, international cultures, and strange new products from all over the world. (Exhibit description excerpted from the Field Museum’s website.)
This brings to mind a fascinating non-fiction book, The Devil in the White City. The book chronicles the politics, planning and construction of the Columbian Exposition in Chicago by renowned architect Daniel Burnham and his crew including Frederick Olmstead and Louis Sullivan. In a separate storyline we follow the gruesome murders committed by Dr. Henry H. Holmes in his hotel near the fairgrounds of the World’s Fair. Both his charm and the attraction of the Fair lured scores of young women to their deaths.
The Devil in the White City is grand and magical and yet evil and sinister. It reads like fiction and should appeal to fans of true crime, architecture, and history.