Who were some specific people who worked the midway?

October 17, 2007 9:33 AM

I am doing research about the people who worked on the midway at the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 (better known as the Chicago World's Fair). I've run into a bit of a road block.

I have had absolutely no trouble finding information about -what- was there. I know all about the various villages and streets that were set up on the midway. I've got maps of the midway. I've got books written in 1893 and I've got books written recently. I used to work in a library so I know about how to do research, and generally don't have a lot of problems with it.

The problem is that I'm having a lot of trouble finding information about the actual people and acts who were there. I know about Little Egypt, who has been easy to find information about, and I found a reference to Harry Houdini working there unofficially with his brother.

These are the kind of details that I need. They don't need to be well known people like Little Egypt or Houdini, but I need to know things like "So and so was a snake charmer who worked on the Streets of Cairo and this is something specific that happened with him." I'm sure that the information I need is out there, but I can't for the life of me find it.

Does anyone know of any resources that might give me the kind of information that I'm looking for?

posted by plaingurl to society & culture (18 comments total)

I don't know your location or your level of familiarity with Chicago, so this may or may not be an obvious suggestion. But have you tried the Chicago History Museum?
posted by veggieboy at 9:43 AM on October 17, 2007

You probably already have this, no idea what's in it:

Reinhart, Richard. "The Midway Plaisance--Notorious Ancestor of Today's Amusement Parks." World's Fair 12 (April-June 1993): 15-19.

Reinhart captures the lasciviousness of the Midway, the first amusement area officially part of an American fair.

This any help? The Google books result indicated some overlap.

I'd think you would want to move from looking at the official print materials from the exposition and the city, and start looking for more traveler's narratives and newspaper accounts of people who actually saw the fair at ground level.

A reference librarian here should be of some help.

And may I say, what a wonderful topic. I'm envious of your work!
posted by Miko at 9:47 AM on October 17, 2007

Vivekananda, 1863-1902, focused the Vedanta path that Ramakrishna had affirmed, and woke the world up to India's spiritual refinement at the Chicago Worlds Fair, during the Parliament of Religions.
posted by alms at 9:49 AM on October 17, 2007

i think you'd have success reading the chicago newspapers from when the exposition was going on, they surely had some stories on acts and people, and i'm sure there are sundry tidbits throughout on all sorts of things that will at least get you started
posted by Salvatorparadise at 9:51 AM on October 17, 2007

If Devil in the White City has a list of references in the back, you might try looking for some of them. He talks a fair amount about the midway in that book. The sources he used would definitely be of interest.
posted by cosmicbandito at 10:18 AM on October 17, 2007

You may already know about it but Devil in the White City, which is an awesome story that focuses on serial killer Dr. H. H. Holmes, also features in great detail the story of the Chicago Worlds Fair. I recall that it went into detail about the midway workers brought in from other countries, including the Pygmies, and some of the cultural clashes that occured while they were there. Maybe you could use this as a starting point, then check Larson's sources. Damn, this is a good book.
posted by kimdog at 10:24 AM on October 17, 2007

Seconding The Devil in the White City. I just ran upstairs to see if it has a list of references, and it does. It's quite extensive. You might also try the search term "Midway Plaisance," the term Larson uses to describe the Midway as a whole.
posted by cooker girl at 10:28 AM on October 17, 2007

Curtis M. Hinsley's The World as Marketplace: Commodification of the Exotic at the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893, in Exhibiting Cultures: The Poetic and Politics of Museum Display, should be a useful little nugget. You can also mine its bibliography for contemporary newspaper sources and modern studies.
posted by Elsa at 10:53 AM on October 17, 2007

We have a giant photo book (the original photo book) with pictures and captions of pretty much everything at the fair. I'm not sure if the captions might provide the the little tips of information you are looking for, but I can check. As a tangent we got it on eBay for a total steal and it's easily worth it on it's own merits.
posted by true at 11:04 AM on October 17, 2007

Surely you have looked at daily newspapers for this time period? I would think they would be full of advertisements and stories about the fair with the level of detail you need.
posted by LarryC at 11:06 AM on October 17, 2007

This is a really interesting question. As I'm sure you've found, there's a huge literature on the Columbian Exposition, but the stuff that I've read focuses on issues of representation. There's a ton of stuff on representations of race (especially), on gender, on ideas about America and progress and all that jazz. There's lots of stuff about the planning of the fair and about the speakers at the various congresses, none of whom I think was paid. I don't think I've seen a thing about the actual paid labor force, although it's not like I've gone looking. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the stuff on the villages talks about the people who were exhibited in them, though.

As previously noted, if you haven't already contacted the Chicago History Museum, you definitely should. They used to be the Chicago Historical Society, and their name is a little misleading. They house extensive archives, as well as the museum.

The Encyclopedia of Chicago is online and searchable, and it's got some interesting tidbits. For instance, the article on the Lebanese says that a "small but enterprising group among them made their way to Chicago's World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 to sell their wares on the Midway Plaisance." The problem, however, is that the Encyclopedia very rarely mentions individual people. So the entry on jazz mentions that ragtime musicians gravitated to the Midway, but it doesn't tell you any specific names. It's a tad frustrating. There's a little bibliography at the end of each entry, though, and you might find some references worth chasing down.
posted by craichead at 11:14 AM on October 17, 2007

The New York Times Archive from 1893 is now free, and includes many articles with the term "chicago exposition".
posted by alms at 11:20 AM on October 17, 2007

I have nothing directly useful to add. But you might be entertained by Chris Ware's 'Jimmy Corrigan.'
posted by kmennie at 11:29 AM on October 17, 2007

Check through some of the stuff that's been digitized as part of Illinois Harvest. There's at least one complete scrapbook in there from a family who attended the Fair and has lots of ads of companies that exhibited.
posted by MsMolly at 11:29 AM on October 17, 2007

Dr. Robert Rydell is an expert on World's Fairs. I took several classes from him as an undergrad and I'm betting if you shoot him a polite e-mail it would be well received.
posted by desjardins at 11:33 AM on October 17, 2007

The Newberry library in Chicago also has an extensive collection of materials related to the Columbian exposition. They take reference questions via email if you can't make it there in person. Talk to one of their librarians about it - they'll be able to help you. I know they receive a lot of questions about the worlds fair.
posted by Craig at 12:00 PM on October 17, 2007

We have a giant photo book (the original photo book)

There are thousands of these available cheaply; very much worth getting. Many different companies were printing them at the time (there wasn't, AFAIK, a single official book), and the expo went on for a long interval. The books are often a bit damaged, but typically contain 50+ 8x10 photos of the different attractions, the people who came from all around the world, etc. The ones I've seen are very light on the information, they're mainly just picture books - they don't include the names of performers or workers, just little tag lines like "A Sikh boy and his mother". See the link below for the typical kind of picture you'll see in these books; though be aware that different books contain different selections of images.

As for the names of specific people: The Nester Brothers of Baraga Michigan ran the logging camp, and they set the world's record for the heaviest load drawn by a team or draft horses (was in the Guiness book until at least the 1980s). There's an amazing picture of the load: huge, huge trees. Look for info on them in histories of Michigan logging. I know I have seen, but don't remember, a description of the daily routine of the camp -- including building and unbuilding a giant log pile, I think. There are details about them in histories of logging in Michigan; some local historical society up there probably has some of their letters somewhere, which might be a place to start on finding out about daily life at the fair.
posted by LobsterMitten at 2:40 PM on October 17, 2007

You could try contacting Peter Nepstad, who wrote a very detailed text adventure game about the 1893 World's Fair, and see if he has a good list of sources. His email address is on the page linked to.
posted by dfan at 9:24 AM on October 22, 2007