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We Can Thank the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair for These Amazing Things

Aimee Heidelberg January 14, 2023 24 min

Columbus Day

Columbus and Queen Isabella from World's Fair brochure — Artwork from the official directory of the World’s Columbian exposition, 1893. Public Domain

The 1893 World’s Fair went by many names, but none captured the intent of the exposition better than the Columbian Exposition. The fair celebrated the 400^th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s “discovery” of America in 1492 (back then there were fewer questions about that). The Fair didn’t invent Columbus Day, but it kicked off a nation-wide celebration of Columbus Day.

The Library of Congress records Columbus Day being celebrated as far back as 1792, as a small-scale celebration organized by the Society of St. Tammany. President Benjamin Harrison declared Columbus Day a “general holiday for the people of the United States” in July 1892, and gave organizers a grand theme for the Fair.