World's Columbian Exposition Stock Certificate (Blue) signed by H. N. Higinbotham - Illinois 1893

Beautiful blue 5 share certificate from the World's Columbian Exposition issued in 1893. This historic document was printed by the Western Banknote Company and has an ornate border around it with a vignette of a majestic allegorical woman flying over a city with buildings and trains in the background. There is also a beautiful underprint of the Exposition. This item is hand signed by the president, H. N. Higinbotham and is over 115 years old. Some minor toning on bottom margin.


Certificate Vignette

Origins of the World's Columbian Exposition can be seen in the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia. The Philadelphia event marked the first large-scale effort of this kind in the United States. As early as 1880, advocates argues that a special exposition should mark the 400th anniversary of Columbus sailing to the New World. By 1888, the movement gained enough momentum to begin being taken seriously by the public, and by government officials. Early on, St. Louis was a leader for the site location. By 1889, public opinion and individual efforts had mobilized enough support to launch the new exposition. Contenders for the massive exposition site included St. Louis, Chicago, New York, and Washington, D. C.

The World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 was an event of immense cultural importance to an America nearing the turn of the century. From May 1 to October 31, 1893, Chicago and the Exposition were host to 27 million visitors--nearly one quarter of the country's population at the time. Fairs were an incredibly popular event in the nineteenth century; the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia drew over 10 million visitors in 1876 and Paris' extremely popular Exposition Universelles drew over 28 million to the city of lights. Fairs encompassed the spectrum of experience and interest of the 1800s--from sport to entertainment to high culture. To understand their importance and draw in modern terms, they could be seen as a combination of the Olympics, DisneyWorld, the Superbowl, and the National Gallery--an international entertainment and cultural event with lasting social importance.

The World's Columbian Exposition was the last and the greatest of the nineteenth century's World's Fairs. Nominally a celebration of Columbus' voyages 400 years prior, the Exposition was in actuality a reflection and celebration of American culture and society--for fun, edification, and profit--and a blueprint for life in modern and postmodern America.

Fairs were also money-making ventures. While not always necessarily profitable in and of themselves, they allowed their host cities to take the spotlight--and the tourist dollar. When the idea of celebrating the 400th anniversary of Columbus' voyages to the New World surfaced in the 1880s, cities began to scramble for the opportunity to host the Fair.

Chicago's City Council began their campaign to host the Fair on July 22, 1889, when it directed Mayor De Witt C. Cregier to appoint a committee of 100 citizens to carry out the project. Bank president Lyman Gage, publisher Andrew McNally, railroad tycoon George Pullman, and J.P. Morgan assistant Charles Schwab were among the business leaders who helped raise five million dollars in stock (500,000 shares at $10 each) to establish Chicago's determination that they would have the Fair. The House of Representatives took up the issue in late 1889 and considered petitions from Chicago, St. Louis, New York, and Washington, D.C.

After eight ballots, Congress finally selected Chicago as the site on February 24, 1890, by a vote of 157 for Chicago, 107 for New York, 25 for St. Louis, and 18 for Washington, D. C. The city was required to raise an additional $5 million. In the house of representatives a number of ballots were taken, and long the issue hung in the balance, the men of the Garden city remaining on the floor as long as the rules permitted, and then dispersing, some to telegraph offices, others to hotels, or wherever they could ascertain most readily the progress of events. Presently came news that Chicago was in the lead; but the issue fluctuated at almost every ballot, until at last only a single vote was wanting to decide the battle. Then the strain became intense as was also the excitement in Chicago itself, whose citizens awaited the result each successive ballot, telegraphed within two minutes after it was cast. At length came tidings of victory; the prize had fallen to the western metropolis; and with thankful hearts the delegation, nearly one hundred strong, set their faces toward home, where like a conquering host they were met by a vast procession of citizens, among them the society of the Sons of New York, with banners and placards representing every county of the empire state. Thus after a severe contest, or rather series of contests, each of the rival cities bringing to bear all the influence at its command, Chicago secured the coveted distinction, and to her thorough organization, her earnest intent, and her superior generalship was this triumph due. Nor was there the loss of a single day in giving definite form shape to the project.

An act received the president’s signature securing to Chicago the World’s Columbian Exposition of "arts, industries, manufactures, and the products of the soil, mine, and sea." Though somewhat stringent in its conditions the terms of the act were accepted, not, however, without forebodings of evil from undue interference on the part of the National Commission.

By the provisions of the act this commission was to consist of eight commissioners at large and two members from every state and territory in the republic, and was empowered to accept at its discretion such site as might be offered, together with plans and specifications of buildings, if deemed adequate for the purposes required, and provided satisfactory proof were furnished that subscriptions to the amount of $10,000,000 would be forthcoming in time for the prosecution and completion of the work. By the Commission, space was to be allotted to exhibitors, a classification of exhibits prepared, the plan and scope of the Exposition determined, judges and examiners appointed, premiums awarded, and all intercourse conducted with the exhibitors and representatives of foreign nations. Even the regulations of the local board of directors as to the rates for entrance and admission fees, and the rights and privileges of exhibitors and of the public, were subject to modification by a majority of the commissioners.

A Board of Lady Managers was to be appointed, to perform such duties as might be prescribed by the Commission, and with power to appoint one or more members of all such committees as were authorized to award prizes for exhibits produced entirely or in part by female labor.

The dedication services were to be held, with appropriate ceremonies, on the 12th, afterward postponed to the 21st of October 1892; the Fair to be opened on the 1st of May, 1893, and closed not later than the 30th of October following.

As soon as the sum of $10,000,000 should be raised or subscribed by responsible parties, and provision made for suitable grounds and buildings, the president was authorized to make proclamation of the same, to forward copies of his proclamation to the diplomatic representatives of foreign powers, and to invite foreign nations to participate in the Exposition.

A government exhibit was to be furnished, such as would illustrate its functions in time of peace and its resources in time of war, one tending to explain the nature of American institutions and their adaptation to the wants of the people. For this purpose a building, was to be erected at a cost not exceeding $400,000, and a board appointed to arrange and take charge of the exhibit. For the erection and maintenance of such building, the cost of transportation, the care, custody, and safe return of articles belonging to its exhibits, and other expenses, the United States should become liable for a sum not exceeding in the aggregate $1,500,000.

On the 24th of December 1890, all the conditions of the act having thus far been compiled with, the president issued his proclamation, giving to the enterprise official recognition, and in the name of the government and the people of the United States, invited all the nations of the earth to take part in the commemoration of an event that would be prominent in human history and of lasting interest to mankind, by appointing representatives thereto, and sending such exhibits to the World's Columbian Exposition as should most fitly and fully illustrate their resources, their industries, and their progress in civilization. Thus was removed all possibility of doubt or failure; and the nature of a Christmas gift came the president's missive to Chicago.

The world was not slow to avail itself of the invitation, and within little more than a twelvemonth no less than forty-four nations, with twenty-eight colonies and provinces, had signified their acceptance, their appropriations aggregating at the close of 1892 over $6,000,000. The amounts set apart for exhibits were by no means in proportion to their resources, Japan for instance contributing $630,000 and Brazil $600,000, while Great Britain was represented by a smaller contribution, exceeding by only by a few thousand dollars that of her single colony of New South Wales. Meanwhile the states had been somewhat backward, the names of several being omitted from the list as late as September, 1892, though appearing later, either with public or private contributions, some being prohibited by constitutional restrictions from making actual appropriations. By Illinois $800,000 was subscribed; by California, $300,000; by New York and Pennsylvania, each $300,000; by Massachusetts, Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan, Iowa, and Washington, amounts varying from $100,000 to $175,000; all the rest falling below $100,000, and several donating such insignificant sums as $25,000, $15,000 and even $10,000. The last of these donations were somewhat in contrast with those of the minor foreign powers, and even of the British colonies, one of which contributed individually nearly as much as the total accredited to all the New England states. By the principal foreign nations, and by nearly all the states, special buildings were erected as headquarters and for the accommodation of certain exhibits, the original appropriations of many of the participants being afterward largely increased.

To the department of Publicity and Promotion, the first one organized, and whose task, begun in 1890, assumed gigantic proportions, is largely due the popularity of the Chicago Fair, and the appropriation, by home and foreign participants, of a larger amount than was ever contributed for any previous exposition. Through the efforts of its able manager, Moses P. Handy, and of his corps of trained and energetic assistants, a favorable impression was created throughout the civilized world as to the utility and attractions of the coming display. Calling to his aid that most powerful of all human agencies, the public press, not only in the United States but in foreign lands, he explained the character, scope, and plan of the Exposition, and why the time and place were especially appropriate for a great international display. These articles were translated into all the principal Europe languages, and in response more than 2,000 newspapers and magazines not only forwarded copies regularly to the department, but devoted a liberal space in their columns to items and illustrations of the undertaking. Every week some 23,000 letters, circulars, and pamphlets were mailed to the various states and territories with 14,000 to at least eighty foreign nations and colonies.

Newspaper clippings were also made and distributed at the rate of many millions of words a day. March, 1893, the volume of correspondence and communication had assumed enormous proportions, the mail matter of from 50,000 to 60,000 pieces including more than 20,000 journals. In addition to the articles prepared for countless publications, electrotype impressions of the buildings and officials were scattered broadcast by the ton, together with information to intending visitors, such as would enable them to make their trip one of pleasure, comfort, and instruction. On this department also devolved the duty of preparing the official guides and catalogues, together with the collection of material for a government history of the Exposition, the latter a task of encyclopedic proportions.



The makeup of Chicago's Fair supporters was decidedly capitalistic and the task was by no means insurmountable. With a list of contributors and fundraisers which included G.B. Shaw, President of the American Loan & Trust Company; W.E. Hale, President of the Hale Elevator Company; W.J. Huiskamp of the Chicago Times; O.W. Potter, President of the Illinois Steel Company; Potter Palmer, real estate tycoon and owner of the Palmer House Hotel; and Stuyvesant Fish, President of the Illinois Central Railroad Company, the fundraising was soon accomplished. A Presidential Proclamation recognizing Chicago's compliance with fundraising restrictions was issued on December 24, 1890, and the Fair officially belonged to Chicago.

Chicago lost no time in beginning its preparations, starting with a governing body to oversee the World's Columbian Exposition. Although a corporation had already been established in Chicago to raise the funds, the Congress determined that a national board of oversight, consisting of two representatives from each state and territory, as well as eight at large members, would also be required. The national organization came to be known as the Commission and the local group was the Directory; the two bodies were directed by one man, Col. George Davis, a former soldier and senator who helped plead Chicago's case in Congress. With this political/corporate body in place, the work of planning the Exposition began in 1890.

The construction of buildings and the choice of a site were the first items on the agenda. Burnham & Root, a successful Chicago architectural firm whose work included many of the major skyscrapers which had arisen after the devastating 1871 fire, was chosen as the lead Firm. John Wellborn Root was the creative genius of the partnership, while Daniel H. Burnham had the organizational and personal flair to make the venture a success. When Root died of pneumonia early in the planning process, Burnham took control of the architectural planning of the Fair. Burnham had great leeway in the choices he made: the site for the Fair, the architects he tapped to design and build the exhibition halls, the sculptors he hired to decorate the grounds, even the color scheme to be employed. Burnham and Frederick Law Olmsted, the venerable landscape architect who had designed New York's Central Park, had chosen prime Lake Front space for the Exhibition buildings. Wealthy Michigan Avenue residents, including Potter Palmer, were not amused by the Lake Front plan and pushed for little-used and marshy Jackson Park as the site for the Fair.

By 1891, over 40,000 skilled laborers and workers were employed in the construction of the fair--at Jackson Park. Burnham headed up the selection of the Board of Architects who conceived the general design of the Fair's buildings and the Court of Honor, as well as the architects who would carry out the design and construction of the 200 additional buildings. Olmsted, Burnham, and the Board of Architects -- a group of Eastern architects generally trained at the Academie des Beaux-Arts in Paris -- decided on an unusual Fair plan. Utilizing the natural landscape of Jackson Park, Olmsted created a system of lagoons and waterways fed by Lake Michigan. These bodies of water served as decorative reflecting pools, waterways for transportation, and provided a place of respite necessary for weary summer visitors--the shady Wooded Island. The 14 main buildings surrounding the waterways were in the Beaux-Arts style, with its emphasis on logic, harmony, and uniformity. The Court of Honor buildings-- surrounding the Grand Basin with its massive gilded statue of the Republic--were covered with "staff," or stucco, giving the main buildings a magnificent whiteness and dazzling visitors who arrived at the rail terminal just outside the Fair's gates.

The interest surrounding the construction of the Fair became so great--in large part due to the competition and controversy that went into the selection process--that Burnham decided to allow spectators into the Fair compound. Paying a fee of 25 cents to watch the progress of construction, over 3000 people visited per week. Burnham and the Directory had plenty of opportunity to make this pre-Fair interest a profitable venture. With a total area of 633 acres (including 80 acres for the Midway Plaisance, an entertainment strip), 75 million board feet of lumber, 18,000 tons of iron and steel, 120,000 incandescent lights, 30,000 tons of staff, 14 main buildings with total floor space of 63 million square feet, the construction process was slow. In fact, the enormity of the task at hand forced Burnham and the commission to push the opening day back from late 1892 to May, 1893.

The change of opening date only served to increase public anticipation regarding the Fair. Moses Handy's Department of Publicity and Promotion did the rest. In operation since 1890, Handy's department was the source for information and news about the progress of the Fair for many national and international newspapers and journals. The scope of the effort to promote the Fair was immense. Working out of the Rand McNally building in downtown Chicago, Handy and his staff sent out information and watercolor sketches all over the world; in fact, Handy claims that "'scarcely a day passed on which less than 2,000 to 3,000 mail packages...were not distributed from this department.'" (Hales, 5) Handy's focus was on the promotion of Chicago and the commercial opportunities of the Fair, and was the basis for a number of guidebooks, often representing themselves as the "Official Guidebook of the Columbian Exposition." Julian Ralph was one of the first guidebook authors, penning Harper's Chicago and the World's Fair in 1891, two years before the Fair opened, an indication of the advance interest and publicity this event inspired.

After three years of preparation and $28 million, the fair opened to great fanfare on May 1, 1893. One hundred thousand people crowded the Court of Honor to watch President Cleveland touch a golden lever, electrically sending the dynamo engines into motion; the Fair, after years of preparation, was finally underway. Visitors over the six months of the Fair's operation were excited, entertained, and overwhelmed. The Fair was calculated to be awe-inspiring, and in large part achieved its goal. Visitors were greeted with 633 total acres of Fairgrounds, 65,000 exhibits, and restaurant seating for 7,000. They were amazed by the clean and safe elevated railway and the electric launches plying the canals and lagoons. Guests, on the way to the entertainment and the spectacle of the Midway felt quite safe with the hundreds of Columbian Guards and plainclothes detectives on the grounds. Hundreds of concessionaires, selling everything from souvenir paperweights to popcorn and the newly invented carbonated soda, crowded the walkways, and nearly every day had a special theme for visitors to celebrate. The World's Congress Auxiliary held daily presentations and lectures, 5,978 in all, covering subjects including ethics, authors, economics, labor, and the mammoth week-long Congress of Religions. The event was massive, and its popularity was sustained: Chicago Day, held in the last month of the Fair, drew over 700,000 visitors.

Attendance figures vary, but it is generally agreed that a total of over 27.5 million people visited the fair (21.5 million paid admissions, 6 million free). Figures for the number of American visitors is not available, nor is the percentage of those admissions that were repeat visits. However, it can be safely assumed that approximately 25% of the United States' population visited the Fair, and the majority of the rest of the country experienced it through newspaper accounts, photographic guidebooks, and the pictures and stories of friends and family who visited it themselves.

The Fair was incredibly popular until it closed on October 31, 1893. The World's Columbian Exposition paid off all of its operating expenses, even returning $1 million to its 30,000 subscribers, a portion of their initial investments. It had a great influence on turn of the century American society, as well as social, economic, cultural, and political legacies to modern America. The Fair presented itself to the country and the world as a celebration of the advance of American civilization; but how was it received, and what has been its lasting legacies? The first step to contextualizing its reception is to understand the ideological landscape and physical dimensions in the Official Tour.



The Exhibition

Total cost for the exposition was $27,245,566.90, excluding the $3-4 million spent by state, federal, and foreign governments on their exhibit buildings. Provision was made for a U. S. government exhibition building, with a cost to not exceed $400,000. The main buildings were estimated to have a combined cost of over $8,000,000.

The only permanent building was the Fine Arts Building, which was constructed with a steel frame and with bricks. Dredging Jackson Park cost $615,000 and required over 800,000 cubic yards of soil.

Work done under supervision of the Director of Works, Daniel H. Burnham. At peak construction, more than 12,000 workmen were busy with the site and structures.

Decorative Work

Grading and filling- $450,000 Landscaping-$323,500 Viaducts and bridges-$125,000 Piers-$70,000 Waterway improvements-$225,000 Railways-$500,000 Steam plant-$800,000 Electric lighting-$1,500,000 Statuary-$1,000,000 Vases, lamps, etc.-$50,000 Lakefront adornment-$200,000 Water supply and sewage-$600,000 Other-$1,000,000

Total, this section: $5,943,000

The goals of the management and the reactions of the public to this massive event reveal a great deal about the state of America at the close of the Gilded Age. The early 1890s were a time of considerable turmoil in America, and the conflicting interests and ideas found full play in the presentation and reception of the Fair. It was an age of increasing fragmentation and confusion, of self-conscious searching for an identity on a personal and on a national level. The industrial, and increasingly electrical, revolutions were transforming America; the American way of life was no longer based on agriculture, but on factories and urban centers, and the end of the Gilded Age signified the advent of what Alan Trachtenberg has called the "incorporation of America," the shift of social control from the people and government to big business. The accompanying shift from a producer to a consumer society and the incredible growth of these corporations led to financial instability. Recessions and the devastating Depression of 1893, the violent Homestead and Pullman labor strikes, and widespread unemployment and homelessness plagued the early years of the decade. The frontier was closing, immigration, technological advances, and the railroads had changed the face of the country, and suddenly "Americanness" was more and more difficult to define. Americans were at once confused, excited, and overwhelmed.

The World's Columbian Exposition was the perfect vehicle to explore these immense changes while at the same time celebrating the kind of society America had become. World's Fairs, by the end of the century, were an established cultural and entertainment form with immense international influence. From the first major nineteenth century exposition, the 1851 "Crystal Palace" fair in London to Philadelphia's 1876 Centennial Exhibition to Paris' Exposition Universelle of 1889, hundreds of millions of people around the world visited over 50 international fairs in the last half of the century, finding in them not only entertainment, but cultural enlightenment, commercial opportunity, and a reflection of their age.

Even as cultural producers and consumers of the time understood the importance of the Fair as a form, so modern scholars understand that as "cities within cities and cultures within civilizations, they both reflect and idealize the historical moments when they appear." (Gilbert, 13) We are able to learn a great deal about the culture and issues of the late nineteenth century by studying fairs as important social indicators. Robert Rydell has observed that

Fairs, in short, helped to craft the modern world. They were arenas where manufacturers sought to promote products, where states and provinces competed for new residents and new investments, where urban spaces were organized into shimmering utopian cities, and where people from all social classes went to be alternately amused, instructed, and diverted from more pressing concerns. Memorialized in songs, books, buildings, public statuary, city parks, urban designs, and photographs, fairs were intended to frame the world view not only of the hundreds of millions who attended these spectacles, but also the countless millions who encountered the fairs secondhand.

It was not without many difficulties that matters were pushed forward to the point where ground could be broken, and the actual work begun of preparing for the great event. Foremost of all came the question of site, for which there were several competing locations, the supporters of each urging their claims with such persistence that for months the local board was overwhelmed with propositions. The first considered was the portion of the lake front between Madison street and Park row; but to prepare it for the required purposes would involve serious expense and delay. Moreover, should the Fair be held at that point, much inconvenience would be caused by the overcrowding of streets. Next was proposed Jackson park; but this also would entail heavy outlay for filling and for the formation of lagoons. The northern part was already occupied as a public pleasure ground, and the remaining part was considered somewhat too remote from the business portion of the city. The third of the proffered sites was a section of Garfield park, with lands adjacent, much nearer to the business quarter; the fourth was a choice location of six hundred acres fronting on the lake, in the northern part of Lake View; a fifth was Washington park, a cultivated tract not far distant from the water front. All of these were rejected, and for reasons that will elsewhere be stated, the choice fell on Jackson park,(JPG image 132K) for the use of the unimproved portion of which an ordinance was passed by the park commissioners, with sanction of the state legislature.

No sooner was the site determined than the National Commission made its appearance, demanding certain changes and modifications to which the local directory was compelled to agree. Then came a dispute as to jurisdiction, the directors insisting on the control, so far at least as home exhibits were concerned, since through their efforts nearly all the funds had been secured, while the Commission claimed supremacy in accordance with the provisions of the congressional act, also on the ground that recognition would not otherwise be accorded by foreign powers. Had not the question threatened serious consequences, it would merely have been regarded as a ludicrous episode in the history of the Fair. The controversy originated in a disputed interpretation of the section in the act which provides that "the Commission shall generally have charge of all intercourse with the exhibitors and the representatives of foreign nations." By those who wished to curtail the powers of the Commission it was claimed that this restricted their authority to foreign exhibitors, leaving the local board in charge of all matters pertain domestic exhibits. If, it was urged, congress had intended to confer on the national body complete jurisdiction, then a comma would have been placed after the word "exhibitors," the remainder of the sentence being in the nature of an addendum, extending its control to foreign representatives. With such persistence was the contest waged as to threaten the vital interests of the Fair, and thus for a time did the fate of the World’s Columbian Exposition depend upon a punctuation mark.

Finally matters were adjusted by joint committees selected from the two parties, at whose suggestion was created a Board of Reference and Control, consisting of the president, vice-chairman, and six other members of the National Commission, to form with a similar committee, chosen from the local directory, a committee of conference, to whom all matters in dispute should be referred, and from whose decision there should be no appeal. Thus harmony was for a time restored, soon, however, to be disturbed by a special congressional committee, appointed to investigate the management of the Exposition, and to submit a plan for future administration. Its report presented to the house in January, 1891, was adverse to the National Commission, declaring that many of the functions and powers assumed were outside the purposes of the act, recommending its virtual abolition, and stating that the control of affairs should rest with the local directory, by whose members the funds had been raised. But apart from the friction and antagonism which it aroused, together with the strictures of press and public, no harm was wrought by this report, and on its recommendations, no further action was taken by congress.

When the National Commission was organized, the executive committee, consisting of thirty members, was found to be too unwieldy an organization for prompt and decisive action. Here was an additional reason for transferring its power to the Board of Reference and Control. Even the latter was too cumbersome for practical purposes, with sessions held at long intervals, and other embarrassing difficulties arising from the want of a vigorous executive force, such as would solve without delay the ever-recurring problems calling for instant action. Hence it was determined to organize the management anew, in the shape of a smaller body that should hold continuous sessions, and whose jurisdiction should be absolute in all matters pertaining to the general administration of the Fair. Such action was indeed rendered necessary through the conflicting interests and prerogatives of the several parties in control, and through the near approach of the opening day, with a vast accumulation of business still remaining on hand.

The new organization, styled the Council of Administration, consisted of four members, selected from both branches of the management, H. N. Higinbotham, and Charles H. Schwab representing the directory, and George V. Massey and J. W. St Clair the National Commission. On Mr. Higinbotham, president of the local board, was also conferred the presidency of the council.

While created nominally with absolute control, its proceedings were in measure subject to the approval of the Board of Control. It was also assisted by the committees of finance and of ways and means, the former attending to such matters as its name implied, and the latter to affairs relating to privileges and concessions from which revenues could be derived. (The term privileges relates to the sale of goods manufactured for the purposes of illustrating the process exhibited. Concessions refer to the disposal of goods and to special attractions from which the sole object is to secure a profit.) One effect of this measure was to abolish most of the committees of the directory; another was a saving of expense; and the third that the affairs of the Exposition were for the first time conducted with harmony, simplicity, and dispatch.

While the director-general was empowered to treat with all exhibitors, there was also created for this purpose a department of Foreign Affairs, with authority to open direct communication between the Exposition authorities and the representatives of foreign nations. The chiefs of other departments, by whom were granted allotments of space to American exhibitors, were likewise empowered to correspond directly with foreign commissioners, should their applications be referred to them by the director-general of the department of Foreign Affairs. Individual exhibitors would, after the opening day of the of the Fair, receive their instructions from the chief in whose department their exhibits were made, and through him, from the director-general. But as to the management of the Fair, a more detailed description will be given in another section his work. Let us return for a moment to the proceeding of congress as to Exposition affairs, for in the welfare of that enterprise the national legislature manifested a fatherly interest, though as to the matter of appropriations appearing somewhat in the role of step-father. In February, 1892, a resolution was adopted by the house that, whereas further appropriations were asked, in addition to those already made, the "committee on appropriations is hereby ordered to inquire and report to the house whether those obligated and undertaking and now engaged to do so, have justly and properly compiled with the requirements of the act of congress approved April 25, 1890, and whether all expeditures of whatever character for said Exposition have been judiciously made."

Whatever may have their errors of administration, certain it is that "those obligated" did not fail to render a complete and itemized statement of all expenditures, from the outlay of millions on grounds and buildings, to the wages of a temporary janitor, the cost of a door mat, and the price of a dozen cuspidores. By William 'I'. Baker, president of the Board of Directors, it was stated that the total receipts from all sources, to the 1st of March, 1892, were $5,106,181, with resources available from the balance of stock subscriptions and of the appropriations of the city of Chicago amounting to $5,713,051. The entire expenditure to that date was $3,860,935, and the indebtedness or liabilities under the various contracts, $4,692, 724. Nothing had been received in the way of loans or donations from private individuals; nor was there any incumbrance, direct or implied, on the property or receipts of the Exposition, which was free from debt, except for the amounts due to contractors as the work progressed. By the chief of construction it was estimated that, apart from outstanding contracts, $7,726,760 would be required for the completion of the work on buildings and grounds, and for the maintenance of departments and operating expenses until the opening of the Fair about $700,000, making a total outlay, including the expenses and liabilities already incurred, of nearly $17,000,000. As will presently appear, these estimates fell somewhat short of the actual expenditure; but with the single exception of the Paris Exposition of 1889, this was the case with all the great world's fairs.

In its report, dated the 20th of May, 1892, the committee made only a few suggestions as to superior management and economy. The chosen site it stated, was ample in extent, embracing more than double the area occupied by the Centennial Exposition. The landscape effects would be singularly beautiful; the blending, of art with nature in excellent taste and perfect harmony, the interlacing of land and water forming a novel and attractive feature. The architectural display would present a striking and imposing aspect, while the spacious verdure-clad grounds, dotted with shrubbery and with forest growth, would complete the elements of a matchless panorama. The facilities for travel and transportation, both by land and water, would be equal to any demand that could be made upon them, and in a word, both as to design and execution, the Fair would be a worthy tribute to the ingenuity and enterprise of the wonderful city of the west. "In its scope and magnificence," the report concluded, "this Exposition stands alone. There is nothing like it in all history. It easily surpasses all kindred enterprises, and will amply illustrate the marvellous genius of the American people in the great domains of agriculture, commerce, manufactures, and invention, which constitute the foundation upon which rests the structure of our national glory and prosperity."

As the result of the investigation, instead of a loan of $5,000,000 applied for by the management, congress voted half that sum as a gift, in the form of 5,000,000 souvenir coins with commemorative inscriptions, the remaining half to be realized, as was anticipated, from premiums on their sale. Even that amount was contributed with reluctance, after much discussion, and only it would seem, as an inducement to close the Fair on Sunday. To this condition, obnoxious as it was to a large portion of the community, injurious to the financial interests of the Exposition, and especially distasteful to the millions residing in Chicago and its neighborhood, who could attend the Fair on no other day, a strong opposition was made, but it was not until long afterward that the matter was determined in court. The parsimony of the national legislature in its contributions to the Chicago Fair and also to the Centennial Fair, for which a loan of $1,500,000 was the only appropriation, is somewhat in contrast with the policy of foreign governments, by nearly all of which their exhibitions of industry, science, and art have been liberally supported, and many of them entirely supported with the people's funds.

This ended up being one of the greatest events in the history of the United States at the time.

History from Wikipedia and OldCompanyResearch.com (old stock certificate research service).