While on sabbatical in Chicago several years ago, we visited Hyde Park and found a lovely Japanese Garden beside the Museum of Science and Industry that I had never before seen. Looking it up on the internet, I found out that it had been built by Olmstead for the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893.Now, a few years later, I have just finished reading The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson about that Exposition. This book kept me riveted about the architects (I skimmed over the really gruesome parts about the serial killer whose story is interspersed throughout the book) and the whole account of trying to pull off this gigantic endeavor. Not only is the story (really many stories) fascinating, but it all happened just blocks from where I lived as a child.
I remember walking across the large grassy areas of the midway as a little girl, but I only now found out that during the fair it had the Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, belly-dancing Egyptian girls and a plethora of international spectacles.
1 comment:
I lived in Hyde Park when my father taught at the University of Chicago and also found the book riveting. There was also water in the "canal" of the plaissance (sp) and there were gondola rides offered. Larson is such a good writer.
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