During the most devastating financial crisis our country has ever faced — The Great Depression — Chicago held a huge, extravagant event. The Elmhurst History Museum captures that 1933-34 World’s Fair with its latest exhibit, World of Tomorrow: A Century of Progress, which opened Friday and runs through Jan. 4.
The Century of Progress Exposition on Chicago’s Northerly Island wasn’t planned just as an exhibition. It was also a rallying cry.
“They wanted to be able to instill hope. They wanted to give a little bit of happiness,” said Sara Cox, the museum’s curator of exhibits.
Still, that fair remains overshadowed by the World’s Columbian Exposition and its White City that Chicago had erected 40 years previously.
“A lot of people are familiar with the 1893 fair and the inventions that came out of it,” Cox said. “A lot of people forget about the 1933 fair. It was called The Rainbow City because it had so much color. It kind of set the tone for all the future world fairs.”
Cox did all of the research for the exhibit, including information buildings that were in the fair, including five houses that were moved to Northwest Indiana afterward.
She also decided what to put in it, and gathered the artifacts, often working with collectors.
“I knew this was a highly collectible fair for people,” Cox said.
Display items also were borrowed from the Illinois State Museum and the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry.
Cox said the most common artifacts were brochures.
“This was a very brochure-heavy fair because they were essentially trying to sell their wares and their technology, and show what they could do,” she explained.
One of the more interesting pieces is a rare Sky Ride toy. They also have one of the nuts that held together the Sky Ride. The Sky Ride was a big attraction, Cox said, highlighting the theme of the fair, which was “Celebrating Industry, Technology, and the Arts.”
The Sky Ride consisted of two towers that were over 600 feet tall.
“They had these people-mover cars that would go across the width of the fair,” Cox said.
Some people used them primarily for transportation, but a lot of people took advantage of the view, because airplane travel was rare then.
“To see Chicago from that height was very unique and very special,” she said.
Another unusual item on display is the up-and-down button from the elevator to the observation tower.
Cox reported that after the fair was closed, all of the materials that were at the fair were resold or reused elsewhere.
“Sarah always does a terrific job for the museum,” said executive director Dave Oberg. “I think this is her most ambitious exhibition to date. It is a riot of color and artifacts and images and great stories. People are going to love this.”
Oberg asserted that Elmhurst has a connection to the 1933 World’s Fair. “We’ve been connected by rail to Chicago. It’s a very short train ride there,” he said. “A lot of people from Elmhurst went to the ’93 fair. The ’33 fair was the same way. Some of our local citizens actually worked there.”
To illustrate that point, a staff uniform which had been worn by Elmhurst resident Carl Bucholz, who was part of the cashier team, is on display.
Oberg said another Elmhurst resident helped to design the people-mover system.
“It gave people a lot of hope during the Great Depression,” Oberg explained. “It was a very future-oriented fair. There was a lot of new technology that was introduced.”
People flocked to the fair. “It had a whopping 39 million attendees,” Oberg reported.
The executive director’s main role in creating the exhibition was working with the Elmhurst Heritage Foundation to find sponsorships and support.
Oberg hopes people who attend the exhibition will learn that “a lot of the technology we take for granted today was introduced at that fair. It really gave people hope and inspiration during a really difficult time in our history. I’m hoping they come away with a sense of awe and wonder in American innovation, which was definitely a big part of that fair.”
A number of events are planned around the exhibition.
On Oct. 26, Bruce Allardice will present a lecture about the Major League Baseball All Star Game, an annual tradition that started during the fair. And Cox will lead a gallery tour on Nov. 2.
“I might bring out some extra artifacts that I hadn’t been able to display,” Cox said.
On Nov. 16, there will be a lecture on entertainer Sally Rand, represented in the exhibit by a full-size cutout.
“A lot of people would say the Sky Ride was the biggest centerpiece in the fair but others would tell it was Sally Rand. She did a feather fair dance.”
There’s also an October bus tour to five of the 13 Century of Progress Homes in Beverly Shores, Indiana, that has already sold out.
