I decided to distract myself by talking about the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, which I've been thinking about and giving tours for a number of years.

Because so much of the Fair in photos were the relatively empty official photos of buildings, I love this one of a family that looks footsore and weary, walking the length of the Midway, probably to get to the entrance at Cottage Grove and the streetcar stop, their guidebooks clutched in their hands. They have made it to Ellis Avenue (which was blocked off for the fair). They have brought extra wraps, so it might be in the fall, but everyone wore a lot of clothes in public, so even in the summer heat, women and men were all bundled up in the photos. There was no air conditioning!! I totally would have just melted onto a bench somewhere or spent all my money riding the ice railway--a toboggan that ran over actual ice. 

One thing else you can see is that the Midway was not yet dug down the way it is now. The central flat wide avenue went up the middle from Cottage to Stony. And the avenue was dirt--so when it rained, people referred to the Mudway Nuisance. The Midway was all concessions--everything there cost extra to go in--and it's why the Fair made money even during the deep depression that was building that summer. And every concession had a barker or something out front trying to lure people in. So, this family is hearing a roar of sounds--music, drumming, Chinese opera singing, barkers. And there are the smells--strange cooking and lots of animals on the Midway. At least the bathrooms had flush toilets! I think there's a men's "comfort station" to the right of the photo.