World's Columbian Exposition

Rand McNally and Company
Bird's Eye View of the World's Columbian Exposition. Chicago: 1893
Color lithograph map
Geography & Map Division (213A.4)
Digital ID# 4104c pm001522

No event had a greater impact on the form and appearance of the American city than this World's Columbian Exposition held in Chicago in 1893. Throughout the country train stations, banks, and city halls all came to resemble the elegant buildings of the fair. The monumental classicism of the artificial city created under the guidance of the Daniel Burnham was true to his famous dictum: "Make no little plans." The bird's-eye view was a popular promotional genre of the era. Generally commissioned by city fathers to promote commerce and settlement, these maps are now regularly consulted by genealogists and historians.