1893 World's Columbian Exposition

Researching "There's a Place in France" unexpectedly brought me to the tune's origins in the "Streets of Cairo" exhibit at the Columbian Exposition.  The Columbian Exposition was recently brought to life in Erik Larson's popular history, The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America.  The library of the Field Museum in Chicago has uploaded an archive of images from the Exposition, including lovely color plates from The World's Fair in Water Colors, by Charles S. Graham.

My great-grandfather on my mother's side, Karl Pundt, was a brick mason, and helped to build this first ever Ferris Wheel.  He came over from Germany to Chicago in the 1880's.  My mother recalled that he would take her around Chicago, showing her structures he had built.