White City

Whilst we were in America, I was reading books that linked in with the places we were travelling through, so I read Steinbeck and a few others which NannaK kindly suggested. When we were in the huge bookshop in Seattle, I was looking for a book with Chicago as a background and NannaK suggested this one - The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. So I bought it and it accompanied me on the train journey from Seattle to Chicago.

What an extraordinary book! Non-fiction that reads like fiction, it tells the story of the building of Chicago's 1893 World Fair - White City, focusing in particular on the brilliant architect who saw it through. But alongside this detailed and fascinating story is another true one - the story of a serial killer who used the Fair to lure his victims to their death . . . and no one suspected a thing! It's a brilliant piece of work, combining meticulous research with wonderful story-telling.

Because of the book, I became very interested in the White City. What an amazing thing it was. I bought this book of reproduced postcards from the time and pored over the images, wondering about the ambition and courage it took to complete it.

Of course it was all temporary and there is little left of it now, but we did take a bus ride to Jackson Park where it stood and got some idea of the sheer size of the venture. The current Museum of Science and Industry is housed in a building that was the Palace of Fine Arts in the White City, the temporary building being restored and made permanent years later. 
 
The World Fair had a huge impact on the city and on America generally. It is said that it changed the way Americans perceived their cities and their architects. Certainly we sensed a huge pride in the city's buildings when we went on the Architecture Cruise and were told all about the buildings we were looking at. In the blip are some drinks mats that I bought soon after we had been on the cruise.