The Devil in the White City doesn't have a lot of pictures for a book that focuses on a visual event such as architecture at the 1893 World's Fair. That is a little frustrating for me since I like visuals.

Fortunately, lots of images survive from those days. Here are a few to help keep your interest level up as you read the book and prepare for our book forum.

The guy to the left is Daniel Burnham, the hero of the book. Well, he is the hero of the book if you like the architecture which characterized the fair. Some folks frown upon the neoclassical stuff, but I like it.

This next picture is Frederick Law Olmstead, the landscape architect. Some might say that he was quite a hero of the fair, too. His landscaping efforts certainly were a star of the show. Personally, I am surprised that Olmstead was able to accomplich as much as he did since we Americans don't seem to pay much attention to the lay of the land. We just sort of cram in as much stuff as will fit.

The Ferris wheel was a big hit at the fair. The engineer who built the darn thing must have been quite a risk-taker. Can you imagine getting into one of the cars for the first ride? Apparently, this was how engineers tested their inventions back then? I enjoyed the passages in the book which described nuts and bolts raining down on the roofs of the passenger cars during the test run.

At any rate, the picture compares the Ferris wheel of 1893 with the current one on the Navy Pier in Chicago. I didn't realize how ambitions Ferris had been until I saw this comparison.

If you want to look at the buildings and grounds of the fair, then a quick search on Google will give you lots of results. Here is one picture that features the large statue. You can see the main buildings surrounding the Grand Basin.

I sympathize with the fans of the fair who were sad to see these temporary buildings torn down. However, I am not as big a fan of the large scale of the buildings as the people of 1893 Chicago. Things seem huge and impersonal. I noticed the same thing when I visited Chicago recently and sat down by a fountain in Lincoln Park. It was enormous. I prefer a smaller fountain in a nice, quiet courtyard.

The last picture is of a building in Tacoma, Washington. It was designed by the firm of Burnham and Root. Apparently, it is one of just a few surviving buildings on the west coast by this firm. I was struck by how sad the little building looks. It seems a fitting end for this blog entry since the last few pages of the book remind me of this building.

Hopefully you are enjoying the book or are preparing to enjoy it. The snow days allowed me to finish up today. We'll see you in April at our book forum.