“If it comes to please then it will be through the process similar to the taste for opium or hashish.”
– observations of a Worlds Fair visitor in 1893
Crowd waiting for the opening of the gates at the 1893 Chicago Worlds Fair
1893 Chicago World’s Fair
So many amazing new ideas and technologies were debuted at the 1893 worlds fair in Chicago celebrating 400 years since Columbus landed.
Tesla’s Dream City, lighting over two hundred thousand electric light bulbs that were illuminated by Tesla’s poly phase alternating current system…
The worlds first Ferris Wheel…
With all the new idea’s showcased from around the world, its easy to overlook the old. Hidden high within the fair’s Manufacturer’s Building, a little hint of what has built humanity…
Reminiscent of the hemp inspired art decorating the roof in Bologna, Italy, The Chicago Worlds Fair in 1893 had its own ode to hemp…
In the manufacturers building inside the east entrance was a domed roof. If you looked up when you entered the building a mural hinted at what helped build America…
“Wood, Iron, Stone, Hemp”
mural paintings on dome of Manufacturer’s Building, Chicago World’s Fair, 1893: “Wood, Iron, Stone, Hemp”
Edward Simmons painted a mural high above the entrance as an ode to the materials that has built the world. Included in his materials, Hemp!
“A blacksmith for iron, a sculptor for stone; a man holding a coil of rope, for hemp…”
Pennsylvania Pavilion in the agricultural building 1893 Worlds Fair
The ode to hemp in the Manufacturer’s Building would not be the lone use of cannabis at the Chicago Worlds Fair.
“In Kentucky’s pavilion leaf tobacco, corn, wheat, hemp, grasses, and blue-grass seed form the bulk of the exhibits, all of which are [352] worked into structural forms or otherwise skillfully arranged.”
-from the ‘Worlds Columbian Exposition of 1893: The Book of the Fair’
Showcased in the Agricultural Building, multiple pavilions highlighted the benefits of hemp and cannabis… In Kentucky’s booth, hemp was literally part of the states display, weaved in with tobacco, corn, wheat and grass’s forming the dramatic living backdrop.
(If anyone happens to have a photo of Kentucky’s Pavilion in the agricultural build from the 1893 Worlds Fair I would love to see it…)
An exhibit at the Field Museum exhibition ‘Opening the Vaults: the Wonders of the 1893 Worlds Fair’ in Chicago, IL has an interesting item on display…
A big bag of ‘Cannabis Seeds’…
Now I can’t find exactly which exhibit these seeds came from and/or most likely being sold from(most likely the Kentucky Pavilion), but these seeds were indeed from the 1893 Worlds Fair.
Large bag of cannabis seeds from the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair
Tired from walking through all the buildings? The Turkish Village at Midway was a popular resting spot. Why?
Hashish…
Reminiscent of the 1874 Turkish booth, Hashish could be sampled by visitors in the Turkish village. Large crowds gathered for their chance at a toke on a long pipe or hookah filled with the new delight from the east, hashish!
A rest at midway, at the Chicago Worlds Fair, Turkish Pavilion
After partaking in the hashish, some visitors even wanted their own hashish pipes. A store within the Turkish Village made the home experience possible by selling the admiring public pipes and hookah’s.
Elia Souhami and Sadullah & Co. Constantinople booth selling pipes and hookah’s in the Turkish Village of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair
And of course whats a world’s fair without stopping at the China Midway Pavilion for the Opium exhibit… Just like the Turkish hashish booth, passing visitors were encouraged to stop and take a puff of opium. Experience the orient…
Opium Den Concession at 1893 Chicago World’s Fair
Whether visitor’s were high from the Turkish hashish, the Chinese opium or even from the hot air balloon rides, everyone who visited the fair had a chance to fly high in 1893.
Hot air balloon rides and Ferris wheel’s at the 1893 Chicago Worlds Fair
It was estimated that 1 in 4 Americans went to the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair…