Chicago, having won the prize of the location of the World's Fair, selected the site on the 2d of July, 1890. This covered nearly 700 acres of beautiful laid-out grounds and parks, extending from the point nearest the city, two and a half miles, to the southern extremity of Jackson Park. The site selected by the directors was the section known as Jackson Park and the Midway Plaisance. The park has a frontage of one and a half miles on Lake Michigan and contains 600 acres, while the Midway Plaisance, connecting Jackson and Washington Parks, afforded eighty-five acres more. It is 600 feet wide and a mile in length. Since world's fairs have become a favorite among nations, the following statistics will give a correct idea of the vastness of the one held in Chicago, from May 1 to November 1, 1893:
| London, | 1857, | 21½ | acres occupied | 17,000 | exhibitors, | total receipts, | $1,780,000 |
| Paris, | 1855, | 24½ | acres occupied | 22,000 | exhibitors, | total receipts, | 6,441,200 |
| London, | 1862, | 23½ | acres occupied | 28,633 | exhibitors, | total receipts, | 1,644,260 |
| Paris, | 1867, | 37 | acres occupied | 52,000 | exhibitors, | total receipts, | 2,103,675 |
| Vienna, | 1873, | 280 | acres occupied | 142,000 | exhibitors, | total receipts, | 6,971,832 |
| Philadelphia, | 1876, | 236 | acres occupied | 30,864 | exhibitors, | total receipts, | 3,813,724 |
| Paris, | 1878, | 100 | acres occupied | 40,366 | exhibitors, | total receipts, | 2,531,650 |
| Paris, | 1889, | 173 | acres occupied | 55,000 | exhibitors, | total receipts | 8,300,000 |
| Chicago, | 1893, | 645 | acres occupied | 65,422 | exhibitors, | total receipts, | 33,290,065 |
The countries which made generous appropriations for exhibits were: Argentine Republic, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Denmark, Danish West Indies, Ecuador, France, Germany, Great Britain, Barbadoes, British Guiana, British Honduras, Canada, Cape Colony, Ceylon, India, Jamaica, Leeward Islands, New South Wales, New Zealand, Trinidad, Greece, Guatemala, Hawaii, Honduras, Haiti, Japan, Liberia, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, Dutch Guiana, Dutch West Indies, Nicaragua, Norway, Orange Free State, Paraguay, Peru, Russia, Salvador, San Domingo, Spain, Cuba, Sweden, Uruguay.
All the States in the Union entered heartily into the scheme, their total appropriations amounting to $6,000,000. The original plan called for ten main buildings: Manufactures, Administration, Machinery, Agriculture, Electricity, Mines, Transportation, Horticulture, Fisheries, and the Venetian Village; but there were added: the Art Galleries, the Woman's Building, the Forestry, Dairy, Stock, Pavilion, Terminal Station, Music Hall, Peristyle, Casino, Choral, Anthropological, and many others.
OPENING OF THE GROUNDS AND BUILDINGS.
The grounds and buildings were opened October 21, 1892, with appropriate ceremonies by Vice-President Morton and other distinguished citizens. The most important exhibits were as follows:
The Transportation Building displayed about everything that could be possibly used in transportation, from the little baby-carriage to the ponderous locomotive. The progress of ship-building from its infancy to the present was shown, among the exhibits being an accurate model of the Santa Maria, the principal ship of Columbus, which was wrecked in the West Indies, on his first voyage. The Bethlehem steam hammer, the largest in the world, was ninety-one feet high and weighed 125 tons.
Among the locomotives were the "Mississippi," built in England in 1834; a model of Stephenson's "Rocket;" a steam carriage, used in France in 1759; and a model of Trevithick's locomotive of 1803. There were also the first cable car built, the boat and steam fixtures made and navigated by Captain John Stevens in 1804, and the "John Bull," used on the Camden and Amboy Railroad, and which, it is claimed, is the oldest locomotive in America.
