in the world, including logs and sections of trees, worked lumber in the form of beams, planks, shingles, etc., dye-woods and barks, mosses, gums, resins, vegetable ivory, rattan, willow-ware, and wooden-ware generally, etc. There will also be a large exhibit of saw-mill and wood-working machinery, including four complete saw-mills, which will be seen in an annex attached to the Forestry Building.
Close by the Forestry Building is the Dairy Building, which will contain not only a complete exhibit of dairy products, but also a dairy school, in connection with which will be conducted a series of tests for determining the relative merits of different breeds of dairy cattle as producers of milk and butter. This structure stands near the lake shore and is 95 by 200 feet in area, and two stories high. On the first floor, besides office headquarters, there is a large room devoted to exhibits of butter, and further back an operating room, in which a model dairy will be conducted. On two sides of this room are seats for 400 spectators, to witness the operations of the model dairy. In a gallery about this room will be the exhibits of cheese.
The Horticultural Building stands immediately south of the entrance to Jackson Park from the Midway Plaisance, facing on the lagoon. Between it and the lagoon is a terrace devoted to out-door exhibits of flowers and plants, including large tanks for various lilies and other aquatic plants. The building is 1,000 feet long and 250 feet wide, consisting of a central pavilion with two end pavilions, each of the latter connected with the central one by front and rear curtains, forming two interior courts, each 88 by 270 feet. These courts are planted with ornamental shrubs and flowers. Over the central pavilion rises a glass dome 187 feet in diameter, and 113 feet high, under which will be exhibited the tallest palms and tree ferns that can be procured. The building will be devoted to exhibition of flowers, plants, vines, seeds, horticultural implements, and all allied objects and industries.
The enormous mining industries of America, apart from those of the rest of the world, would call for much space for their proper accommodation. The Hall of Mines and Mining stands at the southern extremity of the western lagoon, and is 700 feet long by 350 wide. Its architecture is early Italian renaissance. Within it consists of a single story surrounded by galleries 60 feet wide. There is thus a huge interior space 630 feet long and 230 feet wide, with an extreme height of 100 feet at the centre and 40 feet at the sides. It is spanned by a steel cantilever roof, abundantly lighted with glass.
The Fine Arts Building is a noble specimen of classic Grecian architecture. Its area is 500 by 320 feet, divided within by nave and transepts 100 feet wide and 70 feet high, at the intersection of which is a dome 60 feet in diameter. The top of the dome is 125 feet above the ground, and is surmounted by a colossal statue representing a Winged Victory. The building is beautifully located in the northern part of the park, the south front facing the lagoon, from which it is separated by beautiful terraces, ornamented with balustrades. A huge flight of steps leads from the main entrance down to the water’s edge. The north front faces a wide lawn and a group of State buildings. The grounds about it are richly ornamented with groups of statues, and other artistic works.
The great development in late years of electrical science calls for a large building in which to display one of the most novel and brilliant of all the exhibits in the fair. The Electrical Building, 345 feet wide and 700 feet long, has its south front on the great Quadrangle, its north front on the lagoon, its east front toward the Manufactures Building, and its west front toward the Hall of Mines and Mining. Its plan comprises a longitudinal nave 115 feet wide and 114 feet high, with a central transept of the same dimensions. These have a pitched roof. The remainder of the building, filling the external angles of the nave and transept, is 62 feet high with a flat roof. The outer walls are composed of a continuous series of Corinthian pilasters resting upon a stylobate, and supporting a massive entablature. At the centre of the north side is a pavilion flanked by two towers 195 feet high. At its centre is a huge semicircular window, above which, 102 feet from the ground, is an open gallery commanding a splendid view of the lake and park. At the south side is a vast niche 78 feet wide and 103 feet high, its opening framed by a semicircular arch. In the centre of this niche, upon a lofty pedestal, is a colossal statue of Franklin. The east and west central pavilions are composed of towers 168 feet high. At each of the four corners of the building is a pavilion with a tower 169 feet high. The building also bears 54 lofty masts, from which banners will be displayed by day and electric lamps at night.
The Fisheries Building consists of a large central structure with two smaller polygonal buildings connected with it on either end by arcades. The total length is 1,100 feet, and the width 200 feet. In the central portion will be the general fisheries exhibit; in one of the polygonal buildings the angling exhibit, and in the other the aquaria. The external architecture is Spanish Romanesque. The ingenuity of the architect has designed after fishes and other sea forms all the capitals, medallions, brackets, cornices, and other ornamental details. The aquaria will contain about 140,000 gallons of water, 40,000 of it being salt. They will consist of a series of ten tanks, with glass fronts to afford an easy view of their contents.
The contribution of the United States Naval Department is one of the most novel ever seen at any World’s Fair. It is comprised in a structure which, to all outward appearance, is one of the newest and most powerful ships of war. This is, however, only an imitation battle-ship, composed of masonry and resting on piling in the lake. It has all the fittings that belong to an actual ship, such as guns, turrets, torpedo tubes, nets and booms, anchors, chain cables, davits, awnings, smoke-stacks, a military mast, etc., together with all appliances for working the same. Near the top of the military masts are shelters for sharpshooters in which are mounted rapid firing guns. The battery consists of four 13-inch breech loading rifles, eight 8-inch rifles, four 6-inch rifles, twenty 6-pounder rapid firing guns, six 1-pound rapid firing guns, two Gatling guns, and six torpedo tubes. These are all placed and mounted exactly as in a genuine battle-ship. All along the starboard side is a torpedo protection net. The entire structure is 348 feet long and 69 feet 3 inches wide. It will be manned during the Exhibition by officers and men detailed by the Navy Department who will give boat, torpedo, and gun drills and maintain the discipline and mode of life to be observed on the real vessels of the Navy.
The Woman’s Building, which was fittingly designed by a woman, is architecturally one of the most attractive. It is encompassed by luxuriant shrubbery and beds of flowers with a background of stately forest trees, and faces the great lagoon. Between the building and the lagoon are two terraces ornamented with balustrades and crossed by splendid flights of steps. The principal façade of the building is 400 feet long and the depth of the building is 200 feet. The architecture is Italian renaissance. The main grouping consists of a centre pavilion, flanked at each end by corner pavilions, connected in the first story by open arcades in the curtains, forming a shaded promenade extending the whole length of the building. The structure throughout is two stories high, with a total elevation of 60 feet. At the centre is a fine rotunda, 65 by 70 feet, crowned with a richly ornamented skylight. The building contains a model hospital, a model kindergarten, a model kitchen, a library, refreshment rooms, a great assembly room, and other departments for displaying the varied industries in which women are especially interested.