Colossal spectacle preserved in 128 rare, vintage photographs with concise, fact-filled text: 200 buildings--79 of foreign governments, 38 of U.S. states--the original Ferris wheel, first midway, Edison's kinetoscope, much more. 128 black-and-white photographs.

Ray, Conker, and their Rambler friends face the Gog and his Machine in a final struggle at the 1893 Chicago Exposition.

"From the bestselling author of It Happened at the Fair comes a historical love story about a lady doctor and a Texas Ranger who meet at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. Saddled with a man's name, the captivating Billy Jack Tate makes no apologies for taking on a man's profession. As a doctor at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, she is one step closer to having her very own medical practice--until Hunter Scott asks her to give it all up to become his wife. Hunter is one of the elite. A Texas Ranger and World's Fair guard specifically chosen for his height, physique, character, and skill. Hailed as the toughest man west of any place east, he has no patience for big cities and women who think they belong anywhere but home... Despite their difference of opinion on the role of women, Hunter and Billy find a growing attraction between them--until Hunter discovers an abandoned baby in the corner of a White City exhibit. He and Billy team up to make sure this foundling isn't left in the slums of Chicago with only the flea-riddled, garbage-infested streets for a playground. As they fight for the underprivileged children in the Nineteenth Ward, an entire Playground Movement is birthed. But when the Fair comes to an end, one of them will have to give up their dream. Will Billy exchange her doctor's shingle for the domesticated role of a southern wife, or will Hunter abandon the wide open spaces of home for a life in the "gray city, " a woman who insists on being the wage earner, and a group of ragamuffins who need more than a playground for breathing space?"--

Twelve-year-old orphan Eva Root travels to the great World's Fair in Chicago where she discovers her magical abilities and becomes entangled in a sinister plan.

Gustav and Otto Amlingmeyer travel to Chicago to take part in a "mystery cracking competition" at the 1893 Columbian Exposition. Soon after the first round, a dead body turns up face down in a large cheese and the brothers chase around "the White City" for the elusive murderer.

Gambling everything, including the family farm, Cullen McNamara travels to the 1893 Chicago World's Fair with his most recent invention. But the noise in the fair's Machinery Hall makes it impossible to communicate with potential buyers. In an act of desperation, he hires Della Wentworth, a teacher of the deaf, to tutor him in the art of lip-reading. The young teacher is reluctant to participate, and Cullen has trouble keeping his mind on his lessons while intently watching her lips. Like the newly invented Ferris wheel, he is caught in a whirl between his girl back home, his dreams as an inventor, and his unexpected attraction to his new tutor. Can he keep his feet on the ground, or will he be carried away?

"After more than a decade, Rosellen Brown, author of ten celebrated books, is back with a gritty, absorbing, and deeply felt novel. The Lake on Fire is an epic narrative that begins among immigrants on a failing Wisconsin farm. Chaya and her strange, brilliant, little brother Asher depart for Chicago only to discover that the Gilded Age is as empty a façade as the beautiful Columbian Exposition attracting thousands to Lake Michigan's shore. They scrape together a meager living--she in a cigar factory; he, roaming the city and stealing books and jewelry to share with the poor, until they find different paths of escape. Chaya's becomes a deeply conflicted love story and Asher, haunted by his loyalty to the Fair's abandoned workers, is responsible for an astonishing terrorist act. The abandoned Fair burns to the ground as the city goes on with its usual business in this profound narrative that resonates eerily with today's news"--

"From the bestselling author of It Happened at the Fair and Fair Play comes a compelling historical novel about a progressive "New Woman"--the girl behind Tiffany's chapel--and the love that threatens it all. As preparations for the 1893 World's Fair set Chicago and the nation on fire, Louis Tiffany--heir to the exclusive Fifth Avenue jewelry empire--seizes the opportunity to unveil his state-of-the-art, stained glass, mosaic chapel, the likes of which the world has never seen. But when Louis's dream is threatened by a glassworkers' strike months before the Fair opens, he turns to an unforeseen source for help: the female students at the Art Students League of New York. Eager for adventure, the young women pick up their skirts, move to boarding houses, take up steel cutters, and assume new identities as the "Tiffany Girls." Tiffany Girl is the heartwarming story of the impetuous Flossie Jayne, a beautiful, budding artist who is handpicked by Louis to help complete the Tiffany chapel. Though excited to live in a boarding house when most women stayed home, she quickly finds the world is less welcoming than anticipated. From a Casanova male, to an unconventional married couple, and a condescending singing master, she takes on a colorful cast of characters to transform the boarding house into a home while racing to complete the Tiffany chapel and make a name for herself in the art world. As challenges mount, her ambitions become threatened from an unexpected quarter: her own heart. Who will claim victory? Her dreams or the captivating boarder next door?"--