By Doug Boilesen, 2021

The World's Columbian Exposition was a world's fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' arrival in the New World in 1492. "The exposition was an influential social and cultural event and had a profound effect on architecture, sanitation, the arts, Chicago's self-image, and American industrial optimism." (1)

 

The World's Fair, Being a Pictorial History of The Columbian Exposition, P. D. Farrell & Co., 1893, p.22

 

Edison had demonstrated his phonograph and electric lights at the Exposition Universelle of 1889 in Paris to crowds filled with wonder and admiration for those inventions.

The Phonograph at the Exposition Universelle of 1889 in Paris, Harper's Weekly, June 1889

 

The Chicago World's Fair, however, wasn't the Paris experience that Edison had enjoyed in1889. The adulation for Edison's light bulb in Paris was now dimmed by the alternating power system used to illuminate more than 100,000 lamps at the Chicago fair's "White City" in 1893. Those lights belonged to George Westinghouse who had underbid Edison and General Electric's direct current (DC) system to secure the fair's contract with his alternating current (AC) power system. The spectacle of the lights witnessed by tens of thousands on the fair grounds every night literally showcased the future of alternating current for cities and homes around the world. (Watch 2016 promo for PBS American Experience - The Columbian Exposition from Tesla).

The phonograph had enjoyed much attention in Paris and Edison did highlight his 1893 phonograph in Chicago with countless fair-goers hearing its music and the entertainment that it provided. Edison's "domestic" phonographs and residence outfits were being offered in 1893 but its price was still a major hindrance for the home market. Nevertheless, for the phonograph industry the World's Fair was an opportunity to promote the phonograph as improved and ready for use in business, education, coin-in-the-slot amusement and home entertainment.

The "Stationary Exhibition Outfit, to be operated by coin-in-the-slot mechanism for reproducing only. Phonograph complete with electric motor and hardwood cabinet." The Phonogram, January 1893.

FACTOLA: The push-bar (to activate the coin insert) was eventually discarded because people either hung their hats on it, or small children used it as a trapeze bar. The improved version had a small crank which was "close" to the case (horizontal) and did not project so much. Those serial #'s began much higher, generally #750." - Allen Koenigsberg via correspondence).

 

North American Phonograph Company - 1893 brochure showing Edison Phonograph "Residence Outfit" - (The Thomas Edison Papers, Rutgers)

 

The Name and Fame of Edison

Many articles about Edison and his exhibits for the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 started by mentioning his accolades as Wizard and genius inventor.

 

"We presume among the millions of visitors to the Columbian Exposition there will scarce be one unacquainted with the name and fame of thomas A. Edison.

"The mental energies of the great inventor seem to have been unremittingly applied to the problem of how best to lighten the labors of toilers. To this end he studies the introaction of nature's forces, making these his agents to cause movements in inert matter that accomplish what man alone has not the physical power to effect." -- The Phonogram, March and April, 1893, p. 380.

 

The Edison Float at the New York Columbian Celebration, Harper's Weekly, October 1892

 

Expectations for Edison's Newest Wonder - The Kinetograph

His phonograph and other electricity system components and domestic appliances were promoted as upcoming exhibits for the World's Fair. But as America's greatest inventor there was an expectation that Edison was always working on a new wonder or perfecting a previous one.

True to form in July 1891 the Chicago Tribune wrote that Edison was working on perfecting his kinetograph which he will "complete in all its details" by the time of the opening of the world's fair in 1893 where he would then exhibit his device which would "do for the eye what the phonograph does for the ear."

Two years later, as the May 1, 1893 opening date of the fair approached, large and small newspapers across the country were still reminding readers that Mr. Edison will again lead the procession at Chicago with a new marvel, "perhaps the "greatest of his inventions, the kinetograph."

 

The World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 and the Phonograph

The following scrapbook features Edison's exhibits at the Chicago World's Fair with particular attention to the phonograph.

A number of stories in newspapers and books include references to visitors of the fair listening to the phonograph. Some exhibitors even used the phonograph for special effects such as the Bernese Alps Cyclorama on the Midway Plaisance where a phonograph record in their cycloramic show made "the deception complete, as one's ears are greeted with the strains of a Swiss ballad seeming to proceed from the maid." Located on the Midway going East on the Southside of the street the Bernese Alps Cyclorama could be seen for 50 cents.

An Edison phonograph was used for an automaton of Uncle Sam to "talk" and deliver his recorded speech promoting Hub Gore Shoes.

And it would also be the phonograph that was supposed to be part of Edison's "special exhibit." When the Official Guide to the Chicago World's Fair was published (prior to the fair opening) Edison's kinetograph was identified as "among the most unique exhibits" of the fair. This new kinetograph was said to work in conjunction with the phonograph so that it "transmits scenes to the eye as well as sounds to the ear."

 

The Official Guide of the World's Columbian Exhibition, April 1893 (published before the fair opened)

 

There is little evidence, however, that the kinetograph was ever at the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, and definitely not as a coin-in-the-slot device which could entertain visitors with moving pictures and sound.

Edison's Kinetograph at the 1893 World's Fair, therefore, has its own page to tell that story since Edison, newspapers, pre-fair publicity, guidebooks and the public were all expecting the kinetograph to be at the fair.

Edison the Wizard and the Electricity Building

 

The Edison Tower of Light in the General Electric exhibit in the Electricity Building had an eight-foot tall light bulb at the top. "A pillar built with a million jewels" as Nora Barrett described it in The City of Wonders.

Standing inside the Electricity Building and seeing the "Edison Electric Tower" a.k.a. the "Tower of Light" was a reminder that Edison was the Wizard and the light bulb was his "crowning achievement." However, it was also a reminder that only a year earlier the Edison General Electric Company had been acquired and was now General Electric. Edison's name was gone and the signage "Edison Light" on the electric tower was topped with the "General Electric Co.".

 

EDISON LIGHT signage topped by GENERAL ELECTRIC CO. signage

For an illustration of the tower by R. Outcault and other views of the tower and fair see The Edison Electric Tower.

 

From a Bird's eye view of the Electricity Building, Rand McNally and Company, 1893 (Courtesy Library of Congress)

 

Official Souvenir Postal World's Columbia Exposition featuring The Electrical Building. (Courtesy The Chicago Postcard Museum.org). Visit The on-line Chicago Postcard Museum to "see the complete set of 12 (series No. 1) Official 1893 Chicago World's Columbian Exposition postal cards that include the one cent postage. These are the first commercially produced postcards to be sold to the general public at the Fair. Published by the American Lithographic Company, New York."

 

Bird's Eye View - The World's Fair Album of Chicago 1893

 

World's Columbian Exposition March by Eduard Holst, Wm. Rohlfing & Sons, Milwaukee, 1892 (Source: Lester S. Levy Sheet Music Collection, Johns Hopkins.)

 

"World's Columbian Exposition Waltz," by Adelaide Marcelia Gluck. Publisher A.M. Gluck & Co., Chicago, 1892 - Composed for the opening of the fair and "Respectfully Dedicated to Mrs. Potter-Palmer." (Source: Lester S. Levy Sheet Music Collection, Johns Hopkins).

 

Edison's Phonograph Exhibit in the Electricity Building - Social and Commercial Uses of the Phonograph

In the Official Guide to the World's Columbian Exposition the following was written about Edison's Phonograph Exhibit in The Electricity Building.

The commercial and social uses of the phonograph, it was said, included conversations of all types with the options of those words being delivered in your own voice or transcribed into a letter and sent. Conversations between husband and wife across the globe were possible because of the phonograph; intimate words could be said and heard even for long distance relationships; and the business man can dictate letters at any hour.

Official Guide to the World's Columbian Exposition describing some uses of the Phonograph, p. 71

 

Descriptions of the Electricity Building and of Edison's Phonograph exhibits were included in The Phonogram's March-April 1893 issue that summarized by stating "among all the exhibits in the World's Fair, none will be more calculated to stimulate the pride of the true American than these silent witnesses to the achievements of his countrymen--THOMAS A. EDISON."

 

The space that belonged to the North American Phonograph Company in the Electricity Building was divided into four areas. One was for company business related to the World's Fair. Another for the exhibition of the domestic phonograph and to illustrate the social application of the instrument. The third was to exhibit the commercial phonograph with examples of its advantages for business. And the fourth devoted to the educational purposes of the phonograph.

Another area was to be glass enclosed with a piano and special exhibits to demonstrate "the infinite uses to which this wonderful instrument may be applied." Phonographs would be operated from electric light circuits and from primary and secondary batteries. Among some of the recordings promised were "music from many of the great artists of the world, from famous orchestras and other organizations of whose performances in the flesh we only know by reading cold type. Here, we may close our eyes and imagine ourselves in the very atmosphere of genius." Voices of Edison and William Gladstone could also be heard and hundreds of others.

 

Edison’s special phonograph exhibit described by The Phonogram was glass enclosed and one of the spaces designed by the North American Phonograph Company in the Electricity Building. (Image from Bancroft, Hubert Howe's The Book of the Fair. The Bancroft Company, 1893.) (1A)

In the back corner of Edison's glass enclosed phonograph exhibit was the 1893 "newly designed cabinet."

"The North American Phonograph Co. will make a large display of these cabinets in different woods at the Columbian Exposition." The Phonogram, March and April 1893 p. 388.

 

Phonograph Music in the Model Electrical House

The model house which was designed "to demonstrate every economic application of electricity to domestic purposes" included a loud-toned electric phonograph which could entertain guests by playing selections from "Faust," by Strauss' orchestra, "or snatches of a sacred melody by Gilmore's Ocean Grove orchestra."

 

The World's Fair, Being a Pictorial History of The Columbian Exposition, P. D. Farrell & Co., 1893, p.327

 

Souvenir from the Phonographia Collection (PM-0112)

This souvenir from the 1893 Columbia Exposition shows Edison demonstrating his Edison Class M Phonograph which was electric (battery) powered. Promoted here as "the most wonderful invention of the nineteenth century." It is not clear, however, when Edison was actually at the fair with dates of August 18, 1893 as potentially the earliest (while the fair was open) and the Pensecola News in their August 23 edition reporting an interview with him at the fair grounds on August 21, 1893.

 

Promoting the Phonograph - Demonstrations, Lectures and Soirre

Demonstrations, lectures and other activities to promote the phonograph were sponsored in the Electricity Building by the North American Phonograph Company. Presentations like these had been used since the earliest days of promoting Edison's tinfoil phonograph but a world's fair with a record-setting attendance offered the opportunity for the phonograph to be seen and heard by thousands of visitors in one venue.

The Daily Inter Ocean, Chicago, August 16, 1893 p. 7

 

In 1893 the North American Phonograph Co. was selling Edison Phonographs for business use, exhibitions, as nickel-in-the-slots, and for home entertainment. Musical and other recordings and blank cylinders to make your own recordings were also for sale.

The Phonogram, March and April, 1893 "The World's Fair Number"

 

Advertising these four phonograph "outfits" in 1893 reflected the existence of the multiple phonograph markets before the home market would emerge and dominate.

By 1897 the home market was growing and phonograph advertising was seen in more and more consumer magazines. The following Columbia Graphophone ad is an example of how those four markets were still important in 1897 and how they appeared in consumer magazines like The Cosmopolitan (as opposed to the 1893 ads when much of the promotion of the phonograph was being done in the talking machine industry's trade magazines like The Phonogram.

 

For more examples of pre-1900 Phonograph ads, visit Phonographia's PhonoAds

Trade card showing Uncle Sam promoting Hub Gore's Congress Shoes at the 1893 Columbian Exposition with the automaton using an Edison Phonograph to "talk." (Beacon Lith Co. Boston, 1894) (PM-0650)

 

UNCLE SAM'S SPEECH.

Courtesy of The Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Archives, Smithsonian Institution

The Bernese Alps Cyclorama and the Phonograph

The Bernese Alps Cyclorama on the Midway Plaisance used a phonograph as part of its cycloramic form "to make the deception complete, as one's ears are greeted with the strains of a Swiss ballad seeming to proceed from the maid."

The Electricity Building - Nickel-in-the-Slots

In the Electricity Building there was no charge to listen to Edison's Phonograph in the "space allotted to the North American Co., but many coin-in-the slot machines are likely to be scattered through the premises."(3) .

The Best Things To Be Seen At The World's Fair, Published by Authority of Exposition Management, June 1893, p. 62

"The great Electricity building is filled with curious exhibits of an electrical character. To the left as you enter from the north front a large circular space is devoted to phonographs, where one at the expense of a few coppers may amuse himself for an hour."

 

On the Midway Plaisance - Nickel-in-the-Slots

Nickel-in-the-slot phonographs and graphophones were available on the World's Fair's Midway Plaisance.

In the book Six Months at the World's Fair by Mrs. Mark Stevens published in 1895 her impressions of the fair are covered as much as possible or the author subtitled her book "A little here and a little there of the Great White City --The World's Fair." One scene regarding the phonograph is in the chapter "An Evening on Midway" with a party of gentlemen stopping to listen to the phonograph under the aqueduct play "I Have Worked Ten Hours this Day."

Six Months at the World's Fair by Mrs. Mark Stevens, The Detroit Free Press Printing Company, ©1895, p. 117.

 

History of Phonograph Parlors and Nickel-in-the-Slot Phonographs

The first nickel-in-the-slot Phonograph had been installed on November 23, 1889 in the Palais Royal Saloon, Sutter Street, San Francisco. Coin-operated phonographs would soon be placed in hotels, railroad and ferry stations, saloons and other public places in addition to formal Phonograph Parlors in larger cities where multiple machines could be heard.

 

For details about the Exhibition Parlors in Cleveland and Cincinnati operated by the Ohio Phonograph Company in 1891 see Exhibition Parlors of the Ohio Company, The Phonogram, November-December, 1891.

The above Edison nickel-in-the-slot phonographs were exhibited at the American Institute Fair in New York City in October 1892. Fifteen machines were available for play plus "an exhibition machine, connected with which is an eighteen-way hearing tube, that affords visitors the opportunity of listening, eighteen at once, to the music." The Phonogram, October 1892

By the time people visited the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893 there would have been opportunities for some to have already seen or heard the phonograph because of these coin-in-the-slot machines or even one of the early commercial phonographs being sold as social and business machines. Or if you were the Sultan of Morocco you would have also had the opportunity to hear a phonograph as the Sultan did a year before the fair opened when he was discussing with World's Fair agents Morocco's participation in the upcoming World's Fair. The Sultan was reportedly quite impressed with the phonograph.

 

The Rushville Standard, Sheridan, NE, May 20, 1892

The Phonograph with listening tubes promoted for social and business purposes, The North American Phonograph Co., The Phonogram, March 1892

 

The Phonograph and Educational Uses

Pope Leo XIII Sends Greetings to American People by means of Edison's Phonograph

Pope Leo XIII used an Edison Phonograph to send a message to the American people which he hoped would be heard at the opening of the World's Columbian Exposition. Although it wasn't heard by the public on opening day the illustration of the Pope speaking into a phonograph was essentially an endorsement for the phonograph industry. If the Pope was using it for composing and sending a message then why shouldn't the business world do the same?

"Fair Fiction" PhonoLiterature

Some interesting descriptions of visitor's seeing and hearing the phonograph at the fair were recorded in popular culture in a genre of literature which has been called "fair fiction." "Fair fiction" uses the setting of a 'fair' in its story. One of those authors, Marietta Holley (author of Samantha at the World's Fair, Samantha at the St. Louis Exposition, Samantha in Europe, and Around the World with Josiah Allen's Wife) wrote all of her books about visiting fairs and other destinations without ever actually going to any of those places.

The following are four examples of 'fair fiction' books which were written about the World's Columbian Exposition. Scenes involving Edison's phonograph, the Electricity Building, and coin-in-the-slot listening experiences are included here and in Phonographia's Library of phonograph connected books, PhonoLiterature.

 

Samantha at the World's Fair by Josiah Allen's Wife,1893

The City of Wonders Souvenir of the World's Fair by Mary Catherine Crowley, 1894

The Adventures of Uncle Jeremiah and Family at the Great Fair, by Charles McCellan Stevens, 1893

The Century World's Fair Book for Boys and Girls by Tudor Jenks, 1893

 

The City of Wonders

Nora, one of the Barrett children visiting the Columbian Exposition in The City of Wonders, said the Edison Tower in the Electricity building “is like a pillar built with millions of jewels.”

But it was the phonograph in the Edison exhibit of the Electricity building where the Barrett family was astounded by what they saw and heard. “Now,” said Uncle Jack, “you shall hear the marvellous echo-voice of the phonograph,–a voice capable of preserving and repeating the words and accents of those dear to us, months and years after they have been uttered,–when perhaps the lips that spoke them are mute forever.”

 

Thomas Edison’s phonograph exhibit in the Electricity Building.

(Image from Bancroft, Hubert Howe's The Book of the Fair. The Bancroft Company, 1893.) (1)

 

Uncle Jack and each of the Barrett children listened through the listening tubes to one of Longfellow's poems, "a song by a popular professional singer," then a "piece by a brilliant performance of instrumental music.

“It is hard to believe that some one is not playing the piano right near here.” exclaimed Aleck.

President Cleveland‘s voice, and the words are those of his inaugural address, and finally a German lesson from the phonograph.

Uncle Jack also pointed out to the children that the phonograph was a 'clever little messenger" so that a traveler instead of writing to his friends at home, can box up a cylinder full of tourist’s gossip, and send it by express.

 

Samantha at the World's Fair

Chapter XVIII's "The Electricity Building" describes the wonders of electricity in 1893 featuring the Electric House "all fitted up from basement to attic with electricity." A phonograph in its parlor offers selections from "operatic or sacred music or comic songs....Or if they want to hear Gladstone debate, or Chauncey Depew joke, or Ingersoll lecture, or no matter what their tastes are, they can be gratified. The phonograph don't care; it will bring to 'em anything they call for."

 

The Adventures of Uncle Jeremiah and Family at the Great Fair

The following is a visit by Uncle Jeremiah and his family to the Manufacturers and Liberal Arts building and the first thing they see are coin-operated Columbia graphophones and Edison phonographs. Both machines were popular with the public during the six months the fair was open and likewise were quite profitable. Here is the excerpt:

As they entered the Manufacturers and Liberal Arts building through one of the small entrances on the north, the greatness of that more than forty-four acres of exhibits did not impress itself upon them. The first objects that met their gaze were the graphophones or phonographs. Some nickles were soon in the slots and the family for the first time listening to music coming from some where by singers unseen. Johnny had a face covered with smiles as he listened to some loud-mouthed artist singing "Throw him down McClosky." Between each verse Johnny told the boy who stood in open-mouthed wonder near him that the "feller is a singer from way back." He could not realize that he was not in a concert hall and that all standing about were not hearing what he heard. When the music ceased and he withdrew the tubes from his ears he said to the boy, "Wasn't that out of sight?"

"They listened to melodies by musicians unseen, and from somewhere unknown."

 

The Century World's Fair Book for Boys and Girls

Harry and Philip are the two boys visiting the fair with their tutor. In the following scene the boys are without their tutor and are visiting the Manufacturers and Liberal Arts Building.

Since Harry had refused to go further into the exhibits of school work, they went down to the main floor, and walked from the southwest corner northward. As in the other buildings they had visited, they found along the walls little stands where young women had on sale penholders, souvenir coins, shell-boxes, necklaces—cheap trinkets of all sorts. For the first few days the boys had gone to see what was shown at these booths; but soon they found there was pretty much the same stock everywhere, and walked by indifferently. They had bought, however, a few things—one a little shield showing the arms Queen Isabella granted to Columbus.

Against the wall about half-way up toward the north end were several “graphophones”—contrivances something like Edison’s phonograph. On dropping a nickel and hooking two hard-rubber tubes into the ears, one might hear instrumental music or songs. A small boy tried one of those machines while Harry and Philip looked on. The tubes were adjusted, and he stood gravely awaiting the result. A smile began to dawn on his lips. It spread widely. His mouth opened; he giggled aloud; he kept on giggling with his eyes closing through pure joy.

Harry tried the machine and found that it was repeating a comic singer’s rendering of “The Cat Came Back,” and he grinned quite as widely as the small boy had done, and afterward sketched the scene with full sympathy."

“—AND THE CAT CAME BACK.”

 

“That’s a great invention for invalids,” said Philip, thoughtfully.

“Yes,” said Harry, warmly; “think how it would soothe a restless invalid during a long night to hear one of those machines grind out ‘The Cat Came Back!’”

“Well, it would,” said Philip, as soberly as he could. “You couldn’t be sad while listening to that song.”

Just as they were leaving, they saw a mother and child listening to the same graphophone, each having one ear to an end of the branched tube. “I don’t know,” said Philip, “whether that’s quite honest.”

 

The Kinetograph

The kinetograph in 1891 was defined as a "Motion writing" instrument, a camera that could take moving photographs. It was called "a Companion to the Phonograph," a "Brother to the Phonograph," and was said that it would be "more wonderful than the phonograph."

Edison's new kinetograph was to "transmit scenes to the eye as well as sounds to the ear." The "movements of the lips" of a prima donna, it was said, would be seen as her words of the song were produced by the phonograph.

In July 1891 the Chicago Tribune reported that "Edison's new kinetograph would be complete in all its details by the time of the opening of the world's fair, at which it is to be exhibited."

There is no evidence that the kinetoscope was ever exhibited at the Chicago fair. There remains the possibility that there was a kinetograph exhibit in the Electricity Building but there is no evidence that it was operational or had any device on display.

For the story of the kinetograph and kinetoscope at the Chicago World's Fair see The World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 and the "Kinetograph"

 

 

The World's Columbian Exposition Closes

The Exposition closed on October 30, 1893. The phonograph had been seen and heard by countless fair visitors. It had received good publicity in the popular press (with much of it probably inserted by the phonograph industry itself). Edison's nickel-in-the-slot phonographs had been profitable. And the phonograph as a social and commercial machine would be visualized by many for its future in the home, in education and in business.

For Edison the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 was not Paris of 1889. Edison had lost the fair's lighting system contract to Westinghouse and Edison was not able to deliver his kinetoscopes to the fair.

The following newspaper article, however, highlighted Edison's success at the fair and reads like Edison helped write it with the headline "EDISON PHONOGRAPH AWARDS" followed by its congratulations to Mr. Lombard, the general manager of the Edison phonograph, and to the Edison company upon the "success of his exhibit at The Fair."

How did the success of the Columbian Exposition also provide success at the fair for Edison?

It was the phonograph.

The phonograph had participated in the World's Columbian Exposition which was said to have provided an impetus "to the onward progress of science." And then the superlative: "Among the achieved phenomenal results of modern science none occupy a more conspicuous place in the practical world than the Edison phonograph."

If it was actually true that "Among the achieved phenomenal results of modern science" nothing is more clearly visible "in the practical world" than Edison's phonograph then that recognition was a very big success for Edison.

True or not, I doubt Edison would have changed a word.

 

The Daily Inter Ocean, Chicago, November 1, 1893

"It Will Be Opened", Puck Lithograph 1892

"Bigotry and Intolerance Can Not Obstruct The Progress Of Civilization-- The World's Fair Will Be Opened On Sunday."

Judge, The Brownies at the World's Fair, 1893

"EVENING AT THE VAN BUREN STREET VIADUCT" by Arthur Young

A Scene at the Popular Gateway of the Fair -- The Coming and Going of Visitors.

The Inter Ocean Illustrated Supplement, June 14, 1893

"Gloomy Business Outlook" rejected by Uncle Sam; "you couldn't kill the World's Fair, and you can't scare me!" Puck, June 14, 1893

Chicago World's Fair by Thomas Moran, 1894 (Courtesy Brooklyn Museum)

References and Links - World's Columbian Exhibition of 1893 and the Phonograph

References, Annotations and Endnotes for World's Columbian Exhibition of 1893

"Official Guide to the World's Columbian Exposition in the city of Chicago, State of Illinois, May 1 to October 26, 1893" (Souvenir Edition by John J. Flinn, Chicago, 1893)

"Official Guide to the World's Columbian Exposition in the city of Chicago, State of Illinois, May 1 to October 26, 1893" (Handbook Edition by John J. Flinn, Chicago, 1893)

"Official guide to Midway Plaisance" by John J. Flinn, Chicago, 1893 (Library of Congress)

Official Guide to the World's Columbian Exposition

The Electricity Building at the World's Columbian Exhibition of 1893

Chicago Postcard Museum to "see the complete set of 12 (series No. 1) Official 1893 Chicago World's Columbian Exposition postal cards

PBS American Experience - The Columbian Exposition from Tesla

The Edison Electric Tower - An illustration of the Tower by R. Outcault and other Connections

Pope Leo XIII Sends Greetings to American People by means of Edison's Phonograph

For examples of Uncle Sam's presence at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair see Uncle Sam and the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893.

 

 

Kinetograph Reference Material and Links

The World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 and the Kinetograph - Details related to the Kinetograph/Kinetoscope as an exhibit

References, Annotations and Endnotes for the Kinetoscope at The World's Columbian Exposition of 1893

American Society of Cinematographers for overview of the Kinetoscope and their restored Kinetoscope

Blacksmithing Scene - Edison Kinetograph Film, 1893 (Courtesy MOMA)

Blacksmithing Scene - MOMA Learning

Scientific American, May 20, 1893 - Report on the Kinetograph's first public demonstration at the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences on May 9, 1893

Edison and the Kinetoscope: 1888-1895, Musser, Charles. "Before the Nickelodeon: Edwin S. Porter and the Edison Manufacturing Company." Berkeley: University of California Press, ©1991

Kinetoscope- Wikipedia

 

Phonographia