The Vanishing City: Excavating the Chicago World's Fair of 1893

On Monday, April 22, at 7:00 p.m., Professor Rebecca Graff will discuss "The Vanishing City: Excavating the Chicago World's Fair of 1893" at the Wilmette Public Library, 1242 Wilmette Avenue, Wilmette.

During her talk, Prof. Graff will describe her archeological and archival research focused on the Exposition's ephemeral "White City" and Midway Plaisance. The results of the excavation in Jackson Park revealed a robust archeological signature of the Fair. Graff's work links the Fair, as a catalyst for structural change and its material record, to the larger social structures of late nineteenth-century America.

Prof. Graff is Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Chair of American Studies at Lake Forest College, with specialization in historical archaeology, U.S. urban archaeology (19th- and 20th- century Chicago), modern and contemporary material culture, world’s fairs and expositions, anthropology of time and temporality, and archaeology of tourism. In addition to her archaeological and archival project focusing on the ephemeral “White City” and Midway Plaisance of the 1893 Chicago Fair, she has directed further archaeological projects in Chicago, including excavations at the Louis Sullivan-designed Charnley-Persky House (2010, 2015), the Haymarket Martyrs’ Monument (2016), the Gray-Cloud House (2018), and Mecca Flats (2018).

This event is part of the Wilmette Public Library's 14th annual One Book, Everybody Reads program, which is featuring Rosellen Brown's historical novel, The Lake on Fire, this spring. The book takes place in Chicago at the time of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition.
For more information, visit www.wilmettelibrary.info/onebookor call 847-256-6930.