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William Henry Jackson's Views of the Columbian Exposition

A dispute between Charles Dudley Arnold and the Directors of the Fair traced itself tortuously back to the first contracts making Arnold the official photographic concessionaire of the Exposition. Arnold had taken on a "partner"-- Harlow N. Higinbotham, Jr., son of the head of the Fair itself, and many, perhaps rightly, saw this as sycophantism. In addition, Arnold's concession had received many complaints over the quality of the smaller and cheaper views. In addition, Burnham himself had been dissatisfied with Arnold's high-handedness. As Director of Works, Burnham needed a set of complete views of the Fair at its fairest; Arnold demurred to provide these freely, and so Burnham turned to William Henry Jackson, at that point arguably the most famous, and the best, landscape photographer in the world, and a man already onsite and desperate for the work, to offset losses he'd encountered in his business due to the Panic. Jackson's views ended up not only in the final portfolio, but in at least two lavish halftone souvenir books.
For more information on Jackson and the Exposition photography, see Peter Bacon Hales, Silver Cities: The Photography of American Urbanization, 1839-1915 (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1984); and Peter B. Hales, William Henry Jackson and the Transformation of the American Landscape (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1988, 1996).

  • Transportation Building
  • South Colonnade
  • Fisheries Building Seen from Wooded Isle
  • MacMonnies Fountain

    This webpage is a part of the Chicago Imagebase Project of the Department of Art History, The University of Illinois, Chicago
    Robert Bruegmann, Professor
    Peter Bacon Hales, Professor
    If you have comments or suggestions, email me at     pbhales@uic.edu