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World's Columbian Exposition Stereographs (Digitized Content)

5 Items Full Collection Description

The digitized content of the World's Columbian Exposition (Chicago, Ill.) Stereographs consists of five stereograph cards, also called "stereoviews", from the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition.

The stereograph cards were photographed and published by B.W. Kilburn of Littleton, New Hampshire, in 1893. Stereographs were made in the 1850s and were popular from the 1870s-1920s. Stereoviews consist of two nearly identical photographs paired on thick card mounts, glass negatives, or daguerreotypes. When put through a stereoscope, the two images combine to create a three-dimensional single image to view.

The digitized content contains the five cards that depict scenes at the fair, including images at the Horticultural Hall, Illinois State Building, California State Building, the Wool Exhibit at the Agricultural Building, and Puck (a character from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream) at the fair.

The Illinois History and Lincoln Collections unit at the University of Illinois Library manages the physical items of the World's Columbian Exposition (Chicago, Ill.) Stereographs (MS 1076). The collection was completely digitized in 2025. For more information, contact an archivist at ihlc@library.illinois.edu.

Stereograph of the Agricultural Building at the Columbian Exposition, 1893