Souvenir Music from the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893

Summary: 

This project combines two approaches to souvenir music written to commemorate the 1893 Chicago World's Fair and Columbian Exposition: first, a musical map showing areas of the Midway Plaisance dramatized by a specific piece of sheet music, and second, an album collecting souvenir music written to commemorate the Fair. 

Faculty Chicago Fellow:

Donald C. Meyer, Professor of Music, Lake Forest College

Chicago Fellows Year: 

2016

With thanks to: 

Victoria Nichols, a former Lake Forest College student, provided valuable assistance at the outset of the project. 

Library staff at the Donnelley and Lee Library at Lake Forest College provided essential research support, including Kim Hazlett, Associate Librarian, for help with the research on the composers and for helping tracking down scores, and Anne Thomason, Archivist and Librarian for Special Collections.

Acknowledgements for the Album: 

Funding for this album and associated digital humanities project comes in part from Digital Chicago: Unearthing History and Culture, a four-year (2015–2018) grant at Lake Forest College from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Digital Chicago seeks to unearth Chicago’s forgotten history and preserve it for a digital future, through coursework, innovative digital humanities projects, and urban archaeology. Special thanks go out to Emily Mace, grant coordinator, and Davis Schneiderman, project director of Digital Chicago, at Lake Forest College. 

Further support was provided by the office of the Dean of Faculty at Lake Forest College. We would also like to thank Kim Hazlett, Associate Librarian at Donnelley and Lee Library at Lake Forest College, for help with the research on the composers and for helping tracking down scores; Anne Thomason, Archivist and Librarian for Special Collections; Emma O’Hagan, Senior Graphic Designer and Brand Manager at Lake Forest College, for design work for this CD; and the other Mellon Fellows working on research projects on the Fair during the 2016–2017 academic year.

This album was recorded at Steve Yates Recording in Morton Grove, Illinois: steveyatesrecording.com