The World's Columbian Exposition, also known as the Chicago World's Fair, was a world's fair held in Chicago from May 5 to October 31, 1893, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The centerpiece of the Fair, held in Jackson Park, was a large water pool representing the voyage that Columbus took to the New World. Chicago won the right to host the fair over several competing cities, including New York City, Washington, D.C., and St. Louis. The exposition was an influential social and cultural event and had a profound effect on American architecture, the arts, American industrial optimism, and Chicago's image.
Mary Seton Fraser Tytler was a symbolist craftswoman, designer and social reformer.
Elizabeth Nourse was a realist-style genre, portrait, and landscape painter born in Mt. Healthy, Ohio, in the Cincinnati area. She also worked in decorative painting and sculpture. Described by her contemporaries as "the first woman painter of America" and "the dean of American woman painters in France and one of the most eminent contemporary artists of her sex," Nourse was the first American woman to be voted into the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. She also had the honor of having one of her paintings purchased by the French government and included in the Luxembourg Museum's permanent collection. Nourse's style was described by Los Angeles critic Henry J. Seldis as a "forerunner of social realist painting." Some of Nourse's works are displayed at the Cincinnati Art Museum.
Mary Lightbody Gow was a British watercolourist.
Alice De Wolf Kellogg was an American painter whose work was exhibited at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition.
Enella Benedict was an American realism and landscape painter. She taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and was a founder and director for nearly 50 years for the Art School at the Hull House.
Johann Leonhard Raab was a German printmaker and painter.
Mary Grant (1831–1908) was one of the most eminent female sculptors of 19th century Britain, with numerous commissions from the rich and famous.
Cecile de Wentworth was an American portrait artist who resided in France and painted influential figures.
Mary Lemon Waller (1851–1931) was a British portrait painter, who specialised in child portraits.
Frances Miller Mumaugh was an American still-life painter. She exhibited an oil, A Dreamer, at the World's Congress of Representative Women of the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, 1893; and was also an exhibitor at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, 1904.
The Woman's Building was designed and built for the World's Columbian Exposition held in Chicago in 1893 under the auspices of the Board of Lady Managers. Of the twelve main buildings for the Exhibition, on June 30, 1892 The Woman's Building was the first to be completed. It had exhibition space as well as an assembly room, a library, and a Hall of Honor. The History of the World's Fair states, "It will be a long time before such an aggregation of woman's work, as may now be seen in the Woman's Building, can be gathered from all parts of the world again."
Pauline Dohn Rudolph (1865-1934) was an American painter. She was also a founder of the Chicago Palette Club.
Hilda Elisabeth Keyser (1851–1898), was a Swedish painter.
Katherine Tupper Hooper Prescott was an American sculptor. She worked primarily in plaster.
Jeanne Royannez, also known as Madame Clovis Hugues (1855-1932) was a French sculptor.
Bertha Schrader was a German painter, lithographer, and woodblock print-maker.
Minna Stocks (1846-1928) was a German painter known for her animal paintings.
Sophia Ivanovna Kramskaya (1866–1933) was a Russian painter.
Christine Sloan Bredin (1860–1934) was an American painter, illustrator, and teacher.
