Selection of Chicago
The interest by the United States to host a World's Fair for the 400th anniversary of Columbus' landing was expressed in the late 1880s. Leaders in St. Louis, New York City, Washington DC and Chicago expressed interest in hosting the fair to generate profits and promote their cities. Congress was picked to decide the location and Chicago and New York City were announced the two finalists. New York's financiers J. P. Morgan, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and William Waldorf Astor, among others, pledged $15 million to finance the fair if Congress awarded it to New York, while Chicagoans Charles T. Yerkes, Marshall Field, Philip Armour, Gustavus Swift, and Cyrus McCormick, offered to finance a Chicago fair. What finally persuaded Congress was Chicago banker Lyman Gage, who raised several million additional dollars in a 24-hour period, over and above New York's final offer.
Chicago lost no time in beginning its preparations, starting with a governing body to oversee the World's Columbian Exposition. Although a corporation had already been established in Chicago to raise the funds, the Congress determined that a national board of oversight, consisting of two representatives from each state and territory, as well as eight at large members, would also be required. The national organization came to be known as the Commission and the local group was the Directory; the two bodies were directed by one man, Col. George Davis, a former soldier and senator who helped plead Chicago's case in Congress. With this political/corporate body in place, the work of planning the Exposition began in 1890.
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