Chicago dedicated the upcoming 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition with a panoply of events staged over a series of days in October of 1892. Among the biggest of these was a spectacular parade through the heart of the city on October 20. The steps of the Post Office and Custom House provided the reviewing stand for Vice President Levi Morton and other dignitaries. The turnout was staggering. The reporter covering the day for the Washington Post wrote, “Of Chicago’s population [by then approximately 1,300,000] one in twenty marched in the parade. The other nineteen, re-enforced by a half million visitors from outside points, stood on the sidewalk, packed the streets, perched on roofs and windows-sills, and jammed the various stands along the line of march.”
The parade was scheduled to set off from Michigan Avenue and Van Buren Street at 10:45 and pass the Post Office and Custom House thirty minutes later, but its start was delayed and marchers did not arrive at this destination until a bit before 2:30. The Grand Marshall was General Nelson Miles, who less than two years later would command the troops sent to break the Pullman Strike. The dedication ceremonies culminated on October 22 with another enormous gathering in the Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building in Jackson Park, the site of the fair. The Columbian Exposition opened the following May and ran through the end of October.
