D. H. BURNHAM,

DIRECTOR OF WORKS, WORLD'S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION,

66 HISTORY OF THE WORLD'S FAIR.

proved by the World's Columbian Commission, and an order given to proceed with
the execution of the design. The plat presented no studies of buildings other than
the outlines of the space to be occupied by those, ten in number, which had been
contemplated in the instructions received by the Consulting Board from the Com-
mittee on Classifications. The next step was the selection of architects to design
the buildings, and the committee authorized Mr. Burnham to select five architects
outside of the city of Chicago to design the five principal buildings around the
court. Later Mr. Burnham was authorized to appoint five architects from Chicago
to design the remaining buildings which had been determined on. The committee
determined, however, to select an architect for the Woman's Building by compe-
tition, to be confined strictly to women. By March i, 1891, the chief of construction
having apportioned the work among the architects, was enabled to form an esti-
mate of the work to be done by his department. Roughly speaking, it consisted of
reclaiming nearly seven hundred acres of ground, only a small portion of which was
improved, the remainder being in a state of nature, and covered with water and
wild-oak ridges, and in twenty months converting it from a sedgy waste by the
borders of an inland sea, into a site suitable in substance and decoration for an ex-
position of the industries and the entertainment by the republic of representatives
of all the nations of the world. On its stately terraces a dozen palaces were to be
built — all of great extent and highest architectural importance — these to be supple-
mented by hundreds of other structures, some of which were to be almost the size
of the Exposition buildings themselves; great canals, basins, lagoons, and islands
were to be formed; extensive docks, bridges, and towers to be constructed. The
standard of the entire work was to be kept up to a degree of excellence which
should place it upon a level with the monuments of other ages. It meant, in short,
that an organization must be quickly formed which should associate the ablest
architects, landscape designers, painters, sculptors, and engineers of the country.
By the summer, all of the ten buildings first designed were under contract. From
that time on, the work of designing and of construction was carried forward most
urgently by day and by night, and all arrangements of the construction department
were completed and in readiness for the opening.

In October, 1892, the title of Director of Works was conferred on Mr. Burn-
ham with enlarged duties and powers added to those already exercised by the chief
of construction.

The first shovelful of soil was removed in February, 1891, and in
six months twelve hundred thousand cubic yards of earth had been
handled, costing within five thousand dollars of half a million. Ground was
broken for the first building — that of Mines and Mining — on the 2d of July,
1891. Landscape gardening and construction had now commenced in earnest; and
under the supervision of Daniel H. Burnham, the work was kept up until its comple-
tion in May, 1893. Throughout the entire work Mr. Burnham has sacrificed to the
Exposition his own personal interest and given his time almost unreservedly to this
work. Making his headquarters at Jackson Park in the very heart of the activity,
he has been most intimately and directly associated with each of the many prob-

HISTORY OF THE WORLD'S FAIR. 67

lems arising and necessary of solution before the completion of the work was
assured. He has had from the beginning general charge of the construction of
buildings and supervision of the business thereof, the preparation of the grounds
and engineering incident to a proper prosecution of the entire work. He has had
the supervision of the buildings erected by outside parties and the maintenance of
all buildings belonging to the Exposition. He has- been required to examine all
bids and propositions for work under his control, and, to organize bureaus of archi-
tecture, engineering, landscape gardening, sanitat^pn; to hire and dismiss all em-
ployes in his department, and fix, subject to approval, the compensation for their
services. He has the employment (subject to the approval or confirmation of the
Council of Administration) and general charge of all the working forces within the
grounds of the Exposition necessary to the maintenance of order, the protection of
property from fire or other destructive elements, to supply heat, power, light, water
and disposal of sewerage, the care of the grounds and all service necessary to the
practical administration of the Exposition inside the grounds.

Mr. Burnham was born in Henderson, N.Y., 1854. In 1855 his parents
moved to Chicago, where Mr. Burnham, has sinced lived, with the exception of two
years spent in study in the East, and one year which, as a young man, he spent in
the activity of camp and mining life in Nevada. Upon his return to Chicago, he at
once resumed his architectural studies, forming a partnership with the late John W.
Root in 1873, since which time he has been continuously engaged in the practice of
his profession. Mr. Burnham's connection with the Exposition commenced shortly
after Chicago had been selected as its site, he and Mr. Root working up numerous
preliminary plans in the early summer of 1800.

The following are the names of the efficient gentlemen who compose the
staff of Director of Works Burnham and the designation of their positions: E. R.
Graham, Assistant Director of Works: M- B. Pickett, Secretary of Works; F. L.
Olmsted & Co., Landscape Architects; R. Ulrich, Superintendent of Landscape;
Charles B. Atwood, Designer-in-chief; F. D. Millet, Director of Decoration; C. Y.
Turner, Assistant Director of Decoration; E. D. Allen, Superintendent of
Painting; W. H. Holcomb, General Manager of Transportation; E. G. Nourse,
Assistant General Manager Transportation; E. C. Shankland, Chief Engineer;
William S. McHarg, Engineer of Water Supply and Sewerage; C. M. Wilkes,
Assistant Engineer Water Department; John E. Owens, M.D., Medical Director;
R. H. Pierce, Electrical Engineer; W. E. Brown, B. B. Cheeseman, J. K. Freitag,
H. S. Hibbard, C. A. Jordan, J. H. Murphy, A. C. Speed, F. W. Watts, M. Young,
Building Superintendents; C. D. Arnold, Chief Department of Photography; C. F.
Foster, Mechanical Engineer; J. W. Alvord, Engineer, Grades and Surveys; G. H.
Binkley, Assistant Engineer, Grades and Surveys; Edward W. Murphy, Fire Mar-
shal, i4th Batt. Chicago Fire Department; F. J. Mulcahy, Purchasing Agent; F.
O. Cloyes, Chief Draftsman; W. D. Richardson, General Superintendent of Build-
ings; D. A.Collins. Superintendent of Interior Docking; E. R. Loring, Superinten-
dent of plumbing; A. A. Clark, Superintendent of Midway Plaisance; J. Worcester,
Superintendent of Elevated Railway.

HISTORY OF THE WORLD'S FAIR. 69