Chicago Railroad Fair Color Home Movies (1948)

Synopsis

These beautiful color home movies show the Chicago Railroad Fair, likely in 1948 but possibly in 1949. The film begins with images of the Indian village that was part of the Fair, before showing some of the railroad apparatus and steam engines that made the Fair such an amazing spectacle. The Chicago Railroad Fair was an event organized to celebrate and commemorate 100 years of railroad history west of Chicago, Illinois. It was held in Chicago in 1948 and 1949 along the shore of Lake Michigan and is often referred to as "the last great railroad fair" with 39 railroad companies participating. The board of directors for the show was a veritable "Who's Who" of railroad company executives. The origin of the fair traces back to the Chicago and North Western Railway (CNW), which at the time was the successor of the first railroad to operate out of Chicago, the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad. CNW was seeking a way to commemorate 100 years of railroading in Chicago, especially as it was done on the CNW itself. Public Relations Manager F.V. Koval is credited with developing the idea behind the fair. The CNW advertising and public relation staff went to work to promote the show in the early months of 1948, beginning with a series of photographs made by company photographer Don Lidikay of people in 19th century costumes posing with the locomotive Pioneer, which had pulled the first train out of Chicago in 1848. The fair was rapidly planned during the winter and spring of 1948, and…

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Details

Running time

8 minutes

Collection

Ephemeral Films

Subjects on the Internet Archive

• Stock Footage