We often hear about the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 but rarely about Chicago’s “other” world’s fair, held 40 years later. While little remains of A Century of Progress International Exposition, we can still compare the two—and explain why one is talked about so much more often than the other is today.

Host Ellen Shubart has been a CAC docent since 2006, leading many tours on land, on the Chicago River and from the top of an open-air bus. Prior to becoming a docent, Shubart worked in journalism for 20 years, followed by land planning and public policy advocacy.