Exposition

1894 · 60987 — Chicago: Wabash Publishing House W.B. Conkey Co. 1894. Tall thick 8vo. 1196 pp. Photo frontisp. nearly 100 photos & text illusts. illust. initials. Pictorial green cloth gilt illustration & lettering front cover & spine minor scuffing edgewear couple minor bumped corners front inner hinge starting still VG- copy from library of Prof. Marvin Nathan. First edition of this massive compilation of addresses and reports presented at the Colombian Exposition. Of particular interest is the amount devoted to eastern religions including Hinduism Buddhism Bramo-Somaj Shintoism Confucianism Zoroastrianism as well as Islam. The editor has included papers on the role of Buddhism in Siam and Japan the development of Confucianism extracts from the Koran and more. Of particular interest are the papers presented by African-Americans on the “American Negroe’s†role in Christianity including addresses by Bishop Arnett of the African Methodist Ethiopian Church as well as Fannie Barrier Williams on the “Religious Duty to the Negro†and “The Catholic Church and the Negro Race†by J.R. Slattery of Baltimore. Fannie Williams was a vociferous proponent of education for African-American women writing that in terms “of employment colored women bear a distressing burden of mean and unreasonable discrimination . . . colored women can find no employment in this free America.†As African-Americans were almost entirely excluded from the 1893 Columbian Exposition these papers and addresses offer just a few of the efforts by the Black community to engage with attendees. See: Dybwad & Bliss Annotated Bibliography: World’s Columbian Exposition Chicago 1893 1992 2256. Wabash Publishing House, [W.B. Conkey Co.], hardcover