Y’all know I love to discuss the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago. Mainly because of serial killer H H Holmes and his connection to the DFW area. But I also like to talk about all of the innovations that came out of that Fair like the brownie (thank you Palmer House Hotel); the Ferris Wheel (which bankrupted the inventor, George Washington Gale Ferris); Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit gum; Aunt Jemima played by Nancy Green who finally had a funded headstone placed at her grave during the pandemic; and Pabst Blue Ribbon, which actually won said blue ribbon at the Fair.
But here is one I have not talked about: Elisabet Ney. There are lots of amazing facts about Ney, not the least of which is that she was a highly regarded sculptor. She created incredibly lifelike images of Sam Houston, Steven F Austin and Authur Schopenhauer. People feared for Ney as Schopenhauer was a rather nortorious misogynist. However, he wrote glowing reviews to his friends of their time together.
Elisabet Ney’s Steven F Austin and Sam Houston sculptures are on permanent display in the Capitol in Austin, Texas. These sculptures were originally commissioned for display in the Women’s Building of the 1893 World’s Fair, but Ney missed the deadline. She was 60 years old at the time and the planning for the World’s Fair was a hot mess, so I am going to cut her some slack.
Her home/studio in Austin is now a museum with a remarkable collection of her work inside.
