Vigo County Historical Society

Practical souvenir saved fairgoer’s feet

Our feet, like almost every other part of our bodies, are things we tend to take for granted--until they begin to ache.

In 1989 we don’t have to worry too much about activities that cause our feet to ache. We drive almost everywhere we want to go. We have elevators and escalators to take the place of stairs. Thick carpets are commonplace, and shoes are designed with comfort in mind.

In 1893 at the Columbian Exposition those who attended had to worry about their aching feet. This small folding stool was one way of helping to control that pain.

H.T. Smith, in his album on the fair, said the chance of seeing everything was impossible. The grounds of the fair itself covered 1,037 acres. Chicago designed and re-designed parkways surrounding the fair that extended another 35 miles. the majority of that space could only be seen by foot. Aching feet and blisters must have been very common, especially with the high topped shoes fashionable for women.

The stool was purchased as a souvenir item for the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. Unlike many of the souvenirs of the fair, this was very practical. It was used by Sara Mills Condit as she and her three children toured the exhibits. The three children would take turns carrying the stool and when mother needed it to stop and rest her weary feet it just had to be unfolded.

Mrs. Mills feet certainly took her to the Indiana State Building, especially since the two-story Gothic building was constructed by a Terre Haute contracting firm, Collins and Ohm. The building cost $37,000 and was built of wood and Indiana limestone. The interior included a life-sized figure of an elephant also carved from limestone.

Mrs. Mills, her children and the stool also must have taken in the sites of the Woman’s Pavilion, the first building dedicated to women to be found in a World’s Fair. Fourteen women architects (all under the age of 25) submitted designs for the structure. The winning design was by Sophia Hayden of Boston. It was 199 feet long, 388 feet wide and cost $138,000.

Janet Scudder, a Terre Haute native, was commissioned to place her statue "Nymph" in the women’s building. After the fair the statue was brought back to Terre Haute and placed in the old Fairbanks Library. In the 1950s, changing tastes decreed that the statue be removed; it was, and it vanished.

History hasn’t recorded where Mrs. Mills, her children and the camp stool spent nights (it was impossible to see the fair in one or two days), but perhaps they stayed in the comfort provided by several enterprising Terre Hauteans, including Ernest Alden, the son of Lyman Alden, the superintendent of Rose Orphanage.

They leased a 22-room double house located about a half a block from the Midway of the Fair. The least cost $1,700 for seven months. They also purchased $800 worth of furnishing for the home, and then rented rooms to people attending the fair.

Alden’s memoirs noted that they "had 931 people who came to us from all over the country, even from Tokyo, Japan. Many of our friends from our very best families in Terre Haute were our guests. We turned many people away every day." After the fair they found that each of the three partners had cleared about $1,000. They even resold the furniture "at a good price."

The camp stool probably was very useful for Mrs. Mills and her children during their stay at the fair, and apparently was just as useful afterwards. By 1946, the original canvas seat had to be replaced.

Mrs. Mill’s daughter, Helen A. Condit, donated the chair to the museum. The camp stool and other souvenir items from the exposition will be on display at the museum and at the historical society’s summer celebration on July 8.