Chicago World’s Fair
The World’s Fair in 1933 was held in Chicago, Illinois. The theme was, A Century of Progress. On these stamps you can see it says this – click on the image of the album page to enlarge it. You may also notice that the stamp has the years, 1833 and 1933. The first is when Chicago was incorporated; the second is the year of the fair. The theme of the fair seems to have been not only the progress of the world in the Twentieth Century, but also the progress of Chicago for the past one-hundred years.
The building shown in the stamp image is that of the Federal Building, a pavilion at the center of the fairgrounds, what is now Northerly Island Park on Lake Michigan. The architecural design of the Federal Building included three wedge shapes, representing the three branches of the U.S. government. From what I can tell by looking on-line – I haven’t not been there – almost all of the structures from the fair are gone. Attempts were made in recent years to construct walkways and bike paths, but much of that have been destroyed due to water erosion and waves from the lake. The planetarium seems intact and where the acquarium was located, looks now to be a music concert arena. Soldier Field stadium, where the Chicago Bears football team plays, and the marina next to the fairgrounds are both in good shape.
It’s amazing to me how they would spend so much money and time building structures for world’s fairs, knowing the buildings would be only temporary. I don’t fully understand the point of such expenditures for a city and a country to host a world’s fair.
American Philatelic Society
In the margin of this sheet of stamps you’ll see mention of the American Philatelic Society’s convention. It was held there in late August 1933 at the Medinah Michigan Athletic Club – now an InterContinental Hotel – in the city’s central business district.
Note
This souvenir sheet isn’t very expensive and it’s not difficult to find from U.S. stamp dealers. I’ve had this one for a few years. I think Leuchtturm could have fit this souvenir sheet together with the one on the previous page. Both are in celebration of the same Chicago World’s Fair, so they would make sense together. That’s the problem with having had to design many album pages for my Italian colony, Italian occupation and other stamps: I’ve become a critic of stamp album pages.
Contains 1 spots: own 1 – 1 unused, 0 used.
Page is finished.
Album or Web Page Last changed Mar 15, 2025
Stamp Details
The table below lists information about the stamps shown on this page of Lighthouse’s stamp album. For more details about a particular stamp, click on its description. That will take you to the related web page of Colnect.
spot |
own |
catalog |
subject |
description |
comment |
Souvenir Sheet
✓ |
731 |
Federal Bldg., Chicago |
75¢ (aug 1933) |
Footnotes
Spot refers to the postion of the stamp on the album page (e.g., 3.2 indicates row 3, position 2).
Amt. is an abbreviation for the face amount of the stamp.
Own indicates the stamp status: ✓ for unused; ✗ for used or canceled; ⭑ signifies I ordered one; ; ✨ indicates it was bought recently; ✠ means an auction bid is pending; and ◎ is used, and it costs too much for unused.
To search by catalog number, go to the search box and enter it in the catalog number box. However, it’s a bit broken; I need to fix it.
