The Devil In The White City

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Alok Shah

Professor Whitley Cooke

English 802

The Devil in the White City

The Chicago’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 only lasted 6 months, but people had an impressive impact on the city of Chicago, its people, and indeed the entire country. Up until 1893 in its history, the United States had done nothing on the scale of the world's fair. The great Chicago world’s fair was a perfect way for the United States to disprove this. Its official purpose was to commemorate the four hundredth anniversary of Columbus’s discovery of America. In building the fair, they would be placed in direct competition with France, who had built a magnificent fair only a few years before. This is what the book Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America is about. Erik Larson is the author of the book and he precisely describes the time period of 1893 Chicago world’s fair, also known as the World’s Columbian Exposition. In the book Erik Larson creates two separate, yet connected plot lines. One plot line is about building the fair and another is about a serial killer. Both plots are on two different men who never meet each other.

There are two main characters Burnham and Holmes. Daniel Hudson Burnham was the architect, who got contract to build the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair with John Root. Unfortunately, John Root dies before the fair even begins construction. Burnham is the builder of many of the country's most important structures, including the Flatiron Building in New York and Union Station in Washington, D.C (Larson 4). Henry H. Holmes, a young doctor, pharmacist who built his "World's Fair Hotel" just west of the fairgrounds. However, Holmes was a serial killer. Holmes uses his charm and good looks to pursue evil perfecting his fake identity as a nice young man, but with a dark side. He spreads terror by murdering women in Chicago. Burnham and Holmes both had their own intentions. Burnham made society better by using his power while gaining respect of others. He had a goal of building Chicago, while Holmes destroys it. Holmes represents evil and Burnham is the hero. Daniel Burnham and H.H. Holmes were working at the same time period of Chicago World’s Fair in Chicago. They both had different reasons and outcomes. There are two different sides light and dark or good and evil of humanity shown with these two characters.

The Devil in The White City describes how wherever there is good, there is evil. The Chicago world fair was being built out of good reasons, like to show the world the greatness of America. In the 1890s the United States was not really in good economic position. According to economist David O. Whitten "The depression of 1893 was one of the worst in American history. For the half decade the unemployment rate exceeded ten percent" (Whitten). In 1893 the Chicago world’s fair that became perfect thing for exposing Americans to the wonders of the modern world. The visitors to the fair were thrilled to glimpse "the white city". As American social historian David Nasaw has written in "Going Out: The Rise and Fall of Public Amusements," the fairs can do a lot than just amusing the public: "The world's fairs were paeans to progress, concrete demonstrations of how order and organization, high culture and art, science and technology, commerce and industry, all brought together under the wise administration of business and government, would lead inevitably to a brighter, more prosperous future" (Nasaw). The Chicago world’s fair held the promise of generating commercial profits as well as increasing real estate values.

Burnham was handsome, tall, and strong, with vivid blue eyes. Burnham and Root were really good business partners. Burnham was a talented artist and architect. He was also depended on Root’s elegant designs. He understood that Root was the firm’s artistic engine. According to historian Titus M. Karlowicz, "Burnham most assuredly with Root’s help, exercised a practical wisdom" (Karlowicz). In 1890, when Chicago was named the site for the Columbian Exposition World's Fair, Root was given the important task of coordinating the event. Unfortunately, Root died in 1891, leaving his greatest project incomplete. Even though Daniel Burnham had only practical experience and not very deep training in architecture field. He was then given responsibility to finish the event of world’s fair. Burnham faced many problems during building the fair. Eventually architect Daniel Burnham finished the project and made the white city. When it opened for six months, from June to November 1893, it was a complete success. This exposition had many innovations, among which the first Ferris wheel, which was the result of a challenge set out by Burnham.

Henry Howard Holmes was a The other man was H.H. Holmes, a handsome young sociopath trained in medicine, with a taste for torture and murder.

Also Burnham even created a really big group of security. The purpose was to stop crime, but even the upgraded security force couldn't stop Holmes' plans. This just shows that no matter what you do, evil will always exist among good.

There is nothing to stop it. Also no one could ever talk Holmes out of being a killer. He says that people are born into their profession, and he was born a killer. People cannot get rid of his thrill of killing, and the fact that people are born with the fascination of killing just proves that there is no way to end evil. 

The main difference between Daniel Burnham and Henry H. Holmes is that Burnham is sane why Holmes is a psychopathic killer. Burnham mourns at his friend’s death, like Root's, while Holmes enjoys the sport of killer people. According to Seger "In any journey the hero usually receives help, and the help often comes from unusual sources"(Seger 389). Burnham gets help from architects like Frederick Law Olmsted, Richard Hunt, George Post. Burnham uses his intelligence for good, and tries to help the whole country by building the fair. Holmes uses his intelligence for his own purpose killing people for his enjoyment. Their motivation is also very different. Burnham wants to prove to the whole world that Chicago is capable of building a world fair that can greatly surpass Paris. On the other side Holmes does everything for himself. He does it to satisfy his yearning to kill people. He has some sick fetish of killing people, and develops a great enjoyment from it.

Holmes and Burnham also have many similarities. They are both greatly ambitious, resourceful, intelligent, and energetic. The main similarity however is their determination to get their job done. They will do whatever it takes to finish their work. They are both very good at fulfilling their goals. They do not believe anything is impossible. They set a standard, and do everything they can do to surpass it. They are hardly ever satisfied, and will continue to improve their building until they are almost perfect. They both also do whatever it takes to succeed. So their main similarity is their determination to fulfill their goals. 

The "White City" was a dream world. It was a perfect example by America’s greatest architects of the time. Architect Frederick Olmsted who designed Central Park in New York has also helped to create landscape architecture of the Chicago. Director architect Daniel Burnham put all his efforts to build the white city. The buildings of the fair were designed in the classical style of architecture. The world’s exposition had extensive use of new inventions. There was a good use of streetlights. The city included such buildings as: the Administration building, the Agricultural building, the Liberal Arts building, the Woman’s building, the Electricity building, the Transportation building etc. The famous Ferris wheel was a major attraction of the city. Extremely hard work required accomplishing the exposition; so much of it was not finished on opening day.

On the other hand Holmes had a three-story building, which was house of horrors. The upper floor had his living rooms and also small rooms where he tortured and killed victims using gas jets. Holmes had plans on how to use the world fair to his own advantage. During the 1893 Columbian Exposition, Holmes opened up his home as a hotel for visitors to the world’s fair. He built a hotel to lure people into it, and killing his guests. Unfortunately, some of his guests did not survive his hospitality. Many of these victims were women who he seduced, swindled, and then killed. Holmes had a habit of getting engaged to a woman and then killing her. The world fair may have been for just reasons, but evil found a way to use the world fair to its own advantage.

Holmes is known as one of the first serial killers in United States. According to analysis of serial killer profiling Holmes fits in a category of the lust killer. "The lust killer attains sexual gratification through torturing their victim before murdering them. They leave little physical evidence on scene even though they are process focused and organized. They rape and overkill their victims often by mutilation—all of which provide sexual gratification" (Journal of Investigating Psychology and Offender Profiling).

The authorities finally caught up with Holmes for, ironically, fraud.

Burnham overcame tremendous obstacles and tragedies as he organized the talents of Frederick Law Olmsted, Charles McKim, Louis Sullivan, and others to transform swampy Jackson Park into the White City, while Holmes used the attraction of the great fair and his own satanic charms to lure scores of young women to their deaths. What makes the story all the more chilling is that Holmes really lived, walking the grounds of that dream city by the lake.

The world thought that there wasn't enough time to build the world fair in Chicago, but he didn't give up and worked endlessly until it was done.