The Devil in the White City
This is the story of a serial killer and the 1893 World’s Fair. It was by a very close margin that Chicago was granted the privilege of hosting the 1893 World’s Fair; the last World’s Fair had been hosted in Paris and Chicago had a lot to live up to—what could possibly compete with such an engineering feat as the Eiffel Tower? The heads of Chicago’s World Fair are determined to find something… but they also have the monumental task of turning a swamp into a paradise—in less than two years! Paris had four years to prepare for the previous World’s Fair! Will Chicago be able to pull it together in time? Many are convinced they won’t be able to..
Meanwhile not far from where the World’s Fair will take place, young pretty girls are going missing, a conman constructs a creepy building with gas pipes releasing into rooms, and a sound proof vault in the basement… and a doctor who always seems to have a cadaver to sell to one of the many medical universities clambering for skeletons…..
The Personal Librarian
by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray
Around this same time, in New York there is a young woman by the name of Belle Greener… or Belle Da CostaGreen as she is better known—a name invented by Belle and her mother to go with Belle’s new persona. Belle is a woman of color, although fairly light skinned, is going to pass into white society and into the role of head librarian for JP Morgan’s library. Belle is tasked with acquiring new volumes of books to add prominence to JP’s growing library. In such a role Belle is welcomed into New York’s society, a place only secured by the thread of keeping her true identity a secret. Will she be able to keep up the false front and keep her prestigious role?
The Blue Tattoo: the Life of Olive Oatman
Just 40 years before the 1893 World’s Fair debuts such feats as the Ferris Wheel, westward expansion has led many to travel west in search of a better life. It is hard to believe such a short amount of time can make such a difference, but in the 1850s people were braving the elements, the unknowns of the trail, and Native American attacks to build a life for themselves in America’s west. Olive Oatman was one such girl.
Olive and her family were on their way to their better life when they were attacked by the Apache Tribe. Olive and her sister are taken captive and the rest of her family is left for dead, brutally murdered before their eyes. After a year of being kept as slaves by the Apache, Olive and her sister are traded to the Mojave tribe where they are adopted and treated as daughters. Five years after their initial capture, Olive is traded back to the white people, her sister having died. Olive, who has assimilated into her life with the Mojave, as evidenced by the blue tattoo on her chin, now has to assimilate into white society, a task which is nearly impossible given her tattoo marking. This is a work, not of fiction, but of fact, drawn from only the facts known about Olive’s life and a very fascinating read about a resilient woman!
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