Character List and Analysis
Minor Characters: Burnham Plot Characters
Margaret Sherman Burnham
Devoted wife of Daniel Burnham, Margaret Burnham has five children with Burnham and cares for them in their Evanston, Illinois, home while Burnham stays on site of the fair for three years, all the while writing Burnham letters on almost a daily basis.
Richard Hunt
Elitist New York architect whose skills Burnham desperately covets in helping to create the fair, Burnham eventually convinces a reluctant Richard Hunt to join the team and create one of the most important buildings of the fair.
George Post
Another egotistical New York architect whom Burnham convinces to help build the fair, George Post is given the responsibility of building one of the major buildings of the fair.
Louis Sullivan
Alcoholic Chicago architect who reluctantly joins Burnham's efforts in building the fair, Louis Sullivan eventually joins the team of architects who are building the fair despite feeling snubbed by Burnham and Root's initial neglect to invite Chicago architects to help build the fair.
Patrick Prendergast
Aspiring journalist and politician, psychopath Patrick Prendergast becomes disgruntled with Chicago Mayor Carter Henry Harrison and assassinates him right before the closing of the fair.
Carter Henry Harrison
Proud Mayor of Chicago elected during the building of 1893 Chicago World's Fair, Carter Henry Harrison is assassinated in his home by Patrick Prendergast just before the fair's closing in October 1893.
Frank Millet
Burnham hires devoted friend and famous artist Frank Millet to paint fair buildings and promote the fair to the public.
Sol Bloom
Innovative, creative, and spontaneous, San Franciscan Sol Bloom is hired to create the midway for the fair.
George Ferris
Determined, courageous, and innovative, Pennsylvania engineer George Ferris proposes to transcend the Paris exposition's Eiffel Tower, and he makes history by building the first Ferris wheel for the 1893 Chicago World's Fair.