July 17 - City of the Big Shoulders

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On July 17, 1893, Paul Laurence Dunbar in Chicago wrote to James Newton Matthews, a country doctor and poet from Mason, Illinois.  Paul was in Chicago to seek employment and a broader audience for his writings at the World's Columbian Exposition.

I couldn't stand the work I did when I first came here.  I now have an easier place but it pays very little.  Evidently this world's goods are not for me.  If you come to the Fair, I should be glad to see you at the Haitian Building where I am working.  I have my mother here with me and she is enjoying much the sights of Chicago.
 

Paul Laurence Dunbar to James Newton Matthews, July 17, 1893.  Paul Laurence Dunbar Papers, Ohio History Connection (Microfilm edition, Roll 1).

When Paul first came to Chicago, he worked as a men's room attendant, but then Frederick Douglass helped him get a better position.  The government of Haiti had appointed Douglass one of its commissioners at the Fair, so he gave Paul a job at the Haitian Pavilion.

Mr. Douglass was able to render another great service to his race when he also gave help to Paul Laurence Dunbar, a young high-school boy just graduated, who came to the fair.
 

Crusade for Justice, by Ida B. Wells.  Edited by Alfreda Duster.  The University of Chicago Press (Chicago, Illinois).  1970.  Page 101.

Mr. Douglass had, at the request of the authorities of Haiti, taken charge of the Haitian building and exhibition.  The care and confinement wore upon him and he was anxious to be relieved from it, and soon after Mr. Dunbar's arrival placed it under his control and direction.  There, again, he won many friends by his genial manners and careful attention to duty.
 

"Paul Laurence Dunbar," by Ben S. Parker.  The Indianapolis Journal (Indianapolis, Indiana).  August 6, 1898.

Frederick Douglass was the commissioner in charge of the exhibit from Haiti at the Fair, and he employed Paul Dunbar to assist him.  The great man had become deeply interested in Paul Dunbar, because his struggle for existence and recognition had been so desperate.
 

A Colored Woman in a White World, by Mary Church Terrell.  Randsell, Inc. (Washington, D. C.).  1940.  Page 145.

Haitian Pavilion at the World's Columbian Exposition

The Haitian Pavilion at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition.

Three hundred invited guests partook of Haitian hospitality today and joined in the formal opening ceremonies of the building of the little republic of the far south.  The program was very short, consisting only of two speeches, one by Frederick Douglass, the other by Charles A. Preston, Haitian commissioner.  The speech making over, a collation was served and the guests made a tour of inspection around the building, which was appropriately decorated.
 

"A Tour of the World."  The Sentinel (Milwaukee, Wisconsin).  June 25, 1893.  Page 2.

In the Haitian Pavilion yesterday afternoon there was music, merriment, and good cheer.  The Haitian fete took the form of an informal reception at which Commissioner and Mrs. Douglass, Commissioner Gustav Stromberg, and other attaches were the receiving party.  Six hundred invitations were issued for the event and fully that number of persons passed through the various rooms of the beautiful Haitian Pavilion.  The guests were highly entertained by what they saw and learned in the pavilion, from every part of which fluttered the national colors, blue and red.
 

"Haiti was the Host."  The Daily Inter Ocean (Chicago, Illinois).  August 17, 1893.  Page 7.

Paul was in Chicago during a time when millions of people from all over the world visited the city, and this provided him with a great deal of public exposure.

A new element has entered into the realm of American letters.  In literature as well as music the presence of the Negro is assuming a distinct phase of development.  In Chicago at this time there are three Negro poets of positive power -- Alberry A. Whitman, William H. A. Moore and Paul Dunbar.  Dunbar is in all particulars the most interesting.  He offers much promise at this time.  His strength as a poet has shown to best advantage in dialect verse, but he has also written in purest English some poems of rare beauty.  Mr. Dunbar has, undoubtedly, a great future and it is not expecting too much to look for some work from his pen which will arrest the attention of all the people of the land.  His poem read by himself on "Colored American Day" at the Fairgrounds has made him well known to the people of Chicago.
 

"Tribute to Negro Poets."  The Freeman (Indianapolis, Indiana).  November 11, 1893.  Page 2.