The World’s Columbian Exposition was meant to open on October 21, 1892—the year marking the four-hundredth anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s arrival in the Americas—but preparations for the fair were so extensive that it could not open to the public until the following May. Instead, the city of Chicago held a three-day dedication celebration including parades, speeches, and musical performances.

Edward Drummond Libbey, owner of the Libbey Glass Company (and future cofounder of the Toledo Museum of Art), was aware of the success that other glass companies had selling souvenirs to fairgoers at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. He insisted that Libbey build a display for the Chicago fairgrounds. The Libbey pavilion was designed to look like a palace, and it included a temporary factory where glassmaking processes could be demonstrated for visitors. More than two million people came to the pavilion, where they could also purchase small glass mementos of the fair like this hatchet. 

Libbey Glass Company (1892–1919), Hatchet. Amber nonlead glass, 1893. 8 1/8 × 4 3/32 in. (20.6 ×10.4 cm). Gift of James M. Falvey, Jr., 1959.124. Not on view.*