Complimentary Annual Pass to the Worlds Columbian Exposition Ferris Wheel for 1893. Virtually As New. 66.8 mm x 109 mm. Printed in blue and green on white card. Serial numbered at upper right in violet. The two-color vignette is lightly embossed into the card. Manuscript issuance to "Prof. Putnam and Family" in black ink over the autograph signature of George Washington Gale Ferris, the designer of the Wheel, which was the greatest attraction to be found on the midway at the Exposition. It was the very first Ferris Wheel, in fact, and towered over the exposition grounds at 264 feet in height. At full capacity, it carried 2,160 passengers. Individual tickets cost 50 cents and were worth a single ride of two revolutions that lasted 20 minutes. The Wheel was dismantled after the Exposition in Jackson Park and reconstructed in 1895 not far away, in Lincoln Park. It was dismantled a second time and shipped to St. Louis where it was erected one last time for the 1904 Worlds Fair before being demolished in 1906. As it was a prime attraction in Chicago, undoubtedly many thousands of individual single-ride tickets were sold, perhaps hundreds of thousands. It is reported that the Wheel generated an income of more than $200,000 during its stay at the 1904 Worlds Fair. However, nearly all of those tickets have been lost to time, and most were probably swept up from the grounds and discarded in 1893. A very nice one sold at auction in 2008 for just shy of $1,800. We have never seen a complimentary pass like this one, and though the serial number is well into three digits, there is no guarantee that the numbering began at 1. As popular as the attraction was, a pass like this issued to an entire family would have potentially had a substantial "face value" across six months. We must assume that it is a very great rarity that was only issued to officials of the Exposition. Even if others exist, the likelihood of another being as beautifully preserved as this is extremely slim.
