The Viking Ship and the Chicago World’s Fair

The World’s Columbian Exposition, also known as the Chicago World’s Fair, was held in 1893 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s arrival in the New World.  Not to be outdone, Norway’s contribution to the Fair set out to show that its forbears arrived in North America well before Columbus ever set sail.

How?

By building and sailing a replica of a true Viking ship across the Atlantic, thereby proving that the Vikings could have made the trip centuries before Columbus was even born.

It was not until the 1960s, over 67 years after the Chicago World’s Fair, that conclusive evidence of Viking settlement in North America was finally established, at L’Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland. 

Timothy Boyce will tell the story of the Viking Ship, its amazing transatlantic voyage in 1893, its reception in the New World, and its subsequent history.