INCREDIBLY RARE WCE CAMERA PERMIT--ONE OF THREE KNOWN
We are listing this item first, not because it is the rarest ticket & the costliest in this sale. Rather, I wanted to ensure no one overlooks it stuck in the middle of everything in the store. This way, when you--when everyone--opens the store and the sale, the first thing you'll see is this ticket.
This way if you open the sale and want this item you can pounce on it. Everyone has the same opportunity first thing.
While a camera permit isn't a ticket, per se, it really is very similar to any of the many passes from world's fairs. Instead of allowing you access to a building or free admission to something....it is permitting you to use a camera at the World's Columbian Expo.
It probably seems very odd to us in the 21st century. I would assume 90% or more of everyone at a world's fair today would probably have their personal camera...in the form of their cell phone.
Eastman Company (remember when it was Eastman Kodak?) introduced the first film on a roll just five years before (1888) the World's Columbian Exposition. Until that point cameras used flat glass plates and professionals used very large cameras with up to 11x14 inch glass plates as negatives; you didn't put that over your shoulder as you strolled around fairgrounds.
In 1893 hand-held personal cameras were very new. I don't know why the WCE dictated that no one could use one on the fairgrounds without a permit. I can speculate that maybe there was concern that they would be unannounced in the way of fairgoers. That seems hardly a reason for permits.
The WCE had a photographic studio set up with a darkroom and photographic supplies. Any of the permitted photographers could use the darkroom at no cost. I don't know if they charged for the permit or just used it as some type of controle mechanism. And I don't know how many amateur photographers were issued permits during the fair. I have seen maybe five amateur albums of WCE photos. I reviewed one that I thought was promising. It had 150+ photos and I was about to work on my Midway book in 2016--and thought it would be a great opportunity to use previously unpublished photos. I couldn't find any that justified buying the album. They were all dull and boring and really showed nothing. Let's hear it for amateur photography. It couldn't be that bad now.
The fair's chief photographer, C.D. Arnold (his facsimile signature is on the permit) must have taken 10,000+ photos. He was there before it opened, while it was under construction and for every major event. The vast majority of photos were taken outdoors for obvious reasons: Light.
In my years studying the WCE for three books: The first in 1993 commissioned by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the second in 2017 about the Midway and the third that I am working on now. The latter will include every known ticket and pass used at the WCE and I think everyone will be surprised at the number we will chronicle in the book. I realize many of you are aware of the book. For those who aren't, this absolutely is not a price guide. It is a comprehensive look at every ticket and will not be a typical catalog with lists of tickets. I write history books and this one will have articles--long and short--a variety of statistics and quite important, records of how these collectibles have sold over the years and how.
Included will be a substantial number (more than most would think) of admission tickets beginning with the six American Banknote's beautiful advance tickets sold before the WCE opened; there were myriad other admission tickets for days' events, for access before the fair opened, etc. We will have sections on getting to the fair--via train and steamship; on all types of tickets such as Day of Sale and Stand tickets; and a lot more. Work is slow just because I can't seem to get large enough blocks of time as I'd like, but every day I work on it I'm excited about what it will become.
Please note that the shipping seems quite highh...because I'm factoring in the ~$22 in insurance that I feel is important for this rare ticket. If you purchase it and don't want insurance I'll refund the cost. I've often heard that postal insurance is a real sucker bet--it is used so rarely that you could chalk up literally thousands of dollars of 40 years and never use it. Still, twenty bucks at least buys some security if the unthinkable happens.
And I should note that in the last two years I have shipped TWO parcels via USPS that arrived mangled and empty. Actually one was empty and the other obviously had spilled out along with several other packages, typical of what happens when the USPS machinery tries to eat packages. This latter case was one of the weirdest I've ever been involved in. My customer called me, sputtering, angry, pretty violent and asked why on earth I sent him a vial of blood. Apparently when the machinery ripped open packages, workers returned items and resealed them. I have no idea why someone chose to put a doctor's tube of blood in my package.
The customer said he often lets his young children open mail for him and he was pretty darned mad.
The vial had a doctor and patient's name & clinic's info--and it was maybe 15 miles north of Woodinville, so it must've happened at the Woodinville PO (unlikely) or the Seattle distribution where that type of machinery is everywhere.
Questions about this permit....or the vial of blood....or my experiences with USPS over 50 years just ask.