You never know when you'll come face-to-face with a family history mystery. I used my (deceased) mother's china and silver flatware for Thanksgiving this year. As I looked through her silverware box for serving pieces, I found a small demitasse spoon. It has a photo of Christopher Columbus with the year "1893" at the end of the spoon and "World's Fair" written on the handle.  In the bowl of the spoon is a photo of the Agricultural Building complete with boats in the lake and plantings along shore.

The spoon caught my attention because I'd recently read The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. In his book, Larson intertwines the true stories of Daniel Burnham, the architect of  the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, and the serial killer Dr. H. H. Holmes, who lured his victims to an elaborate "Murder Castle" in a nearby Chicago neighborhood. The fair's original title was "World's Columbian Exposition. " It commemorated the 400th anniversary of Columbus' landing in North America. Built on 600+ acres in Jackson Park on the south side of Chicago, it was called "The White City" because of its illuminated white stucco buildings. Frederick Law Olmsted, who designed Central Park, was in charge of landscape architecture for the fair. I thought of him when I saw the lake and plants pictured on the spoon.

So who visited the 1893 World's Fair and purchased the souvenir spoon? My paternal grandmother grew up in northwestern Iowa and would have been 16 years old at the time of the Chicago Fair. She seems the most logical ancestor to have owned the spoon. Did she and her family take the train to Chicago to attend the fair? Did they visit some of the 46 national pavilions? Did they ride the new-fangled Ferris Wheel? Or did some other family member or friend bring Grandma a souvenir from their visit to the great Columbian Exposition? Is there yet another explanation for the spoon in Mom's silverware box? I'll probably never know for sure. I have bigger genealogical mysteries to "crack," but I'm curious nonetheless.