Accompanying the views will be found a brief but vivid description of the buildings; their contents and the environments, together with much condensed valuable sympathetic information. In fact, it has been the intention of the publishers to present to the public a review and pictorial presentation of the great Fair that will rejoice and refresh those who had the good fortune to be among its visitors, and impart satisfactory reproduction in line and letter, that will in a great measure compensate those whose unavoidable absence would perhaps without this work have debarred them from an intimate and intelligent appreciation of the Exposition's manifold wonders. Standing upon the little Spanish Caravel, the Santa Maria, so small a craft as to seem a vessel in miniature, and looking above, about and beyond the mooring, it was impossible to realize that the grandeur, the brilliancy and the sweeping proportions of the Columbian Exposition were inspired and produced by the commemoration of the great event this little ship, by the guiding hand of the great Navigator, was the instrumentality in achieving. As the success of the voyage of a Genoese sailor marked the era of endless and boundless advance of civilization, so the commemorative Exposition will for all time stand as an epochful event, glorious in its effect upon this generation, and momentous in its influence upon those to follow. As these beautiful and expressive illustrations set forth the greatness of the Exposition in the full blast of achievement, they must call into grateful remembrance the thousands who in humble, but no half-hearted way have done their share in the mighty task of its preparation; the tiller of the soil who sent from every clime the yellow grain; the nurserymen who from every sunny slope have given the richest product of the tree and vine; the miner in every mountain who has wrested tribute from the treasure vaults of nature to delight the wondering visitor. The worker in the forest; the worker in the mill who have sent the product of the axe and the loom; the fisherman who seined and hooked in the depths of the sea; the inventor, the mechanic, the artisan and artist, all with incomparable energy and skill gave their full measure to this colossal testimonial of the prodigality of nature and the genius of mankind.