Century of Progress International Exposition, 1933-34

The Century of Progress International Exposition celebrated Chicago’s 100th year of incorporation. It was held from May 27 to November 12, 1933 and May 26 to October 31, 1934 on a 427 acres site on the shore of Lake Michigan, immediately south of Chicago’s downtown area. The site was 6 miles long and 600 yards wide and included many lagoons and even a small island. Today, Meig’s Field and McCormick Place occupy this site. The total attendance was 27,703,132 in 1933 and 21,066,095 in 1934. Tickets were 50 cents for adults, 25 cents for children, $15 for the season (150 admissions).

Following on the success of his expositions at the Trans-Mississipi Exposition in 1898 and the Pan-American Exposition in 1901, Martin Couney had a large incubator baby pavilion at the Chicago World’s Fair. The photo below shows crowds around the Infant Incubator building on the Midway. Julius Hess, a famous Chicago pediatrician, loaned Couney his head nurse (Evelyn Lundeen) for the duration of the Exposition.

Martin Couney’s exhibit was located near a show by the notorious fan dancer, Sally Rand. The location of the Infant Incubator building is indicated in red.

The entry in the 1934 guidebook is shown below.

The incubator baby exhibit received plenty of attention in the local press, including an article in the Chicago Sunday Tribute of June 5, 1933.

In 1934, Martin Couney organized a reunion of babies that had “graduated” from the incubator exhibit in 1933. One of the letters is shown below.

• Chicago Century of Progress Exposition in Wikipedia
• Century of Progress Exposition on America’s Best History web site.
• Century of Progress Exposition on Encyclopedia of Chicago
• Twins Saved by Science are now 84, Chicago Tribute, August 30,, 2018.
• Home Movie of Incubator Babies at the Chicago World’s Fair

Martin Arthur Couney

• Short biography of Martin Couney
• Martin Couney, Wikipedia
• Martin Couney’s Obituary, from The New York Times, March 2, 1950.

Martin Couney Exhibits in World’s Fairs and National Expositions

• Victorian Era Exhibition at Earl’s Court, 1897
• Trans-Mississippi Exposition, Omaha, 1898
• Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, 1901
• Lewis and Clark Exposition, Portland, 1905
• Panama-Pacific International Exposition San Francisco, 1915
• Century of Progress International Exposition, Chicago, 1933-34
• New York World’s Fair, New York, 1939-1940

Martin Couney Sideshows in Amusement Parks

• Coney Island Sideshow at Luna Park
• Coney Island Sideshow at Dreamland
• Lakeside Amusement Park, Denver.
• Luna Park, Pittsburgh
• Wonderland – Minneapolis and St. Paul
• Wonderland – Revere Beach
• Boardwalk – Atlantic City
• White City Amusement Park – Chicago
• White City Amusement Park, Indianapolis, Indiana
• White City Amusement Park, Cleveland, Ohio

Recent Books

• The Strange Case of Dr. Couney, by Dawn Raffel, Blue Rider Press, ISBN 0399175741
• Miracle at Coney Island, by Claire Prentice (Kindle or audiobook)

General Articles

General articles about Martin Couney and his exhibits are linked below. Additional links may be found in specific posts about his participation in expositions or sideshows.

Keep in mind that many of these were written before the full facts about Martin Couney’s background became known, or have not incorporated that new information, so they include information from his self-invented background legend.

• Incubator Baby Sideshows, by William Silverman, from Pediatrics.
• Postscript to Incubator-Baby Sideshows, by William. Silverman, from Pediatrics
• Martin Couney’s Story Revisited, by William Silverman, from Pediatrics
• Martin Couney’s Obituary, from The New York Times, March 2, 1950.
• A Patron of the Premies, by A. J. Liebling, from The New Yorker
• The Coney Island Baby Laboratory, by Gary R. Brown, from American Heritage Invention and Technology Magazine
• American Characters: Martin Couney, by Richard Snow, from American Heritage Magazine
• The Man Who Ran a Carnival Attraction… by Claire Prentice, from Smithsonian Magazine
• Life under Glass, audio documentary by Claire Prentice, from the BBC
• Martin Couney and Incubator Exhibits from 1896 to 1943, from the Embryo Project
• The Incubator Baby and Niagara Falls, by Arthur Brisbane, from The Cosmopolitan
• Babies on Display, from NPR
• Beginner’s Luck, from Family Circle Magazine 1993
• Coney Island’s Incubator Babies, by Rebecca Rego Barry, from JSTOR Daily
• The Infantorium, by Katie Shornton, from 99% Invisible
• How One Man Saved a Generation of Premature Babies, from BBC News
• Baby Incubators: From Boardwalk Sideshow to Medical Marvel, by Erin Blackmore, from History.Com
• Babies in Sideshows, by Julie Andreson, from Engines of our Ingenuity
• Dr. Martin Couney, from Coney Island History Project
• “The Use of Incubators for Infants,” The Lancet, May 29, 1897.
• “The Victorian Era Exhibition at Earl’s Court,” The Lancet, July 17, 1897.
• Incubator Baby Shows: A Medical and Social Frontier, by Hannah Lieberman, from The History Teacher 35.1, November, 2001.
• The Child Hatchery, from City Pages.

Last Updated on 02/05/23