ABSTRACT
Thorstein Veblen, the Columbian Exposition, and the new University of Chicago were launched almost simultaneously. The fair and the university were to usher "a new era into Chicago". Veblen eventually was to usher in a new era in thinking. One of the keynotes of the fair was the existence of the Woman Building, designed by women. It housed "evidences of women's abilities". "For the first time", it was said, "Woman publicly came into her own". "Woman's hour has struck", as one speaker put it. After the fair closed, several thousand souvenir hunters vandalized the grounds. The next day, a large number of unemployed or homeless, who had been occupying some of the empty buildings, started a fire, whether by accident or design. It spread from building to building. With all this going on, the university students were looking for answers, or at least some new way to solve old problems.
