The Chicago Steampunk Exposition took place at the Hyatt Regency in Schaumburg from May 30 to June 1 and its theme was the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition and the Curse of Cthulhu. This convention gathered all sorts of enthusiasts of steampunk and H.P. Lovecraft.
This is the second time that the Chicago Steampunk Expo has hosted the Count Gregula Crypt Team. For our panel, we hosted Grave of the Vampire, a movie from 1972. Attendance was good for this Friday night panel, possibly because when you combine the key words “movie” and “vampire,” people become naturally intrigued and drawn in. While watching the movie, we had a lot of fun audience vocal interaction with what was happening on the screen. Grave of the Vampire is an underrated gem which can be seen on most streaming platforms. Right away this film starts with a frolic in a graveyard as unbeknownst to the couple there, a vampire rises from his coffin in the nighttime haze. The movie ran till midnight and it was immensely satisfying to enjoy it with everyone.
The Saturday Masquerade in the elaborate tent had, like last year, the theme of the movie Labyrinth. There was a Jareth’s Throne along with a Jareth costume contest. The music spun wasn’t as loud as last year so it was pleasant to hear everyone. The revelry went on late into the evening. Also on site was Barfleet, renowned for their deluxe room parties. Barfleet had its own steampunk bar and when walking into the room, you felt as if you’d entered a Jules Verne adventure novel. Maps were everywhere along with gadgets, cogs, and corsets.
The steampunk genre is a branch of science fiction focused on an alternate 19th or early 20th century that is technologically advanced due to the power of steam. Steam-powered technology gives the Victorians or Edwardians in this alternate reality the same technological advances we now enjoy, such as instantaneous communication, air travel, video calling, and robotics. The main motif of steampunk is anachronism–pairing something vintage with something futuristic. It also has precise attention to detail on costumes. Essentially, steampunk can also be considered to be a coterie of historical fashion geeks who are very theatrical. There seems to be a sense of the stage theatre among steampunks.
This year there was a Maid Cafe, something that started in the anime fandom. There was also a high tea hosted in the hotel, a tintype photo studio, a concert by the musician duo Charming Disaster, a costume contest, and a mermaid event. The mermaid event, in which there are actual people cosplayed as mermaids swimming in the hotel pool, is always a delightful highlight. There were several artifacts on display in various pop-up museums, such as the spittle of Cthulhu, the first brownie, the left ear of Vincent van Gogh, wrapping from an Egyptian Mummy, and even more startling curiosities.
Scott Westerfeld, a popular steampunk author, was the focal guest of the convention. He is best known for his young adult trilogy Leviathan set during an alternate World War I of fabricated beasts and steampunk machines. He is also known for his Peeps duology, a sci-fi horror story about a secret society and a biological parasite that causes vampire-like symptoms. A fun fact about Scott Westerfeld is that before he became a famous author, he ghost wrote for more established authors. He had his Leviathan trilogy illustrated because he wanted to reproduce the feel of the great 19th century adventure books such as Treasure Island or 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
The convention took its 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition theme in earnest. Names and labels seen at the 1893 Chicago Fair were implemented at this convention, such as the Midway Plaisance, the Fine Arts Building, Machinery Hall, the Administration Building, and so forth. Panel rooms were cleverly displayed with names used during 1893. Fascinating panels included a panel on the inventions of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition (not only was the brownie invented, but also the Logic Piano, alternating current, the ferris wheel, Wrigley chewing gum, and the zipper). For one part, the panel went into the fascinating history of Josephine Cochrane of Shelbyville, Illinois, the inventor of the dishwasher. She debuted the dishwasher at the Chicago 1893 Exposition. One of the first successful female inventors in engineering, she became an entrepreneur, forming her own company, and after many setbacks she achieved commercial success. There was also an intriguing panel on the economics of steampunk, with one portion detailing the “hysterical and horrifying history of taxes,” including an obscure beard tax by Tsar Peter I of Russia which taxed a certain amount of rubles per socioeconomic class for sporting a beard.
The theme for next year’s Steampunk Expo will be Alice in Wonderland, an exciting choice that everyone will be sure to love. The next Expo will be during the month of June from the 12th to the 14th, a wise decision so as not to compete with other big events. Gail Carriger will be the featured author guest. Curiouser and curiouser! We cannot wait to see you there!
