One value that I found especially prominent of Burnham was the love and loyalty he had for his family. On page 128, the book tells about how the construction of the Columbian Exposition was so demanding that Burnham was having to live full-time in Chicago and rarely ever saw his family because there was never enough time. But despite the distance and time apart, he never let his wife forget that he missed her and was thinking of her. He would write his wife Margaret several letters each week, because telegrams weren’t private enough. On page 128 he writes to her, “You must not think this hurry of my life will last forever. I shall stop after the World’s Fair. I have made up my mind to this.” To me, that shows the caliber of Burnham’s loyalty and love for his wife because he was very successful at his engineering practice, but was willing to give it all up after the Fair so he wouldn’t need to be away from Margaret and their five kids anymore because he loved them.

Olmstead was in charge of all the landscaping at the World’s Fair. Right from the beginning, it’s clear that this man had his own beliefs about the proper way to handle and view landscaping. On page 50 the book tells how it was his life’s mission to “dispel the perception that landscape architecture was simply an ambitious sort of gardening and to have his field recognized instead as a distinct branch of the fine arts, full sister to painting, sculpture, and brick-and-mortar architecture.” Olmstead absolutely detested traditional landscaping, but he was one of the only people that did. He saw landscaping as a chance to capture natural beauty and he never gave up on his vision of doing so. But, he wasn’t very successful with this non-traditional approach. What this tells me is that he also valued diligence, originality and staying loyal to his own vision.

Holmes was a man who absolutely valued wealth and a prestigious reputation in society, to a fault that he was willing to achieve it through lying and deceiving. He was always scheming, finding ways to make money without ever having to spend any. He used the vulnerability of others, especially women, to position himself in a way that made them swoon over him and adore him immediately. On page 36 the book says, “To women as yet unaware of his private obsessions, it was an appealing delicacy. He broke prevailing rules of casual intimacy; He stood too close, stared too hard, touched too much and long. And women adored him for it.” He was a cunning and physically attractive man, and these are the skills he played into to get him anything he wanted. On page 37 Holmes used these very skills to persuade an old woman to give him her drug store, where he later made a lot of money and avoided a lot of responsibility.

From the beginning we are introduced to Burnham and Root. They balanced each other out very well. Root was very innovative and strongly focused on how he wanted his ideas to look, and Burnham was the one that had to successfully make the ideas come true. I would describe Burnham’s main value as being his strength or reputation. Starting off he wasn’t the top dog, but he knew how to use personality and looks to get him and Root to where they needed to be. “his greatest strength lay in his ability to win clients and execute Root’s elegant designs…’his very bearing and looks were half the battle. He had only to assert the most commonplace thing and it sounded important and convincing’”(26).

We may not see Bloom as often as others in the book but I found him very interesting. It seemed he would fall into some major positions and kind of roll with it. One of the first times we see him he is being offered the position to go to Chicago and is looking for a way to get out of. He decides to say his salary needs to be higher than what the president was currently making, and at last he got it. I would say he values reputation and power. When speaking to others about the size of what he was currently building he could tell they weren’t very interested in hearing the number. Not knowing how many Russian soldiers stood in their standing army he said “’Look at it this way-its going to be big enough to hold the standing army of Russia’…Bloom felt no remorse”(160).

Looking at Holmes I would say he values and utilizes love and safety. He strives to make people feel loved and safe to make them more vulnerable. When we are first introduced to him he talked to Mrs. Holton to get a job and later on and made it seem like he was taking over the business to help her in this time of need while her husband was dying. When in reality he just wanted an easy target to get the best deal he could. “Immediately Holmes deployed his tools of seduction, his soothing voice and touch and frank blue gaze. He bought her flowers…”(163). This woman he was wooing he went on to become engaged to her, and she went missing. Some speculating that he had murdered her but didn’t bother to look into it. His charm made people overlook the questionable things people noticed about him.

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Burnham is sensitive, and plans with compassion toward his family and the workers of the worlds fair. He is thorough and gives great attention to many of the details in regards to the safety, well-being, and enjoyment of the public at the fair. On page 137, it states “Burnham tried to anticipate every conceivable threat to the fair. He enforced excessive fire prevention projects, over-strengthened structures, and created a few options for clean drinking water. As the project went on, Burnham’s attitude began to change. The fair became the priority. Known for treating his worker’s exceptionally well, on page 155, the shift in his priorities is stated: “The dismissed men, Burnham knew, faced homelessness and poverty; their families confronted the real prospect of starvation. But the fair came first.”

 

Olmstead is persistent, and detailed often to the point of obsession. He comes from a field not widely applauded yet (landscaping), and it has taken him time to reach the point he is at. It took him some convincing to even take on the fair as a project, and he was at first apprehensive. On page 50 it states “Olmstead did think about it and began to see the exposition as an opportunity to achieve something for which he had fought long and hard but almost always with disappointing results.” Olmstead is determined in his efforts; a good example is in his obsession with the fair’s boat system, at which Burnham becomes annoyed. Olmstead’s persistence and passion for his projects is admirable, but his health often causes him to sacrifice some of the precious time needed for his projects.

 

Holmes is a dark individual who also has wit and charm on his side, a frightening combination. He is manipulative and is able to make people, especially women, see things his way. A good example is on page 146 it states “Holmes possessed Julia now as fully as if she were an antebellum slave, and he reveled in his possession.” Holmes loves his ability to manipulate, and embraces his morbid behavior as just a part of who he is.