Norman Bolotin and Christine Laing formed The History Bank in 1979, having worked together in publishing beginning in 1973. Husband and wife nearly as long, we have written, developed and/or produced more than 200 books on a very broad list of topics.
In 1993 the National Trust for Historic Preservation contracted with us to write a comprehensive history of the World’s Columbian Exposition, which was issued in hardcover and in a $150 limited edition, then reissued in softcover in 2002 by the University of Illinois Press, ensuring it will be available in print for many more years.
In 2017 we wrote the definitive history of the Midway Plaisance for UI Press as well.
We have copies of these we wrote and many others we published, including the out-of-print WCE hardcover.
In 2022 we worked with our son Zack Bolotin, whose firm Porchlight Design published our full-color book about Century 21 souvenirs, issued to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the fair.
Porchlight and The History Bank will co-publish our third WCE title, a complete
catalog and history of tickets from the exposition.
Whatever the world's fair, from the very first at London's Crystal Palace in 1851 through expositions held during the remainder of the 19th century and on through the great fairs of the 20th century.
Our blog, worldscolumbianjournal.com, is devoted exclusively to the WCE.
Besides world's fairs we have also written and publilshed about a diverse list of historical subjects, including the Civil War. Penguin Books and Scholastic together published our Young Reader's History of the Civil War that sold nearly 700,000 total copies of the seven books in the series. We have also written/published about the Holocaust, baseball, the Klondike gold rush and a total of some 200 books...serving health care professionals, universities and museums, technical readers and a broad selection of history topics.
And our sales go hand-in-hand with our books. You will find coins, medals, antiquities, documents and other ephemera for sale on this site.
We are always available to answer any questions about the areas in which we write, sell, appraise and research. Just ask!