Specially Priced World's Columbian Expo Unusual Brochure, Unusual "Art & Antiques" Seller

Dikran Kelekian isn't exactly a household name among WCE collectors; but he is an example of the hundeds of obscure, small companies selling on the site of the expo.

You won't find his name or those of these many WCE sellers of odd and curious items from around the world on the list of licensed concessions at the fair. This type of business was too obscure to be in any directories or guides, as well. Kelekian sold
"faiences, carpets, old coins, statuettes, precious stones and more" at the WCE.

He occupied a small area in the Turkish Section of the Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building. Dozens of Turkish businesses formed a group of entrepeuners who knew the right people in Turkey that got them on a list, then got them on a boat, then got them to Chicago....and from there they found lodging and eventually set up shop as did so many vendors for so many countries and concessions.

When one talks about needing enough time to see the entire fair, I don't think they included the innumerable little shops that numbered dozens within a larger concession on the Midway or in a massive building. They were Turkish or Austrian or German, and so on, and while they populated the WCE they were under the proverbial radar throughout.

The licensed concessions included all these businesses, many of whom did a very brisk and profitable business, with essentially no involvemenet with the WCE boards and commisioners and others with oversight of the bigger picture. The tablulations of revenue and catalog descriptions of these many one to twenty person sellers was all done in legal fashion as part of the concessions' reports on sales and other data requested by fair management. I would guess that the number of such businesses just as subcontractors to the concessions which I knew of could easily total several hundred businesses like Kelekian but within the Midway or far off on the main grounds.

Finally, such documents and catalogs and brochures from these Kelekian-like businesses or vendors told the REAL story of he WCE and the Midway. As a historian and author finding these generally obcure booklets, guides and so on provided the backbone and foundation of the fair itself. The collectors who have buit their collections of such items for the most part have a deeper understanding of the WCE than most.