The Hamidie Imports

The Arabian Horses of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, and some of their influence

“In 1893 . . . on State Street, we heard some weird, queer music. Approaching us were some gray horses slipping and falling on the wet pavement; horses that actually had grace and beauty as they fell and regained their feet almost instantaneously. Though never having before seen a horse with a speck of Arab blood in his veins, I knew that these were Arab horses.”

After exhibiting on the Midway of the Chicago World’s Fair, the Hamidie Company went bankrupt and the surviving horses were dispersed at auction in 1894.