Last call for Schlitz beer! After 177 years, production of the iconic Milwaukee brew has come to an end. Founded in 1849, the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company ceased operations in 1982, though since 1999 the Pabst Brewing Company continued produced the Schlitz brand. Schlitz beer received valuable attention at the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago, as much for its handsome display as its beer. The Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company was one of twenty-two exhibitors in Group 12 (Malt Liquors) of the Agriculture Department and one of only two Cream City brewers—the other being Pabst Brewery—to display their product in the Agricultural Building.
“A magnificent display”
Schlitz hired a professional architectural firm to design their World’s Fair exhibit and spent $20,000 on the display. By early February 1893, construction of the Schlitz booth was underway. The company constructed its handsome pavilion in the west gallery of main floor of the Agricultural Building. The structure was made from two immense mash tuns (vessels used to mix malted grains with water at a controlled temperature in the mashing process) turned on their sides. Visitors could pass in and out of the interior through huge entrances shaped from hogsheads.
Ornate and whimsical sculptural details decorated the pavilion. Forming an arch over each entrance was a string of small beer barrels supported by the backs of a seated gnome on each end. A cherub, holding a bottle of beer in one hand and raising a glass to toast in the other, sat above the apex of each arch. Resting on the roof of the structure was a magnificent sculpture consisting of four heroic-sized figures supporting an enormous globe. The nearly nude females each displayed a unique pose and stood in front of a sheaf of grain. At their feet danced small gnome figures, possibly representing Gambrinus, a mythical Germanic beer icon. A Schlitz company banner encircled the globe. This band was rimmed by strings of colored glass jewels having prismatic faces. Electric lights shining through them from the interior of the globe produced a brilliant effect. Glass jewels employed throughout the pavilion lent brilliancy to the design.
At the corners of the main pavilion stood four pedestals, each constructed from two upright beer barrels resting on a highly decorative base. Topping each pedestal was a smaller banner-belted globe surmounted by a unique caped herald figure blowing a trumpet.
Richard Bock, sculptor
The artist who created this sculptural work was a twenty-two-year-old German American with a most appropriate name for the beer commission. Richard W. Bock contributed sculptures for two of the grand exhibit palaces of the Columbian Exposition being built by contractor Phillipson and Company, the Mines and Mining Building and the Electricity Building. Before working on the Schlitz commission, he also had completed interior bas reliefs for Louis Sullivan’s Schiller Building in downtown Chicago. During his work on this architectural gem, he met Frank Lloyd Wright and later worked with the renowned architect on numerous projects, including sculptures for Wright’s home and studio in Oak Park…