Palmer House a Hilton Hotel

About this audio guide

This guide to the Palmer House traces an 1893 order from Bertha Palmer, chair of the World's Columbian Exposition's Board of Lady Managers, that sent her pastry chef reworking chocolate, butter, walnuts and apricot glaze into something between a cookie and a torte. It follows Palmer's wider campaign to prove Chicago belonged among the world's capitals of taste, from the frescoes muralist Louis Rigal painted on the lobby ceiling to the Impressionist collection she built when no one in America wanted one. Look up at those frescoes as you listen.