Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry is breathing new life into an historic event.

The Virtual tour of the 1893 Columbian Exposition is a marriage of historical research with cutting edged technology. Exhibit director Anne Rashford says the tour will introduce a new generation to an event that changed the world. She says very little remains from the fair itself, so this tour is designed to give viewers a sense of its magnitude.

RASHFORD: When men came to the fair for the first time and they saw the statue of the Golden Lady they fell in love with her. And if you were to propose marriage to this Golden Lady, you would have to have an engagement ring that would be ten and a half inched in diameter.

Rashford say once seated in the theater, the virtual tour takes you through the fair via its waterways. She says it’s like flying through the buildings. That’s an experience you could never get from a book. The virtual tour exhibit runs through Monday.

I’m Gianofer Fields Chicago Public Radio.