World's Fairs as History
	It is curious that in our current age of globalization, world's fairs have largely disappeared. Since World War II, there have only been four official world's fairs: in Brussels, Belgium, in 1958, Montreal, Canada, in 1967, Osaka, Japan, in 1970, and Seville, Spain, in 1992. Although there would be influential world's fairs in the 20th century--such as the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis in 1904 and the 1939 New York World's Fair, centered on "the world of tomorrow"--the second half of the 19th century was the golden age of world's fairs. The prototype for later fairs was the Crystal Palace Exposition in London in 1851, which drew more than 6 million visitors who came to celebrate the industrial revolution and view some 13,000 exhibits. The symbol of the 1889 Paris Exposition Universelle was the Eiffel Tower. Three late-nineteenth century American expositions were of particular significance. The Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876 commemorated a century of American independence. The World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 marked the 400th anniversary of Columbus's discovery of the New World. The Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta in 1895 sought to attract northern investment into the New South three decades after the end of the Civil War. The Centennial Exposition Held in Philadelphia's Fairmount Park, the Centennial Exposition cost $11 million and attracted more than ten million visitors. Many of the exhibits focused on mining, manufacturing, and agriculture. There was also a Women's Pavillion, where Susan B. Anthony was barred from reading "A Declaration of Rights for Women." The exposition's defining symbol was a 1,400 horsepower Corliss steam engine. Among the inventions introduced at the fair were the typewriter and Alexander Graham Bell's telephone. The fair generated renewed interest in the colonial era. It popularized the flagmaker Betsy Ross, saw the completion of Archibald Willard's "Spirit of '76," and heightened interest in colonial architectural styles. Some 300 Indians from 53 tribes were exhibited at the exposition "to show, in as perfect a degree as is now possible, the original inhabitants of this country and their mode of life." Questions: 1. What does the fair tell us about the nation's self-image in 1876 and what it wanted to celebrate? 2. How does the fair reveal about the nation's attitudes toward women and minorities? The World's Columbian Exposition To mark the 400th anniversary of Columbus's discovery of the New World, Chicago built a "White City" consisting of classically-styled buildings located along lagoons and canals. The fairgrounds were illuminated by 120,000 incandescent lights and 7,000 arc lights. Some 27 million visitors came to the fair, where they could see 65,000 exhibits including a 1,500 chocolate Venus de Milo and a 46-foot long cannon. In 1871, Chicago, then a city of 300,000, had suffered a devastating fire that destroyed three square miles and left 300 dead and 100,000 homeless. Over the next two decades, Chicago's population had grown to 1 million, and the city had become the link between the Great Plains, the Great Lakes, and the East. Its was the home of grain elevators, meat packers, and the two leading mail order companies, Montgomery Ward and Sears Roebuck. It was also the city that pioneered the skyscraper. At the fair, many Americans saw their first car. Products launched at the fair included the zipper, Aunt Jemima's syrup, Cracker Jacks, Cream of Wheat, Juicy Fruit gum, and Pabst beer. The fair's symbol was the world's first Ferris Wheel, which stood 250-feet high. Its 36 cars could each carry 60 passengers. The exposition's most popular feature was the Midway Plaisance. Along the Midway, visitors could watch a hootchie-koochie show, look at models of the Eiffel Tower and St. Peter's Basillica, and view a Javanese village. Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show performed just outside the fairgrounds. It was at the Columbian Exposition that historian Frederick Jackson Turner presented his thesis that the frontier, which the Census announced had been completely settled, had been responsible for shaping the American character. Turner argued that the frontier promoted individualism, nationalism, and democracy. Questions: 1. What does the White City tell us about its designers' ideals about cities and urban design at the end of the nineteenth century? 2. Describe popular reactions to the exposition. The Cotton States and International Exposition The Cotton States Exposition cost just one-ninth as much as the Chicago fair; its Midway was a quarter the size. Nevertheless, this fair was a remarkable achievement. Atlanta, a city of 75,000 people, had been ravaged by William Tecumseh Sherman's army 31 years earlier. Atlanta staged the exposition in 1895 in a bid to attract national attention and to identify the city as the capital of the New South. when it held its exposition. Some 800,000 visitors toured a "fairyland" filled with electric lights, walked through a steam-powered textile mill, and witnessed one of the first public exhibitions of moving pictures. Visitors could also see Benjamin Franklin's cane and the Liberty Bell, which was transported from Philadelphia. In return for $200,000 of federal funds, Atlanta agreed to construct a Negro Pavillion featuring paintings and sculptures by African American artists and highlighting "the progress made by the Negro since emancipation." Today, the fair is best remembered for a speech by Booker T. Washington, a former slave and the founder of the Tuskegee Institute. Just a few months earlier, Frederick Douglass had died, and Washington would assume his position as the preeminent African American leader of his day until his death in 1915. ''In all things that are purely social we [blacks and whites] can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress,'' Washington said. He went on: ''The wisest of my race understand that the agitation of questions of social equality is the extremest folly, and that progress in the enjoyment of all privileges that will come to us must be then the result of severe and constant struggle rather than of artificial forcing. ... It is important and right that all privileges of the law be ours, but it is vastly more important that we be prepared to exercise those privileges. The opportunity to earn a dollar in a factory just now is infinitely more important than the opportunity to spend a dollar in an opera house.'' Questions 1. Booker T. Washington's staunchest critic, W.E.B. DuBois, Harvard's first black Ph.D. and a founder of the NAACP, later wrote: ''Mr. Washington's programme practically accepts the alleged inferiority of the Negro races.... In other periods of intensified prejudice all the Negro's tendency to self assertion has been called forth; at this period, a policy of submission is advocated." Does Washington, in his speech, accept second-class citizenship for blacks? 2. According to the articles, what was the public response to the Atlanta Exposition and to Washington's speech? Sources Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia, 1876 Descriptions The Opening of the American International Exhibition Manufacturer and Builder (June 1876) At the Exhibition: A Few Curiousities By William H. Rideing, Appleton's Journal (June 3, 1876) At the Exhibition: Glimpses of Machinery Hall and the Government Building By William H. Rideing, Appleton's Journal (June 10, 1876) At the Exhibition: Women's Work and Some Other Things By William H. Rideing, Appleton's Journal (June 17, 1876) The Centennial Celebration An editorial by the Nation magazine about Fourth of July addresses presented at the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia in 1876 Ceramic Art at the Exhibition By Susan N. Carter, Appleton's Journal (July 1876) A Sennight of the Centennial By William Dean Howells, Atlantic Monthly (July 1876) Characteristics of the International Fair Atlantic Monthly (July 1876) Characteristics of the International Fair, Part 2 Atlantic Monthly (Aug. 1876) Characteristics of the International Fair, Part 3 Atlantic Monthly (Sept. 1876) Characteristics of the International Fair, Part 4 Atlantic Monthly (Oct. 1876) Characteristics of the International Fair, Part 5 Atlantic Monthly (Dec. 1876) In and About the Fair: Picturesque Aspects By Donald G. Mitchell, Scribner's Monthly (Sept. 1876) In and About the Fair: A Morning's Stroll in the Main Building By Donald G. Mitchell, Scribner's Monthly (Oct. 1876) In and About the Fair: Dinners, Plants and Pictures By Donald G. Mitchell, Scribner's Monthly (Nov. 1876), page images at Making of America, Cornell University. Centennial Temperance Primer Memorial of the International temperance conference, held in Philadelphia, June, 1876 (National Temperance Society, 1877), page images at Making of America, University of Michigan. The Illustrated History of the Centennial Exhibition By James Dabney McCabe (1876) Sheet Metal Pavilion at the Centennial Manufacturer and Builder (July 1876) The Centennial Exhibition Manufacturer and Builder (July 1876) The Centennial Exposition Manufacturer and Builder (Aug. 1876) Machinery Hall at the Centennial Exhibition Manufacturer and Builder (Sept. 1876) Foreign Interst in Our Centennial Exhibition Manufacturer and Builder (Sept. 1876) A German View of Our Centennial Exhibition Manufacturer and Builder (Sept. 1876) Go All to the Centennial Manufacturer and Builder (Sept. 1876) The Centennial Exhibition Manufacturer and Builder (Oct. 1876) Women and the Centennial Exposition Declaration and Protest of the Women of the United States Photographs Digital Archive of American Architecture: Boston College Henry Madden Library National Gallery of Art Smithonsian Institution Statistics Free Library of Philadelphia World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893 Photographs Digital Archive of American Architecture Contemporary Articles The World's College of Democracy John Brisben Walker, Cosmopolitan (Sept. 1893). A First Impression Walter Besant, Cosmopolitan (Sept. 1893). Ethnology at the Exposition Franz Boas, Cosmopolitan (Sept, 1893). Chicago's Entertainment of Distinguished Visitors Hobart C. Chatfield-Taylor, Cosmopolitan (Sept. 1893). Points of Interest Former president Benjamin Harrison, Cosmopolitan (Sept. 1893). A Retrospective Forecast Thomas A. Janvier, Cosmopolitan (Sept. 1893). The World's Fair in Retrospect Andrew Carnegie and Edmund Mitchell, American Review of Reviews (Feb. 1894). What the Columbian Exposition Will Do for America The Century (Oct. 1892). The World's Fair Proves Americans to Be Above All a Practical People Manufacturer and Builder (Sept. 1893). The Columbian Exposition and American Civilization By Henry Van Brunt, Atlantic Monthly (May 1893). A City of Realized Dreams Catholic World (July 1893). Notes and Comments: A New Science at the Fair Warren K. Moorehead, North American Review (Oct. 1893). Architecture at the Exposition White City and Capital City By Daniel H. Burnham, Century Magazine (Feb. 1902). Architecture at the World's Columbian Exposition By Henry Van Brunt, The Century (May 1892). Architecture at the World's Columbian Exposition, Part 2 By Henry Van Brunt, The Century (July 1892). Architecture at the World's Columbian Exposition, Part 3 By Henry Van Brunt, The Century (Aug. 1892). Architecture at the World's Columbian Exposition, Part 4 By Henry Van Brunt, The Century (Sept. 1892). Architecture at the World's Columbian Exposition, Part 5 By Henry Van Brunt, The Century (Oct. 1892). A Condensed Architectural History of the World's Columbian Exposition By Daniel H. Burnham, Manufacturer and Builder (Oct. 1893). The World's Fair and Landscape Gardening The Century (April 1893). The World's Fair Manufacturer and Builder (Nov. 1892). Art at the Exposition Art at the Columbian Exposition By critic Ernest Knaufft, American Review of Reviews (June 1893). New England Art at the World's Fair By William Howe Downes, New England Magazine (May 1893). Decorative Painting at the World's Fair By W. Lewis Fraser, The Century (May 1893). The Silver Statue of Columbus at the World's Fair Manufacturer and Builder (June 1893). Painting at the Fair By John C. Van Dyke, The Century (July 1894). Race Relations and the Exposition The Reason Why the Colored American Is Not in the World's Columbian Exposition A pamphlet by Ida B. Wells. The World's Fair Cleveland Gazette (April 16, 1892). Managers of World's Fair Should Know Afro-Americans Are Opposed to Discrimination Cleveland Gazette (Sept. 24, 1892). Our World's Fair Effort By Frederick Douglass and Ida B. Wells, Cleveland Gazette (March 18, 1893). Our World's Fair Representation Cleveland Gazette (March 18, 1893). World's Fair Watermelons Cleveland Gazette (July 15, 1893). New York Age Won't Comment on World's Fair Pamphlet Cleveland Gazette (July 29, 1893). Appendix to the Souvenir Presented to James M. Ashley Addresses by African American leaders on Emancipation Day, September 22, 1893, at the Art Palace in Chicago, in Columbian Hall of the World's Parliament of Religions. Address by Hon. Frederick Douglass Delivered in the Metropolitan A.M.E. church, Washington, D.C., Tuesday, January 9th, 1894. An Interesting Representative of a Vanishing Race By B. O. Flower, The Arena (July 1896), on Simon Pokagon, chief of the Pottawatomie Indians, displayed at the Chicago Exposition. Religion and the Exposition Sunday at the World's Fair By Elizabeth Cady Stanton, North American Review (Feb. 1892). The Opening Month at Chicago American Review of Reviews (June 1893). The Coming World's Fair and Sunday Opening Manufacturer and Builder (Jan. 1892). Some Exposition Uses of Sunday By Henry Codman Potter, The Century (Nov. 1892). Sunday at the World's Fair The Century (Nov. 1892). Sunday in Chicago By Washington Gladden, The Century (Nov. 1892). Notes & Queries: The Exhibition and the Sunday-Closing Question Manufacturer and Builder (Dec. 1892). Technology at the Exposition Electricity at the Fair Murat Halstead, Cosmopolitan (Sept. 1893). Transportation, Old and New John Brisben Walker, Cosmopolitan (Sept. 1893). Road-Building Exhibit at Chicago The Century (Nov. 1892). The World's Fair Tower Manufacturer and Builder (Feb. 1893). Sewerage at the World's Fair Manufacturer and Builder (June 1893). The Ferris Wheel Profitable Manufacturer and Builder (Oct. 1893). Household Inventions at the World's Fair Manufacturer and Builder (Oct. 1893). Mines and Mining Exhibit at the Chicago Fair Manufacturer and Builder (July 1892). Mineral Exhibit at the Coming World's Fair Manufacturer and Builder (Oct. 1892). Mining at the Fair Manufacturer and Builder (Nov. 1892). Public Health at the World's Fair Manufacturer and Builder (Nov. 1892). Mining at the Columbian Exposition: The State Exhibits Manufacturer and Builder (June 1893). Painting Machines Used at the World's Fair Manufacturer and Builder (July 1893). The Otto Gas Engine at the World's Fair Manufacturer and Builder (Dec. 1893). Women at the Exposition Dress Reform at the World's Fair American Review of Reviews (April 1893). Woman's Part at the World's Fair: The Work of the Board of Lady Managers By Virginia C. Meredith, American Review of Reviews (May 1893). Woman's Part at the World's Fair: The Woman's Branch of the World's Congress Auxiliary By Ellen M. Henrotin, American Review of Reviews (May 1893). Woman's Part at the World's Fair: The Children's Building By Clara Doty Bates, American Review of Reviews (May 1893). An Outsider's View of the Woman's Exhibit By Ellen M. Henrotin, Cosmopolitan (Sept. 1893). Foreign Opinion A First Impression British writer Walter Besant,Cosmopolitan (Sept. 1893). The Foreign Buildings Price Collier, Cosmopolitan (Sept. 1893). Foreign Folk at the Fair Julian Hawthorne, Cosmopolitan (Sept. 1893). Europe at the World's Fair: The British Section By Henry Trueman Wood, North American Review (Feb. 1893). Europe at the World's Fair: The French Section By Theodore Stanton, North American Review (Feb. 1893). Foreign Nations at the World's Fair: Canada By George Stewart, North American Review (May 1893). Europe at the World's Fair: Germany By W. H. Edwards, North American Review (Nov. 1892). The German Village at the World's Fair Manufacturer and Builder (Dec. 1892). Lecture on Haiti By Frederick Douglass, address delivered at the Haitian pavilion dedication ceremonies, Jan. 2, 1893. Ireland at the World's Fair By Ishbel Aberdeen, North American Review (July 1893). Foreign Nations at the World's Fair: Italy By Augustus O. Bourn, North American Review (Jan. 1893). Foreign Nations at the World's Fair: Japan By Gozo Tateno, North American Review (Jan. 1893). How Liberia Came to the World's Fair Cleveland Gazette (Sept. 16, 1893). Foreign Nations at the World's Fair: Persia By Clarence Andrews, North American Review (May 1893). Europe at the World's Fair: Russia By J. M. Crawford, North American Review (Nov. 1892). Spain at the World's Fair By Enrique Dupuy de Lome, North American Review (March 1893). The Point of View: The Foreign Critic and the Fair Scribner's Magazine (Nov. 1893). Cotton States and International Exposition, Atlantica, 1895 The World's Event for 1895: The Cotton States and International Exposition By Clark Howell, American Review of Reviews (Feb. 1895). The Atlanta Exposition By W. Y. Atkinson, North American Review (Oct. 1895). California's Exhibit at the Atlanta Exposition By J. A. Filcher, Overland Monthly (April 1896). The Cotton States' Exposition Cleveland Gazette (May 18, 1895). Address of Booker T. Washington Speech by the principal of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, Tuskegee, Alabama, delivered at the opening of the Cotton States and International Exposition, September 18, 1895. The Effect of Booker T. Washington's Atlanta Speech Described in the New York World of Sept. 19, 1895, by James Creelman, at the Library of Congress. An Appeal to the King The address delivered on Negro Day in the Atlanta Exposition, October 21, 1895, by the Rev. J. W. E. Bowen, at the Library of Congress. The Negro as a Soldier By Christian A. Fleetwood, written for the Negro Congress at the Cotton States and International Exposition, at the Library of Congress. The Jubilee of the New South The Century (Jan. 1896). Music King Cotton March By John Philip Sousa, 1895, at the Historic American Sheet Music collection, Duke University. The Southern Beauty Waltz Song By G. Valisi, 1895.