TRAVEL : Chicago Exposition 1893 THE CHICAGO WORLD'S FAIR OF 1893 THE WORLD'S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION NORMAN BOLOTIN CHRISTINE LAING 19923 The Preservation Press National Trust for Historic Preservation Preface WORLD'S FAIRS HAVE DAZZLED AUDIENCES around the globe for nearly 150 years. Beginning with London's Great Exposition of 1851, some ninety world's extravaganzas have been held, most in the United States, Canada and Europe. The themes and motives of the fairs are similar: to commemorate a his- toric event, to educate and entertain, to sell new products, to peer into the future, and, although it's rare, to turn a profit for the sponsors. Some have been more successful-and memorable-than others. The Paris Exhibition of 1889 was a marvel of engineering achievement with its Eiffel Tower. The 1915 San Francisco gala celebrated the opening of the Panama Canal. The string of fairs in the 1930s, in Chicago, Brussels, San Diego, Dallas, Cleveland, Paris, San Francisco and New York, were remarkable for their elabo- rate commercial displays and uplifting effect on depressed economies. The Seattle World's Fair of 1962 propelled visitors into the next century. Even the most obscure have their impassioned fans-the historians, ar- chivists, collectors and lucky ones who attended the expositions of the twen- tieth century-who rate "their fair" as the best. But when it comes to pure scope, grandeur and far-reaching legacies, the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 outshines them all. Twenty-eight million visitors. Buildings stretching a third of a mile long. The world's first Ferris Wheel-with cars the size of buses! The first amusement section ever at a fair. Replicas of a full-size battleship and Columbus' three caravels, which were sailed to the fair from Spain. Architectural impact reaching into the new century. These and the many other highlights of the fair enthralled visitors of the 1890s-and likely would thrill the most sophisticated visitor of today. vii WiFing's ADMIT THE III The Exhibits and Attractions OFFICIALS PEGGED THE NUMBER OF EXHIBITS at the World's Columbian Exposition at around 65,000, with the number of individual items totaling in the millions. The numbers were mind-boggling. The official guidebooks, pro- grams and reference books of the day couldn't cover all of the displays, or even agree on the most outstanding. One hundred years later it is simply impossible to mention every exhibit. The following pages highlight the dis- plays in all of the major buildings, on the grounds and along the Midway. Though representing only a smattering of the exhibits, these highlights hope- fully will give readers a sense of the many and varied wonders of the fair. The Great Buildings The Great Buildings housed the most valuable, most extensive and most striking displays presented by exhibitors. The only Great Building that did not offer exhibits was the Administration Building, which served strictly as a headquarters for fair managers. Agricultural Building Grains, grains and more grains of every size, type and configuration seemed to dominate this building. Some were presented in intricate murals, others in towering pyramids. There were breads and biscuits, starches and pastes, sugars and syrups, malts and liquors. All types of meat and dairy Above: One of the six general products, every fruit and vegetable known to man in both seed and flower- admission tickets to the exposition ing state was there. Also shown were the animals, machines, tools and pro- was designed to illustrate the era in American history when cesses used to produce the goods, the pests and pesticides common to farming, Indians ruled the land. plus model farm buildings, farm management classes, weather stations and 73 THE WORLD'S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION A Centennial Bibliographic Guide David J. Bertuca, Senior Compiler Donald K. Hartman and Susan M. Neumeister, co-compilers Bibliographies and Indexes in American History, Number 26 G P he Republic" on the original site of the Administration Greenwood Press David J. Bertuca. Westport, Connecticut London & To my father and mother, Joseph and Jeanne Bertuca Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bertuca, David J. Contents The World's Columbian Exposition : a centennial bibliographic guide / David J. Bertuca, senior compiler, Donald K. Hartman, and Susan M. Neumeister, co-compilers. Illustrations vii p. cm.-(Bibliographies and indexes in American history, Preface ix ISSN 0742-6828 ; no. 26) Includes index. xiii Scope Notes ISBN 0-313-26644-1 1. World's Columbian Exposition (1893 : Chicago, Ill.)- List of Journals Indexed (selected) Bibliography. I. Hartman, Donald K. II. Neumeister, Susan M. The American Dream Actualized: The Glistening "White City" and the Lurking III. Title. IV. Series. Shadows of the World's Columbian Exposition by Judith A. Adams xix Z5883.B47 1996 A. General Works on the Fair 1 [T500.L1] 907'4773'11-dc20 93-37791 B. Works on Chicago, Statistics of the Fair, and Relation to Other World's Fairs 21 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available. C. Creating the Fair: Administration, Planning and Preparation, Architectural and Landscape Design, Construction, Engineering and Related Topics 26 Copyright © 1996 by David J. Bertuca, Donald K. Hartman and Susan M. D. Events, Ceremonies, and Special Days at the Fair 32 Neumeister E. Controversies and Major Disputes 45 All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, by any process or technique, without the F. Public Comfort, Fire and Security Services, Medical and Food Operations, express written consent of the publisher. and Lodging 57 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 93-37791 G. Buildings and Exhibits of Agriculture, Fish and Fisheries, Forestry, and ISBN: 0-313-26644-1 Horticulture 69 ISSN: 0742-6828 H. Electricity at the Fair: The Electricity Building, Exhibits, and Uses of First published in 1996 Electricity 81 Greenwood Press, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881 I. The Fine Arts Building and Fine Arts Exhibits at the Fair, Including Statuary and Mural Works in Buildings and on the Grounds 87 An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. J. The Department of Liberal Arts and Ethnology: Buildings and Exhibits on Printed in the United States of America Liberal Arts 95 8 K. The Departments of Manufactures and Machinery: Including the Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building, Manufactures Exhibits, Machinery The paper used in this book complies with the Hall 111 Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National Information Standards Organization (Z39.48-1984). L. Military Exhibits at the Fair 121 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 vi Contents M. The Department of Mines and Mining: Buildings and Exhibits 125 N. Performing Arts 130 O. Transportation: Buildings, Exhibits and Uses, Both in and to the Fair 136 P. Women at the Fair 147 Q. States and Territories of the United States: Participation and Planning, Buildings and Exhibits at the Fair 167 Illustrations R. Foreign Participation 189 S. United States Government: Participation and Planning, Buildings and Exhibits at the Fair 213 Advertisement from The Golden Rule, April 20, 1893 86 T. The Midway Plaisance, Ferris Wheel and Buffalo Bill's Wild West 217 Map showing State and Foreign Buildings, the U.S. Government Building, 188 and the Illinois U. Christopher Columbus: Works on Columbus, Artifacts and Dedicatory 256 Materials, the Caravels of Columbus, and the Convent of La Rabida 227 Art Institute of Chicago V. Photography at the Fair The ruins of the Peristyle after the fire of January 8, 1894 275 231 The French Exhibit in the Manufactures Building after partial destruction W. Literature: Including Works of Prose, Poetry and Fiction About, or Relating 275 by fire on January 8, 1894 to the Fair 234 The Electricity and Mining buildings in flames, July 5, 1894 276 X. People at the Fair: Biographies, Reports of Visits and Accounts of People at, or Relating to the Fair The ruins of the Mining Building after the fire of July 5, 1894 with the U.S. 241 Government Building in the background 276 Y. The World's Congress Auxiliary 257 The ruins of the Manufactures Building after the fire of July 5, 1894 277 The Principal Remnants of the World's Columbian Exposition by Charles E. The ruins of Machinery Hall after the fire of July 5, 1894 277 Gregersen, AIA 273 The east section of the Iowa State Building returned to its original function Z. Aftermath of the Fair: Including Remnants and Collectibles of the Fair, the as a park shelter at the turn of the century 278 Effect of the Fair on Society, and the Field Columbian Museum 289 The Life Saving Station at the turn of the century 278 SCI. Collections of Archives and Manuscripts The German Building at the turn of the century 284 303 SC2. Collections of Ephemera and Exhibit Materials The Russian Pavilion as reconstructed as the Three Hierarchs Orthodox Church 337 at Streator, Illinois in 1894 284 SC3. Collections of Photographs and Illustrations 345 The Field Columbian Museum at the turn of the century 28: Appendix 1: Recent Finds and Miscellaneous Items 361 The Museum of Science and Industry as it appears today 28 Appendix 2: Firsts of the Fair 364 The Greater Industries of Skâne Building at the Stockholm Exposition of 1897 28 Appendix 3: Special Days at the Fair 366 The Swedish Building as reconstructed as a flat building in Chicago 368 in the 1950s 28 Appendix 4: Statistics and Trivial Data New York Central Locomotive No. 999 28 Index 372 The American Dream Actualized: The Glistening "White City" and the Lurking Shadows of the World's Columbian Exposition by Judith A. Adams In the summer and early fall of 1893, twenty-seven million people visited the Worl Columbian Exposition in Chicago, an attendance nearly equal to the yearly gate count thirty million or so visitors at Walt Disney World nearly a century later. Traveling genera by railroad, the rural populace of America dominated the daily crowds at the Exposition and the experience often cost them their life savings. One midwestern farmer is reported have summed up his visit by firmly proclaiming to his wife, "Well, Susan, it paid even i did take all the burial money." Beyond its success in inspiring awe and amazement in the millions of visitors and a lavishly entertaining them with unimagined thrills and wonders, the World's Columb Exposition paid America by actualizing a progressive vision for the coming twenti century. Many scholars and social observers recognize the Chicago fair as a watershed American history because its unprecedented influence on the American scene was b immediate and lasting. Its cultural sway remains clearly evident a century later in an Amer now positioning itself for a new millennium. This first comprehensive bibliography publications, materials, and collections related to the World's Columbian Exposition fina provides a thorough chronicle as well as an illumination of the remarkable role of this f as an engineer of American daily life in the twentieth century. Celebrating the 400th anniversary of Columbus's journey to the New World, Chicag "White City," as the Exposition was quickly dubbed, achieved a plaster actualization of American quest to create a New Jerusalem, a utopian "City on a Hill" in the New Wo wilderness. Upon landing on New World soil, Columbus himself declared that he had be led as God's messenger to the "new heaven and the new earth. "2 John Winthrop, leadin band of pilgrims to New England, affirmed the glory of the enterprise in 1630: "We m consider that we shall be as a City upon a Hill, the eyes of all people are upon us. "3 Th from discovery and colonization, Americans were convinced of their chosen stature, th geographic and personal election as God's instruments to achieve the amalgamation of City of the World and the City of God. At no time in our history has this American Dream of building the Celestial City in wilderness been so concretely visualized, thoroughly planned, and actually constructed in 1893 at the World's Columbian Exposition. America's inevitable shortcomings, inher in an earthly rather than celestial clime, are also evident in the Exposition's very structu although placed in the shadows of an alabaster mantle of heavenly allegory. Above all, Exposition demonstrates that very early in our history we steered away from spiritual gr toward technology as utopian engineer. Let us look at some of the wonders that the Worl XX The American Dream Actualized The American Dream Actualized xxi Columbian Exposition gloriously unveiled, showcased, and ushered into the new century. 1890s, electricity was known primarily for electrocutions, deadly fires, and dangerous At the same time, we will recognize the darker, shadowed side of the Exposition, which also explosions. In cities such as New York, where early fledgling electrical systems were in remains part of its cultural legacy. operation, people were being killed or seriously injured practically daily from contact with Like all international expositions before and after it, from London's Crystal Palace electric converters, exploding manholes, and fires in business establishments or dwellings. Exposition in 1851 (officially titled The Great Exhibition of Works of Industry of all Nations) More negative connotations were attached to electricity when experiments in the electrocu- to the Universal Exposition in the summer of 1992 in Seville, celebrating the 500th tion of animals and the first execution of a criminal by electricity in the prison in Auburn, anniversary of Columbus's voyages, the World's Columbian Exposition was first and N.Y. occurred in 1889-90. foremost a showcase for industrial progress, an event to advertise and promote the products In late 1889 and early 1890, Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse discussed the of industry, technical advances, and new inventions. The Exposition's organizers launched dangers and safety requirements of electricity in separate articles published in the North an unprecedented publicity and advertising effort. As a result of this first mass-marketing American Review. Both of these pioneers of electrical technology explained the properties campaign in American history, which reached international proportions with weekly news of electricity which could result in electrocution or property damage and emphasized the releases and articles sent to 30,000 U.S. and Canadian newspapers and 5,000 foreign regulations and practices which, if carefully followed, would render electricity safe and newspapers, the eyes of the world were focused during the summer of 1893 on America's productive. The articles coincidently reveal the growing competition between Edison's spectacular industrial prowess. Advances in iron and steel processing allowed the construc- current" and Westinghouse's "alternating current" systems as each blamed the other's tion of vast structures like the Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building, measuring 1,687 feet system for most of the dangers to the public. long and 787 feet wide (the largest enclosed building constructed to date). Its arched trusses, It would be the World's Columbian Exposition that would create a fantastic city of light spanning 386 feet forming the framework of the structure, and containing twelve tons of with 90,000 incandescent lamps illuminating the architectural wonders, sparkling through- steel, were generally considered to be the greatest engineering feat on the grounds, although out the grounds, and effecting magical glistening reflections in the lagoons. Electricity hidden under a facade of classical architecture and sculpture. The 65,000 exhibits, mostly silently made just about everything run at the Exposition, from ornamental fountains to the products of American factories, included massive and powerful steam engines, electric humming dynamos, to the first elevated railway and "moveable sidewalk." Electrical dynamos, railroad engines and cars, elevators, concrete paving, paper making machines, appliances, gadgets, and machines were on display everywhere generating constant public mechanical devices for everything from sewing and cooking to mining ore and manufactur- amazement as visitors would view elevators, cash registers, calculating machines, massive ing industrial screws. The zipper made its auspicious debut, presented by the Universal search lights, automatic door openers, ironing machines, dishwashers, carpet sweepers, Fastener Co. in the form of a "clasp locker" for shoes, along with many processed foods doorbells, phonographs, clocks, industrial motors, an electric dentist's drill, even an electric from spicy Texas chili, to sweet and festive Cracker Jacks, to bland and ordinary pancake cigar lighter! Electric power also created fun and relaxation as fairgoers were comfortably mix touted by a new living trademark, Aunt Jemima herself. transported throughout the grounds on the electric elevated railway, enjoyed excursions in The fair proclaimed to all the world that America had emerged as the robust world leader motor launches on the lagoons, rode the spectacular Ferris Wheel, and were conveyed in industrial production. The form of capitalist enterprise developed in America, encompass- leisurely along the 900 feet of the Casino Pier on the "moveable sidewalk." ing systems of ownership, management, production, and distribution, proved its power to Westinghouse outbid Edison and was awarded the major contracts for illuminating the manufacture a seemingly endless variety of machines and products which had turned the Exposition. Thus alternating current, with its reliability and perfect safety record during the wilderness of the boundless midwest into a shining urban wonderland where anything fair, convincingly eclipsed Edison's direct current to become the electrical system of choice seemed possible. At the Exposition, industry and technological know-how were celebrated adapted throughout the United States and eventually the world. The World's Columbian as the engines driving cultural progress. The White City's goods were displayed not just as Exposition presented the glorious illuminated dawn of a new era, the most impressive use consumable products but as emblems of a marvelous future full of promise and prosperity. of electrical energy ever witnessed by man and demanding three times the energy required The vast cornucopia of material culture was more than just the first "megamall" in America, to light the entire city of Chicago. John P. Barrett, in charge of electricity for the Exposition, it also made unimagined goods and machines desirable to a population that generally had believed the fair "brought electricity to the people in the light of a servant not as an lawful never seen or even dreamed of such products. Americans were taught by spectacle and master it created an impression of stability and soundness among the thinking element display to be consumers, to want manufactured products, more things, new things, and to of the people that will mean wider commercial development in the near future."4 His vision conceptualize a better life within their grasp by means of progress through technology. was right on target. The Exposition transformed the public's perception of the mysterious, Most of all, the World's Columbian Exposition was the showcase which promoted and unseen power of electricity from an incomprehensible public menace to a vital helpmate in ushered in the then-novel technology which would radically transform daily life and power the establishment of a new age promising prosperity, productivity on a massive scale, and the new century-electricity. At the beginning of the 1890s, electricity was a mysterious, life dominated by culture and enjoyment rather than dispiriting, burdensome work. frightening, and invisible force to the general public. Edison received his first patent for an But this glorious new age of industrial progress had its dark side, too. The Exposition's incandescent lamp in 1880, the first lighting plant in America began generating power in opening in May 1893 coincided exactly with the worst economic decline to date in American New York City in 1882, and George Westinghouse purchased English patents for an history. Banks were closing, as were factories. Seventy-four railroads would be in receiver- alternating current system in 1886. The 1889 Paris Exposition was the first international fair ship by the end of that summer, nearly 100,000 businesses failed, and masses of people to be illuminated at night by the extensive use of electric lights. But at the beginning of the became unemployed. Soon, in 1894, corporate managers and workers would oppose each The American Dream Actualized xxi xxii The American Dream Actualized other in brutal confrontations in Pullman, Illinois (Pullman Railway Strike) and elsewhere. cast all in gold: the statue of "The Republic," created by Daniel Chester French. To almo The contrast between the glorious vision of the Exposition and the reality beyond its gates every visitor the Grand Court surely must have seemed to be the actualization of a hymnboo certainly emphasized the artificiality of the fair and its message of the dawning of a utopian vision of Heaven. The noted architectural critic, Montgomery Schuyler, summed up th profound cultural influence of the Exposition as its success in integrating three elements ( New World engineered by the incorporation of culture, technology, and material progress. The capitalist system which produced all the wonders and products of a summer's spectacu- design: "unity, magnitude, and illusion." The magnificence of the ornamentation and desig lar fair was the cause of misery and poverty on a massive scale throughout the country. It of the architecture and statuary was made possible by the development of a material calle was in 1893, too, that Americans became consumers, lured to the acquisition of "things" in "staff," a mixture of powdered gypsum, alumina, glycerine, and dextrine mixed with fibe order to fuel a society moving away from an agricultural base toward a production standard. to create a plaster. This inexpensive substance formed the exterior facade of all structure The fair marked the end of an agrarian nation of independent farmers and frontier settlers and as Frank Millet expressed, "it permitted an architectural spree of a magnitue to be replaced by an industrial culture of workers controlled by management and govern- never before attempted which no autocrat or government could ever have carried out ment. It was at the Exposition that Frederick Jackson Turner, in his seminal paper, declared permanent form it left them free to erect temples, colonnades, towers, and domes the American frontier closed. Chicago in 1893 represented, as Henry Adams perceived, the surpassing beauty and noble proportions.' "5 But, alas, staff was insubstantial and imperm defeat of America's heritage of independent settlers and the victory of a centralized, nent, barely lasting through the Exposition's five-month run. mechanical, and incorporated society. Beyond the structures and grounds displaying a heavenly grandeur, the success of t Louis Sullivan's "golden door" entrance to the Transportation Building he designed for Exposition and its lasting influences were firmly based on its comprehensive plannir the Exposition best symbolizes the pathetic contrast between the promise and the actuality Absolutely every element was subsumed in the planning process, including transportati of capitalism and commerce in America. The entranceway's multiple concentric arches and to the fair and within the confines of the site, sanitation, water supply, energy, lightir lavish gold leaf ornamentation signified to many observers the Gilded Age itself, wherein sewage and garbage disposal, safety and protection, traffic patterns, visitor comfort, adv corrupt robber barons and tycoons like the Vanderbilts, Jay Gould, Andrew Carnegie, and tising, and more. It all began with Morris Handy's unprecedented advertising effort coveri John Pierpont Morgan became millionaires while proclaiming empty promises to increase tens of thousands of domestic and international newspapers. Starting as early as 1890, the prosperity of the multitudes. The golden pledge of transportation, manufacturing, and and his staff prepared carefully written articles which could easily be inserted in a capitalism to promote freedom, liberty, and the unlimited potential of the American frontier newspaper. The articles were even translated into fourteen foreign languages. For the t led primarily to the fortunes and opulent excess of the powerful few. The golden doorway years preceding the Exposition, Handy was distributing 60,000 documents per week a of transportation was very appropriately dubbed the "Sphinx of the Fair." also producing brochures, circulars, pamphlets and books. The official image of - While the Exposition promoted and made a spectacle of the products of American Exposition, from the beginning of construction to views of activities during the fair's ru industry, it played a more primary role in the establishment of city planning in the United was carefully and completely controlled. The Director of the Photography Division, Char States. It demonstrated the efficacy and potential of unified and comprehensive planning to Dudley Arnold, produced all the official photographs which were prepared and staged establish communities where all needs are met, from dwellings, transportation, sanitation, foster the imagery of authority and grandeur. Visitors appearing in his photographs w utilities, government, and protection, to education, culture, and beauty. The Chicago exclusively well-dressed and upper class, although the crowds at the fair were primar architect Daniel H. Burnham, as Chief of Construction, visualized and designed the composed of rural farmers and working-class laborers. Alfred Stieglitz, the esteen Exposition which would be the impetus for his City Beautiful movement in succeeding years. American photographic artist, found Arnold's work "sterile and conservative, under The planning and building of the Exposition was accomplished by an organization which cratic fundamentally unhealthy to artistic progress in the medium."6 mirrored the authoritative management structure of American business corporations. The The idealized urban metropolis evoked by the Columbian Exposition demonstrated Chicago Company consisted of an executive, a board of directors, various chiefs and potential for utopian cities to be achieved through the enlightened merger of planni committees. Instead of relying on Chicago's notable architects, already well-known for their technology, and art. The White City showed how space could be ordered and activi ingenious style and the development of the skyscraper, Burnham turned to architects of the organized to enhance urban life. In addition, it testified that beauty perceived by eyes Eastern establishment to design buildings uniform in their embrace of a style shamelessly minds could promote social harmony. Visitors could reach the White City by railro emulating "Baroque Rome." He also insisted that all buildings within the massive Court of streetcar, or steamship. Once inside the gates, truly innovative modes of conveyance w Honor be painted white. Frederick Law Olmstead, America's most eminent landscape available such as the first elevated railway, powered by electricity, which would ins architect designed the grounds and the elaborate system of canals and lagoons. Burnham's Chicago's elevated "Loop" built in 1897. The "Intramural Railway" also served as guiding principle was to display America as at least the cultural equivalent of Western prototype for monorails now circling some major amusement centers. The "movea Europe, not as a new country with its unique visions and aspirations. sidewalk," carrying fairgoers along the length of Casino Pier, was comprised of a platf As visitors entered the gates of the World's Columbian Exposition on May 1, 1893 and moving at three miles per hour upon which passengers stood, and a faster moving platf throughout the summer, they were bedazzled by a gleaming, sparkling alabaster Court of equipped with seats moving at six miles per hour. It was the forerunnen of electric walkw Honor composed of immense, ornate classical structures, vast shimmering white allegorical now in airports and other locales where efficient directed movement of large number statuary, and serene reflecting waterways. Rising from the Court's lagoon and presiding over people is necessary. The drinking water at the Exposition was purified through filtrat it all was a 100-foot female figure draped in a Grecian-style toga, garland in her hair, and there were 4,011 public toilets, an abundance of drinking fountains, the experimental Er xxiv The American Dream Actualized The American Dream Actualized XXV system processed a hundred tons of sewage a day, and the entire grounds were thoroughly common folk, a fear that rural visitors would detract from the grandeur of the event, and swept every night. The White City had its own fire and police departments, and because of that their raucous behavior could lead to national humiliation. Harper's Weekly ran cartoons the extensive utilization of electricity, elaborate efforts were expended to prevent fires, denigrating the fair's rural visitors. In one, a black farmer pronounces "I's lak a ole shoe including hydrants located throughout the grounds and ample provision of hand extinguish- dat's been blacked, 'bout time I's gittin some polish." That same magazine ran an article ers. The mundane considerations of transportation, sanitation, safety, and visitor comfort which bluntly stated that "the bulk of the moving throng have 'corn field' written all over played an equal role with the magnificent architecture and art to achieve the White City's them they ruined the environment."9 perfect urban world. The White City seemed to herald a triumph of the elite in business, government, and art Although the festive White City did not need personal residential housing, many house- over the democratic spirit which had inspired a new nation. Along with the rejection of the keeping exhibits emphasized the importance of domestic planning as a corollary to compre- independence of agrarianism in favor of the embrace of technology and corporate control, hensive community planning. The New York State exhibit consisted of a life-size ideal populism seemed to be defeated in America as the new century was anticipated. In its American residence, the Workingman's Model Home, designed by Katherine Davis, a splendid isolation, the White City could ignore the effects of capitalism and urban conditions Rochester social reformer. The home was carefully planned for a laborer earning $500 a year of poverty, filth, decay, and corruption. The actual Chicago, in stunning contrast to the when first married, and his family, eventually including an eight-year-old-boy, a five-year- dreamlike White City on its edge, was plagued by the horrors and stench of the stockyards, old girl, and an infant. Everything was meticulously organized, from the cost of the dwelling entrenched political corruption, 7,000 saloons, a per capita beer consumption of forty-nine (not to exceed $1,000), the floor plan, and the family's estimated yearly savings, to costs of gallons, and over 10,000 prostitutes. However, the White City could celebrate and depict furnishings and all household items, a display and pricing of all clothing, and the preparation the aspirations of a nation and a culture, it could be a "city on a hill for all the world to of daily meals for a month during the fair to a model family of two adults and three children. behold," but it was an illusion, a temporal vision of a new age which also reflected the But not everyone was impressed by the planning and design of the Exposition and its insecurities and fears of a society caught up in accelerating change. As Henry Adams blatant imitation of European classical forms of architecture. Louis Sullivan, whose earth- perceptively noted with remarkable simplicity, "Chicago asked in 1893 for the first time the tone brick Transportation building was the only major edifice that was not painted white, question whether the American people knew where they were driving. Their imaginations angrily rejected the Exposition's architecture as a betrayal of the democratic spirit of a nation. were fueled with heavenly aspirations of grandeur, prosperity, and the wonders of technol- In his Autobiography of an Idea, written in the 1920s, he claimed that the "damage wrought ogy's dream machines. A fleeting summer's vision suddenly drove the collective American by the World's Fair will last for half a century from its date, if not longer." He felt that a psyche away from the humdrum reality of land, work, and daily life, toward the illusion of "virus of culture, snobbish and alien to the land," had infected the "fervid democracy, daring, a promised utopia of wealth, glitz, elitism, leisure, and protection. In 1893 Americans began enterprise, and progress" of America.7 His prediction seems to have been accurate as the escape to fantasy worlds both in imagination and actualization as we increasingly turned countless buildings in the classical style appeared throughout the United States in the first our minds and our energies away from the actual existence of our cities, social interaction, half of the twentieth century, especially structures housing libraries, city centers, post offices, and daily work. Dreams began to take precedence over deeds. museums, and government buildings. Culminating in Walt Disney World and contemporary theme parks, the World's Colum- The message presented by the White City's perfect world was ceaselessly authoritarian bian Exposition was the primary formative influence on the development and design of and elitist. The grandeur and cohesiveness of the structures evoked the absolute authority amusement enterprises in the twentieth century. The Exposition presented the first large- of the governing group. Popular entertainments were segregated from the prestigious Court scale use of technology strictly for the purpose of fun, the gigantic Ferris Wheel, and it gave of Honor by their placement on the distant Midway strip at the farthest corner of the grounds. the world the first "midway." Although the spectacle of the Court of Honor inspired awe, The fair promoted an image of upper-class prosperity while shunning rural laborers and the greatest thrill for most Exposition visitors was a ride on the astounding Ferris Wheel. excluding non-white races as participants, except as quasi-ethnological exhibits. Blacks and Rising 264 feet on its great bicycle wheel framework, George Washington Gale Ferris's fun Native Americans were denied their petitions for a building or an exhibition and were even machine was actually a magnificent engineering feat. This steel wheel, three times larger barred from construction and ground crews, as well as the Columbian Guards security force. than any wheel built to date, supported thirty-six pendulum cars, each the size of a railroad Independently, Blacks organized a "Colored People's Day," at which the distinguished car and able to hold sixty passengers! Its axle, produced by the Bethlehem Iron Company, abolitionist Frederick Douglass aptly renamed the White City a "white sepulcher" that was the largest single piece of steel yet forged, weighing over forty-five tons. Because Ferris ignored the realities of urban poverty and the treatment of nonwhite races in America. Only was a young engineer lacking funds, the various parts and sections of the Wheel were within the raucous entertainment zone, the Midway, were nonwhite races present, as produced by many different steel manufacturers and were assembled together on site. entertainment exhibits-an African Dahomey Village and a Javanese South Sea Village. In Amazingly, all the girders, trusses, and bars, fit perfectly like Tinkertoys or Legos. The essence, as noted by Mr. Douglass, Blacks were presented as savages. The Exposition leaders resulting structure weighed 1,200 tons, had the capacity to carry 2,160 riders for a spin, and unabashedly voiced their white supremacist convictions, as evident in the opening speech was powered by two 1,000-horsepower engines. Its size and skeletal structure generated a by the fair's national committee chairman, T. Harris: "It remained for the Saxon race to visual and psychological appearance of danger, which added to its appeal. The allure of people this new land, to redeem it from barbarism, and in less than four centuries to danger quickly became a necessary ingredient in the success of most amusement enterprises make of it the most powerful and prosperous country on which God's sunshine falls. Even from roller coasters to contemporary "simulation experiences" such as Universal Studios' the press reporting the events of the Columbian Exposition revealed a disdain toward the "Earthquake the Big One" and "Back to the Future." But safety was a primary concern in xxvi The American Dream Actualized The American Dream Actualized xxvii the design and construction of the Ferris Wheel, with air brakes and iron gratings to prevent fair and a more familiar twentieth-century "celestial city," Walt Disney World Resort. people from jumping out of the cars, the ability to absorb lightning bolts and to withstand Indeed, the permanent world of pleasure which continues to rise from the Florida swamps winds of a hundred miles per hour. The Wheel had a perfect safety record throughout the is essentially inspired by the Chicago fair's focus on technological progress, total planning, duration of the fair and carried a total of 1,453,611 passengers, each paying the exorbitant inclusion of support systems for power, sewage, and transportation, the depiction of exotic fee of fifty cents. Ferris recovered his construction costs in a mere few weeks, and large-scale cultures in the guise of entertainment, the creation of a utopian visionary realm limited to amusement extravaganzas were here to stay in America. One can hardly imagine the controllable confines, and incorporation of the three elements of entertainment design sensation felt by ordinary folks who in the nineteenth century, before skyscrapers, airplanes, success, "unity, magnitude and illusion." As a matter of fact, Walt Disney's father worked and even large bridges, had never been so high up in the air and had never before experienced as a carpenter helping to build the Columbian Exposition. Although Disney himself was a bird's-eye view of their world. born in 1901, eight years after the fair, it is probable that recollections of the fair passed from The Midway Plaisance, the Exposition's mile-long entertainment sector, was conceptu- parents and older siblings to the young Walt. Disney's brother Roy was actually born during alized and created by a twenty-two-year-old entrepreneur, Sol Bloom. Bloom would later the summer of the fair and was nearly named "Columbus" in gratitude for the livelihood become prominent in politics and would help draft the United Nations charter. With the provided to the family by the fair. Disney World's massive scope and unprecedented cultural Ferris Wheel at its midpoint, the strip became an exotic hodgepodge of village reproductions influence surpasses that of the World's Columbian Exposition because of its permanence. from around the world-German, Irish, Algerian and Tunisian villages, the Streets of Cairo, Unlike the fleeting summer fair of 1893, Disney World is America's enduring "Paradise the Square of Old Vienna, and also native villages from Africa and the Pacific islands. Regained," achieved by means of electronics, plastics, computers, corporate management, Elaborate and picturesque architecture, food, and daring entertainment dominated the and psychological manipulation. Like the World's Columbian Exposition, this utopian world villages, including America's first exotic dancer, Little Egypt, whose rhythmic, intense is a product of technologies which control everything and solve all challenges. Disney's gyrations horrified the women and excited the men to such an extent that many were deprived EPCOT Center is a showcase for America's technological prowess and corporate culture. "of a peaceful night's rest for months to come. Like the Chicago Exposition, EPCOT also presents elaborate views of foreign, exotic Beneath the surface of fun and chaos, the racial prejudices which permeated the fair were cultures in the guise of educational exhibits. The major entertainment enclave of the late especially evident along the Midway. Its very layout depicted an evolutionary "scale of twentieth century replaces the chaos, sensuality, and cacophony of the early parks with humanity" with Anglo-Saxon races at the head of the mile-long strip, the Irish and Viennese control and sophisticated family entertainment. The dynamos, incandescent lamps, and steel and German villages, then the Egyptian, Muslim, and Asian sectors, and at the extreme end, of 1893 have been replaced in the 1990s with computers, lasers, and plastic, but the basic the "savage" races, the Javanese, Samoan and other islanders, the Africans of Dahomey, and overriding theme is the same: to showcase "progress through technology" and the power of the Native Americans. The Chinese were generally depicted as cunning thieves offering "a technology merged with corporate management to make all our dreams come true. clup of velly nice tea" at exorbitant cost, and dark-skinned races were referred to both in In 1989-90, Disney World's advertising slogan was "Wake Up in a Perfect World." This public speech and print as "niggers." But despite its racial messages, the Midway delighted magic celestial city, like its predecessor in Chicago, actualizes a contemporary version of throngs of fairgoers daily, substituting thrills and pandemonium for the culture and control American dreams of progress toward an earthly paradise. It has replaced the religious shrine of the "White City," and it would become the basic formula for entertainment ventures as the apogee of mankind's cultural achievement, yet it does function as a spiritual pilgrimage throughout the succeeding century. center. The rituals, doctrines, and scriptures of organized religion have been replaced in the By 1905, Coney Island would set the standard for American amusement enterprises. postmodern world with leisure, play, corporate values, and the cult of technology. Illusion George Tilyou's Steeplechase Park and Thompson and Dundy's Luna Park incorporated the and man-made wonders reign in Disney World in place of the ritual and miracles of religion, architectural extravagance, the cultural exoticism, and the large-scale rides engineered by while American corporate management and technology are depicted as the saviors of the technology, all of which had made their debut in Chicago in 1893. Tilyou, who spent his world. "Pilgrims" journey to this Mickey Mouse mecca to reaffirm their faith, through honeymoon at the Columbian Exposition, as well as Thompson and Dundy, would build immersion and fellowship, in the ideals of corporate culture. While there, they participate enclosed parks where the atmosphere could be controlled. They would divide the space into in experiences celebrating the achievements of corporate technology: the wonders of distinct sectors, depicting far-away lands, and provide lavish entertainment. In 1901, computers, the freedom engendered by the automobile, the products of agricultural enter- Thompson and Dundy presented the first "simulation experience," a "Trip to the Moon," prise grown without dirt, and the boundless potential of energy. What has been banished complete with spaceship launch with convincing motion, a moon with caverns, grottos, form this perfect world are the problems generated by our technologies and values-pollu- giants, and midgets, and even moon maidens bearing green cheese. In succeeding years, the tion, nuclear nightmares, traffic gridlock, racial conflict, discrimination, war, urban decay, Columbian Exposition's lead in merging technology and fun would continue with the unemployment and poverty, to name a few. Instead, Disney World sanctifies American appearance of larger and scarier roller coasters and other sensational rides. In amusement history as a myth of progress from Frontierland to Tomorrowland and from Benjamin parks throughout the United States, thrill rides would be surrounded by the exotic architec- Franklin to Captain Eo. ture of spires, turrets, and minarets, and electricity would set these worlds ablaze with light Like Chicago's White City, Disney World is an independent fiefdom with boundaries that and glitter. have complete control over the total environment, including water and sewage systems, The preceding descriptions of the all-encompassing planning and control of the World's energy generation and utilities, sanitation and waste disposal, transportation, computer Columbian Exposition and its entertainment sector generates a connection between the 1893 networks, guest accommodations, and protective services. The Automatic Vacuum Collec- xxviii The American Dream Actualized The American Dream Actualized xxix tion (AVAC) solid waste disposal system typifies the technological sophistication and By focusing our imaginations and cultural aspirations on Disney's Worlds and "virtual" thoroughness of the Disney support facilities. It whisks garbage and sewage by means of rather than actual reality, we resist a reorientation of our basic values. The past century has vacuum tubes at sixty miles per hour to compactors which press the substances into small proven the failure of these values and the artificiality of our American Dreams. In the next block-like parcels to be incinerated or reprocessed as fertilizer. It is a planned community millennium, will we continue to evade our real world and cling to our pipe dreams? for festive entertainment, which, like the White City, need not be concerned with the functions of a real community, such as permanent residences, schools, and most importantly, NOTES the presence of individuals or groups that may be dangerous or disruptive to the general milieu of perfection and enjoyment. Undesirables such as the poor or the socially deviant 1. Quoted in Ray Ginger, Altgeld's America: The Lincoln Ideal Versus Changing Realities (New (as defined by Disney corporate managers) are excluded, either by the cost of a visit and York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1958), 21. necessary long travel, usually by airline or multiday automobile journey, or by denial of 2. Columbus quote cited in Charles Sanford, The Quest for Paradise: Europe and the American Moral Imagination (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1961), 40. entrance at the gates and even forced removal by park police for any behavior that may 3. John Winthrop, "A Modell of Christian Charity" (1630), in The Puritans, ed. Perry Miller disturb other "guests." Long hair and beards have been enough in the past to bar entrance and Thomas H. Johnson (New York: American Book Co., 1938), 119. to the Disney parks. With its recreation and glorification of small town America in the Main 4. J. P. Barrett, Electricity at the Columbian Exposition (Chicago: R. Donnally and Sons, Street sectors, the Disney parks appear to promote democratic American values rather than 1894), xi. the aristocratic European culture emulated by Chicago's White City. But the cost of a visit 5. D. Millet, "The Designers of the Fair," Harper's New Monthly Magazine 85 (November to Disney's fantasy worlds and the emphasis on consumerism within the parks excludes 1892), 878. much of the nation's population and insures that the crowd will be largely upper middle 6. Peter B. Hales, Silver Cities: The Photography of American Urbanization, 1839-1915 class. Surveys indicate that three-quarters of the adults are either technical or managerial (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1984), 153. professionals, only three percent are black, two percent are laborers. 12 7. Louis Sullivan, The Autobiography of an Idea (New York: Dover, 1956), 324-25. 8. Quoted in Paul Greenhalgh, Ephermeral Vistas: The Expositions Universelles, Great Exhi- Beginning with the Columbian Exposition and its promotion of the City Beautiful bitions, and World's Fairs, 1851-1939 (Manchester: Manchester Univ. Press, 1988), 98. movement and culminating in Walt Disney World, these totally planned artificial entertain- 9. Quoted in Daniel T. Miller, "The Columbian Exposition of 1893 and the American National ment enclaves have had a profound influence on town planning in America. In the first half Character," Journal of American Culture 10 (Summer 1987): 19. of the twentieth century, cities and towns built massive classical structures to impose 10. The Education of Henry Adams: An Autobiography (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1918), 343. authority on local government or to signify cultural values. Town halls, museums, and the 11. Benjamin C. Truman, History of the World's Fair (1893) (New York: Arno Press, 1976, Carnegie libraries emulated European classicism. Since the advent of Disneyland in 1955, reprint), 550. countless malls and downtown sectors have been developed as complete environmental 12. Mike Wallace, "Mickey Mouse History: Portraying the Past at Disney World," Radical zones designed with an overall theme to create a specific atmosphere, often patterned after History Review 32 (1985): 53. Disney's Main Street, but essentially artificial in conception and function. New towns, such as Reston, Virginia and the appropriately named Columbia, Maryland elevate the concept of the planned environment to the level of entire communities. These districts emulate Disney World in their plan to create totally controlled, self-sufficient, all-encompassing communities where people can live, work, play, and interact within exclusive boundaries. Safety through control and exclusion, consistency of aesthetic vision, efficiency, and the predictability of such planned communities have been embraced by a public that strives to escape and ignore the realities of urban society and is entranced by the relaxing, entertaining, perfectly functioning, yet artificial Disney prototype. The desire to escape the problems causing severe stress on our institutions, environment, and values at the close of the twentieth century has stimulated a nearly universal cultural drive toward illusion and artificial worlds. Is this where America decided it was "driving," in Henry Adams' words, as long ago as the end of the previous century? For a whole century, we have been focusing our imaginations on fantasy worlds which both renew our faith in the technologies that have done so well and that we assume will be our salvation, and also demonstrate that capitalism and consumerism pave the road to prosperity. The subordination of the American Dream of constructing a perfect world in the New World wilderness to the creation of an enclosed, protected, artificial "White City" in Chicago or a Disney World of pleasure in the swamps of Florida is indicative of a society that chooses to ignore its imperfections and instead immerses itself in the glitz of illusion and selective mythmaking. 8/26/2021 World's Columbian Exposition - Wikipedia WIKIPEDIA World's Columbian Exposition The World's Columbian Exposition (the official 1893 Chicago shortened name for the World's Fair: Columbian Exposition, [1] also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' arrival in the New World in 1492. [2] The centerpiece of the Fair, held in Jackson Park, was a large water pool Chicago World's Columbian Exposition 1893, with The representing the voyage Republic statue and Administration Building Columbus took to the New Overview World. Chicago had won BIE-class Universal exposition the right to host the fair over several other cities, Category Historical Expo including New York City, Name World's Columbian Exposition Washington, D.C., and St. Area Louis. The exposition was 690 acres (280 hectares) an influential social and Visitors 27,300,000 cultural event and had a Participant(s) profound effect on architecture, sanitation, Countries 46 the arts, Chicago's self- Location image, and American Country United States industrial optimism. City Chicago https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_Columbian_Exposition 1/54 8/26/2021 World's Columbian Exposition - Wikipedia The layout of the Chicago Venue Jackson Park and Midway Plaisance Columbian Exposition was, Coordinates 41°47'24"N 87°34'48"W in large part, designed by John Wellborn Root, Timeline Daniel Burnham, Frederick Bidding 1882 Law Olmsted and Charles [3][4] Awarded 1890 B. Atwood. It was the prototype of what Opening May 1, 1893 Burnham and his Closure October 30, 1893 colleagues thought a city should be. It was designed Universal expositions to follow Beaux-Arts Previous Exposition Universelle (1889) in Paris principles of design, Next Brussels International (1897) in Brussels namely neoclassical architecture principles based on symmetry, balance, and splendor. The color of the material generally used to cover the buildings' façades (white staff) gave the fairgrounds its nickname, the White City. Many prominent architects designed its 14 "great buildings". Artists and musicians were featured in exhibits and many also made depictions and works of art inspired by the exposition. The exposition covered 690 acres (2.8 km²), featuring nearly 200 new (but deliberately temporary) buildings of predominantly neoclassical architecture, canals and lagoons, and people and cultures from 46 countries. [2] More than 27 million people attended the exposition during its six-month run. Its scale and grandeur far exceeded the other world's fairs, and it became a symbol of the emerging American Exceptionalism, much in the same way that the Great Exhibition became a symbol of the Victorian era United Kingdom. Dedication ceremonies for the fair were held on October 21, 1892, but the fairgrounds were not actually opened to the public until May 1, 1893. The fair continued until October 30, 1893. In addition to recognizing the 400th anniversary of the discovery of the New World by Europeans, the fair also served to show the world that Chicago had risen from the ashes of the Great Chicago Fire, which had destroyed much of the city in 1871. [2] On October 9, 1893, the day designated as Chicago Day, the fair set a world record for outdoor event attendance, drawing 751,026 people. The debt for the fair was soon paid off with a check for $1.5 million (equivalent to $43.2 million in 2020). [5] Chicago has commemorated the fair with one of the stars on its municipal flag. [6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_Columbian_Exposition 2/54 8/26/2021 World's Columbian Exposition - Wikipedia Contents History Planning and organization Operation Assassination of mayor and end of fair Attractions Anthropology Rail Country and state exhibition buildings Guns and artillery Religions Moving walkway Horticulture Architecture White City White City controversy Role in the City Beautiful Movement Great buildings Transportation Building Surviving structures Gallery Visitors Souvenirs Electricity Music Musicians Other music and musicians Art American artists exhibiting Painters Sculptors https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_Columbian_Exposition 3/54 8/26/2021 World's Columbian Exposition - Wikipedia Japanese art Women artists exhibiting Notable firsts Concepts Commemorations Edibles and potables Inventions and manufacturing advances Organizations Performances Later years In popular culture See also Notes References Further reading External links History Planning and organization Many prominent civic, professional, and commercial leaders from around the United States participated in the financing, coordination, and management of the Fair, including Chicago shoe company owner Charles H. Schwab, [7] Chicago railroad and manufacturing magnate John Whitfield Bunn, and Connecticut banking, insurance, and iron products magnate Milo Barnum Richardson, among many others. [8][9] The fair was planned in the early 1890S during the Gilded Age of rapid industrial growth, immigration, and class tension. World's fairs, such as London's 1851 Crystal Palace Exhibition, had been successful in Europe as a way to bring together societies fragmented along class lines. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_Columbian_Exposition, 4/54 8/26/2021 PICTURESQUE WORLD'S FAIR - The Horticulture Building (p. 50) - Chicagos 1893 Worlds Fair Looking South > Changes to Jackson Park 1893- 2021 > An original painting of WORLDSFAIRCHICAGO1893.COM the 1893 California THE HORTICULTURE BUILDING.- State It is doubtful if among all the views taken Building upon the World's Fair grounds one has sells at been secured which in beauty and general auction interest surpasses that given here. It is from the top of the Government Building > Sept. 12, looking west over the Wooded Island and 2021: commanding the whole splendid frontage "Walking of the Horticulture Building, a view the White which, from the nature of things, could City" tour not be gained elsewhere or at a less (Chicago) altitude. The Horticulture Building appears here to a justified advantage. The > An Endless frontage of this remarkable structure was Ride on just one thousand feet and its extreme the width two hundred and fifty feet. The Intramural plan was that of a central pavilion and two Railway at end pavilions, each connected with the the 1893 center by front and rear curtains forming World's Fair https://worldsfairchicago1893.com/2018/05/17/picturesque-worlds-fair-the-horticulture-building-p-50 2/10 8/26/2021 PICTURESQUE WORLD'S FAIR - The Horticulture Building (p. 50) - Chicagos 1893 Worlds Fair two interior courts. The magnificent crystal dome roofing the central pavilion > 123. was one hundred and eighty-seven feet in Picturesque diameter and one hundred and thirteen World's feet high. The cost of the structure was Fair - The about $300,000. The style of architecture Boiler- followed is designated as the Venetian Room of Renaissance. A sculptural frieze and six Machinery single figures are the principal exterior Hall decorations, the frieze with its cupids and > The garlands and the appropriateness of the Garden of statuary completing an effect which the scarcely needed such assistance. On the Phoenix - left of the Horticulture Building appears Choral Hall, where were held many Japan's famous gatherings, and on the right the lasting gift White Star Steamer Line Building and in Jackson Park beyond it the "Puck" Pagoda. In the distance, outside the grounds, may be > Frédéric seen tall buildings looming up here and there, the World's Fair hotels about which Auguste Bartholdi's SO much has been said and written. Visit to the Other Pages from PICTURESQUE WORLD'S 1893 FAIR. Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Please share this post: Part 3 Twitter Facebook Pocket > 122. Pinterest 16 Picturesque World's s://worldsfairchicago1893.com/2018/05/17/picturesque-worlds-fair-the-horticulture-building-p-50 3/10 World's Columbian Exposition: Introduction Page 1 of 3 Welcome to the Fair The World's Columbian Exposition, held in Chicago in 1893, was the last and the greatest of the nineteenth century's World's Fairs. Nominally a celebration of Columbus' voyages 400 years prior, the Exposition was in actuality a reflection and celebration of American culture and society--for fun, edification, and profit--and a blueprint for life in modern and postmodern America. The Fair was immensely popular, drawing over 27 million visitors, including Frederick Douglass, Jane Addams, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Henry Blake Fuller, Scott Joplin, Walter Wyckoff, Edweard Muybridge, Henry Adams, W.D. Howells, and Hamlin Garland. It was widely publicized both nationally and internationally, and people traveled from all over the world to see the spectacle. Travelers came from the East by "Exposition Flyers" --Pullman coaches traveling at the amazing speed of 80 m.p.h -- which gave "many Americans their first look at the country beyond the Alleghenies 11 (Donald Miller, 74) People left their factories, their farms, and their city businesses to participate in what was touted as the greatest cultural and entertainment event in the history of the world. The goals of the management and the reactions of the public to this massive event reveal a great deal about the state of America at the close of the Gilded Age. The early 1890s were a time of considerable turmoil in America, and the conflicting interests and ideas found full play in the presentation and reception of the Fair It was an age of increasing fragmentation and confusion, of self-conscious searching for an identity on a personal and on a national level. The industrial, and increasingly electrical, revolutions were transforming America; the American way of life was no longer based on agriculture, but on factories and urban centers, and the end of the Gilded Age signified the advent of what Alan Trachtenberg has called the "incorporation of America," the shift of social control from the people and government to big business.)The accompanying shift from a producer to a consumer society and the incredible growth of these corporations led to financial instability. Recessions and the devastating Depression of 1893, the violent Homestead and Pullman labor strikes, and widespread unemployment and homelessness plagued the early years of the decade. The frontier was closing, immigration, technological advances, and the railroads had changed the face of the country, and suddenly "Americanness" was more and more difficult to define. Americans were at once confused, excited, and overwhelmed. The World's Columbian Exposition was the perfect vehicle to explore these immense changes while at http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA96/WCE/introduction.html 4/12/2004 World's Columbian Exposition: Introduction Page 2 of 3 the same time celebrating the kind of society America had become. World's Fairs, by the end of the century, were an established cultural and entertainment form with immense international influence. From the first major nineteenth century exposition, the 1851 "Crystal Palace" fair in London to Philadelphia's 1876 Centennial Exhibition to Paris' Exposition Universelle of 1889, hundreds of millions of people around the world visited over 50 international fairs in the last half of the century finding in them not only entertainment, but cultural enlightenment, commercial opportunity, and a reflection of their age. Even as cultural producers and consumers of the time understood the importance of the Fair as a form, SO modern scholars understand that as "cities within cities and cultures within civilizations, they both reflect and idealize the historical moments when they appear." (Gilbert, 13) We are able to learn a WORLD'S FAIR great deal about the culture and issues of the late nineteenth century by studying fairs as important social indicators. Robert Rydell has observed that Fairs, in short, helped to craft the modern world. They were arenas where manufacturers sought to promote products, where states and provinces competed for new residents and new investments, where urban spaces were organized into GAIGAGO DAY shimmering utopian cities, and where people from all social classes went to be alternately amused, instructed, and diverted from more pressing concerns. Memorialized in songs, books, buildings, public statuary, city parks, urban designs, and photographs, fairs were intended to frame the world view not only of the hundreds of millions who attended these spectacles, GAURUS but also the countless millions who encountered the fairs secondhand. The Columbian Exposition was very much a part of this tradition. It attempted to redefine America for itself and the world, and in doing SO introduced many themes and artifacts still prevalent in American life the connection between technology and progress; the predominance of corporations and the professional class in the power structure of the country; the triumph of the consumer culture; and the equation of European forms with "high culture", as well as the more pedestrian legacy of Juicy Fruit Gum, Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, ragtime music, and Quaker Oats. H.W. Brands, in his fascinating work on the 1890s, The Reckless Decade, points to the importance of studying this Fair and the age it informs and reflects. For Americans living in the 1990s, the events of the 1890s would be worth exploring even if they imparted no insight into the present. Life on the edge frequently evokes the best and worst in people and societies. It did SO during the 1890s, when the United States produced more than its normal quota of demagogues and dedicated reformers, scoundrels and paragons of goodwill, when the American people lived up to their better selves and down to their worse. http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA96/WCE/introduction.html 4/12/2004 World's Columbian Exposition: Introduction Page 3 of 3 Yet the story of the 1890s also possesses significance beyond its inherent color and drama. How America survived the last decade of the nineteenth century--how it pursued its hopes, occasionally confronted and frequently fled its fears, wrestled its angels and demons--reveals much about the American people. What it reveals can be of use to a later generation of those people, situated similarly on the cusp between an old century and a new one. (Brands, 5) This project will focus on the message of this overwhelmingly popular Fair and its implications for contemporary and modern society. First, we will take a virtual tour of the Fair, pointing out its high and low points, and what they meant in the Official Fair's vocabulary, followed by a discussion of reactions to the Fair by its visitors--how, and how well, were the Fair's messages received? Finally, the focus shifts to the legacy of the Fair: the text and clues inferred by its spatial and ideological landscape, the messages that emerge with over a century of perspective, and the ramifications of its successes and failures. So, take a step back in time, to an era when bicycles were a novelty, telephones a rarity, and phonographs an absolute revelation. To a time when the hustle and bustle of a consumer society, the immigration problem, economic instability, and feelings of cultural inferiority were foremost in Americans' minds. Does it sound familiar? Perhaps, in our investigation of this watershed event in American history--this celebration of early modernity--we can find ourselves in and learn from the messages of, and reactions to, the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893. Home Welcome Tour Reactions legacy Notes Home ~ Welcome ~ Tour the Fair~Reactions to the Fair ~ The Legacy of the Fair ~ Notes and Further Reading III Copyright 1996 Julie K. Rose http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA96/WCE/introduction.html 4/12/2004