The great American fair
Subtitle: the World's Columbian Exposition & American culture
By: Reid Badger.
Publisher: N. Hall
Published: 1979
Place of publication: Chicago
Language: eng
Number of pages: 177
Description: The Great American Fair is a fascinating narrative study of the history and operation of the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition of 1893. It is a clear account of the interrelated factors and forces that shaped the event, and an analysis of its meaning within the context of Victorian America. The book makes the people involved, the city of Chicago, and indeed the whole world for which the fair was staged come vibrantly alive.
The Victorian world Badger writes about had a mania for world's Fairs. They were celebrations of empire and national prowess, manifestations of commercial expansion which reflected rather than influenced the cultures that held them. The author contends that by wedding progress and nationalism, two of the most important pervasive concepts of the nineteenth century, the fairs provided a popularly acceptable answer to the questions raised by the rapidly accelerating change that was then beginning to stir all of Western civilization.
The story of the World's Columbian Exposition is intriguing, especially as Badger tells it. It was envisioned by its supporters to be the ultimate in world's Fairs, one that would show the enormous strides in American cultural achievement, setting to rest forever any quibbles about American inferiority. In 1890, Congress chose Chicago as the host city over Washington, St. Louis, and New York; much to the chagrin of New Yorkers, whose papers dubbed Chicago the "Windy City" because of the amount of breath spent lauding the merits of the Midwestern metropolis. To Chicago's boosters, the young city's rapid growth from frontier fort to a leading urban center typified the national character and represented the emerging American West. However, it soon became apparent that to many others at home and abroad Chicago was an unknown quantity "associated only with buffalo hunts, wild Indians, and pig slaughtering". To correct that, one of the most extensive and successful public relations efforts in the history of the world's fairs was executed.
The fair's supporters got what they wanted. The World's Columbian Exhibition cost over $28 million, drew more than 21 million paid admissions, and consisted of at least $65,000 exhibits from 47 different countries held on 686 acres in Jackson and Washington Parks on the city's south side. Visitor's were awed by the wonders of American technology, factory management, inventiveness, and organization. The extensive and novel use of electricity created a sensation.
The Great American Fair is a lively, colorful, and yet thoughtful narrative history. Badger's thoroughly documented and incisive accounts of personalities, events, and social conditions are vibrantly projected into the mind's eye, coaxing the reader in the gay and glittering world of Victorian Chicago.
Notes: Bibliography: p. 165-171.
Includes index.