From Wikipedia: The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations or The Great Exhibition, sometimes referred to as the Crystal Palace Exhibition in reference to the temporary structure in which it was held, was an international exhibition that took place in Hyde Park,
The Great Exhibition 1851: A Sourcebook by
The Great Exhibition, 1851: A sourcebook is the first anthology of its kind. It presents a comprehensive array of carefully selected primary documents, sourced from the period before, during and after the Exhibition in Hyde Park in 1851. Drawing on contemporary newspapers and periodicals, thearchives of the Royal Commission, diaries, journals, celebratory poems and essays, many of these documents are reproduced in their entirety, and in the same place, for the first time. The book provides an unparalleled resource for teachers and students of the Exhibition and a starting point for researchers new to the subject. Subdivided into six chapters - Origins and organisation, Display, Nation, empire and ethnicity, Gender, Class and Afterlives - it represents the currentscholarly debates about the Exhibition, orientating readers with helpful, critically informed, introductions. What was the Great Exhibition and what did it mean? Readers of The Great Exhibition, 1851: A sourcebook will take great pleasure in finding out.
Crystal Palace Exhibition Illustrated Catalogue, London 1851
One of modern world's wonders, in which civilized nations exhibited achievements in arts and sciences. More than 1700 items pictured with accompanying text: cast-iron work, pianos, sleds, billiard tables, hundreds of other artifacts. Largest collection of Victorian decorative art ever assembled. xxxvi + 426pp.
From Wikipedia: The Exposition Universelle of 1855 was an International Exhibition held on the Champs-Élysées in Paris from 15 May to 15 November 1855. Its full official title was the Exposition Universelle des produits de l'Agriculture, de l'Industrie et des Beaux-Arts de Paris 1855.
Ephemeral Vistas by
Established in the belief that imperialism as a cultural phenomenon had as significant an effect on the dominant as it did on the subordinate societies, the Studies in Imperialism series seeks to develop the new socio-cultural approach which has emerged through cross-disciplinary work on popular culture, media studies, art history, the study of education and religion, sports history and children's literature. The cultural emphasis embraces studies of migration and race, while the older political, and constitutional, economic and military concerns are never far away. It incorporates comparative work on European and American empire-building, with the chronological focus primarily, though not exclusively, on the 19th and 20th centuries, when these cultural exchanges were most powerfully at work.
From Wikipedia: The International Exposition of 1867 was the second world's fair to be held in Paris, from 1 April to 3 November 1867. Forty two nations were represented at the fair. Following a decree of Emperor Napoleon III, the exposition was prepared as early as 1864, in the midst of the renovation of Paris, marking the culmination of the Second French Empire.
From Wikipedia: Weltausstellung 1873 Wien (English: World Exposition 1873 Vienna) was the large world exposition that was held in 1873 in the Austria-Hungarian capital of Vienna. Its motto was Kultur und Erziehung (English: Culture and Education).
A Magnificent failure: The 1873 World Exhibition in Vienna
From Wikipedia: The 1884 World's Fair was held in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. At a time when nearly one third of all cotton produced in the United States was handled in New Orleans and the city was home to the Cotton Exchange, the idea for the fair was first advanced by the Cotton Planters Association. The name World Cotton Centennial referred to the earliest-surviving record of export of a shipment of cotton from the U.S. to England in 1784. It was also known as the World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition.
Practical common sense guide book through the World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition at New Orleans ... by
Guide to the 1884 World's Fair in New Orleans.
Authentic New Orleans by
Chapter 3: “Of Incomprehensible Magnitude and Bewildering Variety: The 1884 World’s Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition. In Authentic New Orleans, Kevin Fox Gotham explains how New Orleans became a tourist town, a spectacular locale known as much for its excesses as for its quirky Southern charm. Gotham begins in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina amid the whirlwind of speculation about the rebuilding of the city and the dread of outsiders wiping New Orleans clean of the grit that made it great. He continues with the origins of Carnival and the Mardi Gras celebration in the nineteenth century, showing how, through careful planning and promotion, the city constructed itself as a major tourist attraction. By examining various image-building campaigns and promotional strategies to disseminate a palatable image of New Orleans on a national scale Gotham ultimately establishes New Orleans as one of the originators of the mass tourism industry--which linked leisure to travel, promoted international expositions, and developed the concept of pleasure travel. Gotham shows how New Orleans was able to become one of the most popular tourist attractions in the United States, especially through the transformation of Mardi Gras into a national, even international, event. All the while Gotham is concerned with showing the difference between tourism from above and tourism from below--that is, how New Orleans' distinctiveness is both maximized, some might say exploited, to serve the global economy of tourism as well as how local groups and individuals use tourism to preserve and anchor longstanding communal traditions.
Southern Ladies and Suffragists: Julia Ward Howe and Women's Rights at the 1884 New Orleans World's Fair by
Women from all over the country came to New Orleans in 1884 for the Woman's Department of the Cotton Centennial Exposition, that portion of the World's Fair exhibition devoted to the celebration of women's affairs and industry. Their conversations and interactions played out as a drama of personalities and sectionalism at a transitional moment in the history of the nation. These women planted seeds at the Exposition that would have otherwise taken decades to drift southward.
From Wikipedia: The 1888 Barcelona Universal Exposition (in Catalan: Exposició Universal de Barcelona and Exposición Universal de Barcelona in Spanish) was Spain's first International World's Fair and ran from 20 May to 9 December 1888.
From Wikipedia: The Exposition Universelle of 1889 was a world's fair held in Paris, France, from 6 May to 31 October 1889.
Eiffel's Tower: The Thrilling Story Behind Paris's Beloved Monument and the Extraordinary World's Fair That Introduced It by
Since it opened in May 1889, the Eiffel Tower has become an iconic image of modern times: as much a beacon of technological progress as an enduring symbol of Paris and French culture. But as engineer Gustave Eiffel built the now-famous landmark to be the spectacular centrepiece of the 1889 World's Fair, he stirred up a storm of vitriol from Parisian tastemakers, law-suits and predictions of a certain structural calamity. A compelling account of the tower's creation as well as a superb portrait of Belle Epoque France.
From Wikipedia: The World's Columbian Exposition (the official shortened name for the World's Fair: Columbian Exposition also known as the Chicago World's Fair and Chicago Columbian Exposition) was a world's fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492.
The Woman's Building (Chicago) on Wikipedia
The World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 from the Illinois State Museum
The Chicago World's Fair of 1893 by
Originally conceived to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Columbus's discovery of America, the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 was one of the largest (633 acres) and most influential aggregations of human talent, energy, and industry ever assembled. More than 27 million visitors entered the grounds (now Jackson Park) to marvel at the exhibits and displays housed in some 200 buildings, including those of 79 foreign governments and 38 states. Although the Fair had its share of "firsts" (original Ferris wheel, first midway, Edison's kinetoscope, etc.), its chief marvel was its architecture. It is that aspect which is emphasized in this striking photographic record. Beginning with an overview of the fair's planning and conceptual stages, Stanley Appelbaum's well-researched text then proceeds to a fascinating discussion of the personalities, regional rivalries, and intense controversy surrounding the Beaux-Arts architecture (the "White City" style) of the fair, including its enormous impact on subsequent American architecture. The contributions of such outstanding architects and firms as R. M. Hunt; McKim, Mead and White; Frederick Law Olmsted; and Peabody and Stearns are described. The book then becomes a building-by-building walking tour of the fair -- imaginatively reconstructed with the help of 128 sharply reproduced rare contemporary photographs, printed on fine coated stock, and a concise, fact-filled text. The placid basins, ponds, and Lagoon that graced the fairgrounds lend a serene aura to these priceless views of the great buildings and sights of the fair: the Beaux-Arts glories of the Administration and Agriculture Buildings; Daniel Chester French's statue of the Republic; the Columbian Fountain by Frederick MacMonnies; the Golden Door of Louis Sullivan's Transportation Building; the Peristyle; Mary Cassatt's mural in the Woman's Building; the pure classicism of the Palace of Fine Arts (now the Museum of Science and Industry); numerous state and foreign pavilions, and of course, the Midway -- the first separate amusement area at a World's Fair, and the reputed location of Little Egypt's celebrated danse du ventre. In the concluding section, the author touches on other memorable aspects of the fair and its times: the Panic of 1893; the Pullman Strike; famous visitors (Archduke Ferdinand, the Spanish Infanta, etc.); cultural and social congresses, and finally, the disastrous fires that ultimately destroyed many of the buildings. For social and cultural historians, Chicagoans, and anyone interested in the special magic of a world's fair, this book is a loving and nostalgic look back -- to a time bathed in the golden light of the fin-de-siècle years, when a colossal spectacle of human achievement in art, science, and industry captured the world's attention for one magic and unforgettable moment.
The Fair Women by
The World's Columbian Exposition included amazing exhibits of the results of women's activities -- in the arts, industry, science, politics and philanthropy. Most of these were housed in the Woman's Building, which was designed, decorated and administered entirely by women.
The Devil in the White City by
This New York Times bestseller intertwines the true tale of the 1893 World's Fair and the cunning serial killer who used the fair to lure his victims to their death. Combining meticulous research with nail-biting storytelling, Erik Larson has crafted a narrative with all the wonder of newly discovered history and the thrills of the best fiction. Two men, each handsome and unusually adept at his chosen work, embodied an element of the great dynamic that characterized America's rush toward the twentieth century. The architect was Daniel Hudson Burnham, the fair's brilliant director of works and the builder of many of the country's most important structures, including the Flatiron Building in New York and Union Station in Washington, D.C. The murderer was Henry H. Holmes, a young doctor who, in a malign parody of the White City, built his "World's Fair Hotel" just west of the fairgrounds--a torture palace complete with dissection table, gas chamber, and 3,000-degree crematorium.
The Midway Plaisance at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago by
The Midway Plaisance, the birthright of the amusement park, began the amusement park craze in Illinois and around the county. Within a few years of the World's Fair, amusement parks 'popped-up' like dandelions.
From Wikipedia: The Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition was a world's fair held in Omaha, Nebraska from June 1 to November 1 of 1898. Its goal was to showcase the development of the entire West, stretching from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Coast. The Indian Congress was held concurrently.
From Wikipedia: The Exposition Universelle of 1900 was a world's fair held in Paris, France, from 14 April to 12 November 1900, to celebrate the achievements of the past century and to accelerate development into the next. The style that was universally present in the Exposition was Art Nouveau.
W. E. B. du Bois's Data Portraits by
The colorful charts, graphs, and maps presented at the 1900 Paris Exposition by famed sociologist and black rights activist W. E. B. Du Bois offered a view into the lives of black Americans, conveying a literal and figurative representation of "the color line." From advances in education to the lingering effects of slavery, these prophetic infographics --beautiful in design and powerful in content--make visible a wide spectrum of black experience.
Black Lives 1900: W. E. B. du Bois at the Paris Exposition
How W.E.B. Du Bois combined photographs and infographics to communicate the everyday realities of Black lives and the inequities of race in America At the 1900 Paris Exposition the pioneering sociologist and activist W.E.B. Du Bois presented an exhibit representing the progress of African Americans since the abolition of slavery. In striking graphic visualisations and photographs (taken by mostly anonymous photographers) he showed the changing status of a newly emancipated people across America and specifically in Georgia, the state with the largest Black population. This beautifully designed book reproduces the photographs alongside the revolutionary graphic works for the first time, and includes a marvelous essay by two celebrated art historians, Jacqueline Francis and Stephen G. Hall. Du Bois' hand-drawn charts, maps and graphs represented the achievements and economic conditions of African Americans in radically inventive forms, long before such data visualization was commonly used in social research. Their clarity and simplicity seems to anticipate the abstract art of the Russian constructivists and other modernist painters to come. The photographs were drawn from African American communities across the United States. Both the photographers and subjects are mostly anonymous. They show people engaged in various occupations or posing formally for group and studio portraits. Elegant and dignified, they refute the degrading stereotypes of Black people then prevalent in white America. Du Bois' exhibit at the Paris Exposition continues to resonate as a powerful affirmation of the equal rights of Black Americans to lives of freedom and fulfilment. Black Lives 1900 captures this singular work. American sociologist, historian, author, editor and activist W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963) was the most influential Black civil rights activist of the first half of the 20th century. He was a protagonist in the founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909, and his 1903 bookThe Souls of Black Folk remains a classic and a landmark of African American literature.
Frances Benjamin Johnston: the Hampton Album (Deluxe Edition) by
Comprised of 159 extraordinary platinum plates, Frances Benjamin Johnston's Hampton Album documents life at the Hampton Institute marking a pivotal moment in this historically black university's history .Frances Benjamin Johnston (American, 1864-1952), one of the first women in America to work as a professional photographer, was commissioned in 1899 to photograph the Hampton Institute, then a thirty year old institution dedicated to the practical and academic education of freed slaves and Native Americans. What became known as the Hampton Album - comprised of 159 platinum plates exhibited in 1900 at the Exposition Universelle in Paris - is Johnston's signature work, and has become a touchstone for contemporary historians and artists. The leather-bound album was discovered serendipitously by Lincoln Kirstein in a Washington, D.C. bookstore during World War II and donated to MoMA in 1965.
From Wikipedia: The Pan-American Exposition was a World's Fair held in Buffalo, New York from May 1 through Nov. 2, 1901.
Doin' the Pan. Website with tours of all the buildings, documents, and more.
Official Catalogue and Guide Book to the Pan-American Exposition (full e-book)
Pan-American Exposition of 1901 (includes films)
Buffalo's Pan-American Exposition by
One of a series of popular turn-of-the-century international expositions, the Pan-American Exposition of 1901 emphasized Western Hemisphere production and trade. The Pan-Am flaunted America's status as a leading international power after the victory from the 1898 Spanish-American War. In this engaging pictorial history, discover the relationship between the exposition and its host city of Buffalo, and the triumphs and tragedies it endured. Discover the booming Buffalo of 1900, with its links to midwestern agriculture and eastern markets. The city had abundant electric power, was home to several important industries, and had a wealthy and influential leadership. A logical venue for the exposition, Buffalo became home to a fair that paid tribute to the nation's industrial, agricultural, and commercial dominance. Along with Chicago in 1893 and other fairs that followed, the Pan-Am combined high-toned self-promotion in the formal exhibits with midway displays that made sport of other cultures and races. The exposition came to a shattering close with the assassination of Pres. William McKinley on its grounds in September. Neither the fair nor the city fully recovered. Buffalo's Pan-American Exposition explores a unique time in American history. Historians, scholars, and residents alike will delight in this fascinating collection of images from Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society.
From Wikipedia: The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, informally known as the St. Louis World's Fair, was an international exposition held in St. Louis, Missouri from April 30 to December 1, 1904.
Louisiana Purchase Exposition: The 1904 St. Louis World's Fair
St. Louis: The 1904 World's Fair by
For seven months in 1904, St. Louis was the greatest city on earth. Millions flocked to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition to behold the inventions of the early 20th century. Many saw electric lights, automobiles, aircraft, and moving pictures for the first time. At a time when few traveled more than a couple miles from home, visitors encountered the people and cultures of faraway lands. It was an educational experience, a "university of mankind." The Pike offered amusement rides, wild animal displays, and fanciful trips through the Hereafter and Creation exhibits. Fairgoers visited the Alps, the North Pole, Russia, and Paris and witnessed famous battles. Everyone wanted to ride the great Observation Wheel. There were hootchy-kootchy dancers and wonderful new foods, such as the ice-cream cone. But it was all temporary, a dream city made to last only a few months. With the exception of today's St. Louis Art Museum, the grand palaces are gone. St. Louis: The 1904 World's Fair tells the story of the greatest Victorian-era world's fair since the lights of the fair faded over a century ago, while also examining the fair's legacies and legends.
Anthropology Goes to the Fair by
World's fairs and industrial expositions constituted a phenomenally successful popular culture movement during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In addition to the newest technological innovations, each exposition showcased commercial and cultural exhibits, entertainment concessions, national and corporate displays of wealth, and indigenous peoples from the colonial empires of the host country. nbsp; As scientists claiming specialized knowledge about indigenous peoples, especially American Indians, anthropologists used expositions to promote their quest for professional status and authority. Anthropology Goes to the Fair takes readers through the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition to see how anthropology, as conceptualized by W J McGee, the first president of the American Anthropological Association, showcased itself through programs, static displays, and living exhibits for millions of peoplenbsp; “to show each half of the world how the other half lives.” More than two thousand Native peoples negotiated and portrayed their own agendas on this world stage. The reader will see how anthropology itself was changed in the process.
World on Display: Photographs from the St. Louis World's Fair by
Photography was an essential tool for scientists in many fields at the turn of the century. The 1904 world's fair offered anthropologists an unprecedented chance to see and record the world's 'primitive peoples' -- a final opportunity, many felt, for it was then widely believed that these 'vanishing races' would die out or be assimilated into the dominant societies around them. The images here are largely the work of seven photographers -- notably Jessie Tarbox Beals, the first woman photojournalist, and Frances Benjamin Johnston. Eric Breitbart discusses how and why the images were taken, and examines the photographers' widespread disregard for accuracy (few subjects were correctly identified by tribe, let alone name) and authenticity.
The Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition, officially known as the Lewis and Clark Centennial and American Pacific Exposition and Oriental Fair, was a worldwide exposition held in Portland, Oregon, United States in 1905 to celebrate the centennial of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
From Wikipedia: The Exposition Universelle et Internationale was a World's Fair held in Ghent, Belgium from April 26 to November 3, 1913 . Sometimes called the Ghent World's Fair.
From Wikipedia: The Panama–Pacific International Exposition (PPIE) was a world's fair held in San Francisco, California, U.S., from February 20 to December 4, 1915. Its stated purpose was to celebrate the completion of the Panama Canal, but it was widely seen in the city as an opportunity to showcase its recovery from the 1906 earthquake.
Empress San Francisco: The Pacific Rim, the Great West, and California at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition by
Available on JSTOR and ProQuest. When the more than 18 million visitors poured into the Panama-Pacific International Exposition (PPIE) in San Francisco in 1915, they encountered a vision of the world born out of San Francisco’s particular local political and social climate. By seeking to please various constituent groups ranging from the government of Japan to local labor unions and neighborhood associations, fair organizers generated heated debate and conflict about who and what represented San Francisco, California, and the United States at the world’s fair. The PPIE encapsulated the social and political tensions and conflicts of pre–World War I California and presaged the emergence of San Francisco as a cosmopolitan cultural and economic center of the Pacific Rim. nbsp; Empress San Francisco offers a fresh examination of this, one of the largest and most influential world’s fairs, by considering the local social and political climate of Progressive Era San Francisco. Focusing on the influence exerted by women, Asians and Asian Americans, and working-class labor unions, among others, Abigail M. Markwyn offers a unique analysis both of this world’s fair and the social construction of pre–World War I America and the West. nbsp; nbsp;
Empire on Display by
The world's fair of 1915 celebrated both the completion of the Panama Canal and the rebuilding of San Francisco following the devastating 1906 earthquake and fire. The exposition spotlighted the canal and the city as gateways to the Pacific, where the American empire could now expand after its victory in the Spanish-American War. Empire on Display is the first book to examine the Panama-Pacific International Exposition through the lenses of art history and cultural studies, focusing on the event's expansionist and masculinist symbolism.
Jewel City: Art from San Francisco's Panama-Pacific International Exhibition (1915) by
Timed with the centennial of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition (PPIE) of 1915, Jewel City presents a large and representative selection of artworks from the fair, emphasizing the variety of paintings, sculptures, photographs, and prints that greeted attendees. It is unique in its focus on the works of art that were scattered among the venues of the exposition the most comprehensive art exhibition ever shown on the West Coast. Notably, the PPIE included the first American presentations of Italian Futurism, Austrian Expressionism, and Hungarian avant-garde painting, and there were also major displays of paintings by prominent Americans, especially those working in the Impressionist style.
From Wikipedia: The British Empire Exhibition was a colonial exhibition held at Wembley Park, Wembley, England in 1924 and 1925, running from 23 April 23, 1924 to October31, 1925.
From Wikipedia: The 1929 Barcelona International Exposition (also 1929 Barcelona Universal Exposition, or Expo 1929 was the second World Fair to be held in Barcelona, the first one being in 1888. It took place from May 20, 1929 to January 15, 1930.
From Wikipedia: The Paris Colonial Exhibition (or "Exposition coloniale internationale", International Colonial Exhibition) was a six-month colonial exhibition held in Paris, France in 1931 that attempted to display the diverse cultures and immense resources of France's colonial possessions.
The 1933 Chicago World's Fair: A Century of Progress by
Chicago's 1933 world's fair set a new direction for international expositions. Earlier fairs had exhibited technological advances, but Chicago's fair organizers used the very idea of progress to buoy national optimism during the Depression's darkest years. Orchestrated by business leaders and engineers, almost all former military men, the fair reflected a business-military-engineering model that envisioned a promising future through science and technology's application to everyday life. But not everyone at Chicago's 1933 exposition had abandoned notions of progress that entailed social justice and equality, recognition of ethnicity and gender, and personal freedom and expression. The fair's motto, "Science Finds, Industry Applies, Man Conforms," was challenged by iconoclasts such as Sally Rand, whose provocative fan dance became a persistent symbol of the fair, as well as a handful of others, including African Americans, ethnic populations and foreign nationals, groups of working women, and even well-heeled socialites. Cheryl R. Ganz offers the stories of fair planners and participants who showcased education, industry, and entertainment to sell optimism during the depths of the Great Depression. This engaging history also features eighty-six photographs--nearly half of which are full color--of key locations, exhibits, and people, as well as authentic ticket stubs, postcards, pamphlets, posters, and other items.
Building a Century of Progress: The Architecture of Chicago's 1933-34 World's Fair by
From the summer of 1933 to the fall of 1934, more than 38 million fairgoers visited a 3-mile stretch along Lake Michigan, home to Chicago's second World's Fair. Millions more experienced the Century of Progress International Exposition through newspaper and magazine articles, newsreels, and souvenirs. Together, all marveled at the industrial, scientific, consumer, and cultural displays, many of which were housed in fifty massive and colorful exhibition halls, the largest architectural project realized in the United States during the Great Depression. In the richly illustrated Building a Century of Progress, Lisa D. Schrenk explores the pivotal role of the 1933 Chicago World's Fair in modern American architecture. She recounts how the exposition's architectural commission promoted a broad definition of modern architecture, not relying on purely aesthetic characteristics but instead focusing on new design solutions. The fair's pavilions incorporated recently introduced building materials such as masonite and gypsum board; structural innovations (for example, the first thin-shell concrete roof and the first suspended roof structures built in the United States); and new construction processes, most notably the use of prefabrication. They also featured curiosities like the giant, constantly operating mayonnaise maker and the glass-walled House of Tomorrow, which had no operable windows. Schrenk shows how the halls' designs reflected cultural and political developments of the period, including the expanding relationships between science, industry, and government; the rise of a corporate consumer culture; and the impact of the Great Depression. Many of the designs provoked intense responses from critics and other prominent architects, including Frank Lloyd Wright and Ralph Adams Cram, fueling heated debates over the appropriate direction for architecture in the United States. Demonstrating the rich diversity of progressive American building design seen at the fair, Building a Century of Progress captures a crucial moment in American modernism. Lisa D. Schrenk is assistant professor of architecture and art history at Norwich University and former education director of the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio Foundation.
From Wikipedia: The Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne (International Exposition of Art and Technology in Modern Life) was held from 25 May to 25 November 1937 in Paris, France.
France on Display: Peasants, Provincials, and Folklore in the 1937 Paris World's Fair by
The 1937 Paris World's Fair presented a traditionalist image of France as a rural, provincial country, faithful to its folk traditions and to its Old World heritage. France's attachment, well into the twentieth century, to its traditionalist roots has often been interpreted by scholars as a reactionary impulse, a desire to resist modernization or a wish to return to the past. However, in this book Peer argues that this enduring attachment in Third Republic France to peasants, provincials, and folklore was not inherently reactionary or anti-modernist. Instead, these aspects of France's "traditional" heritage were refashioned in new ways to allow France to modernize while still retaining it distinctive identity.
From Wikipedia: The 1939–40 New York World's Fair, which covered the 1,216 acres of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park was the second most expensive American world's fair of all time, exceeded only by St. Louis's Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904. Many countries around the world participated in it, and over 44 million people attended its exhibits in two seasons.
The New York World's Fair, 1939/1940 by
Photographic tour of best-loved world's fair: the 700-foot-tall Trylon; the 200-foot-wide Perisphere; GM's Futurama ride; 3-D movies; Elektro the 7-foot-tall robot; artwork by Salvador Dali, Rockwell Kent, Alexander Calder, and much more. 155 photographs. Map. Introduction. Captions. Index.
Twilight at the World of Tomorrow: Genius, Madness, Murder, and the 1939 World's Fair on the Brink of War by
The summer of 1939 was an epic turning point for America--a brief window between the Great Depression and World War II. It was the last season of unbridled hope for peace and prosperity; by Labor Day, the Nazis were in Poland. And nothing would come to symbolize this transformation from acute optimism to fear and dread more than the 1939 New York World's Fair.
World's Fairs on the Eve of War: Science, Technology, and Modernity, 1937–1942 by
Available on JSTOR and ProQuest. Since the first world's fair in London in 1851, at the dawn of the era of industrialization, international expositions served as ideal platforms for rival nations to showcase their advancements in design, architecture, science and technology, industry, and politics. Before the outbreak of World War II, countries competing for leadership on the world stage waged a different kind of war--with cultural achievements and propaganda--appealing to their own national strengths and versions of modernity in the struggle for power. World's Fairs on the Eve of War examines five fairs and expositions from across the globe--including three that were staged (Paris, 1937; Dusseldorf, 1937; and New York, 1939-40), and two that were in development before the war began but never executed (Tokyo, 1940; and Rome, 1942). This coauthored work considers representations of science and technology at world's fairs as influential cultural forces and at a critical moment in history, when tensions and ideological divisions between political regimes would soon lead to war.
Salvador Dali's Dream of Venus by
Life Magazine wrote that one funhouse at the 1939 World's Fair stood out among the others:"Dal's Dream of Venus, the creation of famed Surrealist painter Salvador Dal, is the most recent addition to the still-growing list of amusement-area girl shows and easily the most amazing. Weird building contains a dry tank and a wet tank. In the wet tank girls swim under water, milk a bandaged-up cow, tap typewriter keys which float like seaweed. Keyboard of piano is painted on the recumbent female figure made of rubber. In dry tank... a sleeping Venus reclines in 36-foot bed, covered with white and red satin, flowers, and leaves. Scattered about the bed are lobsters frying on beds of hot coals and bottles of champagne... .All this is most amusing and interesting." The building's modern, expressionistic exterior, with an entrance framed by a woman's legs, and shocking interior, including the bare-breasted "living liquid ladies" who occupied the tanks, caused quite a stir. The funhouse was so successful that it reopened for a second season, but once torn down it faded from memory and its outlandishness became the stuff of urban myth. Now, more than 60 years later, a collection of photographs of the Dream of Venus by Eric Schaal has been discovered. In stunning black-and-white and early Kodachrome, they show both the construction and the completion of the funhouse-from Dal painting a melting clock to showgirls parading for their audience. Salvador Dal's Dream of Venus reveals not only an eccentric work of architecture, but also a one-of-a-kind creation by one of the most fertile imaginations of the 20th century.
From Wikipedia: The Exposition internationale du bicentenaire de Port-au-Prince was a world's fair held in Port-au-Prince, Haiti in 1949 to mark 200 years since Port-au-Prince's foundation.
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