the world as we know it today is overtly connected in almost every facet whether it's through culture
media technology or art though throughout the majority of human history this was not the case
global interconnectivity was only made possible through advanced forms of travel and communication
one cultural marker that points to the transition from global isolation to inclusion
is the world's fair which were also called world expositions
where people from all around the globe came to both present and admire scientific cultural or
artistic creation from their peers there have been several impactful iterations of the world fair
throughout history but one edition in particular was the 1893 world's colombian exposition
held in chicago for both the city of chicago and the entire world this event left a lasting
impact what's more for a city that was rebuilding itself after a devastating fire
the exposition proved as a shining example of chicago's resilience from the ferris wheel to
chicago-style hot dogs or woodrow wilson to electricity this edition of the world fair
often served as a first exposure to things that would become household names for many originally
held to commemorate the 400 year anniversary of christopher columbus's discovery of america
the world's colombian exhibition in chicago now serves as a marker within american history
itself signaling the height of the industrial revolution and more explicitly a foreshadowing
for passing the torch from europe to america in terms of geopolitical and cultural power today we
discover the world's colombian exposition i'm your host ryan socash and you're watching it's history
since the mid 1700s the world fair has been a momentous global event held every few years
and many feel that the popularity was a direct result of the industrial revolution
rapidly advancing technology in terms of communication and travel as well as exponential
hyper globalization of the world these expositions would not be possible without the global trends
of the time and as these developments became more prevalent in society the world's fair served as an
international celebration of technology scientific artistic and cultural advancements as us president
william mckinley said in 1901 quote expositions are the timekeepers of progress they record the
world's advancement and while the focus is usually on the technology or science a large part of each
event was also about the entertainment section which existed as an exhibition of music food
performances shows rides and many more in the united states this gathering was referred to
as world's fair whereas in europe or asia they were often referred to as world expositions
or expos and in the uk the event was called the world exposition showing how global of an affair
this really all became each edition usually lasts for several months
and was hosted in a single country making it a window for many to experience the culture
and the people of a particular nation or singular city since the mid-1700s there have been over 100
iterations of the world fair hosted in more than 20 countries since 1928 the governing
body which had scheduled and organized the world fair has been the bureau international death
or bie which runs out of paris france and surprisingly the world's fair is ongoing
with the most recent edition being expo 2020 which was rescheduled due to the pandemic and was
ultimately held from october the 1st 2021 to march 31st 2022 in dubai the next edition is expo 2023
and will be held in argentina but let's not get ahead of ourselves just yet the origin of the
world fair dates back to the later half of the 18th century in england where fairs and carnivals
were becoming very popular among the population in a time which saw the beginning of the industrial
revolution a lot of change was brought to europe specifically england and suddenly
common people were faced with new technology that was advancing faster than they could keep up with
so in an effort to spread both the understanding and the innovations themselves organizations like
the society of arts held their own events to display all of their inventions now across the
english channel in france the french government saw what england was doing and felt both impressed
but also intimidated so they sponsored several similar events to demonstrate french technological
superiority and with these two competing countries holding events throughout the rest of the century
the world's fair was imminent the world fair as we know it today with the same amount of
organization and formalization was hosted in 1851 with britain's great exposition at the famous
crystal palace hall with the underlying goal being a desire to spread british commerce throughout the
world from that point until the first world war world fairs were extremely popular events
drawing millions of visitors to each venue which were held in countries like australia guatemala
vietnam belgium and so on the expositions held in the u.s would be particularly impactful as they
signaled the growing power of the united states on the international stage with the 1893 fair in
chicago being a good example of that unfortunately though after both world wars the cold war and
various other global conflicts it became an impossible event to host across the world
like they normally would and sadly the world fair fell into obscurity but the legacy it left behind
will probably never die so now that we have the context let's discuss what happened in chicago
as the 1890s approached many americans wanted to host the next world fair especially in light of
all the excitement surrounding the groundbreaking 1889 world fair in paris they certainly wanted to
host the event around the year 1892 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of christopher columbus's
discovery of america already at that time both americans and europeans were aware of the possible
future in which the u.s became a world superpower books at the time even described columbus's voyage
as the most important event in human history aside from religious events such as the coming
of messiahs or prophets with the immense amount of potential power the u.s had those same books went
as far as comparing the us to the roman empire this was the mindset that the committee organizers
of the event had when building this iteration all they needed to do was choose an american
city to host and many cities came forward such as new york st louis washington dc but ultimately
chicago won out the midwestern city was chosen partly because of its central location
but mainly because of its advanced railway system which could easily transport visitors into and
around the city but what eventually became the deciding factor as to why chicago was selected
was actually the large public desire among citizens only a few years earlier the whole city
was rocked by the great chicago fire in the midst of a massive rebuilding process the population was
unified and wanted to express their resilience and ability to prosper to the entire world
so after chicago citizens raised five million dollars in funds chicago's world fair was greenlit
and construction began parts of the city were redesignated or newly built for the world fair
chicago's own daniel h burnham was made the chief architect and with charles b atwood as
his designer in chief and frederick law olmsted as the head of landscaping burnham had gathered the
greatest architects in america at the time to design and build the facilities to host
this great world fair some of these architects included richard morris hunt charles mckinnon
robert peabody george b post henry van brunt louis sullivan and so on all of these masters had
worked on some of the biggest and most important architectural projects of the time inspired by
the philadelphia centennial exhibition of 1876 which celebrated the 100th anniversary of the
united states as a country the designers decided that the chicago exposition would be held in a
collection of buildings across a portion of the city rather than just one hall the exposition was
planned to cover 686 acres in chicago's south side lakefront area currently known as jackson park
all the designers also had a particular interest in neoclassical architecture a style hearkening
back to ancient rome or ancient greece involving an emphasis on marble structures such as columns
arches domes and large extravagant buildings this type of architecture was the prevailing style of
all structures built and overall the complex made to hold this exposition was four times larger than
the previous fair in paris in 1889. on october the 1st president cleveland stood outside the
administration building and turned on the alice engine with the push of a button starting the
power for the entire exhibition the 1893 world's colombian exhibition finally officially kicked off
in chicago and people from all across the world immediately traveled to the city's south side
to experience the new innovations out on the lake many different ships were presented
such as replicas of columbus's ships the nina pinta and santa maria there was also a japanese
dragon boat a viking ship from norway and ventennial gondolas in the neo-classical
court of honor buildings massive exhibition halls presented the most cutting-edge technology and
electricity quickly became the most talked about topic as electricity was just about to become the
common commodity that it is today visitors were enamored with the new electric innovations such
as incubators for chicken eggs electric execution chairs the fax machine sewing machines electric
irons laundry washing machines the light bulb and various other engines this area of the expo
was eventually labeled the white city due to all the marble neoclassical aesthetics as well as the
fact that the buildings would be lit up at night with electrical lights other than the white city
the most illustrious portion of the expo was the midway section generally the midway section was
focused more on pure entertainment and audience enjoyment over time the midway got so popular that
it actually lured customers away from white city to which they responded by altering their exhibits
to accommodate for more crowd engagement soon the white city now offered contests like tug of war
tightrope walking parachute jumping as well as boat and swimming races however the midway was
most known for introducing the world to the ferris wheel if the lasting image of the
1889 world fair in paris was the eiffel tower designed by french architect gustav eiffel well
then the chicago world's fair committee wanted to design a revolutionary structure of its own
for this addition surprisingly gustav eiffel even offered to build another tower initially the plan
was to build a massive 1 500 foot tower made of wooden logs but in the end the committee wanted
the landmark structure of chicago's world fair to be designed by an american so they went with
george washington ferris who built the ferris wheel the final structure was a 250 foot diameter
wheel with seats on the perimeter revolving in between two 140 foot high towers the ferris wheel
was extremely popular attracting 1.4 million rides and selling for 50 cents per two rides
which was a lot back then the midway also had many circus acts including dwarf elephants two-headed
pigs and jugglers alongside other acts like harry houdini the ragtime piano player scott
joplin buffalo bill cody and the wild west show as well as beauty pageants music and food were also
large attractions for the fair including local cuisine but also culture found beyond musicians
bands choirs ensembles orchestras from states throughout the us as well as turkey egypt algeria
china indonesia scotland and many more appeared on stages in chicago displaying different cultures
was also a center part of the world fair and there were whole exhibitions dedicated to this
alongside german and irish villages there were also algerian belly dancers an indian reservation
several mosques and a cairo street many political speakers from all corners of the political
spectrum came to give speeches such as woodrow wilson susan b anthony jane adams frederick
douglass elizabeth stanton and others the legacy of the 1893 worlds colombian exhibition in chicago
still stands today as it has affected the world in many ways overall it cost a total of 28 million
three hundred and forty thousand seven hundred dollars to hold the exhibition with eighteen
million 678 thousand dollars spent just on construction and landscaping alone
however including both paid and free attendance somewhere between 25 and 28 million attended this
event and after subtracting the cost from the ticket sales 446 832 dollars were made in profit
proving that a large event like this celebrating cultures from across the globe could generate
a positive income it should also be stated that the u.s population at the time was only 63 million
and the country was in the midst of an economic depression making this turnout number even more
impressive dubbed the fair that changed chicago the citizens of this city were able to show their
strength to the world ultimately proving to be great hosts for an overall great exhibition
but chicago was not alone amongst those who were impacted by the 1893 world fair food was
one area in particular that this expo drastically changed without most people even being aware of it
for example most today would consider hamburgers and soda as a stereotypical american cuisine
but the 1893 world fair was the first time that many americans ever tried this food in their
entire lives even the famous chicago style hot dog which many would say is chicago's signature
dish is claimed to have been created at this world fair in fact many food items which are commonplace
today can draw their roots back to this event such as brownies juicy fruit gum cracker jacks
and pabst beer as we said before the centerpiece for all the technological exhibits was electricity
and while electricity had already been harnessed as a source of power by european inventors for
several years prior things like electrical light electrical appliances or engines were not common
household items just yet meaning this was the first time many americans had even laid eyes on
them the 1893 world fair also had a lingering influence on architecture with the cultural
significance of this demonstration leading to a revival of classical architecture at the turn of
the century as a result in the next few years many government and state buildings across the country
were inspired by the white city incorporating classical stylistic icons like columns pediments
statues and heavy use of marble or stone one of the most critical but also intangible effects of
the 1893 world fair in chicago was the new role the u.s was assuming on the world stage from the
era of european colonization in the 1500s to this point in the 1890s the european powers
like britain france and the netherlands spain or portugal were the undisputed global superpowers
as kingdoms or empires outside of the european continent simply could not compete economically or
were defeated militarily so slowly that they faded away but now in 1893 the united states of america
emerged as a rising power with the potential to topple the european giants especially since the
u.s had long since overcome internal issues in the civil war and the mexican-american war with a huge
growing population and a vast territory containing seemingly endless resource the sleeping giant was
awakened during the industrial revolution the early years of this time frame saw great britain
tighten its grip on free trade and the world economy but now the greatest innovations appeared
in america with this world fair in chicago serving as proof in hindsight the us did not
truly become a global superpower until it emerged as the strongest one standing in the ashes of the
second world war but the 1890s was certainly a preview of things to come and with that
once you get done hitting that subscribe button anyways this is ryan silkesh signing off