Decade of Fairs.

American cities in the 1900s were engaged in a fierce competition for prestige and status, and civic boosters looked to world's fairs as one vehicle for attracting press attention, visitors, and new business. Thanks to the stylistic and popular success of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, promoters in the 1900s sought to imitate it across the United States. The 1901 Exposition in Buffalo, New York, (where President William McKinley was assassinated); the 1904 Saint Louis exposition; the 1905 Portland, Oregon, World's Fair; the 1907 Jamestown (Virginia) Tercentennial; and the 1909 Seattle fair were among the major spectacles of the decade. Fairs attempted to educate and entertain their visitors. They usually featured displays of the latest technological marvels, from railroad locomotives to dynamos to new household gadgets. Countries from around the world often mounted exhibits designed to reflect their own technological and industrial...