Background.

American world's fairs, also called international expositions, trace their beginnings to London's 1851 Crystal Palace Exhibition, the first world's fair. This exposition started a tradition of displaying agricultural and mechanical exhibits. The first American international fair was in New York (1853), but it was a financial failure. The success of the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, put together by a group of Philadelphia civic leaders and the federal government, launched the first generation of American world's fairs.

World's Columbian Exposition.

The Chicago world's fair of 1893 took place one year after the anniversary it was supposed to commemorate, the four hundredth anniversary of Columbus's voyage of discovery to America. It was the largest and most elaborate nineteenth-century exposition held in the United States. After leaving the fairgrounds, an old midwestern farmer reportedly told his wife that it was worth visiting the exposition "even if it did take all...