page_1169 < previous page page_1169 next page > Page 1169 organized America's first international fair in New York City in 1853. But the fair's financial failure together with the mounting sectional crisis postponed the emergence of a bona fide world's fair movement in the United States until 1876, when a group of Philadelphia civic leaders together with the federal government organized an international exhibition to celebrate the nation's centennial and its reunification after the Civil War. The success of the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in attracting millions of visitors launched the first generation of American international fairs. By 1916, fairs organized in New Orleans (18841885), Chicago (1893), Atlanta (1895), Nashville (1897), Omaha (1898), Buffalo (1901), Charleston (1901), St. Louis (1904), Portland (1905), Jamestown (1907), Seattle (1909), San Francisco (1915), and San Diego (19151916) had attracted nearly 100 million visitors. The Chicago fair included a mile-long entertainment strip, and every subsequent fair incorporated a variant of the midway idea. The purpose of these expositions was summed up by President William McKinley just before he was assassinated at the 1901 Buffalo fair. "Expositions," he declared, "are timekeepers of progress." Through the world's fairs held during the economic convulsions of the late Victorian era, organizers laid out blueprints for national progress that centered on technological advance, nationalism, imperialism, and white supremacy. All the fairs exhibited the latest in technological marvels, ranging from the Corliss engine at Philadelphia to an early motion picture camera at Chicago. The Pledge of Allegiance was written for the dedication ceremonies of the Chicago exposition, and the Liberty Bell journeyed to many of the fairs. During the prolonged economic depression that followed the panic of 1873, the fairs exhibited a cornucopia of agricultural surpluses as well as a variety of industrial products intended to foster the image of a healthy economy. The fairs also served as seedbeds for the emergence of modern advertising and the mass amusement industry. Equally important to the promotion of a vision of American progress were displays of nonwhite people, frequently arranged by anthropologists from the Smithsonian Institution and universities. These so-called living ethnological exhibits of Africans, Asians, and American Indians, often arranged along exposition midways, introduced millions of Americans to Darwinian ideas about racial advance and lent legitimacy to the imperial ambitions of exposition organizers. St. Louis fair authorities, for instance, organized twelve hundred Filipinos into a "Philippines Reservation" that was intended to promote American colonial policies in that nation. Set against the backdrop of temporary but palatial "white cities" constructed on the main exposition grounds, these exhibits underscored the racist nature of turn-of-the-century American society. When the First World War caused many Americans to call into question the ideas of progress and of science and technology acting as guarantors of the nation's future, industrialists and scientists launched a cultural offensive with a new generation of world's fairs. Just as the 1926 Philadelphia Sesquicentennial Exposition was faltering owing to the failure of many exhibitors to have their displays ready for opening day, business leaders in Chicago decided to organize a fair to commemorate the centennial birth of their city and turned to the National Research Council for scientific expertise in formulating a philosophy for their exposition. With the stock market crash and the ensuing depression, however, the Century of Progress Exposition (19331934) took on unexpected importance and spurred the organization of expositions in San Diego (19351936), Dallas (1936), Cleveland (1936), San Francisco (19391940), and New York City (19391940). Fairs during the depression era drew audiences that nearly equaled the attendance at the earlier fairs and became a central part of New Deal efforts to demonstrate the government's concern for the economic and social welfare of Americans. The fairs provided thousands of jobs and gave countless fairgoers the opportunity to imagine a better future based on a partnership of government and corporation planners on the one hand and scientists and engineers on the other. Exhibits, ranging from an early display of television at the Chicago fair to General Motors's World of Tomorrow display at the New York World's Fair, Â < previous page page_1169 next page >