Chicago World's Fair, 1933

Chicago World's Fair, 1933

One of the most popular and visible spaces of internationalism were world fairs and exhibitions. From their origins in London’s Great Exhibition of 1851, world fairs were showcases for political and technological progress, but were often also spaces for overt displays of colonial power and stereotypical representations of various peoples. In the interwar years these fairs continued apace and embraced new modernist architecture and art. Chicago World's Fair, held at the centenary of the city’s founding and amidst the turmoil of great depression, was a celebration of American industrial and technological innovation. As ideas of progress and internationalism seemed increasingly distant, the fair marked a brave assertion emergence of the ‘American Century’ and gave some glimpse to the global role it would later come to play.

Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC-USZC4-11941 (color film copy transparency) LC-USZC2-642 (color film copy slide)