The Devil in the White City
My experience with the World's Fairs is mostly limited to looking up at their tall remains; my knowledge of them mostly gleaned from the Food Network.
Not that this is a completely arbitrary connection: food has had a particularly lively history at the World's Fairs.
Victorian culture frowned on the consumption of food in public, but like Carnival, the codes and mores were inverted at the Fair. Thus a lot of foods have their fable origins at the World's Fairs. The intolerably hot 1904 World's Fair was particularly prodigious: Iced Tea, the Ice Cream Cone, Cotton Candy, and the Hamburger all can be traced backed to St. Louis.
Chicago's World Columbian Exposition in 1893 also produced numerous firsts: the Cracker Jack, Diet Cola, Aunt Jemima Pancake Mix, Pabst Blue Ribbon, the Exotic Dancer, and the Serial Killer. The World's First Ferris Wheel was stationed mere blocks away from the University of Chicago Campus on the Midway Plaisance.
The primary function of the World's Columbian Exposition, according to one of its official chroniclers, was to not merely commemorate the discovery of the ‘New World’ - which was considered by many to be the most important secular event to have taken place since the dawn of time - but to glorify genius and the progress of civilization. Within this general framework, the spectacle of the Midway took on a curious function. Despite being a general area for amusements spatially separate from the rest of exhibitions halls, the Midway also featured 'denizens gathered from all quarters of the earth' in cultural exhibits. For example, on the Midway grounds, an entire Java village was reconstructed where West Javanese participants would engage and demonstrate 'traditional Sundanese activities' such as batik, weaving, and embroidery.
The Midway Plaisance was seen literarily as a laboratory, a tool for education and the advancement of knowledge.
Yet, in the reflective writings on the Fair by its principle organizers, we can truly see the nascent Social Sciences at their most nescient. There is a tension in the narrative of the Official History of the World's Columbian Exposition that I do not believe the author, Johnson Rotisser, himself was aware of: despite his claims of the “exact representation” (442) on the Midway, he also notes that “… at regular intervals a mock wedding procession passed along and an exhibition of acrobatic feats and jugglery and marvelous sword play took place in the square.” (439) Despite this artifice, he still believed that one could go to the Midway and spy through the windows of a mosque to observe "the exercises of the Moslem religion" as "performed by the faithful." (440)
In contrast to Rossiter’s glorification of genius and unabashed adoration for the scientific advancement made possible by the Midway Plaisance, another scribe of the fair, Benjamin Truman, was far more cynical and bellicose. His ire was raised by Rossiter's 'supposed natives', who were in actuality paid professionals whose sole goal was "to get all the money they can.” (550) As Truman succinctly puts it, “They have not come thousands of miles merely to add a picturesque feature to this wonderful exhibit. Almost all of them are professional traveling showmen, who pitch their tents in whatever portion of the globe offers the greatest inducements in hard cash. All the profuse explanations that they are here by special permission of Sultan this and Emperor that is bosh…” (550) Indeed, Truman was not far off in his analysis as the Midway had 2.5 million admissions with the concessions and sideshows generating over $4 million dollars.
One would think that within the context of this skepticism and the continuing crisis of 'Western scientific progress' the interest and enthusiasm for these large fairs would abate. Yet, the 2005 Expo at Aichi, Japan was well attended and signaled perhaps a new direction for the World's Fair: a focus on the "close links binding humanity to nature."
Whether this new orientation will continue in the tradition of building absurdly large structures and creating novelty foods remains to be seen.
Not that this is a completely arbitrary connection: food has had a particularly lively history at the World's Fairs.
Victorian culture frowned on the consumption of food in public, but like Carnival, the codes and mores were inverted at the Fair. Thus a lot of foods have their fable origins at the World's Fairs. The intolerably hot 1904 World's Fair was particularly prodigious: Iced Tea, the Ice Cream Cone, Cotton Candy, and the Hamburger all can be traced backed to St. Louis. Chicago's World Columbian Exposition in 1893 also produced numerous firsts: the Cracker Jack, Diet Cola, Aunt Jemima Pancake Mix, Pabst Blue Ribbon, the Exotic Dancer, and the Serial Killer. The World's First Ferris Wheel was stationed mere blocks away from the University of Chicago Campus on the Midway Plaisance.
The primary function of the World's Columbian Exposition, according to one of its official chroniclers, was to not merely commemorate the discovery of the ‘New World’ - which was considered by many to be the most important secular event to have taken place since the dawn of time - but to glorify genius and the progress of civilization. Within this general framework, the spectacle of the Midway took on a curious function. Despite being a general area for amusements spatially separate from the rest of exhibitions halls, the Midway also featured 'denizens gathered from all quarters of the earth' in cultural exhibits. For example, on the Midway grounds, an entire Java village was reconstructed where West Javanese participants would engage and demonstrate 'traditional Sundanese activities' such as batik, weaving, and embroidery.
The Midway Plaisance was seen literarily as a laboratory, a tool for education and the advancement of knowledge. Yet, in the reflective writings on the Fair by its principle organizers, we can truly see the nascent Social Sciences at their most nescient. There is a tension in the narrative of the Official History of the World's Columbian Exposition that I do not believe the author, Johnson Rotisser, himself was aware of: despite his claims of the “exact representation” (442) on the Midway, he also notes that “… at regular intervals a mock wedding procession passed along and an exhibition of acrobatic feats and jugglery and marvelous sword play took place in the square.” (439) Despite this artifice, he still believed that one could go to the Midway and spy through the windows of a mosque to observe "the exercises of the Moslem religion" as "performed by the faithful." (440)
In contrast to Rossiter’s glorification of genius and unabashed adoration for the scientific advancement made possible by the Midway Plaisance, another scribe of the fair, Benjamin Truman, was far more cynical and bellicose. His ire was raised by Rossiter's 'supposed natives', who were in actuality paid professionals whose sole goal was "to get all the money they can.” (550) As Truman succinctly puts it, “They have not come thousands of miles merely to add a picturesque feature to this wonderful exhibit. Almost all of them are professional traveling showmen, who pitch their tents in whatever portion of the globe offers the greatest inducements in hard cash. All the profuse explanations that they are here by special permission of Sultan this and Emperor that is bosh…” (550) Indeed, Truman was not far off in his analysis as the Midway had 2.5 million admissions with the concessions and sideshows generating over $4 million dollars.
One would think that within the context of this skepticism and the continuing crisis of 'Western scientific progress' the interest and enthusiasm for these large fairs would abate. Yet, the 2005 Expo at Aichi, Japan was well attended and signaled perhaps a new direction for the World's Fair: a focus on the "close links binding humanity to nature."
Whether this new orientation will continue in the tradition of building absurdly large structures and creating novelty foods remains to be seen.
posted by d l wright at 11/13/2005 03:27:00 PM
1 Comments:
Great post! I read that book "Devil in the White City" and all the details about Chicago and the fair and the general social/economic/cultural atmosphere was so incredibly fascinating.
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