238: Shock of the New: The Legacy of the 1893 World’s Fair

BackStory

History, Education

4.7 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 11 May 2018

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The World’s Columbian Exposition opened 125 years ago this month. Known today as the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, it put the emerging United States and its host city on shining display. So, on this episode, Joanne, Ed, and Nathan explore the fairgrounds. They’ll discuss how electric power - a new experience for many Americans - illuminated the White City. And they’ll consider how this presentation of American progress came at a cost.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Major funding for backstory is provided by an anonymous donor,
0:03.4	the National Endowment for the Humanities,
0:05.6	the University of Virginia, the Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation,
0:09.2	and the Arthur Vining Davis foundations.
0:15.0	From Virginia Humanities, this is backstory.
0:24.6	Welcome to backstory, the show that explains the history
0:27.6	behind today's headlines.
0:29.4	I'm Ed Ayers.
0:30.4	I'm Nathan Connolly.
0:31.6	And I'm Joanne Freeman.
0:33.6	I thought we'd start today's show with a little field trip
0:37.0	to the shores of Lake Michigan just south of Chicago in May of 1893.
0:42.6	Now, a few months before, it had been a desolate stretch of dunes,
0:47.4	marsh, and unfinished construction.
0:49.9	But now is the site of the hottest ticket in the country,
0:54.3	the 1893 World's Fair,
0:56.6	also known as the World's Columbian Exposition.
1:00.2	I don't want to overstretch this,
1:02.8	but one of the words that occurs over and over again in the literature
1:08.2	is that this is a dream world.
1:11.0	It's a fairy land.
1:20.4	Coming to the fair,
	...

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