Exhibit opens October 26, 2012-January 6, 2013 at Elmhurst Historical Museum
What do the telephone, the Ferris Wheel, the horseless carriage, and nylon stockings have in common? They were just a few of the thousands of products, curiosities, and inventions that made their debut at one of 17 international festivals hosted on American soil.
The exhibition, Centuries of Progress: American World’s Fairs, 1853-1982, makes its Midwest debut at the Elmhurst Historical Museum from October 26 through January 6, 2013. This national touring exhibit, organized by the Hagley Museum and Library in Wilmington, Delaware, presents a remarkable overview of more than a century of American World’s Fairs.
Visitors will experience over 125 objects, photographs, and ephemera that detail the progress, innovation, and sense of wonder that became the hallmark of American World’s Fairs. Beginning with the 1853 Crystal Palace exhibition in New York through the 1982 World’s Fair in Knoxville, Tennessee, these international expositions emphasized the technological, cultural, and political advances that formed American society. The exhibit includes posters and artifacts from the two Chicago fairs: the World’s Columbian Exhibition of 1893, a commemoration of Columbus’s voyage to America, and the 1933 Century of Progress exposition, which was held in the midst of the Great Depression to such great success that it was extended for a second run in 1934 by presidential order.
Fair history is related through six thematic categories: Progress as a Way of Life introduces the rationale for the creation of World’s Fairs. Marketplace of Ideas demonstrates the immense opportunity manufacturers had to market new technologies, while Consumerism depicts fair-goers as an eager audience for innovative goods, from Cracker Jack to Wonder Bread and Dr. Pepper. Art, Architecture, and Music and Popular Amusements illustrate the vast entertainment options available to fair-goers, from colossal buildings and sculptures to carnival rides and exhibitions of “exotic” lands and cultures. Remembering the Fair includes souvenirs and commemorative items that have become popular collector’s items. After all, who could go home empty-handed after experiencing the wonders of a World’s Fair?
To supplement the Centuries of Progress exhibit with local flavor, the Elmhurst Historical Museum staff created the exhibit Elmhurst Goes to the Fair in the second floor gallery. This impressive display features artifacts from the Elmhurst Historical Museum’s own collection of Chicago World’s Fair memorabilia. Visitors will have the opportunity to see: an intricate carved bench that was gifted to Elmhurst’s first president, Henry Glos, by a Chinese businessman during the 1893 World’s Fair; the scrapbook of a young Elmhurst girl named Dorothy Brush who made seven trips to the 1933 fair; a painting by Elmhurst resident Caroline Wade, an exhibitor at the Columbian Exposition; articles of clothing from each era; plus slide shows of photographs and renderings of the fairgrounds. A special feature on Thomas Barbour Bryan – a dynamic orator, businessman, and civic leader – tells of this former Elmhurst resident’s efforts to organize and promote a World’s Fair in the wake of the Great Chicago Fire.
Centuries of Progress: American World’s Fairs, 1853-1982 is toured by ExhibitsUSA, a national program of Mid-America Arts Alliance, and will be open through January 6, 2013 at the Elmhurst Historical Museum, located at 120 E. Park Avenue in Elmhurst. The exhibit is sponsored by York Theatre and Classic Cinemas. Public gallery hours are Tuesday through Sunday from 1:00 until 5:00 p.m. General admission is free. For more information, call 630-833-1457 or visit our website at www.elmhursthistory.org.