ALL THE WORLD'S A FAIR: AMERICA'S INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITIONS, 1876-1916

The international expositions held in Philadelphia (1876), New Orleans (1885), Chicago (1893), Atlanta (1895), Nashville (1897), Omaha (1898), Buffalo (1901), St. Louis (1904), Portland (1905), Seattle (1909), San Franciso (1915), and San Diego (1915-1916) permeated American culture with a utopian vision of progress that was fundamentally racist. In the course of showing how the exposition builders molded the fairs into ideologically coherent symbolic structures, this study suggests that the expositions confirmed and extended the hegemony of the corporate, political, and intellectual leaders of the country and provided the ideological scaffolding for mass support for the governments's imperial policies.;The exposition builders put the world on view as part of their effort to shape the worldview of millions of Americans and thereby achieve a consensus about the future direction of American society. Infused with Darwinian theories about evolutionary progress, the expositions--if they were utopias--were utopias of the status quo which have left a lasting imprint on American life. Physical aspects of the expositions have persisted in the form of museums, parks, and architectural styles and the worldview which they promoted is a continuing ideological heritage.;The lynchpin in the symbolic universe projected by the exposition promoters were ethnological displays of non-whites. Generally located along the midway avenues of the fairs, village groupings of Asians, Africans, Afro-Americans, Latin Americans, and Native Americans presented visitors with a "living museum of humanity." When viewed against the backdrop of the monumental architecture of the main exposition buildings, these ethnological villages presented visitors with a racial hierarchy which blurred class distinctions among whites and gave them an opportunity to measure the potential of selected non-whites for emulating the American model of progress. Although the villages were generally set up by showmen, they were authenticated by prominent anthropologists from the Smithsonian Institution and from major universities. Professional anthropologists, moreover, established their own exhibits in order to popularize the discipline of anthropology. As a result of the ethnological content of the expositions, world's fairs became crucial vehicles for introducing millions of Americans to evolutionary ideas about race and progress.