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16.4: A Close Look at the 1893 World's Fair - Assessment

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    Assessment

    Select one of the following three options, and write an essay according to the instructor’s directions and rubric, if applicable.

    • Option 1: The 1893 World’s Fair was intended to honor Christopher Columbus’ voyage to the Americas, and this decision provides us with insight into the organizers’ values and perspective on history. If you were to design a World’s Fair today, is there a specific historical event you would want to commemorate? Which one, and why? Where would you suggest hosting such a World’s Fair, and how would you name and design the World’s Fair in order to make that inspiration understood by visitors?
      You are encouraged to add visual details to enhance your proposal but must at least describe your vision in words.

      color print showing aerial view of the 1893 Chicago's World Fair, looking down the Grand Basin toward the statue of Columbia LEFT: "Chicago World's Fair 1893" is marked with CC0 1.0.

    • Option 2: The 1893 World’s Fair was often described by visitors as a spectacle. Based on your exploration of primary source visual and textual records of the World’s Columbian Exposition, select at least three of the numbered points in Guy de Bord’s La Société du Spectacle (refer to this English translation The Society of the Spectacle by Ken Knabb) that would support this application of the term.
      Specify who acts as spectator as well as who and/or what is treated as the spectated object in the World’s Fair. Please elaborate on which of the aspects of the “spectacle” you view in a positive light, and which you view in a negative light, and why.
    • Option 3: Compare the images and description of the “White City” portions of the 1893 World’s Fair with the sections relegated to the “Midway Plaisance.” Describe at least three characteristics of each space’s contents (what each displayed), visual details, and message conveyed to the audience.
      Then pick one cultural institution that exists today (such as a museum or library) whose collections and presentation of those collections either remind you of the White City or the Midway Plaisance, and explain how/why.
      OR select a cultural institution that exists today which you instead see as challenging some of the assumptions or values that shaped those two World’s Fair spaces, and explain how/why this one is different from those.

    teepees from the 1893 World's Fair exhibit of Indians with white visitors in suits and hats walking by LEFT: "Village of Penobscot Indians - Chicago World's Fair 1893" by Aussie~mobs is marked with Public Domain Mark 1.0.

    This page titled 16.4: A Close Look at the 1893 World's Fair - Assessment is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Erica McCormack and Jack Lindsay.