The Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition: "To Work Out the Problem of Universal Civilization"

Abstract

DURING THE SUMMER OF 1898 OVER TWO AND ONE-HALF MILLION people traveled to an international exposition in Omaha. This Little City of the Beautiful was one in a series of international expositions that spanned the country between 1876 and 1916. Like the other fairs, the Omaha exposition represented an effort to put the world on view and shape the world view of millions of Americans.' As one opening-day speaker announced, The Exposition has become the instrument of civilization. Being a concomitant to empire, westward it takes its wayThe Crystal Palace, the Centennial, the World's Fair, the TransMississippi Exposition.2 Through the Arch of States, fairgoers first entered the Grand Court. Monumental white buildings devoted to agriculture, mining, manufacturing, fine arts, liberal arts, machinery, administration, and to the United States government lined the esplanade surrounding a half-mile-long lagoon. In whiteness and neoclassical design these structures resembled the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, but the ivy-covered col-