Chicago World’s Fair 1933
The World’s fair originally began with the French Industrial Exposition of 1844 which was held in Paris, France. The purpose of this fair was to put light to the new inventions in France and to show the public how they were useful. This exposition was soon followed by many other national exhibitions in Europe, and eventually became a worldwide event. These World Fair’s were used to bring country’s together in one place to show off their new technology, mostly for trading purposes. Some of the most important inventions of the century were presented at World’s Fair, for example the telephone.
A Century of Progress International Exposition was held in 1933 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the city itself. The purpose of this fair was to show the world the newest and greatest inventions and show off why they are so great and useful. This fair was held on Lake Michigan, which was immediately South of Chicago’s downtown area. "This fair was open from May 27, 1933-November 12, 1933, originally only meant for one season but was extended for another year, reopening on May 26, 1934, and closing on October 31, 1934. This extension was due in part to the fair’s public popularity, but mainly as an effort to earn sufficient income to retire its debts” (Chicago HS) The world’s fair was very expensive though it brought it a lot of revenue for the city itself but the United States as a whole as well. This money was very important because the United States was beginning their initial climb out of the stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression. “In the early planning stages, $171,400 was raised by the sale of Founder and Sustaining Memberships” (Chicago HS). The reason this fair or Century of Progress got so much outside funding was because the US government was still fighting and dealing with the Depression, though they did “fund appropriately $1,725,000” (Chicago HS).
The Century of Progress was a huge success, “A Century of Progress took place in a ‘golden age’ of world’s fairs. The grand total of attendance for the two years was 48,769,227” (Chicago HS). A Century of Progress took place in the heart of the Great Depression, and through that difficulty became one of the most famous, successful, world’s fairs.
The worlds fair idea is a pretty good thought and sounds like it would be really cool to go to in those times. What other major inventions were presented there that we still use today? It's interesting that in the depression with the bad economy etc. that 48 million people still attended the fair.
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