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Chicago World's Fair and First Parliament of Religions

Umar F. Abd‐Allah

in A Muslim in Victorian America: The Life of Alexander Russell Webb

This chapter begins with a discussion of the Chicago World's Fair. It then describes the First World's Parliament of Religions, which was one of the most promising events of the Victorian era. ... More

This chapter begins with a discussion of the Chicago World's Fair. It then describes the First World's Parliament of Religions, which was one of the most promising events of the Victorian era. Organizationally, it was a branch of the Chicago World's Fair and constituted one of its many secondary congresses. Webb's participation in the parliament marked his moment of maximum public exposure, while also offering him the opportunity to establish valuable contacts for future work.Less

The Utah World's Fair Commission: The Utah Territory at the Columbian Exposition

Reid L. Neilson

in Exhibiting Mormonism: The Latter-day Saints and the 1893 Chicago World's Fair

There were forty-four states in America when the Columbian Exposition opened to the world in May 1893. Utah was still a territory but was well on its way to statehood since polygamy had been ... More

There were forty-four states in America when the Columbian Exposition opened to the world in May 1893. Utah was still a territory but was well on its way to statehood since polygamy had been disavowed by LDS leaders in 1890. Most states and territories, including Mormon-dominated Utah, sought to advertise their achievements on the international stage through local government-sponsored buildings and exhibits in the northern section of the White City. These costly structures became popular meeting places for residents of the various states as well as public showcases of their home state's contributions to the greatness of America. They also served as headquarters for state and territory officials who held numerous receptions and frequent parties, all in hopes of impressing the outside world. The leaders and citizens of the Territory of Utah, most of whom were Latter-day Saints, were especially eager to be involved in such a cosmopolitan event.Less

Mormon Matriarchs: Lds Ladies at the World's Congress of Representative Women

Reid L. Neilson

in Exhibiting Mormonism: The Latter-day Saints and the 1893 Chicago World's Fair

Mormon women were not only involved in the Territory of Utah's exhibitions and the Tabernacle Choir; they also were active participants in a variety of Columbian Exposition events, most notably the ... More

Mormon women were not only involved in the Territory of Utah's exhibitions and the Tabernacle Choir; they also were active participants in a variety of Columbian Exposition events, most notably the 1893 World's Congress of Representative Women. In Chicago, LDS women represented their religion and their gender, both of which had been struggling for an improved position in America. Most historians are surprised to learn that Mormon women helped plan the first International Council of Women, held in conjunction with the Chicago World's Fair of 1893. While in the White City, LDS women not only attended the week-long World's Congress of Representative Women, they also presented several papers, chaired sessions, and voted on resolutions impacting their gender. The World's Congress of Representative Women was an empowering turning point for how LDS women saw themselves and how they were viewed by their fellow Americans.Less

Sweet Singers of Zion: The Mormon Tabernacle Choir at the 1893 Welsh Eisteddfod

Reid L. Neilson

in Exhibiting Mormonism: The Latter-day Saints and the 1893 Chicago World's Fair

Although the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's appointed role always has been its musical offerings for church meetings, its primary mission, since the Manifesto of 1890, has been to create a new and ... More

Although the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's appointed role always has been its musical offerings for church meetings, its primary mission, since the Manifesto of 1890, has been to create a new and improved image of Mormonism. In August 1893, two hundred and fifty of the Tabernacle Choir's best singers (along with several members of its management and staff) traveled from Utah to Illinois. There they competed in a Welsh eisteddfod—a musical competition held in conjunction with the Chicago World's Fair—against the leading choirs of the United States and Great Britain. Placing second in the highly competitive choral contest, the Tabernacle Choir vaulted their religion into the national spotlight. This chapter describes how and why heretofore-loathed leaders and laity were overwhelmed by the kindness and acceptance they received from the “Gentile” world on this trip to the eisteddfod. The Chicago World's Fair seemed to mark a new dawn for the public image of Mormonism, at least as a cultural institution.Less

Mormonism's Blacksmith Orator: Brigham H. Roberts at the World's Parliament of Religions

Reid L. Neilson

in Exhibiting Mormonism: The Latter-day Saints and the 1893 Chicago World's Fair

This chapter on Mormonism at the Parliament of Religions, taken together with the experience of the Tabernacle Choir at the eisteddfod, helps illuminate several larger issues. First, it provides ... More

This chapter on Mormonism at the Parliament of Religions, taken together with the experience of the Tabernacle Choir at the eisteddfod, helps illuminate several larger issues. First, it provides religious studies scholars and historians with a rich—and largely unknown—case study demonstrating “the ongoing process of revisioning religion in American history,” in the words of historian Richard Seager. Brigham H. Roberts and his fellow Latter-day Saints were denied the right to exhibit their faith in the main Columbus Hall, because Protestant organizers determined that Mormonism did not qualify as a “religion,” mostly because of its former practice of plural marriage. This helps set the stage to explain how and why LDS leaders subsequently attempted to exhibit Mormonism as an advanced cultural institution, rather than focus on its religious differences, to the outside world.Less

After the Chicago World's Fair: Exhibiting Mormonism in America, 1893–1934

Reid L. Neilson

in Exhibiting Mormonism: The Latter-day Saints and the 1893 Chicago World's Fair

The successes, as well as the failures, at Chicago helped LDS leaders realize the importance of exhibiting their ecclesiastical institution as a culturally advanced society thereafter. Striving for ... More

The successes, as well as the failures, at Chicago helped LDS leaders realize the importance of exhibiting their ecclesiastical institution as a culturally advanced society thereafter. Striving for Utah statehood as well as religious legitimacy, LDS leaders who ventured to the White City in 1893 became convinced of the image-shaping utility of such gatherings. While in Chicago, Mormons sensed the importance, from a public relations perspective, of deemphasizing polarizing spiritual beliefs and practices and instead highlighting their religion's cultural contributions. Rather than stressing the despised LDS theology and reviled cosmology, church members showcased their territory's natural resources, the progressive contributions of their women and young ladies, and the musical prowess of the Tabernacle Choir. From henceforth, Mormons sought to exhibit themselves, rather than be exhibited by others.Less

To Broadway with Love: She Loves Me and the 1964 World’s Fair

Philip Lambert

in To Broadway, To Life!: The Musical Theater of Bock and Harnick

This chapter follows the careers of Bock and Harnick through the early 1960s, when they collaborated with writer Joseph Masteroff and director Harold Prince on an adaptation of Ernst Lubitsch’s film ... More

This chapter follows the careers of Bock and Harnick through the early 1960s, when they collaborated with writer Joseph Masteroff and director Harold Prince on an adaptation of Ernst Lubitsch’s film The Shop Around the Corner. The resulting Broadway musical, She Loves Me, was a box office failure but a critical success, recognized for the warmth and ingenuity of its songs and its artful integration of music and drama. The show has grown in stature, especially among the theatrical community, since the 1963 premiere and was revived on Broadway in 1993. Bock and Harnick also wrote seven songs during this period for To Broadway With Love, a musical extravaganza produced at the 1964 World’s Fair.Less

“A Gun at the Heart of the City”: The world's fair stall-in and the decline of brooklyn core

Brian Purnell

in Fighting Jim Crow in the County of Kings: The Congress of Racial Equality in Brooklyn

Frustrated with their past efforts to desegregate employment fields, housing, and public schools, Brooklyn CORE plans a traffic snarling stall-in on all major highways leading to the site of the ... More

Frustrated with their past efforts to desegregate employment fields, housing, and public schools, Brooklyn CORE plans a traffic snarling stall-in on all major highways leading to the site of the World’s Fair on the fair’s opening day in 1964. Response to Brooklyn CORE’s audacious tactic is overwhelming and denunciatory. The chapter is labelled an extremist group and disaffiliated from National CORE. This is the chapter’s final major public campaign. After the stall-in, which never happens the way Brooklyn CORE advertised it would, the chapter struggles to find effective ways of combating northern racism.Less

“Which Way to the Philippines?”: United Stages of Empire

Lucy Mae San Pablo Burns

in Puro Arte: Filipinos on the Stages of Empire

This chapter examines dramatizations of U.S.–Philippine contact during the years leading up to, during, and immediately after the Spanish–American War. In the early years of the American empire, the ... More

This chapter examines dramatizations of U.S.–Philippine contact during the years leading up to, during, and immediately after the Spanish–American War. In the early years of the American empire, the Filipino/a performing body appears in piecemeal form on diverse U.S. stages, including the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, as part of chautauqua circuits, and on theater venues in major American cities such as New York and Chicago. The chapter specifically turns to two of these sites, the Philippine Reservation at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair and the musical comedy Shoo-Fly Regiment by the African American creative team of Bob Cole, J. Rosamond, and James Weldon Johnson. It approaches these various performing stages as “contact zones,” as complex terrains of interaction among American patrons, Filipino/a performers, and the Philippines. Furthermore, the chapter also asks how this early contact is present in contemporary Filipino Americans' self-imagination.Less

“From Dumps to Glory”: Flushing Meadows and the New York World’s Fair of 1939–1940

Kara Murphy Schlichting

in New York Recentered: Building the Metropolis from the Shore

This chapter examines the environmental reclamation of Flushing Meadows for the 1939-1940 Queens world’s fair. In the 1930s, the infamous ash dump at Flushing Meadows stood as stark proof of the ... More

This chapter examines the environmental reclamation of Flushing Meadows for the 1939-1940 Queens world’s fair. In the 1930s, the infamous ash dump at Flushing Meadows stood as stark proof of the consequences of an unplanned periphery. On this wasteland, planners merged urban environmental and technological infrastructure to build the fair, the “World of Tomorrow.” The 1939-1940 New York World’s Fair was at once an exercise in international fraternity, an amusement park, a utopian community, a trade show for American industry, and a celebration of consumer society. While the fair is most often remembered in terms of its futurist theme, the creation of the Flushing Meadows fairsite was grounded in the contemporary forces of city planning and federally-funded public works during the New Deal. Fair officials declared the filling of Flushing Meadows a triumph of engineering and environmental reclamation. But the removal of decades of ashes and garbage dumped into the marshes as well as the dredging and filling required to establish a foundation for the fair had environmental consequences. Viewed comparatively, fair construction and the World of Tomorrow’s most important exhibits on utopian cities emerge as complementary narratives of planning and environmental change to build the modern metropolis.Less

Making Memories

in Whose Fair?: Experience, Memory, and the History of the Great St. Louis Exposition

This chapter focuses on the role of David Francis, the president of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company, as leader of the first official memory organization generated by the 1904 St. Louis ... More

This chapter focuses on the role of David Francis, the president of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company, as leader of the first official memory organization generated by the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. Almost immediately, memory, as reflected in the Louisiana Purchase Historical Association organized by Francis, became more localized and part of the city's economic and cultural heritage. The film Meet Me in St. Louis, released in 1944, became a principal, if not the main, vehicle for recollecting the Fair and was regularly shown at commemorative events. The sources of memory, if not collective memory itself, are not, however, simply confined to organizations, but constitute important historical documentation existing in other formats and gathered at different times. These survive in two general forms: contemporary published personal accounts, diaries, and unpublished accounts and oral histories collected much after the fact. The chapter explores some of the theoretical and practical problems raised by collective memory that are revealed by memory organizations and official commemorations, as well as the perils and promises of using individual oral history and diary accounts.Less

Roosevelt's America: The Flickering Beacon

David Ellwood

in The Shock of America: Europe and the Challenge of the Century

Increasingly Roosevelt's 1930s America looked like European capitalism's last best hope. But what were the true lessons of its successes and obvious failures? ‘Middle’ opinion in Britain — ... More

Increasingly Roosevelt's 1930s America looked like European capitalism's last best hope. But what were the true lessons of its successes and obvious failures? ‘Middle’ opinion in Britain — personified by Keynes — took them seriously; the French Popular Front attempted to embrace them in lieu of the socialist revolution; everywhere the personal charisma and unbeatable optimism of the President served as an inspiration even as democractic politicians despaired that he would ever rescue them from the threat of war. But America was changing; an internationalist élite was girding itself to embrace the rendez-vous with history it saw in the Old World's collapse, developing its economic-determinist analysis of the roots of Europe's troubles, and presenting its view of a technologically driven, consumerist future with enormous panache at the New York World's Fair of 1939–40. But of all America's institutions, only Hollywood and the great foundations embraced the cause of European democracy openly, with the result that they became a mecca for the hundreds of intellectual and artistic exiles who fled to the US as war came.Less

Before the Chicago World's Fair: Exhibiting Mormonism in America, 1830–1892

Reid L. Neilson

in Exhibiting Mormonism: The Latter-day Saints and the 1893 Chicago World's Fair

One could argue that LDS leaders and laity did not engage in orchestrated public relations efforts during most of the nineteenth century. But this does not mean that Mormons were unconcerned with ... More

One could argue that LDS leaders and laity did not engage in orchestrated public relations efforts during most of the nineteenth century. But this does not mean that Mormons were unconcerned with their public image or ignorant about the way outsiders viewed them. There is little question that antebellum Mormons were careful about what they wrote in tracts, how they evangelized both domestically and internationally, and how they sought to remain in deliberate tension with their fellow Americans. Rather than trying to join hands with other Christians, Latter-day Saints sought to emphasize the “Restoration,” or return of Christ's primitive church to Joseph Smith, and thereby highlight what they believed was the deficient character of other forms of Christianity. Hardly a public relations strategy, this nevertheless proved quite an effective evangelization approach, as chronicled in this chapter. Prior to the 1893 World's Fair, Mormons emphasized their polarizing spiritual beliefs and practices rather than showcasing their cultural contributions to their fellow Americans.Less

Fair Game: Sampling Technology and World Cultures at Epcot

Cher Krause Knight

in Power and Paradise in Walt Disney's World

Chapter 5 focuses upon the profound influence that World’s Fairs, particularly those in the United States, had upon Walt Disney. The fairs offer keen insight into the conception and planning of ... More

Chapter 5 focuses upon the profound influence that World’s Fairs, particularly those in the United States, had upon Walt Disney. The fairs offer keen insight into the conception and planning of Disney World, especially Epcot. Disney’s work developing attractions for the 1964–65 World’s Fair in New York City, offers evidence of his fondness for these grand events. It also illuminates his desire to build an ideal city. Divided into Future World (devoted to technology) and World Showcase (a sampling of international cultures), Epcot prompts us to reconsider which products, technological revolutions, and social movements point the way toward “progress.” It also prompts Americans to reconsider the kinds of relationships they want to foster with their global neighbours.Less

Riding into the Future

Christopher Innes

in Designing Modern America: Broadway to Main Street

This chapter focuses on the 1939–40 World's Fair in New York; if the Chicago World's Fair six years earlier had been at least somewhat of a frustrating disappointment for Norman Bel Geddes, the ... More

This chapter focuses on the 1939–40 World's Fair in New York; if the Chicago World's Fair six years earlier had been at least somewhat of a frustrating disappointment for Norman Bel Geddes, the World's Fair was an unmistakable triumph. The two aspects of his double career, as scene designer and industrial designer/architect, intersect most tellingly in the exhibit he created for General Motors, Futurama. Futurama, by far the most popular single display at the New York World's Fair, stands as a graphic demonstration of the way Broadway theatricality helped to shape the images and material objects that define modern America. The central part of Futurama was the largest and most expensive scale model ever constructed. The display dramatized a futuristic vision of everyday life so successfully that it carried over in the public imagination through World War II.Less

Hollywood through a Broadway Lens

Charlotte Greenspan

in Pick Yourself Up: Dorothy Fields and the American Musical

This chapter focuses on Dorothy's return to Broadway. The Broadway to which Dorothy Fields returned in 1939 had not yet bottomed out financially. Every year in that decade saw fewer productions on ... More

This chapter focuses on Dorothy's return to Broadway. The Broadway to which Dorothy Fields returned in 1939 had not yet bottomed out financially. Every year in that decade saw fewer productions on Broadway than did the year before. Producers of shows in 1939 had hoped that with the increased number of visitors to New York to see the World's Fair, ticket sales on Broadway would go up, but in fact they went down. Nevertheless, many composers and lyricists who had tasted what Hollywood had to offer in the first half of the 1930s found themselves carried on a return current to New York.Less

The Beholder's Eye: Making Experience

in Whose Fair?: Experience, Memory, and the History of the Great St. Louis Exposition

This chapter considers individual and group experience in relation to the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. Reading through the historical and memory sources available and using the photographic evidence, ... More

This chapter considers individual and group experience in relation to the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. Reading through the historical and memory sources available and using the photographic evidence, it becomes possible to reconstruct, in some detail, how patrons at the Fair spent their time and money. Beyond revealing which displays and concessions were most popular, the chapter explores the function of state and foreign nation exhibits, the particular attraction of several concessions on the Pike, and then how special groups visited the Fair. Because hundreds of national organizations made St. Louis their convention headquarters for 1904, probably more than 100,000 visitors attended under the auspices of some organization. Others came to watch the Olympic Games held for the first time in the United States that year in St. Louis. Some came for the intellectual congresses. And, significantly, many were attracted to family reunions held on the fairgrounds.Less

Caliban and Unsublimated Primitivism: Villa-Lobos at the 1939 World’s Fair

Carol A. Hess

in Representing the Good Neighbor: Music, Difference, and the Pan American Dream

This chapter describes the conspicuous display of Pan American amity at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York in relation to Villa-Lobos, whose music was performed there. Critics, who largely focused on ... More

This chapter describes the conspicuous display of Pan American amity at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York in relation to Villa-Lobos, whose music was performed there. Critics, who largely focused on difference, detected two main facets of Villa-Lobos’s musical personality. One, commercialism, was deemed “vulgar.” Two, unsublimated primitivism, both intrigued and repelled for its evocation of a “savage” Other; by fulfilling expectations for “African rhythm” it also prompted racialist discourse and fed into then-current concepts of American (U.S.) rhythm. Grappling with these issues, critics at the Fair largely overlooked Villa-Lobos’s third style, universalism, manifested in his Bachianas brasileiras, which purported to link Brazilian folk music with the universality of Bach. Yet ultimately that opus established Villa-Lobos in the United States and neatly corresponded to the cultural agenda of Getúlio Vargas, whom the Roosevelt administration was then assiduously courting, with the Good Neighbor Policy in full swing at that time.Less