WORLD'S FAIRS AND TEMPORARY CITIES

The World's Columbian Exposition opened in Chicago in 1893. It was huge,
beautiful, highly organized and temporary. Those facts are not in conflict.

The Library of Congress describes Jackson Park as a site of more than 600
acres with dozens of major structures and exhibits from the United States
and roughly 100 countries. The official directory, published in 1893, names
officers, architects, departments, buildings and exhibitors. The exposition
was not an unexplained city that appeared in the historical record after the
fact. It generated an enormous paper trail while it was happening.

THE WHITE CITY

Many of the major buildings used staff, a construction material made from a
plaster-like mixture applied over structural supports. A Library of Congress
report lists staff, wood, iron and glass among the materials of the major
buildings. The material helped produce grand classical surfaces quickly and
economically for an exhibition whose structures were not generally intended
to survive for centuries.

The Library of Congress map collection includes proposed plans, guide maps,
architectural drawings and photographs. The LOC's 2024 map article explains
the site, the Great Buildings, staff, the Woman's Building and the fact that
most of the structures were not built to last.

That temporary quality is sometimes mistaken for evidence that the buildings
were inherited from an earlier civilization. The evidence points the other
way. The buildings were planned as part of an exposition, documented as
exposition buildings, made from materials suitable for temporary spectacle,
and mostly removed after the event.

The story is not less impressive because it is documented. Architects,
landscape planners, contractors, decorators, exhibitors, electricians,
transport workers and thousands of other people assembled a temporary city
to persuade visitors that the modern world had arrived.

The same research method works for the 1901 Pan-American Exposition, the
1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition and the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition:
identify the official exposition, find its directory and planning documents,
locate construction photographs, check the materials, then follow the
demolition and surviving-structure records.

WHY TEAR IT DOWN?

Because the fair ended. Land had another use. Temporary buildings cost money
to maintain. Fire, weather and construction materials mattered. Some
structures survived because they were useful, rebuilt or made durable enough
for another purpose. The existence of survivors is a useful reminder that
there was no requirement to erase everything.

Destroying a temporary exposition building is not evidence that its builders
were trying to erase a civilization. It is evidence that an exposition had a
closing date and a site with a future.

The beauty is real. The builders are real. The temporary plan is real too.

SOURCE:
Library of Congress, Chicago in 1893: Selected Maps
https://blogs.loc.gov/maps/2024/12/chicago-worlds-fair-selected-maps/

SOURCE:
Official Directory of the World's Columbian Exposition, 1893
https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcmassbookdig.officialdirector00worl/?st=gallery

SOURCE:
Congressional report with cost, area and materials of exposition buildings
https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/ll/llserialsetpdf/03/04/8_/00/_0/0/03048_00_00-020-1660-0000/SERIALSET-03048_00_00-020-1660-0000.pdf

SOURCE:
Smithsonian Institution Archives exposition records
https://siarchives.si.edu/collections/siris_arc_216677