Author: Cheryl Ganz
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 0252078527
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 270
Get Book Here
Book Description
Chicago's 1933 world's fair set a new direction for international expositions. Earlier fairs had exhibited technological advances, but Chicago's fair organizers used the very idea of progress to buoy national optimism during the Depression's darkest years. Orchestrated by business leaders and engineers, almost all former military men, the fair reflected a business-military-engineering model that envisioned a promising future through science and technology's application to everyday life. But not everyone at Chicago's 1933 exposition had abandoned notions of progress that entailed social justice and equality, recognition of ethnicity and gender, and personal freedom and expression. The fair's motto, "Science Finds, Industry Applies, Man Conforms," was challenged by iconoclasts such as Sally Rand, whose provocative fan dance became a persistent symbol of the fair, as well as a handful of other exceptional individuals, including African Americans, ethnic populations and foreign nationals, groups of working women, and even well-heeled socialites. Cheryl R. Ganz offers the stories of fair planners and participants who showcased education, industry, and entertainment to sell optimism during the depths of the Great Depression. This engaging history also features eighty-six photographs--nearly half of which are full color--of key locations, exhibits, and people, as well as authentic ticket stubs, postcards, pamphlets, posters, and other it
Author: Lisa Diane Schrenk
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780816648368
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 357
Get Book Here
Book Description
From the summer of 1933 to the fall of 1934, more than 38 million fairgoers visited a 3-mile stretch along Lake Michigan, home to Chicago's second World's Fair. Millions more experienced the Century of Progress International Exposition through newspaper and magazine articles, newsreels, and souvenirs. Together, all marveled at the industrial, scientific, consumer, and cultural displays, many of which were housed in fifty massive and colorful exhibition halls, the largest architectural project realized in the United States during the Great Depression. In the richly illustrated Building a Century of Progress, Lisa D. Schrenk explores the pivotal role of the 1933 Chicago World's Fair in modern American architecture. She recounts how the exposition's architectural commission promoted a broad definition of modern architecture, not relying on purely aesthetic characteristics but instead focusing on new design solutions. The fair's pavilions incorporated recently introduced building materials such as masonite and gypsum board; structural innovations (for example, the first thin-shell concrete roof and the first suspended roof structures built in the United States); and new construction processes, most notably the use of prefabrication. They also featured curiosities like the giant, constantly operating mayonnaise maker and the glass-walled House of Tomorrow, which had no operable windows. Schrenk shows how the halls' designs reflected cultural and political developments of the period, including the expanding relationships between science, industry, and government; the rise of a corporate consumer culture; and the impact of the Great Depression. Many of the designs provoked intense responses from critics and other prominent architects, including Frank Lloyd Wright and Ralph Adams Cram, fueling heated debates over the appropriate direction for architecture in the United States. Demonstrating the rich diversity of progressive American building design seen at the fair, Building a Century of Progress captures a crucial moment in American modernism. Lisa D. Schrenk is assistant professor of architecture and art history at Norwich University and former education director of the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio Foundation.
Author: Bill Cotter
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1439649472
Category : Photography
Languages : en
Pages : 128
Get Book Here
Book Description
It took six years and cost $100 million, but on May 27, 1933, the gates swung open on the biggest birthday party the city of Chicago had ever seen. The Century of Progress Exposition, better known as the 1933-34 Chicago World's Fair, commemorated the amazing progress that had been made since the founding of the city just 100 years earlier. Many of America's largest companies joined with countries from around the world to showcase their histories and advertise their newest products. The road to opening day was not an easy one, with the Great Depression making it look like the fair might never be built, but thousands of small investors stepped forward to help close the financial gap. The fair went on to an unprecedented second season, and when the gates finally closed after the last of the 39 million visitors went home, it had achieved something quite rare among world's fairs: earning a profit. This collection of rare photographs, previously unpublished, highlights the major attractions of the fair and the astonishing changes made between seasons.
Author: Robert W. Rydell
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226732371
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 281
Get Book Here
Book Description
In the depths of the Great Depression, when America's future seemed bleak, nearly one hundred million people visited expositions celebrating the "century of progress." These fairs fired the national imagination and served as cultural icons on which Americans fixed their hopes for prosperity and power. World of Fairs continues Robert W. Rydell's unique cultural history—begun in his acclaimed All the World's a Fair—this time focusing on the interwar exhibitions. He shows how the ideas of a few—particularly artists, architects, and scientists—were broadcast to millions, proclaiming the arrival of modern America—a new empire of abundance build on old foundations of inequality. Rydell revisits several fairs, highlighting the 1926 Philadelphia Sesquicentennial, the 1931 Paris Colonial Exposition, the 1933-34 Chicago Century of Progress Exposition, the 1935-36 San Diego California Pacific Exposition, the 1936 Dallas Texas Centennial Exposition, the 1937 Cleveland Great Lakes and International Exposition, the 1939-40 San Francisco Golden Gate International Exposition, the 1939-40 New York World's Fair, and the 1958 Brussels Universal Exposition.
Author: Bessie Louise Pierce
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226668215
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 573
Get Book Here
Book Description
Sometimes it takes an outsider to capture the essence of an individual place. The impressions of travelers in particular have a special allure—unanticipated and serendipitous, their views get to the heart of a particular region because nothing to them is routine or expected. First published in 1933 by the University of Chicago Press to mark the occasion of the Century of Progress Exhibition, As Others See Chicago consists of writings culled from over a thousand men and women who visited the city and commented on the best and worst it had to offer, from the skyscrapers to the stockyards. Originally compiled by Bessie Louise Pierce, the first major historian of Chicago, and featuring her own incisive commentary, the volume brings together the impressions of visitors to Chicago over two and a half centuries, from the early years of Westward Expansion to the height of the Great Depression. In addition to writings from better known personalities such as Rudyard Kipling and Waldo Frank, the book collects the opinions of missionaries, aristocrats, journalists, and politicians—observers who were perfectly placed to comment on the development of the city, its inhabitants, and well known events that would one day define Chicago history, such as the Great Fire of 1871 and the 1893 World's Fair. Taking us back to a time when Chicago was "more astonishing than the wildest visions of the most vagrant imaginations," As Others See Chicago offers an enthralling portrait of an enduring American metropolis.
Author: Chicago. Century of progress international exposition
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Chicago. Century of progress exposition,1933
Languages : en
Pages :
Get Book Here
Book Description
Author: Chicago Tribune
Publisher: Agate Publishing
ISBN: 1572844450
Category : Photography
Languages : en
Pages : 107
Get Book Here
Book Description
“A true gem . . . period images of the Windy City and a glimpse back at a moment that not only shaped the city of Chicago but the world around us today. ” —Week99er Between 1933 and 1934, over forty-eight million visitors attended “A Century of Progress Exposition,” the world’s fair located in Chicago, Illinois. Conceived of during the Roaring Twenties and born during the Great Depression, this was a sprawling event celebrating Chicago’s one-hundredth anniversary with industrial and scientific displays, lascivious entertainment, and a touch of unadulterated bad taste. Century of Progress is a collection of rare photographs from the world’s fair that have been carefully chosen from the Chicago Tribune’s voluminous archives. Featuring an informative introduction by Tribune reporter and historian Ron Grossman, this book documents one of the most expansive displays of technological advancement and cultural diversity that took place in the twentieth century. The lakefront exposition, on the present site of McCormick Place and Northerly Island, opened on May 27, 1933, and was reopened in 1934 at the urging of President Franklin D. Roosevelt who hoped it would stimulate the Depression-era economy. This book is an engrossing and fascinating look at the numerous sides of the “A Century of Progress Exposition”: the whimsical attractions, the architectural and scientific achievements, the palpable spirit of fun, and the occasionally unsavory exhibits of differing cultures. At a time when the entire U.S. population numbered just over 125 million people, the Chicago world’s fair left an indelible mark on the collective consciousness of American culture, and Century of Progress captures that feeling as only a photograph can.
Author: A Century of Progress Exposition, 1933 (CHICAGO)
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 10
Get Book Here
Book Description
Author: Robert W. Rydell
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780300149579
Category : Century of Progress International Exposition
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Get Book Here
Book Description
Based on an exhibition held at the National Building Museum, Washington, DC, October 2010-July 2011.
Author: Joseph M. Di Cola
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 0738594415
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 130
Get Book Here
Book Description
What came to be known as the World s Columbian Exposition was planned to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus s 1492 landfall in the New World. Chicago beat out New York City, St. Louis, Missouri, and Washington, DC, in its bid as host a coup for the Windy City. The site finally selected for the fair was Jackson Park, originally designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, a marshy area covered with dense, wild vegetation. Daniel H. Burnham and John W. Root were selected as chief architects, creating the famous White City. The fair featured several different thematic areas: the Great Buildings, Foreign Buildings, State Buildings, and the Midway Plaisance, a nearly mile-long area that featured exotic exhibits. The exposition also showcased the world s first Ferris Wheel and introduced fairgoers to new sensations like Cracker Jack, Pabst Beer, and ragtime music. The World s Columbian Exposition, covering 633 acres, opened on May 1, 1893. Admission prices were 50cents for adults, 25cents for children under 12 years of age, and free for children under six. Unfortunately, by 1896, most of the fair s buildings had been removed or destroyed, but this collection takes readers on a tour of the grounds as they looked in 1893."