BackStory: Shock of the New: The Legacy of the 1893 World’s Fair

Comprehension Questions

• What were some of the sights at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition?
• What was the meaning behind the fair? What was the official reason for celebrating? What else did the fair celebrate or highlight?

EDSITEment Resources

Take a ride above the fairgrounds with the virtual reality video Chicago00: A Flight on the 1893 Ferris Wheel.

Learn about other ways turn-of-the-century Americans enjoyed their free time with the lesson plan Having Fun: Leisure and Entertainment at the Turn of the Twentieth Century (grades 6-8).

Comprehension Questions

• What were some of the electric devices featured on the fairgrounds?
• Why was the fair’s use of electricity so exciting for fairgoers?
• What does “democratizing luxury” mean?
• What is “disruptive technology”? Can you think of some of the ways that electricity changed lives and society?
• How do you think the fair shaped people’s expectations about the future of technology and the role of new technology in their lives?
• Besides the lightbulb, what other nineteenth-century inventions were made possible by electricity?

EDSITEment Resources

Explore Thomas Edison’s inventions and gain a better understanding of life and technology at the turn of the twentieth century with the lesson plan Thomas Edison's Inventions in the 1900s and Today: From "New" to You! (grades 6-12).

Consider the class dimensions of technological advancement with the lesson plans The Industrial Age in America: Robber Barons and Captains of Industry (grades 6-8) and The Industrial Age in America: Sweatshops, Steel Mills, and Factories (grades 6-8).

Comprehension Questions

• What made the Woman’s Building such an innovative part of the exposition?
• Who had control over the Woman’s Building? Who was excluded from the planning process?
• Why do you think women like Bertha Palmer wanted the exhibit to focus on women’s accomplishments and avoid demanding more political rights for women?
• How did suffragists and women’s rights advocates express their political views on the fairgrounds?
• Why was there so much debate over women’s representation at the fair? What made the fair such an important opportunity for women in the nineteenth century?

EDSITEment Resources

Papers read at the World’s Congress of Representative Women are available online and can be used for primary source analysis. The closer readings commentary Teaching Women’s History Through Great Speeches can serve as a guide for teaching with speeches.

The following lesson plans can help contextualize nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century debates over women’s rights and suffrage:

• Who Were the Foremothers of the Women's Suffrage and Equality Movements? (grades 6-12)
• Women's Suffrage: Why the West First? (grades 6-12)
• Women's Equality: Changing Attitudes and Beliefs (grades 9-12)
• Voting Rights for Women: Pro- and Anti-Suffrage (grades 9-12)

Comprehension Questions

• What sights, sounds, and smells could fairgoers experience on the Midway Plaisance?
• What were the main messages that fair organizers and anthropologists tried to communicate with the ethnological villages? How did the physical organization of the Midway reinforce those messages?
• What does the account of the Dahomean parade chant tell us about the performers in the ethnological villages? How do you think they viewed their own participation and their mostly American audience?
• Do you agree with the idea behind the Midway that education can and should be entertaining?
• What do you think might be some of the legacies of the Midway?

EDSITEment Resources

Connect the ethnological villages to the evolutionary rhetoric of U.S. colonial and imperial expansion with the lesson plan The Impact of the Transcontinental Railroad (grades 6-8) and the curriculum The Birth of an American Empire (grades 9-12).

Comprehension Questions

• Why did Black activists write a pamphlet for fairgoers?
• What were the main messages of this pamphlet?
• Why was Haiti a symbol of Black progress to African American fairgoers?
• Why did Frederick Douglass not want to draw a connection between the Dahomey Village and the African American presence on the fairgrounds?
• Would you consider the 1893 World’s Fair a major event in African American history? Why or why not?

EDSITEment Resources

Build understanding of the complexity of post-Reconstruction racial tensions with the lesson plan The Battle Over Reconstruction: The Aftermath of Reconstruction (grades 9-12).

Ida B. Wells played a key role in ensuring African American representation at the 1893 World’s Fair. Find out more about her journalism career in the BackStory episode Behind the Bylines – Advocacy Journalism in America.

Further expand awareness of nineteenth-century Black activism with the teacher’s guide Rethinking Reconstruction: Black Community and Political Organizing and the closer readings commentary Activist Constellations: Recovering Black Women's Labor and Leadership.

Comprehension Questions

• What was the Parliament of the World’s Religions? Why was it a significant event?
• What were John Henry Barrows’s goals for the parliament? How did his Protestant Christian beliefs shape his expectations and assumptions?
• How did Swami Vivekananda’s message of spiritual equality challenge Westerners’ views of progress and civilization?
• Why was C.T. Strauss’s conversion to Buddhism surprising to the American public?
• How did the Parliament of the World’s Religions shape the future of religion in the United States?

EDSITEment Resources

Learn more about Buddhism and Hinduism with the lesson plans Haven't I Seen You Somewhere Before? Samsara and Karma in the Jataka Tales (grades 9-12) and Lessons of the Indian Epics: Following the Dharma (grades 9-12).

Founded in 2008, BackStory is a weekly podcast that explores the historical roots of current events. Hosted by a team of historians of the United States, the show features interviews with other scholars and public historians, seeking to bring U.S. history to life. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in the show do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Learn more at the BackStory website.