Chicago hosted the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in the United States.
The fair opened in Chicago on May 1, 1893, and commemorated the four-hundredth anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s arrival in the Americas. Its main grounds, known as the White City, were built near Jackson Park and featured grand neoclassical buildings, lagoons, exhibits, and national pavilions.
The exposition displayed industrial technology, architecture, transportation, food, and cultural artifacts to millions of visitors. The Ferris wheel was introduced there, and the fair helped popularize electric lighting and new consumer products. It also influenced architecture and urban planning across the United States.
The celebration reflected nineteenth-century national pride but also carried serious problems. Indigenous peoples and non-Western cultures were often presented through colonial stereotypes, and the fair’s Columbus-centered story left out much of the history of Native Americans. Chicago’s successful bid also marked the city’s emergence as a major national center only a few decades after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.