Exhibitions and Expositions. I INTRODUCTION Exhibitions and Expositions, public displays of industrial or commercial products or of fine arts. Although the terms are used interchangeably, in strict usage an exhibition is a display of such products or arts for a short period; an exposition is for a longer period and usually on a larger scale. Both exhibitions and expositions may be regional, national, or international, and may show only the products of a single industry, such as furniture or leather, or all products of human endeavor. II EARLY HISTORY Such displays have their origin in the large commercial fairs (see Fair) once common in Europe, to which every kind of merchandise was brought to be sold. It was discovered that exhibitions stimulated sales, and arrangements were ultimately made to exhibit merchandise not for immediate sale but for purposes of advertising and promotion. The first such exhibition was held in 1756-1757 in England by the Society of Arts, which exhibited all the entries and awarded prizes for the best English manufactured products. In 1798 an exhibition of every variety of French manufacture was held in Paris and was so successful that another was held later in the same year. After a third exhibition inaugurated by Napoleon in 1802, similar affairs began to be held triennially. In the U.S. the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia, founded in 1824, held exhibitions of scientific developments from time to time. The American Institute of New York, founded in 1828, held annual exhibitions at which inventors and manufacturers were invited to display new products. In Britain exhibitions began to be periodic events in the cities of Birmingham, Liverpool, and Manchester. In Ireland the Royal Dublin Society instituted triennial exhibitions in Dublin in 1829; at first only native products were shown, but foreign products were eventually included in the exhibits. The importance of such local exhibitions declined, however, as museums and libraries began to organize special showings of both manufactured products and fine arts. III MAJOR TYPES OF EXHIBITIONS Beginning with the latter half of the 19th century, three types of exhibitions and expositions became prominent. The first was the industrial exhibition, devoted to the stimulation and progress of a specific industry or to all the industries of a specified country or area. Representative of this type were the exhibition of leather products, held in Berlin (1877); of printing, in New York City (1900); of products of the British Empire, in Wembley, England (1924); of modern decorative and industrial arts, in Paris (1925); and of housing, also in Paris (1947). A second type of exhibition, particularly popular in the U.S., was regional and was dedicated to the commemoration of a historical event. Notable among this type were the Tennessee Centennial Exposition, Nashville, Tennessee (1897); the Trans-Mississippi Exposition, Omaha, Nebraska (1898); the Lewis and Clark Centennial American Pacific Exposition and Oriental Fair, Portland, Oreg. (1905); the Jamestown Tercentennial Exposition, Norfolk, Virginia (1907); and the Great Lakes Exposition, Cleveland, Ohio (1936). The third type, the universal exposition, was international in scope; it was sponsored by a national government and displayed a wide variety of products. The first great international exposition was held in London in 1851 under the direction of the Society of Arts; Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, was at the time president of the society and took a personal interest in the preparation of the event. The Crystal Palace was built for the occasion, and the total cost amounted to about $1.5 million. The great success of the Great Exhibition of 1851 led to other international expositions. Dublin and New York City both held expositions in 1853, and in 1855 Paris held its first Exposition Universelle, on the Champs-Élysées. The Paris exposition, although it was much more elaborate than any of its predecessors, costing about $5 million and including almost 21,000 exhibits, was a financial failure. In 1862 another great exposition was opened in London, at a cost of about $2.3 million. Although some 29,000 exhibitors participated and more than 6 million people attended, it was much less successful financially than the 1851 exposition, chiefly because Prince Albert died before the exposition opened and the festivities were consequently affected. Most great expositions operated at deficits from that time on, but the promotion value of the displays and the value of the tourist trade brought by the events were considered worth the loss, which was usually made up by national and municipal government subsidies or by bond issues. In 1867 the French government and the city of Paris, at a cost of almost $6 million, sponsored another international exposition, which took place on the Champ de Mars, the military parade ground on the left bank of the Seine River; about 43,000 exhibits were shown, and more than 6.8 million visitors attended. Vienna in 1873 held an international exposition that was the greatest up to that time, costing about $11 million. The buildings erected in the Prater, the famous Viennese park on an island in the Danube, housed almost 26,000 exhibits, and more than 6.5 million admissions were counted. Three years later the first great American international exposition was held in Philadelphia, as a celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. The buildings of the Paris exposition of 1878 were erected in the Champ de Mars and extended to an elevated plateau called the Trocadéro, on the right bank of the Seine; the Palais de Trocadéro, built for the occasion, remained a permanent structure until it was torn down in 1936. Built at a cost in excess of $6 million, the 1878 exposition housed almost 53,000 exhibits and attracted more than 16 million visitors. In 1889 a fourth Exposition Universelle was held in Paris, the theme being the centenary of the French Revolution. The cost of the exposition was about $9 million; exhibitors numbered almost 62,000 and visitors more than 32 million. The 400th anniversary of Columbus's discovery of America was celebrated by an international exposition held in Chicago in 1893. The buildings of the World's Columbian Exposition, as it was called, were erected on the shore of Lake Michigan. Some of the most famous features of the Chicago exposition were its amusements, which were collected together on a strip of land known as the Midway Plaisance; the term midway later became synonymous with "amusement area" in circuses, carnivals, and fairs. The World's Columbian Exposition cost more than $31 million, presented more than 65,000 exhibits, and attracted more than 27.5 million visitors. A fifth great French exposition took place in Paris in 1900. Some of the structures built for the 1900 exposition became famous landmarks of the city, including the ornate Alexander III Bridge over the Seine. The catalog listed almost 80,000 exhibits, and about 40 million admissions were counted. The 1900 exposition was so successful that receipts nearly equaled the expenses of almost $24 million. IV FAMOUS 20TH-CENTURY EXPOSITIONS During the 20th century international exhibitions, popularly called world's fairs, have become elaborate showcases for technological and cultural developments as well as manufactured products. Usually well subscribed by exhibitors and showing visitor attendance into the millions, such exhibitions often have had an important social and economic impact on the country or vicinity in which they are held. In 1923 the International Bureau of Expositions was established in Paris to control the frequency and supervise the operations of international exhibitions. About 70 member nations, not including the U.S., have voluntarily agreed to abide by the decisions of the bureau. Attendance at international exhibitions still continues to spiral because the fairs offer unique coverage of the present day and fascinating glimpses into the future. Following are some of the most important fairs of the 20th century. A Louisiana Purchase Exposition In 1904, St. Louis, Missouri, organized an exposition in celebration of the centennial of the Louisiana Purchase. The exposition, which cost about $20 million, attracted almost 20 million persons and showed a profit of about $25 million. B Panama-Pacific International Exposition The Panama-Pacific International Exposition was held in San Francisco in 1915 to celebrate the construction and opening of the Panama Canal. More than $50 million was spent on this exposition. The outstanding attraction was the Tower of Jewels, outlined by thousands of hand-cut glass jewels. The exhibitors numbered 30,000 and approximately 13 million visitors attended. C Sesquicentennial Exposition On the 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 1926, the city of Philadelphia was the site of a Sesquicentennial Exposition. The cost of construction was $26 million, and although the exposition was an artistic and patriotic success, it was a financial failure; only about 6 million people attended. D Century of Progress International Exposition Held in Chicago in 1933-1934, the exposition exhibited important scientific and industrial developments of the preceding century. The fair was notable also for its modern architecture. E Paris International Exposition The exposition held in Paris in 1937 was notable for its magnificent lighting and use of modern architecture. The exposition cost the French government between $35 and $50 million. The old Palais du Trocadéro was torn down and replaced by the new Palais de Chaillot. About 33 million persons visited the Paris exposition. F New York World's Fair (1939-1940) The New York World's Fair of 1939-1940 cost $155 million. The buildings and exhibits, based on the theme of the "World of Tomorrow," were erected in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, in New York City. The site consisted of swamplands and garbage dumps that had been drained and landscaped to serve as exposition grounds. Two structures, the trylon and perisphere (a triangular needle skyscraper set beside a huge sphere), were erected as architectural symbols. The perisphere enclosed a large model of a future city. More than 57 million persons attended the fair during its two seasons. G Brussels' World's Fair The next world's fair was held in Brussels in 1958. Its symbol was the so-called Atomium, a structure representing an iron molecule. Participating in the fair, which featured industrial and artistic exhibits as well as dramatic productions, dance recitals, and concerts, were 48 nations and 7 international organizations. An estimated 42 million persons visited the Brussels' Fair. H Century 21 Exposition The Century 21 Exposition was held in Seattle, Washington, in 1962. The symbol, a tall steel and glass Space Needle, represented the theme of the fair in a preview of the life possible through the advancements of science. Among the exhibitors were 48 foreign countries. The fair attracted more than 9.5 million persons and was the first world's fair to be financially successful in one season. I New York World's Fair (1964-1965) The 300th anniversary of the city of New York was commemorated by the New York World's Fair of 1964-1965. Built on the Flushing Meadows-Corona Park site of the 1939-1940 exposition, the fair was based on the theme "Peace Through Understanding." Its symbol, the Unisphere, a stainless-steel globe above a reflecting pool, was encircled by three orbits, each representing the path of an artificial satellite. More than $1 billion was invested in the fair. Among the participants were 62 nations, 25 states, and many major industries. About 51.5 million admissions were counted during the two seasons of the fair. J Expo '67 Held in Montréal in 1967, the exposition celebrated the centennial of Canada's confederation, as well as Montréal's 325th anniversary. Built around the theme of "Man and His World," Expo '67 stressed the increasing urbanization of the population of the world. More than 70 nations participated in the fair, which was visited by approximately 50 million people. K Expo '70 Organized in ?saka, Japan, in 1970, this was the first modern international fair held in the Orient. The exposition adopted as its theme "Progress and Harmony for Mankind." About 70 nations participated, more than 110 pavilions were erected, and more than 64 million people attended. Highlights were the Japanese Garden, which combined ancient Japanese and modern horticultural techniques, and Festival Plaza, the fair center for the performing arts, which utilized computerized stage facilities and equipment. L Recent Fairs Expo '74, the first world's fair to have an environmental theme, opened in Spokane, Washington, in May 1974. It was situated in a park that had been reclaimed from industrial uses. The 1982 world's fair at Knoxville, Tennessee, had the theme "Energy Turns the World." Exhibitors included advocates of nuclear energy and of solar energy. In May 1984 New Orleans opened its world exposition in a refurbished dock and warehouse area on the Mississippi River. In 1986 Vancouver, British Columbia, held Expo '86, a world's fair on the theme of transportation and communication. Expo '92, held in Seville, Spain, and based on the theme "The Age of Discoveries," coincided with the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's first voyage to America in 1492. V EXPOSITION ARCHITECTURE Great international expositions, since their inception in 1851, have engendered significant developments and innovations in architecture. The building styles have usually reflected contemporaneous popular modes; the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, on the other hand, froze American public architecture in its eclectic Beaux-Arts image for generations. The world's fairs that took place during the 1930s, in contrast, ushered in modern architectural styles; the fairs since World War II have been built in diverse, even experimental, styles, but with a consequent loss of cohesive unity. A 19th-Century Exposition Buildings The first great exposition building, the Crystal Palace, housed the entire 1851 London exposition in one immense structure. Sir Joseph Paxton, its architect, was famous for his elegant conservatories and greenhouses; in essence, the Crystal Palace was the largest greenhouse ever built. Paxton used prefabricated glass units framed in wood and cast iron, supporting them on a cast-iron skeleton. This permitted the entire building to be taken apart and reassembled in Sydenham, a London suburb, where it remained until it burned down in 1936. For the next quarter century all major expositions were housed in enormous glass and iron sheds, such as the cantilevered rotunda of the Vienna exposition of 1873, the gigantic Salle des Machines of the 1889 Paris exposition, and the main building--still standing in Fairmount Park--of the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition of 1876. The 1889 Paris exposition also gave that city its world-renowned symbol, the soaring Eiffel Tower. A stunning achievement, it was designed by the engineer Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel. The World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, although architecturally uninventive, was remarkable for other reasons. Its architects, headed by the famous firm of McKim, Mead, & White, created a new park on an undeveloped lakeside tract in Chicago. The numerous temporary plaster palaces housing the exhibitions were carefully integrated with the site to create the dazzling "White City." One of the palaces was recreated in masonry after the fair as the Field Museum. B 20th-Century Exposition Buildings The buildings for the 1900 Paris exposition were exuberantly art nouveau in style, as can be seen in two surviving halls, the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais, both still used for exhibitions. The Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904, firmly Beaux-Arts despite its pioneering use of electric lighting, gave St. Louis its impressive Art Museum. The otherwise unremarkable Barcelona International Exposition of 1929 produced one of the most important buildings in modern architecture--the German-American architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's famous Barcelona Pavilion, which defined the International Style in architecture and gave it worldwide exposure. Designed as Germany's official reception hall (not as an exhibition hall) at the fair, the pavilion achieved its look of sleek, spare elegance through Mies's subtle use of such luxurious materials as plate glass, chrome, and polished marbles and onyx in several harmonious colors. Chicago's Century of Progress International Exposition of 1933-1934 marked the dominance of modern architecture in world's fairs; of equal importance was the striking use of powerful washes of colored light to transform the buildings and their setting at night. A huge new park, Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, was created for New York's World's Fair of 1939-1940. Every element of its design was carefully coordinated; zones of color were laid out, radiating outward from the pure white of the trylon and perisphere to buildings in every hue of the spectrum. The fair's architectural distinction was evident in its 60 foreign pavilions, of which 22 were freestanding structures by such internationally renowned architects as Oscar Niemeyer of Brazil and Henry van de Velde of the Netherlands. The expositions that followed World War II were built in progressively extreme interpretations of modern architecture. At the Brussels' Fair of 1958, Edward Durell Stone's circular, columned U.S. pavilion was among the more memorable creations. Seattle retained from its Century 21 Exposition of 1962 several buildings for its civic center, including the Space Needle, the splendid opera house, and Minoru Yamasaki's elegant science museum. New York's 1964-1965 World's Fair, judged less than distinguished by many architectural critics, did have such happy exceptions as the beautifully proportioned Spanish pavilion. Montréal's Expo '67 was the most architecturally stimulating of the post-war fairs; the American architect Buckminster Fuller's U.S. pavilion, a huge geodesic sphere, remains as a permanent structure, as does Habitat, a housing project of stacked, prefabricated units by the Israeli architect Moshe Safdie. Japan's Expo '70 in ?saka included the Japanese architect Kenz? Tange's vast three-level Theme Hall and the Canadian architect Arthur Erickson's Canadian pyramidal pavilion of four monumental mirrored wedges framing a multitiered plaza. Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
