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