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The World's Fair: Historical artifact or more important than ever?

By Willem Van Lancker - July 18, 2011

in Tech | Architecture

Last week I had the opportunity to visit the National Building Museum in Wasington, D.C. Set well beyond the National Mall and the Smithsonian Campus, the National Building Museum is housed in an imposing brick structure formerly the home of the D.C. Pension Bureau. The Museum's featured exhibition was a retrospective on America's World's Fairs of the 1930s, five in all: Chicago, San Diego, Dallas, New York, San Francisco.

The exhibit was a surprisingly thorough look at the planning, culture, technology, architecture and design that went into each of these unique events. Chicago's 1933 Century of Progress expo was organized to inspire a nation in the throes of a depression. New York's 1939 World's Fair celebrated the globalized world of tomorrow, personified most memorably by the famous Trylon and Perisphere and Henry Dreyfuss' Democracity as its centerpiece. To close out the decade in 1939 and 1940, San Francisco engineered the man-made Treasure Island for the Pageant of the Pacific, a celebration of Pacific culture and America's Manifest Destiny fulfilled.

While the exhibit was a great history lesson and a fun bit of retronauting (see: Westinghouse's Elektro the Motoman) I was most intrigued by the show's conclusion. In the "World's Fairs Today" section, the historians made the typical case about the interconnectedness of the modern era and the decline in demand and need for these global celebrations. The conclusion also added that the United States had its membership revoked by the B.I.E (the Bureau of International Expositions) after not paying its dues for two years, thus rendering the U.S. ineligible to ever host the event again. Additionally, Congress no longer allocates funds for a U.S. Pavilion at any World Exposition. This resulted in a rather embarrassing (yet still surprisingly popular) U.S. Pavilion at the 2010 Expo in Shanghai. Funded by sixty multi-national corporations, the pavilion was designed by a foreign architect (a Canadian no less) and featured only three short video presentations -- not exactly reminiscent of the American Dream showcased so fantastically in the early 20th century.

While I understand the need to cut back and decrease anything deemed superfluous in the days of debt ceilings and soaring unemployment, I cannot help but wish that we (America) still had the desire to participate in and host these inspiring creative events. Having spent the last few weeks working in D.C. and admiring the amazing public monument and museum that is the city itself, I feel that we again need a meaningful celebration of American ingenuity, industriousness, and creativity to inspire the world and our own citizens. It is no secret that our recent global headlines as a nation have been ones of disappointment, fraud, war-mongering, and ineptitude but that is not the country I want to be a part of.

The five World's Fairs the United States hosted in the 1930s came on the heels of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, a time when the nation needed inspiration and hope for a brighter future. After rising to the status of a world power shortly after the turn of the century, America had fallen into its greatest economic downturn ever. It was our ingenuity, creativity, and ability to deal with adversity (two wars, a nuclear threat) that powered us to even greater accomplishments by the 1960s and 70s. Today we face a similar impasse. With the threats of a "double dip" recession, the teetering European economy, and a growing polarization of extreme views domestically, we again need the inspiration the World's Fairs brought nearly a century ago, bringing us together as Americans and citizens of a unified World.

While it may seem ill-timed or even negligent to host a massive, costly celebration right now, I see the potential of such a convocation: bringing international energy and focus to down-and-out urban centers in need of global energy and influence. Perhaps this desire is really just a bit of design-nostalgia, a wish that our modern cities were a mix of planned triumphs and teeming growth. Maybe the future truly does lie more in digital connections, leaving the spectacle and pageantry of the world's fair as a decidedly twentieth-century exploit.

Side-note: one of my favorite features of the exhibit was the Official Exposition Colors for the 1939 World's Fair. I've recreated it in its entirety here on my personal blog. It is a beautifully fitting palette for the Fair's theme and many of the colors still seem fresh today.

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Punctuation Mark

13 years ago

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I just saw this exhibit 2 days ago and was amazed once again at what the american people can do... then i got so sad when i made it to the end and they said that the US had pulled out of the committee that organizes the fairs. The amount of people events like bring into the country is amazing (just like any other sports event or even more). Unfortunately, like any other thing in the US politicians have taken over and they ruined a really good thing that can help the country move into a brighter future... and a more profitable at the same time...

This exhibit is a must for anyone who visits DC... for every child in any classroom...

Congrats on showing it to other people!!!
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Maishado

13 years ago

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Completely agree. Just when its time for many of the worlds countries to celebrate a bright future, as a country, we stop showing up to the party.

Maybe we are too old to party
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Urso Chappell

13 years ago

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I run into people all the time who make the argument that world's fairs aren't relevant anymore. I think the problem stems from the fact that North America hasn't seen a world's fair since Vancouver's Expo '86. Since then, the medium has evolved just as our concepts of progress have evolved. The planet has seen nine world's fairs (in 8 countries) since Expo '86 and just like other mediums (the Olympics, museums, theme parks, music, television, filmed entertainment), world's fairs change to fit the needs of the era and the specific audience. They're always about inspiring and challenging people to think outside their everyday lives.

We currently have two US regions (Houston and Silicon Valley) with organizations that are vying to bring Expo 2020 to our shores. Unfortunately, in order to have a realistic chance of winning a bid, we need to rejoin the BIE. Folks are talking about creating a world's fair analog to the US Olympic Committee that would be responsible for paying our dues (24,000 euros/year!), choosing bidding U.S. cities for future world's fairs, and helping organize United States Pavilions at world's fairs abroad. The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee recently put out a report encouraging the bids (while simultaneously regretting the quality of the US Pavilion at Expo 2010).

There doesn't seem to be any organized opposition to participating. We just need to have the courage to get back in the game. To not do so would risk admitting that our country no longer cares about inspiring young people and is no longer a place that allows us to think about what we could become if we just worked toward it.
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Michael Conrad Pawelski

13 years ago

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I went in 2010 to the shanghai expo world's fair. It was the biggest world's fair ever. In on single day 500,000 people attended it. It was huge I waited in line for the Saudi Pavilion with the world's biggest Imax theater for 6 HOURS the queue. It was great takes 7 days to maybe see it all.
In 2005 I went to the World's fair in Japan it was great did the maglev train, robot controlled fuel cell buses. etc. there is a link for my video of part of the 2010 world's fair.

Its a shame the USA doesn't participate. They really are great hings. And on a major note China spent more on the World's fair that they did on the 2008 Olympics. Next mini one is in Korea then 2015 Milan Italy my next one
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