The World's Columbian Exposition
$ 45.5
Description
The World's Columbian Exposition grew from a national argument over memory, prestige, and metropolitan ambition. The United States wanted a great celebration of the four-hundredth anniversary of Columbus's first voyage, but the question of where to hold it immediately became a contest between cities. New York had money and publishing power; Washington had symbolic authority; St. Louis invoked geography and the Mississippi valley; Chicago claimed energy, rail connections, and the future. The choice of Chicago in 1890 was therefore more than a logistical decision. It announced that the inland industrial city had become a national power.