Editing World's Columbian Exposition (section)

=== Planning and organization ===
[[File:1893 world columbian exposition.jpg|thumb|An advertisement for the Exposition, depicting a portrait of [[Christopher Columbus]]]]
[[File:Brooklyn Museum - Chicago World's Fair - Thomas Moran - overall.jpg|thumb|[[Thomas Moran]] – ''Chicago World's Fair'' – [[Brooklyn Museum]] painting of the Administration Building]]
[[File:Worldsfairvote8.jpg|thumb|The regional vote breakdown of the eighth World's Fair location selection ballot in the [[United States House of Representatives]]]]

Many prominent civic, professional, and commercial leaders from around the United States helped finance, coordinate, and manage the Fair, including Chicago shoe company owner Charles H. Schwab,<ref>{{Cite news|title=Baker Has Resigned|date=19 August 1892|work=Chicago Daily Tribune|page=1}}</ref> Chicago railroad and manufacturing magnate [[John Whitfield Bunn]], and Connecticut banking, insurance, and iron products magnate [[Milo Barnum Richardson]], among many others.<ref>{{cite book|first=Moses Purnell |last=Handy|title =The Official Directory of the World's Columbian Exposition, May 1st to October 30th, 1893: A Reference Book of Exhibitors and Exhibits, and of the Officers and Members of the World's Columbian Commission Books of the Fairs|publisher =William B. Conkey Co.|date= 1893|page= [https://archive.org/details/officialdirector00worl/page/75 75] |url = https://archive.org/details/officialdirector00worl}}</ref><ref>See also: Memorial Volume. Joint Committee on Ceremonies, ''Dedicatory And Opening Ceremonies of the World's Columbian Exposition: Historical and Descriptive'', A. L. Stone: Chicago, 1893. p. 306.</ref>

The fair was planned in the early 1890s during the [[Gilded Age]] of rapid industrial growth, immigration, and class tension. World's fairs, such as London's 1851 [[Crystal Palace Exhibition]], had been successful in Europe as a way to bring together societies fragmented along class lines.

The first American attempt at a [[Centennial Exposition|world's fair in Philadelphia in 1876]] drew crowds, but was a financial failure. Nonetheless, ideas about distinguishing the 400th anniversary of Columbus' landing started in the late 1880s. Civic leaders in St. Louis, New York City, Washington DC, and Chicago expressed interest in hosting a fair to generate profits, boost real estate values, and promote their cities. Congress was called on to decide the location. New York financiers [[J. P. Morgan]], [[Cornelius Vanderbilt]], and [[William Waldorf Astor]], among others, pledged $15 million to finance the fair if Congress awarded it to New York, while Chicagoans [[Charles T. Yerkes]], [[Marshall Field]], [[Philip Armour]], [[Gustavus Swift]], and [[Cyrus McCormick, Jr.]], offered to finance a Chicago fair. What finally persuaded Congress was Chicago banker [[Lyman Gage]], who raised several million additional dollars in a 24-hour period, over and above New York's final offer.<ref name=ec>{{Cite web |url=http://encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/1386.html |title="World's Columbian Exposition", ''Encyclopedia of Chicago'' |access-date=2011-11-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111121144300/http://encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/1386.html |archive-date=2011-11-21 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Chicago representatives not only fought for the world's fair for monetary reasons, but also for reasons of practicality. In a Senate hearing held in January 1890, representative [[Thomas Barbour Bryan]] argued that the most important qualities for a world's fair were "abundant supplies of good air and pure water", "ample space, accommodations and transportation for all exhibits and visitors". He argued that New York had too many obstructions, and Chicago would be able to use large amounts of land around the city where there was "not a house to buy and not a rock to blast" and that it would be located so that "the artisan and the farmer and the shopkeeper and the man of humble means" would be able to easily access the fair. Bryan continued to say that the fair was of "vital interest" to the West, and that the West wanted the location to be Chicago. The city spokesmen would continue to stress the essentials of a successful exposition and that only Chicago was fit to fill these exposition requirements.<ref>Lederer, F. (1972). "Competition for the World's Columbian Exposition: The Chicago Campaign". ''Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society'', 65(4), 382–394</ref>

The location of the fair was decided through several rounds of voting by the United States House of Representatives. The first ballot showed Chicago with a large lead over New York, St. Louis and Washington, D.C., but short of a majority. Chicago broke the 154-vote majority threshold on the eighth ballot, receiving 157 votes to New York's 107.<ref>Congressional Record, Volume XXI, First Session 1664–1665</ref>

The exposition corporation and national exposition commission settled on [[Jackson Park (Chicago)|Jackson Park]] and an area around it as the fair site. [[Burnham and Root|Daniel H. Burnham]] was selected as director of works, and [[George R. Davis (Illinois politician)|George R. Davis]] as director-general. Burnham emphasized architecture and sculpture as central to the fair and assembled the period's top talent to design the buildings and grounds including [[Frederick Law Olmsted]] for the grounds.<ref name="WDL" /> The temporary buildings were designed in an ornate [[Neoclassical architecture|neoclassical]] style and painted white, resulting in the fair site being referred to as the "White City".<ref name=ec />

The Exposition's offices set up shop in the upper floors of the [[Rand McNally Building]] on Adams Street, the world's first all-steel-framed skyscraper. Davis' team organized the exhibits with the help of [[G. Brown Goode]] of the [[Smithsonian]]. The Midway was inspired by the [[1889 Paris Universal Exposition]], which included ethnological "villages".
<ref>{{cite web|url=http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ma96/wce/history.html|title=World's Columbian Exposition: The Official Fair – A History|access-date=2011-11-14|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111109103830/http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ma96/wce/history.html|archive-date=2011-11-09|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Civil rights leaders protested the refusal to include an African American exhibit. [[Frederick Douglass]], [[Ida B. Wells]], [[Irvine Garland Penn]], and [[Ferdinand Lee Barnett (Chicago)|Ferdinand Lee Barnet]] co-authored a pamphlet entitled "The Reason Why the Colored American is not in the World's Columbian Exposition – The Afro-American's Contribution to Columbian Literature" addressing the issue. Wells and Douglass argued, "when it is asked why we are excluded from the World's Columbian Exposition, the answer is Slavery."<ref name="Manliness and Civilization" /> Ten thousand copies of the pamphlet were circulated in the White City from the Haitian Embassy (where Douglass had been selected as its national representative), and the activists received responses from the delegations of England, Germany, France, Russia, and India.<ref name="Manliness and Civilization" />

The exhibition did include a limited number of exhibits put on by African Americans, including exhibits by the sculptor [[Edmonia Lewis]], a painting exhibit by scientist [[George Washington Carver]], and a statistical exhibit by [[Joan Imogen Howard]]. Black individuals were also featured in white exhibits, such as [[Nancy Green]]'s portrayal of the character [[Aunt Jemima]] for the R. T. Davis Milling Company.<ref>see introduction of 2013 edition of Rydell, Robert W. All the world's a fair: Visions of empire at American international expositions, 1876–1916. University of Chicago Press, 2013.</ref>