ABSTRACT
The two great exhibitions, namely The Centennial Exhibition held in the United States and The World's Columbian Exhibition held in Chicago, were mounted during a period in which the United States was recovering from the Civil War and was becoming a leading industrial power. It was during this same period that the first major American art museums were founded. Up until then American interest in Egyptology had been characterized by un-coordinated, individual efforts. Two years after the Chicago exhibition in 1895, the first Chair of Egyptology was created for James Henry Breasted at the University of Chicago, and later George A. Reisner undertook fieldwork in Egypt with the Harvard-Boston expedition. It is necessary to appreciate such early American interest in Ancient Egypt in order to place later Egyptianizing architecture into its correct cultural and social context. This chapter deals with with the preparation and reception of both of the above exhibitions.
