ABSTRACT
The Chicago World's Fair celebrated the so-called discovery of the Americas by Columbus, and so it was officially named "The Columbian Exposition", despite being a year after the actual 400-year anniversary. The exposition was a conscious exercise in nation building, looking back as it did to the European discovery of the land, and to the future, as it sought to consolidate a national sense of "Manifest Destiny" that was bound up with industry, capitalism and imperialist expansion. The sheer volume of industry on display was overwhelming, and the sense that the fair ushered in the Modern was highlighted by a deliberate decision to make electricity a major feature, with the Fair using three times more than it took to light the entire city of Chicago. G. Brown Goode, assistant secretary at the Smithsonian, was placed in charge of exhibit classification at Chicago.
