ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the important challenge to the continued presence of photographic displays at industrial fairs were the exhibitions of the new specialist photographic trade association. Photographic displays made a substantial contribution to the 1869 San Francisco Fair and spectators were able to see some two hundred photographs by eleven photographers. Photographic portraiture promised respectability and cultural status for an aspiring middle-class clientele in this period, as Roger Birt has shown in his work, and these were the people who came in numbers to the 1869 Fair. The existing climate of isolation, mistrust, and competition among professional photographers had been a motivating factor in the founding of the Association after the Civil War. Photographic displays mirrored the social and commercial aims with images of fashion and status, celebrations of family life, monuments of civic pride, and the potential development of natural resources.
