World's Fairs
Fair World by Call Number: folio T395 .G74 2011Winterbourne, Berkshire, UK: Papadakis, 2011. Looks at the most important exhibitions, examining how they have reflected and even influenced our ideas about technology, national identity, architecture, art and humanity.
- List of World's FairsA chronological listing of fairs, both held and cancelled, dating from 1756 posted by Wikipedia.
Dictionary of Fairs
- Historical Dictionary of World's Fairs and Expositions, 1851-1988 byCall Number: T395 .H57 1990New York: Greenwood Press, 1990. Features more than 90 essays, each dealing with a world's fair or exposition held between 1851 and 1988, emphasizing the most significant features of the fair and providing annotated bibliographies.
Art Exhibitions at World's Fairs
Inventing the Modern World by Call Number: folio NK775 .B87 2012Pittsburgh, PA: Carnegie Museum of Art; Kansas City, MO: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art; New York: Skira, 2012. An exhibition catalog that explores the decorative arts made for world’s fairs, from London’s Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations in 1851, to the New York World’s Fair in 193
Brief History of World's Fairs
World's Fairs, also called Exposition Universalle or Great Exhibitions, are large-scale industrial and cultural exhibitions in which several nations participate. Conceived as encyclopedic in nature, encompassing products from all nations, they combined a passion for the organization of knowledge with an optimism about the benefits of industrial development. The Society of Arts in London mounted such exhibitions since 1761 but including only models and drawings of industrial machinery rather than the products themselves.
The Great Exhibition of Products of Industry of All Nations, held at the Crystal Palace in London in 1851, is recognized as the first true World's Fair and it was succeeded by an international exhibition held every few years in a major city. The Great Exhibition was the first to include the fine arts as a category and, in 1855 at the Exposition Universelle in Paris, a full-scale fine arts exhibition was included among the categories.
International exhibitions have also helped spread wide-ranging design styles. The influence of Art Nouveau was greatly enhanced by the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1900 while the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, held in Paris in 1925, popularized the Art Deco style named after it.
Although the great age of international exhibitions really ended with the New York World’s Fair of 1939–40, such exhibitions continue to be held regularly and are increasingly dominated by multinational corporations and the desire to promote tourism.
Great Exhibitions
- The Expanding World of Art byCall Number: N6450 .E97 1988New Haven: Yale University Press, c1988-. Translated source material with expanatory introductions contextualizing the documents.
- Great Exhibitions of the 19th CenturyAs a part of its Special Subject Collections in Art History, the University Library of Heidelberg houses a large number of titles dealing with the Great Exhibitions of the 19th century. The online collection contains digitized versions of research literature, contemporary exhibition catalogues, eye-witness reports or historical descriptions.
World's Fairs by Call Number: T395 .M37 1998New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1998. Well-illustrated volume on the most notable world exhibitions from 1851-2000.
Great Exhibitions by Call Number: N4395 .M49 2006Woodbridge, Suffolk, [England]: Antique Collectors' Club, c2006. Looks at major international exhibitions held during the nineteenth century and examines the enormous changes brought about by the industrial revolution. Discusses, with the aid of numerous contemporary illustrations, many taken from the voluminous catalogues produced for the exhibitions, how these changes influenced the decorative arts.
Bibliographies of World's Fairs
- The Books of the Fairs byCall Number: Z5883 .S63 1991Chicago: American Library Association, 1992. This volume is a guide both to the portion of the Smithsonian Institutes Library collection that was produced between 1834 and 1916 and to a microfilm collection containing most--not all--of the SIL materials for that period. The checklist is first organized chronologically by year, then alphabetically by city where the exposition took place, then by name of fair
- Revisiting World's Fairs and International Expositions: A Selected Bibliography, 1992-2004Compiled by Bridget Burke, Cathy Serafica, and Martha Higgins. Sponsored by the Smithsonian Institute, this website allows you to view citations by individual fair/exposition, by date, or by publication format. The site also includes some images from the publications.