World’s fairs were built to impress. For a few months, visitors could wander through enormous exhibition halls, encounter unfamiliar cultures, see experimental architecture, examine new machinery, and glimpse competing visions of what the future might become. Then the gates closed, the crowds departed, and many of the spectacular buildings disappeared.
The souvenirs remained.
That temporary nature is part of what makes world’s fair memorabilia so compelling today. A spoon, postcard, medal, drinking glass, booklet, or miniature building may seem modest compared with the immense exposition it commemorated, yet these objects became portable pieces of an experience their owners wanted to remember. World’s fairs have been held in many forms since London’s Great Exhibition of 1851, which brought exhibitors from 25 countries together at the Crystal Palace to showcase industry and technological progress. The exhibition model spread internationally, combining education, commerce, entertainment, national promotion, and spectacle on a remarkable scale.
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