1904 World's Fair

I’ve often wondered about the transient nature of our society. Why is nothing built to last? Our infrastructure crumbles while in Europe parts of the ancient Roman aqueduct system is still in use. We tear down our building because they are out of date just a couple decades after they were built. Pop culture tastes change constantly, its reinvention just another name for recycling. Why is there no permanence in American society? I don’t know if I’ll ever understand. But I did gain some clarity and insight into this nature this evening at the St. Louis History Museum.


The museum has a continuing exhibit commemorating the centennial of the 1904 World’s Fair held in St. Louis. The exhibition celebrated “Looking Back at Looking Forward” and took the city years to prepare for the visit from the world. Buildings and entire neighborhoods were constructed. Public sculptures commissioned, marketing thrown into overdrive. All of it was done to show the world how modern St. Louis and the rest of America was becoming. It was a show that has become etched in the collective mind of this country. It was a show that launched the world into the American Century.


All of which makes a lot of the artifacts from the show rather disconcerting. Countless pictures and paintings were commissioned, and now on display, that depict the model of perfection. It is easy to imagine the event as representing a “city on a hill.” But look closely. Not at the pictures of the natives living their happy lives, those pictures are far too easy to critique. No, look at the magnificent sculptures towering in those pictures. Now walk over to the display of the now ruined sculptures, the mass produced composite moldings that were not meant to last but meant to be an impressive façade. Those sculptures gave grand appearances to new buildings that had been built for the exposition. They were there in the photographs but not long after as many were torn down almost immediately after the fair. So much unnecessary waste, what have we learned.


To be sure, the World’s Fair did leave a lasting mark on St. Louis. What was built for the exhibition that still remains adds to a magnificent city. But it contributed to a culture with some very bad habits. In many ways America is a “city on a hill” with a false façade. Our American Century has been terribly wasteful; we constructed symbols of envy but did not build them to last. We are still a transient society, one magnificent to experience. But if we still build things to crumble, how long will it all last?