Midway Plaisance Essay example -- Architecture History

Midway PlaisanceThe Midway first came to being during the domain of a functions Columbian explanation in lettuce as a bit of an accident. The worlds neat schedule for 1892 was pushed towards a higher standard than most others. The successes of the 1876 Philadelphia and 1889 Paris fairs drove the Chicago planners to produce something even greater. As stated by Richard Wilson, the Paris fair especi anyy hit home for the Americans. The sheer magnificence of the buildings and exhibits made the fall in States look very backward indeed. While France and the rest of the Old World countries held their own with remarkable advances in art, architecture, and science, the U.S. appeared to be falling behind. Americas relatively low showings didnt help to shake this harsh image. The U.S. was desperate for a new self-image. It inevitable an opportunity to establish itself as the superpower it felt it deserved to be. The Columbian Exposition gave the U.S. this chance. Fair organizers planned the fair on a lordly scale. They gravitated towards a solemn Neo-Classical name, as exemplified in the all-white Court of Honor, a style which represented order, tradition, purity, and grandeur -- all the things that America was trying to display.However, this new classic character impressed upon the fairs major buildings produced a conflict with a theme of people that had already laid claim to the fair the members of the entertainment industry. tear down before the formal announcement of the Fair in 1890, requests for space from all sorts of vendors, musical and circus troupes, and restaurateurs. Amusement vendors had been set up at prior expositions, usually right outside the fairgrounds. There, they not only attracted more fairgoers than the uninterrupted exhibits... ...ighted crowds at Montreal in 1967. This endurance of the idea of the Midway is a testament to its charisma, its power, and the high place amusement holds in the eye of society.BibliographyRichard Wilson, Challenge and response Americans and the Architecture of the 1889 Exhibition, in Annette Blaugrund (ed.) Paris 1889. American Artists at the Universal Exposition, Philadelphia daddy Academy of Fine Arts, 1989, 93-110.Findling, John E. Historical Dictionary of Worlds Fairs and Expositions 1851-1988. New York Greenwood Press, 1990.Meehan, Patrick. The forged Wheel. Chicagos Great Ferris Wheel of 1893.Rydell, Robert W. Fair America Worlds Fairs in the United States. chapiter D.C. Smithsonian Institution Press, 2000.Keefe, John Webster. Libbey Glass A Tradition of 150 years 1918-1968. Toledo, Ohio Toledo Museum of Art, 1968.