TAKING IT HOME

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Proceed to the Collectibles Gallery

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The function of the CENTURY OF PROGRESS exposition was to market to the public a faith in the progress of the machine age. If this activity took place only in the physical space of the fair in Chicago, if the message was only available to ticket holders, the organizers could never have reached their ideological objectives. For the ordering activity of the exposition to succeed, the message had to disseminate to those who would not attend the fair, whatever corner of America such persons might be hiding in. I suspect the fair managers accomplished this goal in more ways than I analyze here, but I specifically look at two ways of spreading the news of progress.

The collectibles were mostly purchased at the fair or in Chicago stores near the fair. However, some were sold in stores across the country for those who could never attend the fair. Some collectibles were manufactured by the fair organizers, some by the fair exhibitors, and others by entrepreneurs looking to 'make a buck' off the exposition. The literature comes from equally diverse sources. The organizers of the fair published a series of books, but other publishing companies enjoyed the trendy interest in assessing a century of progress.