Midway Plaisance Essay example -- Architecture History

Midway PlaisanceThe Midway first came to being during the Worlds Columbian Exposition in Chicago as a bit of an accident. The worlds fair scheduled 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 ally pullulate home for the Americans. The sheer magnificence of the buildings and exhibits made the United 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 inferior showings didnt help to shake this harsh image. The U.S. was desperate for a new self-image. It needed an opportunity to establish itself as the powerfulness it felt it deserved to be. The Columbian Exposition gave the U.S. this chance. equitable organizers planned the fa ir on a grand scale. They gravitated towards a solemn Neo-Classical style, as exemplified in the all-white courtyard of Honor, a style which represented order, tradition, purity, and grandeur -- all the things that America was trying to display.However, this new classical character impressed upon the fairs major buildings produced a conflict with a group of people that had already laid claim to the fair the members of the entertainment industry. Even 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 previous expositions, usually right outside the fairgrounds. There, they not only attracted more fairgoers than the regular 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 R esponse Americans and the Architecture of the 1889 Exhibition, in Annette Blaugrund (ed.) Paris 1889. American Artists at the Universal Exposition, Philadelphia Pennsylvania 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 Big Wheel. Chicagos Great Ferris Wheel of 1893.Rydell, Robert W. Fair America Worlds Fairs in the United States. Washington 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.