Interieur met tentoongestelde piano's van John J. Becker op de Wereldtentoonstelling te Parijs in 1900 before 1901

This photographic print by Bolesław Matuszewski captures John J. Becker's piano exhibit at the 1900 Paris Exposition. Within the architecture, the arrangement of pianos invites us to consider the piano not just as a musical instrument, but as a symbol of cultural aspiration and technological progress at the turn of the century. The piano, emerging from aristocratic salons to bourgeois parlors, carried potent connotations of social mobility and refined taste. Consider how, in earlier Dutch paintings, musical instruments symbolized harmony and order, but here, amidst the fervor of the World's Fair, it transforms into a symbol of industrial prowess and global ambition. This echoes how the serpent—once a symbol of chaos—evolved into a symbol of medicine, demonstrating how symbols adapt, embodying new cultural values while retaining echoes of their past. Such industrial expositions provided fertile ground for a complex mix of hope and anxiety, a powerful cultural expression we can still feel today.