Gezicht op de World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 met op de voorgrond het tuinbouwgebouw 1893

Charles Dudley Arnold captured this view of the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. The image shows the grounds of the fair, with the Horticulture Building in the foreground, and the city skyline in the distance. The World's Fair was intended to mark the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' arrival in the Americas. More than that, it was a celebration of American exceptionalism, industrial progress, and the country's burgeoning global power. This bird's-eye view aesthetic evokes a sense of mastery, the mastery of the relatively new technology of photography, of course, but also the mastery of the American nation over its own destiny and the world. Historical archives, newspaper articles, and other documentary sources, help us to better understand the social context and meaning of such images. They are a reminder that our understanding of art is always shaped by the social and institutional contexts in which it is created and viewed.