In the century following the Declaration of Independence, American identity underwent a transformation. Industrialization and urbanization fundamentally shifted the American landscape, pushing many Americans to create new images of their national identity.

A new platform for broadcasting national identity arose with the first World’s Fair in London 1851. A quickly popular phenomenon, World’s Fairs allowed Western countries to flaunt their economic prowess and political ambition by exhibiting new industrial, technological, and cultural innovations. Above all, they elevated the status of the host nation. World’s Fairs and the American Landscape considers the 1893, 1901, 1904, 1905, and 1933 American World’s Fairs alongside related landscape images.

In this exhibition, the earliest object related to a World’s Fair comes from the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. In celebration of Columbus’s “discovery” of America in 1492, the city of Chicago and a board of elite businessmen built the “White City” as a model for future urban utopia. The fair was well-attended, beloved by American audiences, and cemented World’s Fairs in the character of the American spirit—so much so that a World’s Fair returned to Chicago exactly 4o years later. The 1933 Century of Progress Exposition celebrated the development of modernity in the United States by establishing a “Rainbow City.” In between these two Chicago events, major cities across the United States hosted their own World’s Fairs. Oftentimes, they highlighted some historical milestone, such as the Lewis and Clark Centennial in Portland or the Louisiana Purchase in St. Louis. Other times, they celebrated a general ethos of American exceptionalism, as with the Pan-American Exhibition in Buffalo.

Souvenirs, like medals and coins, allowed visitors to take a piece of the expositions with them. While fairgrounds were temporary, souvenirs were permanent claims to ideas exhibited at these expositions. Framing exposition medals within a series of landscapes emphasizes the constructed nature of American identity in the late nineteenth century. Landscapes from the same period represent similarly constructed views by including projections of the artist on the page. Considering these objects together synthesizes American attempts to articulate a sense of identity during the turbulent nineteenth century.

I would like to extend my thanks to Professor Ozerkevich for serving as my advisor throughout this process. Also, thank you to Professors Hostetler, Yu, and the rest of the ARHS department for their assistance with this exhibition.

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James David Smillie (American, 1833-1909)
Mount Shasta, 1873
Steel engraving
9.6 × 6.9 in.
Kenyon College, Blick-Harris Study Collection, 2015.6

In front of a looming mountain, a wide-open plain rolls towards the viewer. Several men on horseback gallop towards the nearby forest. They leave their teepees behind, smoke billowing from their tents. The vast landscape conveys a sense of nature outside of time. The year may be 1873, but there is an atemporality in this depiction of Indigenous people and nature.

Ironically, this image exists out of time, and even reality, for several reasons. First, Indigenous Shastans did not use teepees as housing. Shastans usually built permanent structures designed to support multiple families. Furthermore, by the 1870s, very few Indigenous Shastan people remained in the region due in large part to diseases from the 1840s California Gold Rush and forcible removals to Oregon in the wake of the Rogue River Wars. Under this framework, the Indigenous people are included as features in this artist’s imaginative landscape, so as to avoid interrupting the image’s messaging.

James David Smillie was an American painter and engraver. This engraving of Mount Shasta is after one of fifty steel engravings from Picturesque American, a multi-volume book of images and descriptions of the American landscape edited by William Cullen Bryant.

American Artist
World’s Columbian Exposition Commemorative Coin , 1893
Bronze medal
2.75 × 2.75 in.
Kenyon College, Blick-Harris Study Collection, 2015.160.1

John Mix Stanley (American, 1814-1872)
Shyenne River, 1853
Color lithograph
6.7 × 9.3 in.
Kenyon College, Blick-Harris Study Collection, 2015.4

Butterfield and Brothers Company (American)
Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition Commemorative Medal, 1905
Bronze medal
4 × 4 in.
Kenyon College, Blick-Harris Study Collection, 2015.161

American Artist
Souvenir Penny from the Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, N.Y., 1901
Penny
1.5 × 1.5 in.
Kenyon College, Blick-Harris Study Collection, 2020.454.11

An Indigenous person in a headdress looks stoically to the side in profile. Their gaze points to the evocative quote directly above them, but their identity is unknown. The Pan-American Exposition selected stock Native American figures as their mascots and tokenized them by placing them on a souvenir coin.

The Pan-American Exposition occurred in Buffalo, New York in 1901. Known in history as the location of President William McKinley’s assassination, the fair was designed to unite the Americas in “Bonds of Prosperity.” Even more importantly, it highlighted the success of the United States relative to the rest of the Western Hemisphere. By the end of the Exposition, over eight million visitors had traveled to Buffalo. The imagery of the Native American corresponds with the Ethnology Building at the Exposition. A feature at most of the American World’s Fairs, ethnology buildings often contained living exhibits of Indigenous peoples, as was the case with the Pan-American Fair. The narrative about Native Americans as constructed by Whites was one of an “authentic” America, a status associated with luck and sport. The turn of the century saw the increasing use of harmful Native American mascots, with schools like the University of Illinois and Florida State University also taking advantage of the concept.

After the painting by John Archibald Woodside (American, 1781-1852)
We Owe Allegiance to No Crown
Magazine print from 1975 after the 1815 original
8 × 10 in.
Kenyon College, Blick-Harris Study Collection, 2015.552

Liberty descends from the skies to grant a serviceman a crown in the form of a laurel wreath. The man looks upwards, hat in hand, the other supporting a claiming flag for the United States. A bold quote runs through the print, highlighting a conspicuous irony: America owes allegiance to no crown, and yet, Liberty comes bearing one.

The serviceman stands, legs planted wide, as an act of possession. His stance highlights the objects below him– a broken chain, a split scepter, and a crushed crown. He marks this territory for his country with the flag of the United States, bridging allegory with action. Liberty deems this claim just. In the far off distance, a landscape of a cliffside materializes, extending the claim of the serviceman beyond the confines of the land he stands on.

Originally painted by John Archibald Woodside in 1815, this painting was intended to celebrate the end of the War of 1812. Here, the war is depicted as a victory over Britain though in reality it was a draw. Flags Through the Ages and Across the World was published in 1975, and it used this painting to describe the creation of the American flag.

Daniel Dupuis (French, 1849-1899)
Louisiana Purchase Exposition Medal, 1904
Bronze medal
1.25 × 1.25 in.
Kenyon College, Blick-Harris Study Collection, 2015.159.8

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Waterman Lilly Ormsby (American, 1809-1883)
The City of San Francisco, 1860
Engraving
5.25 × 8.5 in.
Kenyon College, Blick-Harris Study Collection, 2015.5

Emil Robert Zettler (American, 1878-1946)
Century of Progress Exposition Medal, 1933
Bronze medal
2.25 × 2.25 in.
Kenyon College, Blick-Harris Study Collection, 2015.160.2

A nude and anonymous man stands legs and arms splayed wide, his body physically bridging the gap between “Research” and “Industry,” 1833 and 1933 respectively. His pose harkens back to the medal of Columbus discovering America and the serviceman of the magazine print. Coinciding with the popular Art Deco style of the decade, this exposition medal encapsulates the ethos of the 1933 Century of Progress Exposition held in Chicago. Once again, as an object to be collected, treasured, and shared, the exposition medal suggests American attachment to ideals of progress and industry. For an exhibition targeting scientific progress, the decision to use a generic White man reflects the perception of progress as an inherently “White” endeavor.

The Century of Progress Exposition celebrated the centennial of Chicago. Exactly 40 years after the Columbian Exposition in the same city, this world fair intended to celebrate Chicago as a city driven by technology and industry. Its motto was “Science Finds, Industry Applies, Man Adapts.” It emphasized utopia– a perfect world– which could only result from advanced science and manufacturing. In contrast to the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, which focused on American exceptionalism within a broader North American context, the Century of Progress was a celebration of American ingenuity and innovation after a century spent establishing the United States as a dominant world power.

Charles Magnus (American, 1826-1900)
Bird’s-Eye View of Cincinnati, 1850
Chromolithograph
6.3 × 9 in.
Kenyon College, Blick-Harris Study Collection, 2015.3

Shrouded by a forest, a finely dressed man and woman point towards the city of Cincinnati. Smoke wafts out of towers, while boats cross the Ohio River and uniform buildings comprise the cityscape. The bird’s eye angle allowed the artist, Charles Magnus, to manipulate the impression of the city. He creates an industrial city cropping out of a hilly, natural territory, allowing the viewer to experience it from across the river– protected by untapped nature. Depicting cities from ‘borderland’ vantage points was common for landscape artists during this period. Here, from the forest of Newport, Kentucky, this perspective emphasizes a half-natural, half-created imagery that suggests an industrial triumph over an ‘untamed’ natural world.

Within the decade prior to this image, Cincinnati’s population boomed, from roughly 46,000 in 1840 to 115,000 in 1850. The city represented a microcosm of America in an intense period of industrialization and urbanization. Magnus, a printing entrepreneur, was known for his color lithographs of city views, song sheets, maps and patriotic illustrations for stationery and covers during the American Civil War. Bird’s-eye views of North American cities became popular in the mid-nineteenth century as city populations rose and Americans sought images of industrialization’s success.

American Artist
Lewis and Clark Exposition Souvenir Pin Dish, 1905
Bronze pin dish
2.25 × 3.5 in.
Kenyon College, Blick-Harris Study Collection, 2015.159.5

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About the Curator: Lindsey Neff ’24 is an Art History and History double major from Columbus, Ohio.