 | The Trans-Mississippi and International Expositions of 1898–1899: Art, Anthropology, and Popular Culture at the Fin de Siècle Subjects: Trans-Mississippi and International; Exposition (1898: Omaha Neb.); Greater America Exposition (1899: Omaha Neb.); Popular culture -- United States -- 19th century; United States -- Social life and customs -- 19th century; The Trans-Mississippi Exposition of 1898 celebrated Omaha's key economic role as a center of industry west of the Mississippi River and its arrival as a progressive metropolis after the Panic of 1893. The exposition also promoted the rise of the United States as an imperial power, at the time on the brink of the Spanish-American War, and the nation's place in bringing "civilization" to Indigenous populations both overseas and at the conclusion of the recent Plains Indian Wars. The Omaha World's Fair, however, is one of the least studied American expositions. Wendy Jean Katz brings together leading scholars to better understand the event's place in the larger history of both Victorian-era America and the American West. Wendy Jean Katz is an associate professor of art history at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She is the author of Regionalism and Reform: Art and Class Formation in Antebellum Cincinnati and the coeditor of Regionalism and the Humanities (Nebraska, 2009). |
