Bird's-Eye View from the Top of the Manufactures & Liberal Arts Building

The 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago was a cultural watershed in American life. Organized to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Columbus’s arrival in the New World, the exposition presented a powerful symbol of the nation’s official artistic ideals and values. However, the neoclassical conservatism of this genteel artistic tradition was overthrown by the modernist movement of the early 20th century. Charles Arnold, the exposition’s official photographer, specialized in minutely detailed platinum prints from mammoth-plate (18x22-inch) glass negatives. Ironically, Arnold’s documentary photographs are now seen as considerably bolder and more modern than much of the exposition itself.