world’s fair: Quick Facts

Written and fact-checked by

The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Photos

Illustration of the opening of London's Great Exhibition of 1851.

The Gallery of Machines at the 1889 Universal Exposition, Paris.

The Horticultural Hall at the U.S. Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, 1876.

Corliss steam engine

1893 World's Columbian Exposition

Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St. Louis, Missouri, 1904

Postcard image of an international naval display, part of the Jamestown Exhibition held in Norfolk, Virginia, 1907.

Postcard image of the U.S. Government Building, Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition, Omaha, Nebraska, 1898.

Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia, first from right in the backseat, rides in a New York World's Fair Police car at the 1939 World's Fair, with the Trylon and Perisphere structures in the background.

See All Images →

Topics

Today in History—September 6: A Deadly World’s Fair fair trade show Canadian National Exhibition

Key People

Markelius, Sven: Helsingborg Concert Hall

Sven Markelius

Swedish architect

German political theorist Karl Marx; communism

A Study of History: Who, What, Where, and When?