Women in the World’s Columbian Exposition: Harbingers of “Progress”

Susanna Morrill presented Women in the World’s Columbian Exposition: Harbingers of “Progress.”

Chicago’s World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 helped to generate an American civil, or, more accurately, cultural religion. The place of women at the fair was central to the creation of this cultural religion. As represented by the elite white women of the fair’s Woman’s Building—and presented in sharp contrast to the Asian and African women of the fair’s Midway—American women were seen to be one of the harbingers of the country’s God-ordained, postmillennial progress. Christianity, particularly Protestantism, was seen to have raised the authority of women within the home, thus, stimulating a general moral and religious elevation of families. Additionally, advancing technology was seen to have freed women from some of their home duties so that they could participate in wider social reform activities. In this cultural religion, the contained authority of middle class white women was seen to be a key element in creating a progressively perfected American society.