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Marking the 400th anniversary of Columbus's journey to America in 1492 (and opening a little late in May 1893), the six-month Chicago World's Fair displayed all that the nation had achieved and still hoped to become since its 17th century beginnings. The buildings illustrated in the booklet show Chicago as the "White City," a neo-classical dream. Articles include "How to spend a week at the Fair," instructing the reader that at the end of the week he will have received a liberal education. On view was not only the table on which the Declaration of Independence had been signed, but both an all-electric kitchen and an electric chair. In addition, viewers were treated to an extraordinary assembly of people in "living exhibits." Whole villages had been imported and exactingly rebuilt to open American minds and "bring them in sympathy with their fellow men."

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