Exposition Universelle (1889)

The Exposition Universelle of 1889 was a world's fair, or world exposition, held in Paris, France, from May to October of 1889. In keeping with the tradition of other world's fairs of the nineteenth century, the Exposition Universelle was intended to celebrate modernity, particularly the artistic, architectural, technological, and cultural achievements of contemporary nations compared to those of past civilizations. As such, countries from around the world displayed their art and industrial machinery throughout the fairgrounds in Paris's Trocadéro, Champ de Mars, and Esplanade des Invalides areas.

The exposition was intended to mark the centennial anniversary of the start of the French Revolution (1789–1799). In keeping with the grandiose nature of the event, the Exposition Universelle was notable for its display of the newly completed Eiffel Tower. The 986-foot (300-meter) iron structure had been designed and built for the exposition and was only finished during the opening days of the fair. Although many Parisians first decried the tower as a hideous blight on the skyline of the city, the Eiffel Tower later became a beloved and recognizable symbol of Paris. The 1889 Exposition Universelle was enormously successful, attracting more than thirty-two million visitors and generating a profit of about eight million francs.

Background

The Exposition Universelle was only one of a series of major world expositions held every few years in a different global city since 1851. The first world's fair was held in London that year and was known as the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations. It established many of the traditions that successive world's fairs came to follow.

Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, was largely responsible for conceiving of and organizing the Great Exhibition. Albert saw the mid-nineteenth century as an ideal time for the United Kingdom to boast of its recent successes. In this era, the nation was enjoying peace at home and abroad, while its internal political scene was also relatively serene. At the same time, the United Kingdom's economy was thriving from a new wave of manufacturing. Albert wanted his exposition to bring together technological and artistic accomplishments from the United Kingdom and many other nations around the world.

After significant planning, Victoria opened the Great Exhibition in London's newly built Crystal Palace on May 1, 1851. This multi-floored building was a massive space constructed primarily of iron and glass. It held a total of about one hundred thousand items sent to the exposition by a variety of countries. The objects included artwork, miscellaneous inventions, and industrial technologies such as a hydraulic press, fire engines, and locomotives. Nations such as France, Russia, and Switzerland sent artworks, textiles, and fine jewelry. The Great Exhibition ended in October of 1851 after being visited by more than six million people and earning profits of almost two hundred thousand pounds.

Cities throughout the world then started holding major world technological expositions and other kinds of fairs almost every year into the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Paris was a frequent host of these events, sponsoring fairs in 1855, 1867, 1878, 1889, 1900, and 1937. Most city hosts of world's fairs have built new infrastructure specifically for the exhibitions. Often, these buildings have been designed to be temporary and, consequently, relatively inexpensive. However, even in the nineteenth century, cities occasionally invested in grander structures that were built to last indefinitely.

Overview

The 1889 Exposition Universelle was intended to observe the centennial anniversary of the storming of Paris's Bastille prison and the start of the French Revolution. This conflict saw France transition from a monarchy to a republic. Given the significance of this anniversary to the entire nation of France, the Paris exposition was planned as the largest and most opulent such event to that point. French architecture and technology would ultimately dominate this particular exposition; the implications of celebrating the downfall of the French monarchy kept many European kingdoms from openly participating, since their monarchs feared their populaces would become restless for reform themselves.

Planners devoted two areas of Paris to the exposition: the public spaces of the Trocadéro and Champ de Mars would hold the industrial innovations and art. The Champ de Mars had been the site of the first celebrations of the destruction of the Bastille in the 1790s. Meanwhile, the nearby Esplanade des Invalides was to feature exhibitions relating to French social life.

The centerpiece of the Exposition Universelle was a tower designed by architect Gustave Eiffel and later called the Eiffel Tower. It was a slender iron structure located on the Champ de Mars. Construction had begun in the late 1880s and was to be finished by the time of the exposition. Throughout the process, Parisians complained and petitioned for the tower not to be built, as they believed it was overwhelmingly grotesque and unnecessary. Nonetheless, the Eiffel Tower was completed in May 1889 and later became a widely loved and defining symbol of Paris.

The Exposition Universelle was a tremendous success. Visitors flocked to the Eiffel Tower and nearby museums such as the Liberal Arts Palace, which featured exhibits on medicine, music, geography, and photography. Meanwhile, the nearly 400-foot-long (121-meter-long) Palace of Machines displayed technological achievements such as voting machines, cigarette makers, telephones, and clocks. Visitors could view these displays by walking through the palace or by ascending to the building's second floor and riding moving platforms from the front of the palace to the back, taking in the displays below.

Another major attraction at the exposition was architect Charles Garnier's numerous displays purporting to depict the history and progression of human habitation. The dwellings shown in the displays were divided into the categories of prehistoric, or those of ancient cultures; historic, meaning the early homes of modern peoples; and primitive contemporaries, referring to the living spaces of African and island peoples. Presented at the foot of the Eiffel Tower and among the other advanced architecture of Paris, Garnier's displays were meant to glorify the accomplishments of the Western world while presenting other cultures as still uncivilized. Later scholarship on the 1889 exposition regarded the habitation displays as characteristic of European racism of the time.

The Exposition Universelle's nearly sixty-two thousand displays had attracted approximately thirty-two million visitors and earned the French government a profit of about eight million francs by the time the fair closed on October 31, 1889. Exhibition authorities marked the end of the event by shooting a cannon from the top of the Eiffel Tower. Paris went on to host several other world expositions, but the 1889 fair remained memorable for its size and the debut of the Eiffel Tower.

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