The Ferris wheel is just one of the many inventions that debuted when the World’s Fair in Chicago opened on May 1, 1893.
Rice University history professor and CNN presidential historian Douglas Brinkley discusses that day in history with host Scott Tong. Brinkley is a contributor to the new National Geographic book “1,000 Days in America: An Illustrated History of the Moments That Defined a Nation.”
On May 1, 1893, the Chicago World’s Fair opened with the Ferris wheel, which was invented for the event. Why is it on your list of important days in history?
“All these things got innovated there. Most famously, Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse were able to show the public their alternating current, or AC, system, which was going to be the new system of electricity where Thomas Edison was promoting direct current, DC, and the fair made Tesla and Westinghouse sort of winners. And it was also the first all-electric affair ever. You had hundreds of thousands of lamps that lit up the whole city. It became known as the ‘White City.’
“[The fair] brought the Midwest into America. It proved that Chicago was the other great city besides New York.
“You mentioned the Ferris wheel. That’s invented by George Washington Ferris. He was an engineer, and there was a competition for what could be the Eiffel Tower. And he came up with that giant spinning wheel. The Ferris wheel becomes the amusement invention that symbolizes the United States. And then you can have things like Cracker Jacks, Aunt Jemima’s Pancake mix … the brownie was invented there in Chicago.
“If you want to look at all of the things that took place there in Chicago… People like George Washington Carver with these beautiful botany plants and John Singer Sargent, [the] great portrait painter showing his wares and the Pledge of Allegiance that we know was first performed at the exposition by a school group there.
“Frederick Jackson Turner, a historian, lectured about when he called his ‘frontier thesis,’ which is the story of America’s westward expansion. And when we hit the Pacific Ocean, we started becoming imperial, looking to take Hawaii and the Philippines and Guam and the Caribbean and Puerto Rico and Cuba. And later, people would say space was the new frontier, the idea that Americans have to keep moving, that that’s our central trait. And that [idea] was intellectually discussed there in Chicago.”
In 1893, we’re about to enter the automobile age and it’s not too long after oil is discovered in western Pennsylvania. Are you saying there is to some degree kind of optimism about technology and ideas in America at the time?
“Absolutely. And it was all about electricity. And in Chicago, the ‘White City’ there just lit up the electricity. People’s jaws would drop. And we might think of the Ferris wheel as just an amusement, but for a lot of farmers coming in, they never were able to have an aerial view in their lives before. And now they’re looking at the beauty of Lake Michigan and looking at Chicago.
“And remember, the whole city of Chicago had burned in 1871, almost every building. They rebuilt bigger and better than before. It was a turning point, the pivot from the candle-lit 19th century to the electrification of America in the 20th century and all that it brought. So it’s important we don’t forget Chicago 1893.”
This interview was edited for clarity.
____
Julia Corcoran produced and edited this interview for broadcast with Todd Mundt and Emiko Tamagawa. Tamagawa also produced it for the web.
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
Copyright 2026 WBUR
