Inventing the Modern World

During the 19th and early 20th centuries, world’s fairs were the showcases for introducing advancements in the modern world. Universal in scope, they displayed decorative arts, paintings, and sculpture alongside scientific advancements and agricultural products. Above all, they democratized design unlike any previous forum. Their wide influence is witnessed by the Seventh Regiment’s presentation of the 1879 New Armory Fair, an event that followed members’ attendance at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial International Exhibition. Lecturer Jason T. Busch will broadly investigate the objects shown at world’s fairs from London’s Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations in 1851 to the New York World’s Fair in 1939. These fairs and the exhibitions demonstrated how innovative design could positively affect modern living.

Jason T. Busch is Curatorial Chair for Collections and The Alan G. and Jane A. Lehman Curator of Decorative Arts at Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh. He was formerly Associate Curator of Architecture, Design, Decorative Arts, Craft and Sculpture at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and Assistant Curator of American Decorative Arts at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art. He is currently co-organizing with Catherine Futter the catalogue-exhibition Inventing the Modern World: Decorative Arts at World’s Fairs, 1851-1939, which will be shown in 2012 at Carnegie Museum of Art and at the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City.