To present the "frontier" as a driving catalyst of American history, Turner lifted a virtually unnoticed passage of enormous significance from the U.S. Federal civil service commissioner Theodore Roosevelt, no mean historian himself and a man who understood before a good many others the significance of what became the "Turner thesis" of American history, sentĪ polite congratulatory note: "I think you have struck some first class ideas, and have put into definite shape a good deal of thought which has been floating around rather loosely." Historian Henry Adams, grandson and great-grandson of presidents, called the fair "the first great expression of American thought as a unity."Ĭompared to these manufactured wonderments, it's no surprise that Professor Turner's learned address, "The Significance of the Frontier in American History," got so little attention in the public journals, or indeed, even among hisįellow historians. "It beats the brag so far out of sight that even Chicago is dumb." "We were all knocked silly," said the future secretary of state, John Hay.
Everything, from the giant Corliss electric dynamo, to George Washington Ferris's 250-foot wheel, to the hootchy-kootchy girls of the "Egyptian Village," brought wide eyesĪnd gaping mouths to tens of thousands of parasoled and straw-hatted tourists. World-traveled tourists marveled at the breathtaking exhibits attesting to the socialĪnd technical advancement of the United States. Here on the shores of Lake Michigan,Ī gleaming white and gilt beaux arts temporary city rose to herald the remarkable achievements of the bursting new colossus of the Western Hemisphere.
Of the World's Columbian Exposition, America's self-conscious debut commemorating four hundred years of progress since Christopher Columbus claimed the New World for the king and queen of Spain.
On the warm evening of July 12, in the exciting Chicago summer of 1893, Frederick Jackson Turner, a young history don at the University of Wisconsin, rose to speak before a stellar audience of international scholars. The Spanish-American War and the Dawn of the American Century
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