History of Mass Tourism, 1850-1980

Brochures, posters, guidebooks, maps, ephemera, periodicals, films, correspondence, scrapbooks, travel journals, photographs, postcards, company records, government documents, and monographs documenting the history of tourism on all continents, and organized around the following themes: Women and Tourism; Children and Families; Road, Rail and Air Travel; Accommodation, Hospitality and Entertainment; Package Tours, Cruises and Organized Travel; Beachfront: Seaside and Coastal Destinations; The Great Outdoors; Urban Tourism; Health and Medical Travel; Historical, Cultural or Religious Tourism; International Relations; and Planning and Business.

World’s Fairs: A Global History of Expositions

Sources from over 200 world’s fairs and expositions, with emphasis on 9: the 1851 Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations (London); the 1876 Centennial International Exhibition (Philadelphia); the 1889 Exposition Universelle (Paris); the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition (Chicago); the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition (St. Louis); the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition (San Francisco); the 1933/1934 Century of Progress International Exposition (Chicago); the 1939/1940 New York World’s Fair; and the 1967 Expo ’67 (Montreal). Includes a wide range of document types, such as posters, books, scrapbooks, maps, pamphlets, periodicals, correspondence, diaries, photographs, postcards, sheet music, sound recordings, catalogs, souvenirs, organizational records, and more.


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Smithsonian Collections Online

A collection of books from both world’s fairs and state fairs during the period 1834-1918, digitized from a 174 reel microfilm set; records from the Smithsonian Institution and the United States National Museum documenting its in world’s fairs and international expositions during the period 1867-1940; two collections of world’s fair memorabilia from the period 1851-1940; two collections of publications by and about world’s fairs during the period 1843-1922; a collection of agricultural trade literature from the period 1820-1926; and a collection of trade catalogs and miscellaneous trade literature from the period 1850-1926.