Evidence of Things Not Present

Made possible by the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution. EVIDENCE OF THINGS NOT PRESENT tells the story of researching the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 through its archival sources. It touches on the greatest Ferris Wheel ever built, the Fair’s restrictive photography policy, and the new world the event attempted to herald. It looks for evidence of Edison’s kinetoscope being at the Fair through conflicting sources and tries to unravel where some of that confusion comes from. Ultimately, it is a story about the lines between existing, surviving, and publicly accessible source materials.