The second Centre for Environmental Humanities talk of TB2 2023/2024.

America’s First Modern Aquarium: The 1893 Columbian Exposition Aquarium Exhibit 

The ambitious 140,000-gallon aquarium at the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago allowed White City visitors to gaze at live freshwater and saltwater aquatic creatures in a re-creation of their natural habitats. The aquarium exhibit at the World’s Fair—one of the first public aquaria in the nation—can be understood as America’s first “modern” aquarium in that it encompassed the four main goals associated with modern aquaria: wildlife conservation, scientific research, public education, and public entertainment. Due to the limitations of aquarium technology in 1893, the US Fish and Fisheries Commission built and ran the aquarium exhibit, lending their conservation and scientific research goals to the public attraction. The alliance between the Commission and the aquarium, however, was a marriage of convenience marked by tension; the Commission struggled to meet multiple expectations of what an aquarium should look like and what purpose it should serve. The exhibit ultimately held vastly different meanings for its curators, laborers, visitors, and aquatic creatures captive within its tanks. 

Quill Graham is an MPhil history student at the University of Bristol and a ThinkBig Postgraduate Scholar. Quill earned a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh in May 2023 and currently resides in Wisconsin.