Omaha’s 1898 Trans-Mississippi International Exposition

Omaha was transformed as it played host to the Trans-Mississippi International Exposition in the Summer of 1898. The huge success of recent World’s Fairs was behind the motivation of the creation of this event. Nearly 2 million people came from far and near to explore the exposition from June through October which included exhibits, a midway, amazing buildings and architecture, music, photography, notable speakers, the assembly of Native American Tribes and dozens of other events and special attractions. What DIDN’T they have at the Exposition is really the question?

The University of Nebraska and the Omaha Public Library have taken on a huge and wonderful project regarding the history of the Trans-Mississippi International Exposition. There is now a wonderful web site which is a digital archive of the event which you may browse online with many THOUSANDS of images, documents, maps, booklets, advertisements, newspaper articles, scrapbooks, documents and other memorabilia.

The site is created by the Center for Digital Research in the Humanities with funding provided by the Plains Humanities Alliance, the Center for Great Plains Studies, and the Office of Research and Economic Development at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. It is so beautifully constructed and easy to navigate. They have done such a great job with the project everyone should take a look.

Click this link to go the home page to start exploring: Trans-Mississippi International Exposition

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