Whitman's Columbia: The Commemoration of the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 in A Thought of Columbus

Article published in «Walt Whitman Quarterly Review» — 2011 — 29 — pp. 1-18. DOI: 10.13008/2153-3695.1995From the moment the intent to host the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 was announced in 1890, the whole country was eagerly talking about it.1 The event was intended to reflect America’s new-found prominence on the world stage by celebrating the four centuries of progress since Christopher Columbus discovered the Americas, and hardly any publication lacked some mention of the event. While the Exposition was being planned many readers of poems like “Passage to India,” “Song of the Exposition,” and “Prayer of Columbus” thought that Walt Whitman should have been involved in some direct way. For instance, Illustrated American thought he would make an ideal representative for the fair, publishing in 1891 an anonymous editorial criticizing the Exposition planners’ request of a commemorative poem from Alfred Lord Tennyson.