The Century of Progress (COP) was an international fair. Congress passed a resolution authorizing the fair and invitations were extended to other nations to participate. Participation was modest, not surprising perhaps in light of the worldwide financial collapse of 1929. Nine foreign pavilions were built. Among the most prominent was the Italian pavilion erected by Mussolini's fascist government.
The Century of Progress database is compiled from three documents: JCL Reference List No. 27, compiled by J. K. Wilson in 1933 (51 pp.); JCL Reference List no. 27, Supplement No. 1, compiled by J. K. Wilcox in 1934 (9 pp.); and JCL Reference List No. 32, compiled by Helen M. Baker and J. K. Wilson in 1935 (76 pp.). These three reference lists are not official COP documents; they were in-house lists compiled by Crerar staff as part of their regular compilation of reference tools. The locations of individual documents within the bound volumes of publications were not part of the list texts but were annotated onto the lists later by hand.
Part of the Crerar's fair materials are in the Crerar and part in Special Collections. The portion housed in Special Collections consists of several discrete sets of material: 21 volumes of publications (the basis for the digital project); 8 volumes of official fair press releases; an annotated copy of the three Crerar reference lists of publications; 3 volumes of reports on aspects of the COP's publicity, press coverage, and statistics comparing the COP's budget with other world's fairs; and a scrapbook with miscellaneous clippings and publications.
A number of other institutions have collections of COP-related materials, but the official set of organizational records of the Century of Progress, Inc. is at UIC. No other web site thus far presents a large group of COP publications from fair exhibitors.
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