Apparitions of Game History: Tracing Games at World’s Fairs and Expositions

• In Event: Practices and Methods of Repair and Maintenance of Cultural Media - II

Abstract

There is a rich history of games at World’s Fairs across three contexts: on display in anthropological exhibits and as technological demos; handed out or available for purchase as souvenirs; and as amusements in recreation zones. We have attempted to return to the site of World’s Fairs, only to find game artifacts that were displayed or sold are mostly gone while memories of play in these contexts exist only as traces. Though exhibited games and souvenir games have some documentation or material persistence, the games ‘for play’ prove more troublesome. There are references to these games in a range of ephemeral materials, but direct evidence is largely absent or yet to be discovered.

This presentation explores how the categories of games on display, souvenir games, and games for play have survived in various forms. We examine how professional and amatuer historians, preservationists, and scholars pass the evidence (or lack thereof) of these games on from generation to generation by performing the collective maintenance of memory. Examining this memory work as we seek to contribute to it ourselves opens up a host of related questions relevant to games. Our quest to find and maintain memories of games at fairs leads to a heightened awareness of what has been lost or remains yet to be uncovered. The function of games at World’s Fairs—whether collected and displayed as objects or enacted as performances—echo many of today’s uses and preserving their memory helps us envision how games can and should be valued in the future.

Authors

• Rebecca Rouse

• Bobby Schweizer, Texas Tech University