This will probably be the last thing I write about the World Fairs, not because there is not so much more to dig into and write about, but simply because there comes a time when you realize, that answers are impossible. Knowing what happened in history is actually not possible. This subject (alternative history) has been taken to new levels the last ten years, and had millions of people interested in looking into the past with fresh eyes.

There comes a problem though quite quickly. That being, all ideas of what happened (especially the further back in time one goes) is just a theory. What is called standard history, what is found in school history books, is just a narrative that has gained the most appeal from the people who decide what should go in those books. But once looking into other possibilities, it does not take long to realize that many theories make just as much logical sense. Even some of the ones that make no logical sense at all, still have the possibility of being true. We just have no idea. And contrary to the fact that thousands out there are making videos every week saying they have THE answer to any historical problem, the only truth that can be presented, is that they have a theory. Always one that will be left as possible, but no more.

I was going to write a long article on what I had found out about how the photography of dioramas and models might explain many of the existing photographs of the World Fairs (especially between 1851-1915). I was going to detail the New York diorama exhibit for the 1939 World Fair as well as detailed info of the interesting videos of modern dioramas (which look remarkably similar to the Vanilla Sky images of the 1800s).

But I realized it would not really get us anywhere. It is just some curiosities I came on, that perhaps these World Fairs were in fact built in the real world, but just small portions of them. Say 20%. And then a fair was held, people did go, there were exhibits and restaurants and carnivals and technology and all the rest. But the fairs were not the size they were presented to be, that instead the majority of the “building” was making lifelike dioramas, photographing them, and presenting them in the books. That could explain a 2 year building period for the fairs, 20% real, 80% model. That had some possibility to my mind.

But then I began to flesh out the story and idea, and I wondered “what the point was.” I mean even if it were true, and I had totally figured out some secret of the fairs, none of it could be proven in any way. And I have come to see that about all history.

The average person does not want history questioned, because whatever they have been told when they were 10 years old, they want that to be true, but it has become a foundation of their fictional day to day self, and their fictional day to day country and society that they exist in. When you look at the alternative researcher, and this was me included, also has a “story” that they really hope is true, because they somehow link to it. I had this when I was placing Old Kingdom Egypt on a pedestal for my book Power of Then, and overlooked a number of elements that might indicate just the opposite.

This is why to do any more than present a few “possible ideas” about the past is actually a disservice. We can take a new look, share what is there, and come to no real conclusions and let people think what they want about it. Because we can never know. All we can know for sure is that history, as it is presented, is on giant lie presented as fact.

I don’t want to do any more adding to these fallacies. However, some of you might be curious as to what the research was that led me down this model thinking idea. So I will leave it all here for you as short overviews and links, so that you can go and dig into it yourselves if you so wish to.

I thought of the model idea due to the majority of photographs of the fairs taken from very high angles, which is how you would more easily photograph models. These images seem to come from just about every angle. So I was wondering how did they get all of these high level angle photos. The second problem was the vanilla skies in the images, why do they need to “hide” the sky, or cut it out, or whitewash it? The model photographs give me some clues. Then there are all of the images that are a combined image, painting and drawing. Often the building might look sort of real, but all the people are painted or drawn in. Again why do that?

For the 1939 Fair a number of unique exhibit dioramas were made for it. One is of New York City, featured in Life magazine called “The World of Tomorrow: Scenes from the 1939 New York World’s Fair.” If they went to all this time and effort to make cities, why not in the past have a diorama of the whole Fair? I also own the 1939 Official Guide Book for the fair, and in that guide are almost NO real photographs of any of the buildings or sites at the Fair. Everything in the guide is either a drawing or a model. Are they laying it all out right there for us?

https://www.life.com/history/1939-new-york-worlds-fair-photos/

So here are some various videos of people who have made amazing real life dioramas, and photographed or videoed them. Notice that the sky (when filmed with a backdrop) comes out with the Vanilla Sky of our 1890s 1900s photos. But when the diorama is taken outside, and then placed on a table, those photographs have real life sky backgrounds, as well as real trees in the background. Look carefully

One very unique model builder goes by the name Luke Towan on youtube, whose cars and bicycles actually move. Check and pause the first 30 seconds and see the images.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4EOT1XXc_Y

Another from Smol World Workshop “Building the Ultimate Medieval Tavern” gives us more for the discussion. Here at the beginning we see a wonderful cabin and it is photographed outside, so we get the proper sky background. Yet later in the image, 34.40, the same diorama is photographed inside with a photography backdrop. And there we get the vanilla sky image.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehOHUUIh0Fo

Add this video, “Amazing Miniature creations” which shows the incredible quality that every piece of a diorama can be made to. So why not have many of the exhibit buildings be nothing more than a diorama with a mass of miniature items within. Then you would not need 14 giant buildings chock full of stuff, you would need to real ones for the real fair goers to examine, and then 12 that are photographed in miniature. Who would later know the difference? Even the people who were at the fair might not be able to tell the difference.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyq01sWDiG8

Another example is the guy who built an entire town, called Elgin Park. His story can be seen at the “Man Behind the Mysterious Town.” Michael Paul Smith died in 2018 sadly. Again one person in his lifetime could make this. So why not 10,000 people all working and making a giant fair diorama?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upwyB9YegdU

I mean could the Chicago World Fair or St. Louis Fair be built for real in two years as presented. No way possible, just due to the amount of earth and material that needs to be moved. However a “portion” of the fair be built, and a midway, some restaurants and whatnot…but make the majority of the fair to be seen only in model form and then that be photographed. That is something that could be done in a 2 year span.

Fair Passports

I want to add one last bit of detail and that being the fair passports. Why do any visitors need passports? And why do those we have that survive are of children? In the 1890s an 1900s, the technology required to do this for patrons attending an exhibition would be staggering, and generally just a waste of time and energy. A passport is a document to cross borders. Were the world fair their own cities, like the current UN or Vatican? Were all these children, likely orphans, bought and sold and shipped around the world? Thus the passport would really be their “city state identification” that would then allow someone to take the now purchased children across national borders? Because all of this time and money was not just pumped into making souvenirs for people. There is something very nefarious about all of this, about everything at these fairs, and sadly, not much about them would surprise me anymore.

The most famous of them On the top right the name appears to be Shameus Huston. has a number of various choices for checking off hair colour, eye colour and the like. Has a number on it. What is most odd is the text that appears beneath the photo which reads “The holder of the Pass must deposit with gate keeper, personal card with above number, date and his signature.” What. First off which “gate keeper” do they mean? This world or the astral world? Secondly why would a child have a “personal card” and sign their name. What sort of contract is that Fair passport intending?

When you see the image, notice the child is holding up a marker with their number, in this case 5077 on it, very similar to what you see in police mugshots. I mean this is pretty much a real passport and not some sort of “fun” mock up.

The date seems to be 1899

There were just two fairs in the US in 1899, one in Omaha Nebraska (Greater American) and a smaller one in Philadelphia (National Export Exposition).

There was one in London as well that year

I went to post links to a few of this and other old fair passports, and they have disappeared from the internet. They were there just two weeks ago when I began this, I didn’t bookmark the pages at the time, went back today to find them, and they are just gone. The one for Shameus can be still seen at the end of this video by Jon Levi, maybe the only place the image is existing right now, and there used to be several different images of children in these 100+ year old passports,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfUg4QOmPvQ

Note, on researching the passports I found that a “new” program seems to have been such as the event called the A World A’fair in 2007, to give children a “passport” and then let them get stamps at the various country exhibits that they visit. However there does not seem to have any photographs on these, because you know, it is something for the kids to have fun with.

I did find souvenir passports from fairs in 1961, and 1967. Again I saw no evidence of them having photographs of the “holder” inside of them, just a place to place and sign your name on the front page. So why exactly do the passports of children in 1893 need to have them photographed. I mean given what is said about photography at the time, how long would it take for visitors to be photographed, have the plate developed, miniaturized down, and then added to a passport? Does that really have value time for money in 1893?