In this recorded symposium from May 21, 2024, Professor Elizabeth Macaulay gave a talk about how Greek architecture in Nashville was connected to the city’s reputation as a seat of learning and culture.
About the symposium:
World’s Fairs were one of the most important means that ideas, culture, technology, and products spread in the pre-internet world. Scholars have traditionally identified the classical architecture deployed at all United States World’s Fairs as “Roman,” following the influential classical architecture of Chicago’s Columbian exhibition of 1893. However, the Tennessee Centennial and International Exposition of 1897, which celebrated the centennial of Tennessee’s admission to the Union, privileged Greek and Grecian architecture in many of its official buildings.
Join Professor Elizabeth Macaulay as she examines how the use of Greek architecture in Nashville was connected to the city’s reputation as a seat of learning and culture. A life-sized-and extremely accurate-replica of the Parthenon was the fair’s premier building. Professor Macaulay also discussed why other classical forms of architecture and Egyptian architecture played a prominent role in Nashville. The use of ancient architecture at the Tennessee World’s Fair was essential to demonstrating that Nashville was indeed a new Athens and that it was a modern, sophisticated metropolis.
About the speaker:
Elizabeth R. Macaulay is an Associate Professor of Liberal Studies, Classics, Middle Eastern Studies, and the Digital Humanities at The Graduate Center, The City University of New York. Her research examines the intersection of antiquity and modernity. Educated at Cornell and Oxford Universities, she is the author or editor of six books, including Antiquity in Gotham: The Ancient Architecture of New York City (2021). She has served as a trustee of the Archaeological Institute of America, and she chairs the board of Smarthistory.org, the Center for Public Art History, where she is a regular contributor. She is currently finishing a book on ancient architecture at American World’s Fairs.
Symposium Sponsors:
Centennial Park Conservancy
Metro Nashville Parks and Recreation
Archaeological Institute of America- Nashville Society