Experiencing Expos
An Oral History of U.S. Citizens’ Engagement with World’s Fairs, 1962–2017
By Anna F. Kaplan, Ph.D., and Maggie Lemere
With contributions from Alexis Zilen
For many U.S. citizens who have engaged with International Expositions, also known as World’s Fairs, within the United States and overseas in the past 60 years, those experiences impacted simultaneously their worldviews, their views of their communities, and their sense of themselves. Global Ties U.S. is proud to present this paper, which reflects findings from an oral history that was conducted between September 2021 and January 2022 with 46 narrators representing both U.S. citizens who experienced Expos inside of the United States (1962-1984) and those who represented the United States at Expos held abroad as a USA Pavilion Youth Ambassador (2010-2017). Through their interviews and learning more about their experiences, we can better understand the long-standing socio-cultural impact of these events on U.S. citizens.