p. 17 Women’s work did not necessarily gain visibility from fair to fair, nor did greater gender equity necessarily follow from feminist interventions within fairs. Our volume does show, however, that women’s presence at fairs were potentially transformative experiences, professionally and personally, individually and collectively… fairs opened opportunities for women that neither historians of womenand gender nor specialists of fairs have yet explored systemically ..the volume suggests the potential to focus on women offer the development of international, global or transnational perspectives within the field of exposition studies. And it suggests the need to include within such persepctives the experience and actions of all categories of women .. Unlike many studies, this volume has not much focused on consumption of phantasmagoria. Rather we sought to bring to light women as actors, producing goods and measuring the degree of their advancement. … And there is undoubtedly much work that could be done on the cultural effects of women’s spectators’ faze… Women, like men, experienced the fairs sensually and evocatively.”

Which also took me to the fascinating character of Maude Adams. A $150,000 statue of her in gold – typifying “The American Girl” was to be shown at the Paris Exposition, but was rejected.