Embedded in the culture: Mathematics at the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 (Q2365834)

The title of this nontechnical, historical article clearly conveys its flavour. To quote the authors: ``... the mathematicians on the local organizing committee [of the Fair] took advantage of the occasion both to bring the mathematical endeavor into sharper focus within the United States and to highlight mathematics in the Chicago area, especially at the newly formed University of Chicago.'' Although the German contingent at the Fair, led by Klein and including Hilbert and Minkowski, ``clearly outclassed their hosts'', the Americans ``proved that the United States and the city of Chicago nurtured one of the more rarefied expressions of higher culture, research-level mathematics''.