In the summer of 2024, I conducted research on Italy and the World's Fairs (1871-1914) for my senior thesis project. I accessed archives in Italy, Belgium, and the United Kingdom, as well as a week in Paris to learn from the museums.
My favorite research location was undoubtedly the Gabriele D'Annunzio Archive (simply because of the view), and my favorite archival materials to read were D'Annunzio's love letters. I think that immersing myself in the cities in which the Fairs were held helped me to get a clearer picture of what the experience of attending a world's fair might have been like, especially when I was able to go inside buildings specifically built for one of the World's Fairs.
Visiting non-Italian countries has helped me to better understand how interconnected Europe was during the turn of the twentieth century, and how quickly culture was able to spread from one country to another.