Also they showed images in clear detail, hence the elegant print of a woman gazing down upon the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.

ECONOMIST: The daguerreotype is back

Anniversaries have always been important culturally, he said, and he points to the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, which famously celebrated the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' arrival in the New World.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS

In 1893 Chicago held a huge fair, the World's Columbian Exposition, ostensibly to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Columbus's arrival in the Americas but in reality to bind together the city's squabbling immigrants and fractious social groups with a bit of cultural adhesive.

ECONOMIST: To natural assets add art, learning and fun