Making Culture Visibleoffers a fresh focus on the history of nineteenth century photography. The narrative moves from a close-up look at several selected events between 1847 and 1900, from six industrial fairs to the looming presence of the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition in the mid-1870s. The last two chapters deal with the exhibition work of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum in the 1880s, and finally the collecting and displays of public libraries in the 1890s. This book revitalizes the roots of photography's own cultural history by reconnecting it to a living social process, played against the stage of cultural exhibition.