Italy+St.+Peter's

**//The Catholic Educational Exhibit//** The Catholic Educational Exhibit was created for the primary purpose of educating the American public of progressions made in American Catholic society. Catholic educators and clergy were the first to meet in order to create the exhibit. Final approval to display the exhibit was given in a letter dated July 20, 1892 given by Pope Leo XIII.The exhibit was created in hopes of countering anti-Catholic views made by various groups in the 1800's.

In, 1492 when Columbus sailed the ocean blue, Catholicism was established in America. American Catholics traced Christopher Columbus' heritage back to Italy and he was a Catholic. Catholics who came to America started to honor Christopher Columbus as a Catholic. This was known as "Columbianism". To many American Catholics, this gave them the right to be a Catholic. Festive celebrations, which became Columbus Day, started in New York. It eventually started to spread around other cities. In 1882, the largest Catholic laymen organization in the world was created in Connecticut. It was called the Knights of Columbus. The knights concluded that since Columbus discovered America, they had just as much of a right as the Protestants to be citizens of the New World. They argued this toward Protestants, particularly those in the American Protective Association(APA). Presidents Grover Cleveland and Benjamin Harrison encouraged school children to pledge their allegiance to recognize Columbus.

The Catholic Educational exhibit, a.k.a The Columbian Exposition, was a massive 65,000 square foot space dedicated to the education of the catholic church. There were 21 representatives at the exhibit to advocate Catholic education. The exhibit was housed in the huge Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building, the largest building in the world at the time. The exhibit included 50 alcoves all lined with pictures and information about the religion. Any important objects were guarded by barriers so they could not be damaged. Also included at the exhibit were pamphlets written to convince that catholicism schools should be allowed. To show the potential of the exhibit, Pope Leo XIII wrote a letter showing his support just for the exhibit.

Oscar Handlin, //The Uprooted: The Epic Story of the Great Migrations That Made The American People// (Little, Brown, and Company, 1973)  James A. Morone, //Hellfire Nation: The Politics of Sin in American History// (Yale University Press, 2003) Page Smith, //The Nation Comes of Age: A People’s History of the Ante-Bellum Years// (McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1981)

Barton, George. Columbus the Catholic: A Comprehensive Story of Discovery. Baltimore: John Murphy and Company, 1893. Desmond, Humphrey J. The A.P.A. Movement: A Sketch. Washington: The New Century Press, 1912. Maurelian, Brother. Final Report: Catholic Educational Exhibit, World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893. [Chicago, World's Fair?]1893. Muccigrosso, Robert. Celebrating the New World: Chicago's Columbian Exposition of 1893. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1993. Rothman, Stanley, "The Politics of Catholic Parochial Schools," The Journal of Politics 25, no. 1 (1963): 49-71. Schlereth, Thomas J. "Columbia, Columbus, and Columbianism," The Journal of American History 79, no. 3 (1992): 937-968. Wallace, Les. The Rhetoric of Anti-Catholicism: The American Protective Association, 1887-1911. New York: Garland Publishing, 1990.

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