White Fish

I have been obsessed lately, as a result of the AMST 502 curriculum, with the possible appearance of fly tackle at a world’s fair, or world exposition. As a kid the only thing I really knew about world’s fairs was that the Space Needle was built for one. (One generation earlier, many recall going to them).  I have now discovered much more, and of course, these discoveries have me thinking.

Experts who study world’s fairs including MSU's Dr. Robert Rydell argue that the U.S. worlds’ fairs were platforms to establish the superiority of the white race, and their claims are valid. Various Filipino tribes were put on display in the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, and one tribe was renowned for eating dogs, and good white folk payed to watch. At the same fair I discovered there was a fish and game pavilion. Via Google Books I found a 1904 copy of Field and Stream that was dedicated to reviewing the St. Louis outdoor recreation areas. One article was written by Tarleton H. Bean, the commissioner of the Fish and Game Pavilion. Another by a sports writer, and another by the comical caricature of a rural low culture resident, Uncle David. He writes things like: “If a mule cud eat what they call a Hott Dogg, which is a kind of sausage you get on what is nown as the Pike, it would not be so Bad, fer you can get several Hot Doggs fur six bits. Ever thing else is fore dollars to set and look at it fur a little while.” He then goes on to call the beer exhibit the place where “you git yore high culchur”.1

Who attended these fairs? Middle and upper class Americans did, and they were able to see these displays as something to strive for. The world’s newest breech-loading rifles were on display, as well as fishing tackle. It framed the wild as a place to explore, safe from other non-whites who were feared, into the imaginations of millions of Americans. If you were white.

I then met with Paul Schullery, and we discussed this in relation to my research doctorate research. We started uncovering other pieces of fly fishing memorabilia at world’s fairs. Actually he started revealing them to me, and I am indebted. In 1876, at the Philadelphia International Exposition Orvis wins a medal for an innovative fly reel, which is still the standard to which fly reel shape and function still strive today. Then, at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, Mary Orvis Marbury directeda magnificent fly plate display, enhanced with amazing fishing and river photography. Her book Favorite Flies and Their Histories contained elaborate chromolithographs (had never heard of these before today). These are items still survive, and Schullery’s book The Orvis Story includes a remarkable history of the Orvis legacy, and amazing photographs of flies and images from the late 19th to early 20th century. 2. So, my research is paying off and this course is sending me into a direction I was unwilling to go earlier: race, class, and fly fishing.

Back to the world’s fairs, where the best of every country was put on display to inspire and give hope, and there was fly fishing. And its rich tradition of whiteness goes back centuries. And it might be racism; just today I have been contemplating whether there is still a latent racism, working in the cracks of upper class America, and trickling down.

Another idea might be that fly fishing appears so white, that other races don’t want to be perceived as that white. I feel that way sometimes. The actions of some put the racial connections associated with them in a shade of embarrassment. “The actions of a few have put a world in harm’s way/ and history has proven that they killed our leaders dead” (Citizen Cope “Healing Hands”).

It might be about imperialism, and economic expansion. Orvis made flies in Kenya. Most flies anglers purchase at shops now are made in the Philippines, Sri Lanka, or India. The gear is manufactured overseas. But the lore still exists, one of front window tiers in the west, cane rods and small flies, and pipes. Fly fishing serves as a display of certain racial attitudes in this country. It is like golf, or owning a major sports team, or winter sports.


1. http://books.google.com/books?id=f0BYAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA302&lpg=RA1-PA302&dq=hunting+and+fishing+at+world's+fairs&source=bl&ots=tDAdtFG71s&sig=-QNFtPb5XzFXNcmZF0qot5llHiw&hl=en&ei=T8_6S_IkhNo16eOVhAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CCQQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q&f=false
2. Schullery, Paul. The Orvis Story: 150 Years of an American Sporting Tradition. Manchester: The Orvis Company, Inc. 2006 (20-35).