Kate Chopin Dies From Being Surrounded by New Technology at St. Louis World's Fair

The 1904 St. Louis World's Fair was the mothership of world's fairs. It had been planned as a centennial celebration of the Louisiana Purchase, but it also served as a celebration of new technology. Electric lights had recently been invented and they decorated the grounds head to toe to serve both as illumination and fascination. There were "palaces" devoted to the marvels of technology, such as the Palace of Varied Industries and Palace of Electricity.

The Palace of Electricity

Not only were there gigantic buildings representing modern marvels but there were also celebrations for them such as the transportation day ceremony. The St. Louis World's Fair was one of the first instances where mass amounts of middle class people in the US travelled across state borders just for tourism, remember they did not have planes back then.

The Festival Hall

The fair was a perfect city. A perfect city made from new technology, but also a scary city. So scary that it killed Kate Chopin. On August 20th 1904 Chopin collapsed at the fair due to an overdose of severe oogling at the splendor of technology. Two days later she died. It was a battle between Chopin, a great writer with scary new ideas about a woman's role in society, and the Fair, a supernatural devotion to the future; and as always, technology wins.