This study examines the uses, classifications, and reception of American photography at three World's Fairs. The three expositions chosen for this analysis represent distinct discourses that characterize nineteenth-century America: at the Crystal Palace of 1851, a rising abolitionist voice as America's unseen slave population was increasing, at the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, an obsession with order and clarity following the chaos of the Civil War, and at Chicago's Columbian Exposition of 1893, the emergence of commerce as an American standard. Together, the treatment of photography at these expositions helped to give shape to issues of nationalism and power. However, this assimilation often resulted in a complicated environment of resistance and ambiguity, which in turn, was mapped onto the photographic field. Ultimately, this study demonstrates the way in which photography's uses at the fairs have formed our current complex understanding of the medium.