The Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations was a World's Fair held in 1853 in what is now Bryant Park in New York City, in the wake of the highly successful 1851 Great Exhibition in London. It aimed to showcase the new industrial achievements of the world and also to demonstrate the nationalistic pride of a relatively young nation and all that she stood for. Jacob Aaron Westervelt, at that time Mayor of New York, was the President of the exhibition-committee. The general superintendent was Admiral Du Pont.

Opening on July 14, 1853 with newly sworn President Franklin Pierce in attendance, the fair was seen by over 1.1 million visitors before it closed on November 14, 1854. The fair featured its own glass and iron exhibition building the New York Crystal Palace directly inspired by London's. The Palace was destroyed by fire on October 5, 1858.Walt Whitman, an American poet, wrote "The Song of the Exposition":

... a Palace,

Lofter, fairer, ampler than any yet,

Earth's modern wonder, History's Seven out stripping,

High rising tier on tier, with glass and iron facades,

Gladdening the sun and sky - enhued in the cheerfulest hues,

Bronze, lilac, robin's-egg, marine and crimson

Over whose golden roof shall flaunt, beneath thy banner, Freedom.

Adjoining the Crystal Palace was the Latting Observatory, a wooden tower 315 feet (96 m) high, which allowed visitors to see into Queens, Staten Island and New Jersey. The tower, taller than the spire of Trinity Church at 290 feet (88 m), was the tallest structure in New York City from the time it was constructed in 1853 until it burnt down on August 30, 1856.Today, the expo is also remembered as the place where Elisha Otis demonstrated an elevator equipped with a device called a safety, which would kick in if the hoisting rope broke. This addressed a major public concern regarding the safety of elevators. Three years later, Otis installed the first passenger elevator in the United States in a New York City store.

A world's fair, also known as a universal exhibition or an expo, is a large international exhibition designed to showcase the achievements of nations. These exhibitions vary in character and are held in different parts of the world at a specific site for a period of time, typically between three and six months.The term "world's fair" is commonly used in the United States, while the French term, Exposition universelle ("universal exhibition") is used in most of Europe and Asia; other terms include World Expo or Specialised Expo, with the word expo used for various types of exhibitions since at least 1958.

Since the adoption of the 1928 Convention Relating to International Exhibitions, the Paris-based Bureau International des Expositions has served as an international sanctioning body for international exhibitions; four types of international exhibition are organised under its auspices: World Expos, Specialised Expos, Horticultural Expos (regulated by the International Association of Horticultural Producers) and the Milan Triennial.

Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, held the most recent Specialised Expo in 2017 while Dubai, United Arab Emirates is currently hosting Expo 2020 (which was postponed to 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic). Buenos Aires, Argentina, who had been selected to host the next Specialised Expo in 2023, announced its withdrawal with no reschedule date.