Notes
From Wikipedia:
"The first Illinois State Fair was celebrated in 1853 in Springfield. The 1850s were a golden age of agricultural journalism, with a wide variety of editors offering many suggestions, well-founded or not, to increase farm productivity. The first State Fairs, in Illinois and other states, were created and organized by farmers in order to compare notes with their colleagues and distinguish between good and bad advice.
"During the years after the Civil War, the rules of agricultural judging became standardized, and more and more farmers began to show their farm products. Increasing knowledge of genetics inspired the breeding and showing of purebred farm animals at both county fairs and the Illinois State Fair.
"In the first half of the 20th century, the internal combustion engine revolutionized life on the American farm, with manufacturers of agricultural machinery eagerly taking advantage of occasions like the Illinois State Fair to demonstrate their new products.
"The Illinois State Fair was held almost every summer during this more than 150-year-long period. (Currently, the fair is held annually over a 10-day period in mid-August of each year.) On a few occasions it was suspended. In 1893, for example, the organizers of the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago prepared to offer a larger lineup of agricultural products and machinery, so the Illinois State Fair canceled itself for one year.
"The Illinois State Fair, like many state fairs, moved during the first 40 years of its life, 1853-92, from place to place. It was celebrated as far north as Freeport and as far south as Du Quoin. In 1894, the State of Illinois began to use a 366-acre parcel of land on the northern boundary of Springfield, which became the permanent Illinois State Fairgrounds."