In the mid-nineteenth century, along with the first stirrings of interest in the history of technology among the literate elite, a phenomenon appeared that was to have a far greater impact upon the general population. World's fairs and other technological exhibitions privileged the most recent innovations rather than historical ones. It may seem odd to list exhibitions, museums, and magazines in a chapter on the historiography of technology, but popular perceptions and enthusiasms for various technologies form a presence around which historians of technology carry out their scholarly pursuits, for popular ideas on technology and its history are imbued with a philosophy historians call Whiggism. There are two aspects to the Whiggish interpretation of history. The first is a belief in progress. The second side of the popular history of technology: patriotism. Paralleling the explosion of scholarship was a continued popular interest in technology. In recent years, SHOT and the technological history field have broadened their perspective in several directions.