IMAGE: LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

Soon after Cincinnati opened its first large-scale meatpacking plant in 1818, the Ohio city became famed as "Porkopolis." So prominent was the area's status that the Cincinnati Pork Packers' Association exhibited at the 1873 International Exposition in Vienna – but with only a cartoon placed in the American stand. In a superlative example of spin, the city showcased this idealized illustration of its slaughterhouses in action, omitting awkward particulars such as canals running red with blood and swine freely roaming the sidewalks gobbling up debris, making organized trash collection unnecessary.