The literary and diplomatic overtures between America and Iran expanded throughout the nineteenth century. As American missionaries explored Iran, American writers and diplomats wrote about Persian literature and traveled to the country to assess its commercial potential. Persian Studies emerged as American scholars became involved in recovering Persian antiquity. For its part, Iran and the king, Nasser al-Din Shah, expressed captivation with the West and undertook glamorous trips to Europe. Other Iranians also started to write more about Western society, and specifically about America as a successful nation and empire. Finally, Persia was featured in American Orientalist adventures such as the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893.