Oscar Wilde being one of the faces of the aesthetic movement wanted to travel to America to both promote the aesthetic idea (art for arts sake) and also spread European literature to America. He introduced European authors that many had not heard before, gave lectures on literary movements, shared texts, and overall attempted to educate Americans and spread ideas. While Wilde had done what he set out to accomplish, he found America as distasteful, uncultured, and overall Americans lacked the same sort of class he saw Europeans possessed. 

The story of "The Canterville Ghost" is inspired by this tour. The story demonstrates a clear contrast between the American family and the Europeans in the story, the American family having no care for history and only caring about materialistic things like Wilde expressed in his reports of his tour. Overall the story uses general stereotypes to push Wildes's perception of Americans. 

The photo I included is a clipping of the announcement of Oscar Wildes visit to America.