World’s Fairs, or International Expositions, have long been appreciated for their large impact on society. According to historian James Gilbert, “they were extravaganzas of optimism, showcases of the present, and predictions of the future, as well as peaceful environments for competition and display of goods and ideas in the edgy years of the early twentieth century.” [1] Expositions have been some of the most significant global events, as a platform to not only display the host country’s advancements and power but also to classify and organize the world’s knowledge and progress. These fairs, with millions of attendees, had a profound impact on American society through their exhibits, shows, and attractions. By studying these events, scholars gain insight into how society functioned and evolved during their respective eras.
The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, commonly known as the 1904 Saint Louis World’s Fair, was an especially significant event, drawing crowds of thousands and totally around twenty-nine million in attendance over a several month-long span. With sixty-two countries participating, this Exposition held a conglomerate of worldwide cultural, technical, and industrial contributions that exposed many brand-new aspects of the world to millions of attendees. Exhibits in this Exposition covered a wide arrangement of different topics and attractions, from a horse named Jim Key, who could spell words, to reenactments of the Boer War, as well as an Anthropology section that resembled little more than a human zoo.
The 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition contains a wealth of societal and cultural information that historians can use to reveal many things about the current state of America, as well as society during the transformative time of the early 1900’s. Held to celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase, the Saint Louis World’s Fair showcased many new products, methods, and cultural items to the world on an incredibly large scale. For most, this Exposition is known for its location in Forest Park, inclusion of Geronimo, as well as being the birthplace of the ice cream cone and sweet tea. However, to Historians, the Louisiana Purchase Exposition is a tantalizing source for revealing the semantics of the turn-of-the-century paradigm shift in American society.
This leads to the question of whether the explicitly stated purpose and motivations of fair officials match the experience of those who attended the Exposition, and what does this juxtaposition mean in a broader sense? Injecting the experience and memory into the official history of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition can reveal several key aspects of not only the fair, but also American society during the turn-of-the-century. This was a time rife with Imperialism, racism, and drive for classifying knowledge, yet is this what the people who went to the Exposition experienced?
Contribution to Scholarship
The study of the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition has undergone quite the evolution over time. Twentieth-century historians [2], such as Robert Rydell, analyzed the fair’s explicit purposes outlined by the organizers, paying little attention to the experiences and perceptions of attendees. The works of this era analyze the contributions of each American fair to the overall process of American leaders to frame their notion of “progress as racial dominance and economic growth” [3], arguing that the fair organizers used the Louisiana Purchase Exposition to give “utopian aspects to American imperialism” [4]. This group of authors mentions a few aspects of the fair to prove this point, focusing heavily on the Anthropological exhibits, which essentially force-fed the public W.J. McGee’s theory of racial hierarchy.[5] These analyses of the fair’s organization, substance, and legacies, according to these historians, leads one to believe that the Louisiana Purchase Exposition was little more than a soapbox for cries of racial hierarchy – evidenced strongly by Anthropology director McGee’s popular racial hierarchy theories.
Though early historians focused on the explicit purposes outlined by the fair’s organizers, historians of the Twenty-First century [6] have shifted their focus more towards the experience of those that attended the World’s Fair. They explore the fair’s impact on attendees, particularly in terms of representation and exploitation of marginalized groups, juxtaposed with the explicit purpose of fair organizers. Gilbert argues that “we do not see them [the Fairgoers] as a mute block of observers, ready and willing to accept and absorb the various messages and lessons intended by the designers of the Fair” [7], while also investigating how historians have built the previous narrative on the topic. Some of their argument regards the representation of Native Americans and indigenous peoples at the fair – exploring the complicated power dynamic between white Americans and Native Americans and revealing the potential for the fair’s instances of transnational indigenous exchange to foreshadow future pro-indigenous movements. Lastly, Young’s focus is based on the 1889 Paris Exhibition, though investigates the potential of it sparking one of the first major waves of cultural globalization and media. His work gives significance to the study in general, noting that these events potentially served major roles in several key transformative times. Overall, these scholars offer a more nuanced and complex understanding of the fair’s significance beyond its surface-level historical narrative compared to previous works.
Though the recent work of present-century historians has brought a deeper level of context into play, much of their focus remains towards to the Anthropological aspects of the Exposition. I propose to investigate a similar juxtaposition between the explicit purposes and motivations of fair organizers with the perceptions and experiences of attendees within the Exhibit of the United States Government. The key to fully understanding the role of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in the larger makeup of American society is to apply Gilbert’s model of analysis to different popular exhibits of the fair. Doing so to the United States Government Exhibit will open doors to further investigate what differences exist between the intentions of organizers and its impact on attendees, how this came to be, and what it means in a broader sense.
Methodology
Due to the sheer amount of archival information pertaining to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, it was key to narrow my scope of analysis to one exhibit. While many historians have investigated the Anthropology exhibits, as mentioned before, few have directed their research towards other types of exhibits. Therefore, my analysis focuses solely on the United States Government Exhibit, also known as the Palace of the United States Government. This exhibit is not only mentioned by several diaries, multiple pieces of correspondence, and countless newspaper articles, but was also a highly popular exhibit – this may be due to its prime location being right inside one of the entrances, as well as United States’ citizens interest and pride in their own government.
To perform the analysis previously stated, I will identify the motivations of the official fair organizers to establish their explicit motivations and purpose. The documents from the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company Records Collection includes official statements, press-releases, and planning documents that will illuminate the organizer’s intentions in exhibiting the Palace of United States Government, as well as disclose the semantics of its planning. This point of view is further enhanced by the David Francis Collection, which comprises of letters and other documents from David Francis, the president of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company, that were written prior to and during the Fair. Both located at the Missouri Historical Society, these two collections will form the bulk of evidence determining the intentions of fair organizers.
To reveal a deeper understanding of the explicit purpose and motivations of fair officials, I will use the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company’s Official Bulletin, as well as their Manual and Official Report from the Missouri Digital Heritage. The Official Bulletin was the primary method of disseminating updates throughout the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company, and sheds light on various issues and instances in the organization of the exhibit. This primary source has the potential to directly state the explicit purposes of Exposition officials in terms of the United States Government Exhibit. The Manual and Official Report of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company offer the government manifest, as well as legislation, that allowed the Exposition to occur, alongside supplementing the information gained from the Bulletin. The Official Report also holds the official catalogue of every exhibit, which will be useful for determining the exact items and their organization within the United States Government Exhibit. These will all serve in the purpose of determining and proving the viewpoint of the planners and organizers of the fair, a pertinent aspect of my analysis.
To prove the memory and experience of the United States Government Exhibit, I will consult the diaries from various people that attended the Fair, such as Edward Schnneiderhahn and Adele Quinette Phelps, located at the Missouri Historical Society. These diaries will enable analysis of the experience of the United States Government Exhibit from the point of view of several people in attendance. Edward Schneiderhahn went to the fair 28 times and detailed every visit, as well did his sister in letters to her husband, which are included with the diary in the collection. Adele Quinette Phelps provides a valuable perception on the Fair as a teenage girl at the time, which will enable the argument to be evidenced by a wider arrangement of perception and experience. Sam Hyde was a Historian; thus, his diary injects historical context as well as makes comparisons to his attendance at the previous World’s Fair in Chicago.
Furthermore, to gain an understanding of how the media portrayed this exhibit to the public, I will use newspaper articles from before and during the Exposition, such as the Saint Louis Post-Dispatch. These articles will nuance the experience of the Exposition with examples of how the media portrayed this exhibit, thus giving a representation of how the public felt en masse. Similarly, I plan to use photographs from the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Collection in the Missouri Historical Society to analyze the organization of the displays in the exhibit, which has the potential to reveal several key aspects – namely the focal point of the exhibit, as well as the organizational structure of the displays. With both perceptions proven, I will then perform an analysis on the deeper meaning behind the intentions of those who organized the Exposition as well as the United States Government Exhibit in juxtaposition with how those in attendance perceived it.
Organization
The organization of this research paper will be ordered thematically, commencing with an introduction to World’s Fairs and providing context to the analysis being conducted. The next section is concerned with establishing the explicit motives of the organizers. This will investigate the primary sources to establish the exact aims and purpose that the organizers of the United States Government Exhibit, as well as the president of the Exposition. After that is discussed and proven, the analysis will reveal the experience of those who attended, as evidenced by the diaries of several people. This may or may not contrast with the official history of the Exposition, however either result will suffice for the analysis. The analysis will then inject the experiences of those in attendance alongside media portrayal to reveal the differences or similarities in between the two points of view. This will enable full examination of the differences between what the organizers intended people to get out of the exhibit and what the attendees thought and experienced. Finally, I plan to draw conclusions regarding what this juxtaposition means in a broader sense, using different societal and political context from the time period.
Bibliography of Secondary Sources
Gilbert, James. Whose Fair?: Experience, Memory, and the History of the Great St. Louis Exposition. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press, 2009.
Medak-Saltzman, Danika. “Transnational Indigenous Exchange: Rethinking Global Interactions of Indigenous Peoples at the 1904 St. Louis Exposition.” American Quarterly 62, no. 3 (2010): 591–615. https://doi.org/10.1353/aq.2010.0010
Parezo, Nancy, and Don Fowler. Anthropology Goes to the Fair: the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition. University of Nebraska Press, 2007.
Rydell, Robert W. All the World’s a Fair: America’s International Expositions, 1876-1916. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press, 1984.
Rydell, Robert W., John E. Findling, and Kimberly D. Pelle. Fair America: World’s Fairs in the United States. Smithsonian Institution Press, 2000.
Swensen, James. “Bound for the Fair: Chief Joseph, Quanah Parker, and Geronimo and the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair.” American Indian Quarterly 43, no. 4 (2019): 439–70. https://doi.org/10.5250/amerindiquar.43.4.0439
Young, Patrick. “From the Eiffel Tower to the Javanese Dancer: Envisioning Cultural Globalization at the 1889 Paris Exhibition.” The History Teacher 41, no. 3 (2008): 339–62. https://doi.org/http://www.jstor.org/stable/30036916
[1] Gilbert, James. Whose Fair?: Experience, Memory, and the History of the Great St. Louis Exposition. (Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press, 2009.) P.13.
[2] Rydell, Robert W. All the World’s a Fair: America’s International Expositions, 1876-1916. (Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press, 1984.)
Rydell, Robert W., John E. Findling, and Kimberly D. Pelle. Fair America: World’s Fairs in the United States. (Smithsonian Institution Press, 2000.)
Parezo, Nancy, and Don Fowler. Anthropology Goes to the Fair: the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition. (University of Nebraska Press, 2007.)
[3] Rydell. All the World’s a Fair: America’s International Expositions, 1876-1916. P. 8.
[4] Rydell. All the World’s a Fair: America’s International Expositions, 1876-1916. P. 183.
[5] Parezo and Fowler. Anthropology Goes to the Fair: the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition.
Rydell, Findling, and Pell. Fair America: World’s Fairs in the United States. P.54.
[6] Gilbert. Whose Fair?: Experience, Memory, and the History of the Great St. Louis Exposition.
Swensen, James. “Bound for the Fair: Chief Joseph, Quanah Parker, and Geronimo and the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair.” American Indian Quarterly 43, no. 4 (2019): 439–70.
Young, Patrick. “From the Eiffel Tower to the Javanese Dancer: Envisioning Cultural Globalization at the 1889 Paris Exhibition.” The History Teacher 41, no. 3 (2008): 339–62.
Medak-Saltzman, Danika. “Transnational Indigenous Exchange: Rethinking Global Interactions of Indigenous Peoples at the 1904 St. Louis Exposition.” American Quarterly 62, no. 3 (2010): 591–615.
[7] Gilbert. Whose Fair?: Experience, Memory, and the History of the Great St. Louis Exposition. P.16.
Dalton G. King 