Louisiana Purchase Exposition
Entrance to Creation Exhibit on the Pike
, informally known as
The Saint Louis World's Fair, was a
World's Fair held in
Saint Louis, Missouri in
1904 which celebrated the centennial of the
Louisiana Purchase (delayed one year).
It opened April 30, 1904, and closed December 1 the same year. The Fair Grounds covered 1,200 acres (4.9 km²), the largest space of any fair, and it was probably the most grand of the old style Pre-World War I Fairs. There were over 1500 individual buildings, connected by some 75 miles (120 km) of roads and walkways, and it was said to be impossible to give even a hurried glance at everything there in less than a week.
Palace of Varied Industries
Exhibits were staged by 62 foreign nations, the
United States government, 43 of the American states, in addition to the numerous exhibits put on by many industries, cities, private organizations and corporations, theater troops, music schools, etc.
View from Observation Wheel, showing exhibitions New York to the North Pole, Galveston Flood, and Palace of Transportation
The Fair hosted the
1904 Summer Olympic Games and on
July 23 Charles E. Menches invented the
ice cream cone at the Expo (although there are examples of
prior art in
England in
1888 and
New York City in
1896). The
hot dog and
hamburger are sometimes also believed to have been invented at The Fair.
Ragtime music was popularly featured.
This Fair is referred to in the 1944 Judy Garland movie "Meet Me In St. Louis".
External links
- http://www.1904worldsfairsociety.org/index.htm
- http://www.crawforddirect.com/worldfairtour.htm
- http://washingtonmo.com/1904/index.htm
- http://www.slfp.com/ForestPark.html
- http://www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spec/exhibits/fairs/louis.htm
- http://www.bitwise.net/~ken-bill/fair.htm
- An Edison company film of the Asia pavilion, archived by the Library of Congress
Palace of Mines & Metallurgy