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Organizational 1904 Fair Websites
--> Wikipedia has a
nice overview of the 1904 World's Fair, with many links and references. If you see errors or omissions, let me
know, and I’ll try to make inputs.
The St. Louis Public Library
has a multi-faceted website about the Fair.
 The
Celebrating the Louisiana Purchase: The 1904 World's Fair 'virtual tour'
contains hundreds of unusual and rare images of the Fair, many from stereoviews.
The
SLPL has also created many
indexes for some the 'primary reference books' from the 1904 era.
This link takes you to the list of their indices; more detailed links are
below. The indexes include: "The Universal Exposition of 1904" by David R. Francis,
the
"History of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition" by Mark Bennitt, the
monthly
World's Fair Bulletins, and other souvenir picture books from 1904.
The Missouri History Museum
has both an excellent website about the Fair and a great exhibit about the
1904 World's Fair at their museum.
Titled
"Looking
Back at Looking Forward", the site includes many pictures,
information about Fair artifacts and the exhibit, and an interactive map of
the Fair.
NEW
Audio Tour:
World's Fair - An audio tour of the
1904 St. Louis World's
Fair, presented by the Missouri History Museum
Comprehensive 1904 Fair Websites
Updated At The Fair -- by 1904 World's
Fair Society member Lee Gaskins.
This
website contains more detailed information and pictures about the 1904
World's Fair than any other website.
The author has done a wealth of research to
detail information about the fair, from facts, statistics, and legends of the
Fair, and has continued to build his website. Check out the Lee's
"Art at the
Fair" section in his "Misc." section!
The 1904 St. Louis World's
Fair -- by Mike Truax, 1904 World's Fair Society.
These
pages (you're here!) include: an overview of the 1904
St.
Louis World's Fair, facts and trivia, LINKS, several pages
about the Pike and its attractions, myths and legends, memorabilia, current
and vintage World's Fair books, and several calendars about events at
"The Greatest of Expositions".
Terry's 1904 World's Fair Page
by Terry Laupp.
This
website contains many great pictures of the World's Fair, from the Palaces to
the country and state buildings, with pictures and captions from 1904 books.
Many
other topics are included: memorabilia, exhibits, statutes, what's left,
maps, book reviews, and FAQs.
However,
this website has not been updated since 1998; most e-mail
links are not functional, and some picture/links are ‘broken’.
"Tour" and Overview Websites
New Technology at the Fair (2004 article from Washington University)
describes the many inventions and innovations at the 1904 Fair.
Hattie's
Travel Diary, 1904-1908 is the story of Hattie Dieter's travels,
including a trip to the 1904 World's Fair in September 1904.
1904 World's
Fair Tour by Jim Crawford.
Features
a 'virtual tour' of the Fair, with 16 excellent pictures from the September
1904 issue of The Cosmopolitan magazine by John Brisben Walker. That issue
was devoted entirely to a fascinating description of the Fair.
Includes
Fair Trivia, a list of Fair-related books (not just the 1904 Fair), and a
description of 'the
Hendershott Catalog', "1904
St.
Louis World's Fair Mementos and Memorabilia"
by Robert L. Hendershott, who attended the Fair and passed away in 2005 at
the age of 106!
Meet me at the
Fair: The Louisiana Purchase Exposition...The 1904 St. Louis World's Fair
by Bill Gamber and Ken Withers
An excellent
'virtual tour' of the Fair, organized into The Heart of the Fair, The World
at the Fair, The Pike, and Other Sites of Interest. Many pictures and good
information. (some bad links)
1904 World's Fair -
The Louisiana Purchase Exposition hosted by
Washington, Missouri.
Contains
over a dozen pictures and captions of the World's Fair, taken from "The
Greatest of Expositions" souvenir book.
Also,
many links and a personal recollection by Anna Ollie Stuart, who
visited the Fair at age 6.
Official
Directory of the 1904 World's Fair
Contains
a list of names of the people who comprised the many boards, committees, and
officials of the 1904 World's Fair, including the many country and state
boards.
Websites for Many World's Fairs
Earth
Station 9, 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition -
(Scroll down the left 'index' and click on 1904-St. Louis.)
The
Earth Station 9's World's Fair pages contains links to 100s of Fairs and
Exposition websites.
The
Louisiana Purchase
Exposition from ExpoMuseum
Has
links to many other World's Fairs.
Single Page Websites
Neat!
Hattie's 1904 Travel Diary (to the 1904 World's Fair)
Tells the
story of Helen Dieter's travel to St. Louis, her stay in Camp Lewis, and
visits to the 1904 World's Fair.
Louisiana
Purchase Exposition, St. Louis, 1904
Contains
several pictures of memorabilia items at
University of Delaware
Library, Special Collections Department
Revisiting
the World's Fairs and International Expositions by Smithsonian
Institution Libraries
Single
webpage has many articles and references about the 1904 World's Fair,
particularly in the Monographs section.
St. Louis
Public Library
Research Book Indices
Main Index Page:
SLPL: Indexes and
Bibliographies
An Overview of the SLPL Resources:
SLPL's Resources for
the Louisiana Purchase Exposition
NEW
Index of many Exhibits:
Official Catalogue of
Louisiana Purchase Exposition Exhibitors: Liberal Arts & Industrial Categories
(1904)
Reference Books:
"History
of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition" by Mark Bennitt is indexed in three
parts:
Returned!
The Universal
Exposition of 1904 - by David R. Francis, two volumes, (only one
present right now).
This book is also on-line courtesy of the Missouri History Museum (see On-Line
Books page)
NEW
World's Fair Bulletin,
1899-1905, published monthly by the LPE Company. Contains
articles about the plans, progress, buildings, and exhibits at the Fair.
Picture Books (lists of illustrations):
The Forest City
- by Walter B. Stevens and photographs by William H. Rau, published 1904.
Published as weekly booklets (this index dates the volume/number/page), and also
published as a bound hardcover volume, 300+
pages.
Greatest of
Expositions: the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair (1975 ed.) - photographs
1904, reprinted 1975. Published as a bound volume, 286 pages. |
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NEW Finding:
1904 Newspapers
NEW The
St. Louis Republic for 1904 has been put on-line by the Library of
Congress. Click here, and then you can search for World's Fair, or any
particular topic to find full-page images of this historical newspaper.
On this page you can
search various newspapers (scroll down in the 'select newspapers' box to
the St. Louis Republic), narrow down your date range (perhaps April-December
1904), and add word searches (like "World's Fair").
Recent Findings:
Coins and Medals
A REAL
Gold Medal from the 1904 Fair for a Nevada exhibit tells the story of the
award for the Nevada Mineral Exhibit, and Nevada later reproduced their Official Medal in real gold!
Louisiana Purchase Exposition Medals tells the story of the
souvenir official medals produced by the U.S. Mint that were awarded to
exhibits. Also contains the U.S. Mint Engravers count of medals that were
struck (produced). Describes the 'so-called dollar' produced by the
Mint as a souvenir, and other links on the page take you to medals produced
for other World's Fairs.
Louisiana Purchase Exposition Gold Dollar tells the story of the
souvenir so-called dollars produced by the U.S. Mint in two versions (McKinley
and Jefferson), and distributed by Farran Zerbe. The same text
information (without pictures) also appears on this website at
The Coin Site.
So-Called Dollars -
Louisiana Purchase Exposition - 1904 describes several
the "so-called dollars" that were produced at the Fair, with pictures.
Click on the button on the left "By Year" to see many other dozens of events
that these souvenirs were produced for.
Recent Findings:
Special Topics
NEW
The Liberty Bell at
the 1904 World's Fair describes how America's most famous bell
traveled to the
1904 World's Fair. In fact, the
Liberty
Bell traveled many times, to expositions and World's Fairs between
1885 and 1915.
NEW
Washington University and the 1904 World's Fair describes how the
World's Fair 'rented' many of the early buildings of the 'hilltop campus', and
delayed Washington University's occupancy of it's new facility (though the
university benefited greatly from the funding).
NEW
The Aeronautic Concourse of the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition by
Frederick W. Roos, hosted by the American Institute of Aeronautics and
Astronautics.
A
great 7-page report with pictures about the many aviation-related events at
the 1904 World's Fair!
NEW
Octave Chanute's 1904 LPE
Glider.
Tells the story of the heavier-than-air glider that flew
many times in October 1904 at the Fair, until a towrope break injured the
pilot, William Avery. This glider was designed by aviation pioneer
Octave Chanute (who advised the Wright brothers), and is on display at a
museum near Paris.
The American Library Association held their 1904 Convention (Congress)
at the World's Fair. Here's the story of their meetings, visit, and
impressions in a 2007 article, with pictures.
An
excellent article, but has one error, the Jewel Box was NOT built for the 1904
World's Fair!
Early Radio History by
Thomas White. This is an extensive, multi-paged
website, with many links. This link to section 6 contains links to
several pages about the early radio
developments by both Marconi and DeForest (about 1/2 way down the page).
The American DeForest Wireless Telegraph Company built the Fair's tallest
structure, and used it to transmit wireless telegraph messages about the Fair.
LOTS of neat and interesting information!
The DeForest Wireless
Telegraph Tower: Bulletin No. 1 is a 4-page illustrated pamphlet
produced to describe the company's promotion and showcase the company's
300-foot radio tower, which had been set up on the Fairgrounds.
DeForest's Wireless
Telegraphy was one of the latest inventions featured in the Exhibit
of the Department of Interior Patent Office pamphlet.
United States Patent Office
sponsored an exhibit featuring recent inventions, and this review of Lee
DeForest's radio work appeared in a pamphlet, with diagrams.
Making Wireless History
With De Forest provides detailed description and pictures of
DeForest's exhibit 1904 at the Fair. (from section 7 of the article)
Wireless Telegraphy at the
St. Louis Exposition describes the DeForest wireless exhibit at the Fair. Illustrated with several pictures from the Fair.
(also from section 7)
NEW The
Pennsylvania Railroad Company produced, demonstrated, and used a unique
"Locomotive Testing Plant" in the Fair's Palace of Transportation, and
moved it to their Altoona plant after the Fair. These links and
information were provided to me as a result of an inquiry from China, where
they're working on a documentary about international expositions for their
2010 Expo.
A
Special History Study is hosted by the National Park Service (in an
on-line book). Its chapter 2 is titled:
Products of the Altoona Railroad Shops and contains this information
(and more): "...on June 25, 1903... a Pennsylvania Railroad spokesperson
announced that a locomotive laboratory would be constructed and set up in the
Transportation Building as part of the Pennsylvania exhibit at the Louisiana
Purchase Exposition."
The Steam Locomotive
website about fairs/expos says: "During the course of the fair, a number
of locomotives were "tested" here while the public viewed."
And another page on the Steam Locomotive website about the
Altoona facility
says: "After the Fair, in 1905, the plant was install(ed) in at
the Altoona Works. This plant was a test stand that let the locomotive being
tested run on rotating drums that could be regulated through braking to
simulate the load of a train under various operating conditions"
And finally, part 5 of the
Altoona Centennial Booklet (1949) says that "In
1905 the Locomotive Test Plant... was brought to Altoona... This Test Plant,
on which complete locomotives may be tested with their engines running at
various speeds and loads, is now the only one of its kind in the western
hemisphere."
History of the Wanamaker Organ
describes the origin and relocation of the organ that graced Festival
Hall, and was relocated to Philadelphia, where it's still giving daily
concerts. The German eagle is also pictured and described. There's also
an excellent article in
Wikipedia about the Organ.
Mary Garden Perfume produced by McLean won a Grand Prize at the 1904 World's
Fair.
Jack Daniels Whiskey also won a Grand Prize at the 1904 World's Fair. Contains
extensive information and pictures from the Fair, copied from another website.
This official
Jack
Daniels webpage lists the several World's Fairs and other awards won by
this whiskey.
Special Topic Websites
Agricultural Events
at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair by Society member and presenter
Dr. Lyndon Irwin
Lyndon's
comprehensive web page on Agricultural History (for Southwest Missouri State
University) focuses on the many aspects of the Fair that related to
agriculture, the main industry of America in 1904.
His
many web pages include the Palace
of Agriculture and its
exhibits (with maps!), the Agricultural Staff, the many demonstrations and
shows, the cattle, sheep, goat, and horse competitions, the Floral Clock, and
Windmill Hill.
"There Will Be A
Wreck!" by Society member and presenter Dr. Lyndon Irwin
As
the author of a book on this topic, these web pages are devoted to the story
of the head-on train crash that killed 30 people from Kansas
and western Missouri
on their way to the Fair. The book may be purchased on this web page.
Phil Geerling's CD-ROM site
by Society member Phil Geerling.
Phil
has done a fantastic job digitizing the 'bible' of the 1904 World's Fair,
Mark Bennitt's 800-page "History of the Louisiana Purchase
Exposition", with high-resolution pictures. The complete book is
available on CD on this webpage.
Postcards
of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition by 1904 World's Fair Society
member Dave Lossos.
Dave's
web page contains images of 118 postcards of the Louisiana Purchase
Exposition in thumbnail form, and large form.
The Baby
Incubators on the "Pike." by John Zahorsky, M.D., of St. Louis
This
study in neonatology is "A Study of the Care of Premature Infants in
Incubator Hospitals Erected for Show Purposes".
The
very detailed articles and pictures were published in several parts in the
St. Louis Courier of Medicine, 1904-1905.
Dogtown
and the St. Louis World's Fair by Bob Corbett
Contains
several articles about the Dogtown area and its relationship to the 1904
Fair, including excerpts from the 1904 book "Hiram Birdseed at the St.
Louis World's Fair" (including information and stories about the Pike,
restaurants, etc.--easily the best part of this website), the naming of the St.
Louis neighborhood (just south of the Fairgrounds), hotels and rooms, and
information about the stories of the Philippine people at the Fair and
Igorotes.
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