Louisiana Purchase International Exposition, St. Louis 1904

Articles

• Afable, Patricia O. "The Exhibition of Cordillerans in the United States during the Early 1900's." The Igorot Quarterly 6: 2 (1997): 19-22.
  

  A large Philippine exhibit which included an estimated 800 to 1000 Filipinos was created for the fair in order to display the United States' recently acquired colonial spoils and justify its imperial presence in the Philippines. Afable discusses some of the key features of the exhibit, its popularity, and the present day effort to unearth more information about its Igorot participants. Includes references.

• Armstrong, Agnes. "The Organ in the Iowa State Building at the Louisiana Purchase Exhibition." The Tracker: Journal of the Organ Historical Society. 36:4 (1992): 25-30.

• Barr, Bernadine Courtright. "Entertaining and Instructing the Public: John Zahorsky's 1904 Incubator Institute." Social History of Medicine (Great Britain) 8: 1 (1995): 17-36.

• Blumentritt, Mia. "Bontoc Eulogy, History and the Craft of Memory: An Extended Conversation with Marlon E. Fuentes." Amerasia Journal 24: 3(1998): 75-91.
  

  Concerned with the Filipino experience at the St. Louis Fair, and the historical importance of the fair to Filipinos as well as the conditions of the indigineous Filipinos who were brought to the Fair.

• Book, Jeff. "Return of a Giant." Smithsonian 34:12 (2004): 27-28.Book, Jeff. “Return of a Giant.” Smithsonian 34:12 (2004): 27-28.
  

  Birmingham, Alabama was a major iron-making center at the beginning of the 20th century: to prove this to the world, they built a colossal iron statue of Vulcan, Roman God of the forge for the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. The statue has been restored, and now sits in Vulcan Park.

• Christ, Carol. "Japan's Seven Acres: Politics and Aesthetics at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition." Gateway Heritage 17: 2 (1996): 2-15.
  

  For Japan, the 1904 world's fair was the opportunity to present two images to the world. In the midst of Western imperial encroachment into Asia, Japan wanted to project an image of military strength equal to that of the United States and Great Britain. On the other hand, Japan provided fair goers with an image of uniqueness based on ancient culture and tradition that resisted the imposition of Western standards. Some of the areas covered by the article are Japanese participation in earlier world's fairs, Japanese collaboration with American anthropologists to exhibit the indigenous Ainu, the Russo-Japanese War, and Japanese aesthetics. Includes photographs and a brief bibliography of primary and secondary resources.

• Christ, Carol. "The Sole Guardians of the Art Inheritance of Asia: Japan and China at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair." Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique 8:3 (2000): 675-709.
  

  Describes Japanese participation in the 1904 World's Fair, and Japan's use of the Exposition to claim the status of colonial power. Distinctions between the Japanese and Chinese, and how they were viewed by the world.

• Clevenger, Martha R. "Through Western Eyes: Americans Encounter Asians at the Fair." Gateway Heritage 17: 2 (1996): 42-51.
  

  The world's fairs showcased what organizers believed was "progress" according to Western standards. These standards were used to judge non-Western cultures and deem them uncivilized and backward. Organizers juxtaposed these cultural exhibitions in order to educate attendees of the "benefits" of Western progress. Clevenger discusses the impact that the Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino exhibits had on audiences based on the personal accounts of four fair attendees. She also delves into greater detail about each country's exhibit. This piece was adapted from an excerpt from Clevenger's "Indescribably Grand": Diaries and Letters from the 1904 World's Fair. Includes photographs and short bibliography.

• Cody, Davis C. "Henry Adams and the City of Brass." New England Quarterly 60 (1987): 89-91.
  

  Adams used the phrase "the city of brass" to describe the night time illumination of the St. Louis fairgrounds. Cody traces its history and reveals the more ominous meanings of the phrase in noting that Kipling and the tales of Scheherazade used the "city of brass" as a metaphor for "a ghastly monument of spiritual starvation in the midst of material plenty."

• Crets, Jennifer. "What the Carnival is at Rome, the Fair is at St. Louis: the Nascent Years of the St. Louis Agricultural and Mechanical Fair." Gateway Heritage 22:4 (2002): 22-33.

• Dyreson, Mark. "The Playing Fields of Progress: American Athletic Nationalism and the 1904 Olympics." Gateway Heritage 16: 2 (1995): 18-37.
  

  The 1904 Olympic Games were held in conjunction with the world's fair. The games were incorporated into the fair as an example of "social technology," a theme that coincided with the touting of human progress at all world's fairs. Photographs are included.

• Edwards, Sue Bradford. "Imperial East Meets Democratic West: The St. Louis Press and the Fair's Chinese Delegation." Gateway Heritage 17: 2 (1996): 32-41.
  

  Despite being invited to the world's fair by fair officials, the majority of the Chinese delegation was subjected to negative treatment, harassment, and curfews. Only high ranking Chinese officials like Prince Pu Lun and Wong Kai Kah were treated better, but only after initially being portrayed by the media as "backwards and bizarre." Discussion focuses around Chinese and Western commercial relations, stereotypes held by Americans of Chinese, Chinese laborers in the U.S., and the experiences of the Chinese delegation at the fair. Photographs and a short bibliography are included.

• Everdell, William R. "Meet Me in Saint Louis: Modernism Comes to Middle America, 1904." The First Moderns. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997. 206-226.

• Feldman, Richard D. "The Golden Hill Totem Pole of Indianapolis: The Missing Totem Pole from the Brady Collection of Sitka National Historical Park." American Indian Art Magazine 21: 2 (1996): 58-71.
  

  Delineates Feldman's search for the Alaskan totem pole that was once displayed at the 1904 fair and then found its way to the Indianapolis, Indiana neighborhood of Golden Hill.

• Frelinghuysen, Alice Cooney. "The Early Artistic Jewelry of Louis C. Tiffany." The Magazine Antiques (1971) 162: 1 (July 2002): 90-5.
  

  Louis Comfort Tiffany's earliest jewelry was exhibited at the 1904 Exhibition, and received more attention from art critics than did Tiffany and Company's displays.

• Grindstaff, Beverly K. "Creating Identity: Exhibiting the Philippines at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition." National Identities 1 : 3 (Nov. 1999): 245-264.
  

  Focuses on the Philippine culture exhibit at the fair and the importance of the Exhibition in creating Philippine identity.

• Gunning, Tom. "The World as Object Lesson: Cinema Audiences, Visual Culture, and the St. Louis World's Fair, 1904." Film History 6 (1994): 422-44.

• Gustaitis, Joseph. "Who Invented the Ice Cream Cone?" American History Illustrated 23 (1988): 42-44.
  

  This brief article describes the convergence of rolled waffles and ice cream at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition and names the contenders for the title of inventor of the ice cream cone.

• Kierstead, Matthew A. "Vulcan: Birmingham's Industrial Colossus." IA: the Journal of the Society of Industrial Archaeology 28:1 (2002):59-74.
  

  Vulcan, the largest cast-iron statue in the world was conceived by a Birmingham, Alabama, businessman as a dramatic booster for the industry of the city and the South for display at the 1904 St. Louis Exposition…the statue was a sensation at the fair.

• Kramer, Paul. "Making Concessions: Race and Empire Revisited at the Philippine Exposition, 1901-1905." Radical History Review 73 (1999): 74-114.
  

  Justifying overseas colonies and the American presence in the Philippines was difficult for those who worked to establish American imperialism abroad at the turn of the century. One way of promoting imperialism was through expositions. Kramer explores these efforts and their outcomes by closely examining the Philippine Exposition at the 1904 world's fair.

• Laurie, Clayton D. "An Oddity of Empire: The Philippine Scouts and the 1904 World's Fair." Gateway Heritage 15: 3 (1994-95): 44-55.
  

  The Philippine Exhibit, designed to showcase American imperialism was one of the largest and most frequently visited displays at the fair. Within the exhibit, the most popular native group featured was the US Army Philippine Scouts, "Filipino soldiers who served the American military establishment in the archipelago." These soldiers were used to quell popular rebellions against the Americans during the colonization process. Photographs are included.

• Lerner, Michael. "Hoping for a Splendid Summer: African-American St. Louis, Ragtime, and the Louisiana Purchase Exposition." Gateway Heritage 19:3 (1998-99): 28-41.
  

  By supporting and participating in the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition, African Americans hoped to promote the economic advancement of the black community. The Exposition never welcomed African American artists like ragtime musicians and some groups did boycott the fair.

• Long, Burke O. "Lakeside at Chautauqua's Holy Land." Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 92 (March 2001): 1-26.
  

  Presents information on the Louisiana Purchase Exposition and the idea of the holy land in the American Republic, with background on the Palestine Park.

• Miyatake, Kimio. "Jinruigaku to Orinpikku: Ainu to 1904 nen Sentoruisu Orinpikku." Hokkaido Daigaku Bungaku-bu Kiyo [Japan] 108 (2002): 1-22.

• Moenster, Kathleen. "Jessie Beals: Official Photographer of the 1904 World's Fair." Gateway Heritage 3:2 (1982): 22-29.

• Mullen, Robert. "The First Monument to the Third President: The World's Fair Comes to an End." Gateway Heritage 16: 1 (1995): 14-19.
  

  After the closing of the 1904 fair, the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company (LPEC) had a surplus of profit. The LPEC, as its final act, decided to erect a monument to Thomas Jefferson with the excess funds. The Jefferson Memorial Building was finally built in 1913. Includes photographs.

• Parezo, Nancy, and John Troutman."The Shy Cocopa Go to the Fair."Selling the Indian: Commercializing & Appropriating American Indian Cultures.Ed. Carter Jones Meyer and Diana Royer.Tucson, AZ.:University of Arizona Press,2001. 3-43.

• Paul, Andrea I. "Nebraska's Home Movies: The Nebraska Exhibit at the 1904 World's Fair." Nebraska History 76: 1 (1995): 22-27.

• Peavy, Linda and Ursula Smith. "World Champions: the 1904 Girl's Basketball Team from Fort Shaw Indian Boarding School." Montana 51:4(2001): 2-25.

• Sanger, Chesley W. and Anthony B. Dickenson. "The Construction and Display of the First Full-Scale Model of a Blue Whale: The Newfoundland Connection." Acadiensis (Canada) 27:1 (1997): 67-84.

• Scott, Catherine. "Pygmy in the Zoo: the Story of Ota Benga." Bronx County Historical Society Journal 38:2 (2001): 84-95.
  

  In 1904, an American explorer brought a number of pygmies to America whom he exhibited at the World's Fair. One of them, Ota Benga ended up on display in the Bronx Zoo, which outraged the African American community.

• Shapiro-Shapin, Carolyn G. "Filtering the City's Image: Progressivism, Local Control, and the St. Louis Water Supply, 1890-1906." Journal of the History of Medicine 54 (July 1999): 387-412.
  

  St. Louisans realized that a successful fair depended on the world perceiving their city as a healthy locale, despite the increase in typhoid fever. The article discusses the advances towards “pure water,” and the need for visitors to see the improvements.

• Simpson, Pamela. "Meet Me in St. Louis: Lexingtonians Go to the Fair." Proceedings of the Rockbridge Historical Society (Lexington, Va.) 10 (1980-1989): 355-64.
  

  This address presented a general overview of the fair covering features such as its planning, exhibitions, and architecture. It includes discussion of how Lexingtonians reacted to the fair. Photographs are also included.

• Smith, Jeffrey E. "A Mirror Held to St. Louis: William Marion Reedy and the 1904 World's Fair." Gateway Heritage 19:1(1998): 32-39.

• Steffensen-Bruce, Ingrid. "'Classic Serenity' or 'Oriental Splendor': Cass Gilbert's Designs for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, 1904." Nineteenth Century 19:2 (1999): 35-43.

• Trennert, Robert A. "A Resurrection of Native Arts and Crafts: The St. Louis World's Fair, 1904." Missouri Historical Review 87: 3 (1993): 274-92.

• VanStone, James W. "The Ainu Group at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, 1904." Arctic Anthropology 30: 2 (1993): 77-91.

• Vostral, Sharra L. "Imperialism on Display: The Philippine Exhibition at the 1904 World's Fair." Gateway Heritage 13: 4 (1993): 18-31.
  

  The Philippine Exhibition left fair goers with the image of Filipinos as savage, barbaric dog-eaters. The exhibition was constructed as propaganda to justify US imperialism in the Philippines. The US was portrayed as "benevolent" and civilizing and economic investment in the islands was encouraged. Discussion of US involvement in the Spanish-American War and the consequent annexation of the Philippines is included. Photographs are included as well.

• Watkins, W. Merle and Bill Watkins. "The World's Fair in a Rowboat." Goldenseal 27:2 (2001): 66-71.

Dissertations

• Harper, Christine Froechtenight. "The Water Wizard: John F. Wixford and the Purification of the St. Louis Water Supply in 1904." Ph.D. Dissertation: St. Louis University, 2001.

• Luftschein, Susan Elise. "The Changing Face of an Expanding America: The City Beautiful Movement, the Myth of the Frontier, and the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St. Louis, 1904." Ph.D. Dissertation: City University of New York, 1996.
  

  This fair was dedicated to the one-hundred year anniversary of Jefferson's purchase of the Louisiana Territory and embodied the City Beautiful Movement. This work looks at the "artistic achievements" of the fair and analyzes them with respect to historical context. Two aspects of the fair, the layout of the grounds and the free standing sculpture, are focused on. Illustrations and a bibliography are included.

Monographs

• Barnes, Harper. Standing on a Volcano: the Life and Times of David Rowland Francis. St. Louis: Missouri Historical Society Press, 2001.
  

  Biography of the "father" of the St. Louis Fair who was later appointed ambassador to Russia by Woodrow Wilson.

• Breitbart, Eric. A World on Display: Photographs from the St. Louis World's Fair, 1904. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1997.

• Clevenger, Martha R., ed. "Indescribably Grand": Diaries and Letters from the 1904 World's Fair. St. Louis, Mo.: Missouri Historical Society Press, 1996.
  

  This work focuses on the reactions of visitors to the various aspects of the world's fair. It includes the diaries and letters of four visitors as well as an overview of the 1904 world's fair by Clevenger. Illustrations, a bibliography, and an index are included.

• Fox, Elana. Inside the World's Fair of 1904: Exploring the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (2 Volumes). Bloomington, Ind.: 1st Books Library, 2003.
  

  Visual history of the Exposition.

• Fox, Tim and Duane R. Sneddeker. From the Palaces to the Pike: Visions of the 1904 World's Fair. St. Louis, Mo.: Missouri Society Press, 1997.
  

  This photographic history of the fair presents readers with images of the fair's opening day, over fourteen of its buildings, the Philippine Reservation and Anthropological Division, the 1904 Olympic Games, its special events, and the fair goers. Each section includes a brief introduction.

• Hendershott, Robert L. The 1904 St. Louis World's Fair: The Louisiana Purchase Exposition Mementos and Memorabilia. Iola, Wis.: Kurt F. Krueger Pub., 1994.
  

  This guide includes over 2400 listings for actual items with corresponding photographs. Photographs are black and white. The items are arranged by category and each listing includes the item's value range.

• Minkin, Bertram. Legacies of the St. Louis World's Fair. St. Louis, MO.: Virginia Publishing, 1998.

• Rademacher, Diane. Still Shining Discovering! Lost Treasures from the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. St. Louis, MO: Virginia Publishing Corporation, 2003.
  

  Tracks down the present history and location of the 1904 fair buildings, sculptures, and structures. Contains original photographs as well as photographs of how the structures look today. Also provides background on the items and how they came to be included in the fair.

Web Sites

• Terry's 1904 World's Fair Page
  Website: Connect to website