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Look Back: 1904 World’s Fair
Date: 4/30/2010 Album ID: 991296
Photos by Missouri History Museum
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On Saturday, April 30, 1904, the earlybirds filed through the turnstiles to St. Louis’ World Fair in Forest Park. When it closed seven months later, about 20 million people had passed through those gates to view the wonders of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition.
Construction underway in Forest Park on some of the exhibition halls of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, informally known as the St. Louis World's Fair. Work began in 1901 to transform much of the park into the fairgrounds. The exposition opened on April 30, 1904. (Missouri History Museum)
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The Palace of Fine Arts gets its finishing touches before the fair begins. The palace was the only exhibition hall that was built to be permanent, and has been the St. Louis Art Museum ever since. (Missouri History Museum)
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Fairgoers mass at the main gate at 8 a.m. on opening day, April 30, 1904. They were the first of an estimated 20 million people who attended the fair during its seven-month run. The engraved sketch ran on the front page of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that evening. The gate was at present-day Lindell Bouleard and DeBaliviere Avenue. MetroLink now uses the right-of-way of the old Wabash Railroad, which shuttled many visitors from downtown to the main gate. (Post-Dispatch)
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The newspaper's engraved drawing of the arrival on opening day of U.S. Secretary of War William Howard Taft, a future president who represented President Theodore Roosevelt at the fair. Taft arrived in a carriage escorted by cavalry from Jefferson Barracks. After speeches by Taft and others, Roosevelt pressed a button in the White House at 1:04 p.m. to trigger the cascades on Art Hill. The many thousands who gathered around the hill and basin lake roared with delight. (Post-Dispatch)
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Crowds gather around the western end of the Pike on opening day. The Pike was the long midway of concessions and attractions that ran along the north side Lindell, west from DeBaliviere. The photo was taken from the administration building at Washington University. (Missouri History Museum)
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David R. Francis, president of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. Francis was a wealthy businessman and civic leader who had been mayor of St. Louis and Missouri governor before he becoming leader of the effort to organize the fair. (Missouri History Museum)
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The great Ferris Wheel, originally built for the Columbia Exposition in Chicago in 1893. Francis had it brought to Forest Park for the fair, and it was installed southeast of present-day Skinker and Forsyth boulevards. The Observation Wheel was 264 feet tall and had 36 observation cars, each of which carried 40 passengers and an attendant. After the fair closed, it was brought down with dynamite and hauled away as scrap. (Missouri History Museum)
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A view looking west from the Grand Basin along one of its canals. Electric-powered boats gave visitors slow-moving tours. The buildings alongside are among the many large exhibit halls on flat ground now used for part of the Norman Probstein Golf Course in Forest Park. (Missouri History Museum)
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A woman and her children enjoy ice cream cones at the fair. It is a local myth that ice cream cones were invented for the fair, but the fair helped to make the them nationally popular. (Missouri History Museum)
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Fairgoers enjoy the water-plunge ride on the Pike. (Missouri History Museum)
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A young couple poses in their best on one of the overlooks built onto present-day Art Hill. Almost all of the exhibition halls and buildings were made of wood with plaster exteriors. (Missouri History Museum)
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The Palace of Electricity and Machinery shows off its brilliant nighttime lighting. The palace was just west of the Grand Basin. Many city neighborhoods still had gas street lamps, if they had any at all, but the palace was brightly lighted every evening. Four General Electric Co. turbines powered the fairgrounds. One of them was on display inside the palace. (Missouri History Museum)
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The Palace of Varied Industries, which stood between the the Palace of Electricty and Lindell. (Post-Dispatch)
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Two of the electric-powered ship models that performed re-enactments of battles during the Spanish-American War of 1898. The shows took place on the lagoon of the Naval Exhibition, on the Pike just northeast of present-day Skinker and Lindell boulevards. The operators would conceal themselves in their ships during the performances. In the foreground is a model of the cruiser USS Columbia, which carried soldiers for the occupation of Puerto Rico. (Missouri Historical Society)
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A village at the foot of the Tyrolean Alps, rising on the east end of the Pike near the main entrance. Tony Faust, downtown's most prominent restaurateur, helped to manage the restaurants and beer gardens at the popular attraction. (Missouri History Museum)
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Jessie Tarbox Beals, the only woman professional photographer who was licensed to take official photographs at the fair. With her is an assistant. (Missouri History Museum)
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One of those newfangled automobiles gives touring rides to fairgoers. (Missouri History Museum)
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A boy gets water at one of the public fountains. During the early planning for the fair, civic leaders feared embarrassment over the city's water supply, which often flowed with the brown hue of its source, the Mississippi River. They were especially mortified that the cascades rushing down the future Art Hill wouldn't be clear. The city fixed that problem with upgrades and chemical treatments at the waterworks at Chain of Rocks. (Missouri History Museum)
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Soldiers from the Philippine army were among the units that took turns performing drills at the fair. The exposition had a large Philippines exhibit, befitting the recent acquisition by the United States of the Philippines islands as spoils of the Spanish-American War. (Missouri History Museum)
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Two of the Igorot people of the Philippine island of Luzon. They lived in a replica of a native village, presumably for the education of fairgoers. Many such exhibits took on the tone of exotic curiosities from strange, far-away lands. The Igorot village, part of the large Philippine exhbition near present-day Concordia Seminary, was one of the most popular attractions at the fair. (Missouri History Museum)
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