St. Louis: The Louisiana Purchase Exposition
April 30, 1904 to December 1, 1904
“The heroes of Homer’s Iliad were engaged in petty achievements when compared with the work of the men who wrestled a vast wilderness from savages and wild beasts and made it the seat of twenty great commonwealths in a single century.” (unknown author)
Opening Day, group on the steps of Festival Hall (crawforddirect.com 1904)
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The Grand Basin from Central Cascade, "Physical Liberty" in the foreground.
Louisiana Purchase Exposition (Library of Congress 1904)
The St. Louis World's Fair marked the 100th anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase. The exhibition was held in Missouri to show the advancements made in the west since the Louisiana Purchase. |
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"Of course, the 1904 World’s Fair offered more than lofty, noble ideas; fair-goers had ample opportunity to indulge in popular culture and entertainment on the mile-long arcade known as the Pike." "The Pike entertained visitors with a mile-long stretch of amusements that blended fantasy and reality. Designed to invigorate the fairgoer’s curiosity, visitors were entertained by thousands of performers from thirty different nations who hoped to challenge the Victorian values of turn of the century Americans." -(mohistory.org) |
The Pike (mohistory.org 1900)
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St. Louis hosted the 1904 Olympics; it was the first city in the United states to do so.
Click on a picture to enlarge
Men had been trying to fly in a contest at the fair but were unsuccessful. Roy Knabenshue had noticed their struggling from his hot-air ballon stand. Six days before the end of the end of the contest Thomas Scott Baldwin and Roy Knabenshue took flight. They were the first to fly at the exposition and essentially, introduced the world to flight.
“Airship Arrow Scores Triumph!” “Aeronaut Knabenshue is Now Hero of the World’s Fair!” (newspapers at the time)
