The Electrifying Fall of Rainbow City

by Margaret Creighton

  3. Pan American fundraising and banquets: Express, Jan. 23, 25–29, 31, 1899; Com, Jan. 27, 1899; Frank Baird, unpublished memoir, private collection.

  4. Trip to Washington: Express, Jan. 30, 1899. Pan-American Themes: Pan-American Exposition Buffalo: Its Purpose and Plan (Buffalo: Pan-American Exposition Company, 1901), 6, http://digital.hagley.org/cdm/ref/collection/p268001coll12/id/6749, accessed Oct 1, 2015; United States as comrade and friend: Rydell, All the World’s a Fair, 128.

  5. Buffalo’s assets and achievements: Express, Jan. 31, 1899; Com, Feb. 1, 1899; Oct. 6, 1900; Express, Feb. 2, 1899; May 5, 1901; Pan-American Exposition Buffalo: Its Purpose and Plan, 6; Samuel G. Blythe, “Buffalo and her Pan-American Exposition,” Cosmopolitan 29 (May–October 1900): 507–12; Goldman, High Hopes, ch. 3, 6.

  6. Sinister signs: News, April 17, 21, 1901. Albany helping: William I. Buchanan, Pan American Exposition: Report of William I. Buchanan, Director-General (Buffalo, 1902), 54, Special Collections, Buffalo and Erie County Public Library. Albany ultimately allotted $100,000 for the New York State Building, while the City of Buffalo and the Historical Society supported the permanent construction with $25,000 each. Thanks to Susan Eck for this information.

  7. Dedication Day: Express, May 19, 1901; Com, May 20, 1901; News, May 23, 1901.

  8. Optimism: Enq, June 27, 1901; News, May 5, 1901; Wisconsin Weekly Advocate, May 16, 1901. Excursionists: Com, July 9, 1901. Mexico: Courier, May 19, 1901. Canada: Express, May 4, 1901. Toronto also put on a popular provincial exposition every fall, and that may have deflected some interest away from Buffalo. See Keith Walden, Becoming Modern in Toronto: The Industrial Exhibition and the Shaping of Late Victorian Culture (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997), 20. Tesla and Edison: Express, March 23, 1901; Courier, March 22, July 21, 1901; Times, Oct. 20, 1901; Western Electrician 29 (August 1901): 103, accessed at http://library.buffalo.edu/pan-am/exposition/electricity/development/edisonatexpo.html.

  9. Cleveland on the costs of the fair: Cleveland Plain Dealer, June 13, 1901. Leon Czolgosz (Fred Nieman): L. Vernon Briggs, The Manner of Man That Kills: Spencer—Czolgosz—Richeson (Boston: Richard G. Badger, 1921), 275; A. B. Spurney to H. C. Eyman, Feb. 16, 1902, Dr. Walter Channing Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society; Com, Sept. 7, 8, 1901; News, Sept. 8, 1901; Express, Sept. 9, 1901; Courier, Sept. 25, 1901. On Czolgosz’s background and murderous act, see also the excellent analysis by Eric Rauchway: Murdering McKinley: The Making of Theodore Roosevelt’s America (New York: Hill and Wang, 2003).

  10. Mabel Barnes: Mabel E. Barnes, “Peeps at the Pan-American. An account of Personal Visits in the Summer of 1901 from Notes jotted down on the Spot and put in Permanent Form during Fourteen Years,” Vols. I–III, handwritten scrapbook, Buffalo History Museum Archives, Mss. W-119. Barnes, who made $600 in annual salary in 1899, lived at 64 Johnson Park and taught second grade at the East Delevan Avenue School. See Annual Report of the Superintendent of Education 1898–1899 (Buffalo: The Wenborne-Sumner Co. Printers, 1900.) The identity of Barnes’s companion Abby Hale, described as “Miss Hale” in the scrapbooks, is safe conjecture. Mabel Barnes lived as a boarder under Abby Hale (who was twenty-seven years older than Barnes) in 1900. They lived together for much of their adult lives, with Barnes assuming the “head of household” position as Hale entered her eighties. See US Federal Census reports for 1900, 1910, 1930, National Archives and Records Administration, accessed at http://home.ancestry.com/.

  11. The colors: Turner, “The Pan-American Color Scheme”: 948–49; Katherine V. McHenry, “Color Scheme at the Pan-American,” Brush and Pencil 8 (June 1901): 151–56, accessed at http://www.jstor.org/stable/25505650.

  12. The Electric Tower and the Goddess of Light: Isabel Vaughan James, “The Pan-American Exposition,” Adventures in Western New York History 6 (1961): 3, accessed Sept. 30 2015, at http://bechsed.nylearns.org/pdf/The_Pan_American_Exposition.pdf. Tower and manhood: Rydell, All the World’s a Fair, 134–36. Mabel at the fair: “Peeps,” Vol. II, pp. 65, 82.

  13. The Illumination: “Peeps,” Vol. II, pp. 142–49; Vaughan James, “Pan-American Exposition,” 10; Express, May 5, 1901; Com, Aug. 17, 1901.

  14. The Midway: News, Mar. 26, 1899; Barry, Snap Shots on the Midway of the Pan-Am Expo, 1, 19–20, 34; Barnes, “Peeps,” Vol. II, pp. 171, 196. The Midway at night: New York Times, June 16, 1901.

  15. What Mabel missed: “Lillian Smith: The On-Target ‘California Girl,’” in http://www.historynet.com/lillian-smith-the-on-target-california-girl.htm, accessed June 9, 2015.

  CHAPTER 2: SUMMER IN THE CITY

  1. Bostock’s physique: The World’s Fair, Oct. 12, 1912, in http://www.nfa.dept.shef.ac.uk/jungle/index1a4.html. Bostock’s application: Enq, March 16, 1899; News, March 16, 1899; Express, March 17, 1899.

  2. Bostock and wife: Sheffield Evening Telegraph, March 4, 1893; Illustrated [London] Police News, March 11, 1893; Dundee [Scotland] Courier & Argus, March 10, 1893, British Library microfilm, accessed April 14, 2012.

  3. Lion School: Express, April 1, 1900. Daniel in the Den: Enq, July 27, 1900.

  4. Bostock’s boasts: “Frank C. Bostock’s Grand Zoological Congress and Trained Animal Arena” (Buffalo: Courier Co., 1901). Bostock’s animals and race: Enq, March 16, 1899; Courier, Oct. 22, 1901. Captain Maitland: Courier, Oct. 18, 1901. Bostock’s bodyguard: Times, July 7, 1901.

  5. Weeden: Courier, June 28, 1901. Tony and Chiquita: Express, Nov. 9, 1901.

  6. Chiquita’s birth: Boston Daily Globe, Dec. 13, 1896. Career as performer: Erie [PA] Morning Dispatch, Sept. 29, 1902; Frank C. Bostock v. Espiridiona Alice Cenda Woeckener, Equity Case No. 27; November Term, 1902, Circuit Court of the United States for the Western District of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Archives.

  7. Extraordinary bodies: Rosemarie Garland Thomson, Extraordinary Bodies: Figuring Physical Disability in American Culture and Literature (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997), 55–70. Chiquita as mascot: Com, July 10, 1901. Imagining Cuba: Louis A. Perez, Jr., Cuba in the American Imagination: Metaphor and the Imperial Ethos (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2008), 71–117. Chiquita and McKinley: New York Times, Feb. 14, 1901. Not a doll: Boston Globe, Dec. 13, 1896.

  8. Chiquita and Tony: Erie [PA] Morning Dispatch, Nov. 4, 1901; March 8, 1902; Express, Nov. 9, 1901.

  9. Feeling the fair: Diary of Levant F. Hillman, Jan. 4–Nov. 3, 1901, unpublished manuscript, Buffalo History Museum Archives, Mss. A2001–5. Annie Taylor: Orrin E. Dunlap, “Interview with Mrs. Taylor,” Oct. 25, 1901, unpublished manuscript, Stunts and Stunters file, Local History Collection, Niagara Falls [NY] Public Library, hereafter NFPL; Annie Edson Taylor, Over the Falls: Annie Edson Taylor’s Story of Her Life (privately printed, 1902), reprint.

  10. Attendance concerns: Com, July 9, 23, 1901; Courier, Aug. 2, 1901. Chicago swelters, Philadelphia languid: Express, July 21, 1901. Reducing admission price: Express, July 21, 1901. Utah Day: Courier, July 25, 1901. Women’s exhibits: Express, April 23, 1901; New York Evening Post, Nov. 21, 1900; Enq, Feb. 2, 1901; Marian DeForest, secretary of the Board of Women Managers, explained that the board wanted to show the work of women “because it was good,” not simply because it was produced by females. However, there were enough women who wanted a distinctive venue that a small space in the Manufactures Building was given over to displaying “women’s” work. The items on display won numerous awards. See DeForest report, Express, Nov. 2, 1901.

  11. European exhibits: See Moses P. Handy, ed., The Official Directory of the World’s Columbian Exposition, May 1st to October 30th, 1893. Chicago: W. B. Conkey Co., 1892, accessed May 18, 2015, at https://archive.org/stream/officialdirector00worl/officialdirector00worl_djvu.txt; Buchanan, Pan American Exposition Report, 54. Buenos Aires: Roy Crandall, “Friendly Cooperation,” Pan American Herald 1 (December 1899): 3. Backhanded compliments: Times, Oct. 20, 1901; Express, July 21, 1901; Com, Aug. 28, 1901. See also Mark Bennitt, The Pan-American Exposition and How to See It (Buffalo: The Goff Company, 19
01).

  12. Midway Day schemes: Courier, July 23, 1901; Express, July 24, 1901.

  13. Midway Day parade: Express, Aug. 3, 4, 1901; Com, Aug. 3, 1901.

  14. Brooklyn’s Jumbo II: Brooklyn Eagle, May 13, 1900. Bostock’s Jumbo II: Courier, July 24, 31, 1901; Express, July 27, 1901; Com, July 29, 1901; News, Aug. 11, 1901. Photography float: Express, Aug. 3, 4, 1901. Mabel Barnes: “Peeps,” Vol. II, p. 152. Fred Nieman: Briggs, The Manner of Man, 277.

  CHAPTER 3: THE FAVORED GUEST

  1. Midway Day attendance: Express, Aug. 4, 1901. High noon: Courier, Aug. 2, 1901. Future events: Express, Aug. 18, 1902.

  2. Buchanan: Rydell, All the World’s a Fair, 130; American Journal of International Law 4 (January 1910): 160–61; Express, July 24, 1901. Milburn: New York Times, June 23, 1901; San Francisco Call, Feb. 11, 1900; New-York Tribune, June 18, 1901; Susan Eck, “The Milburns and their Famous Home: 1168 Delaware Avenue,” http://wnyheritagepress.org/photos_week_2009/mckinley_marker/milburn_house/milburn_house.htm. Diehl: Buffalo Courier Record, Dec. 20, 1897; Express, Jan. 25, 1899. Diehl and opponents: Com, Feb. 28, 1899; Express, March 3, 1899; New-York Tribune, Oct. 11, 1897; Courier, April 27, 1900.

  3. William McKinley: Express, Sept. 14, 1901. Grasshoppers: Howard Wayne Morgan, William McKinley and His America (Kent, OH: Kent State University Press), 472. Emperor: Montgomery [MO] Tribune, Aug. 23, 1901. On McKinley before the fair: See especially Rauchway, Murdering McKinley, 4–8.

  4. Ida McKinley: Carl Sferrazza Anthony, Ida McKinley: The Turn of the Century First Lady Through War, Assassination, and Secret Disability (Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 2013), ebook location 2885; 4852; John C. DeToledo, et al., “The Epilepsy of First Lady Ida Saxton McKinley,” Southern Medical Journal 90 (March 2000): 267.

  5. McKinley in Canton: Courier, Sept. 7, 1901. Presidential security: Matthew C. Sherman, “Protecting the First Citizen of the Republic: Presidential Security from Thomas Jefferson to Theodore Roosevelt” (PhD Diss., Saint Louis University, 2011), 22–24; 83–84; 96–98; 140–45; 158, 166, 170.

  6. Ida McKinley and George Cortelyou security worries: Anthony, Ida McKinley, ebook, location 3968; 4653; Sherman, “Protecting the First Citizen,” 182, 197, 207. Anarchism in the United States: Chris Vials, “The Despotism of the Popular: Anarchy and Leon Czolgosz at the Turn of the Century, Americana: The Journal of American Popular Culture 3 (Fall 2004), accessed Nov. 30, 2015, at http://www.americanpopularculture.com/journal/articles/fall_2004/vials.htm; Sidney Fine, “Anarchism and the Assassination of McKinley,” American Historical Review 60 (July 1955): 777–80. McKinley’s confidence: Courier, Sept. 9, 1901.

  7. Arcusa: Courier, Aug. 12, 1901.

  8. Czolgosz remembered: Briggs, The Manner of Man, 277; Express, Sept. 9, 1901; Com, Sept. 8, 1901.

  9. Bostock’s invitation: Express, Aug. 16, 1901. Bostock’s popularity: Com, Aug. 12, 1901. Tiny Mite: Express, Aug. 10, 13, 1901; Com, Aug. 10, 1901.

  10. Ptolemy: St. John Daily Sun, July 13, 1901.

  11. Floodgate: Express, Aug. 26, 1901. Midway smell: Courier, Aug. 26, 1901.

  12. McKinley plans: Express, Aug. 17, 1901; Sept. 3, 4, 1901; Com, Sept. 3, 1901.

  13. Free from serious crime: Express, July 21, 1901. Bull’s warning: Annual Report of the Board of Police of the City of Buffalo for the Year Ending December 31, 1901 (Buffalo: Wenborne-Sumner Co., 1902), 22–25. Criminal list: Annual Police Report, 35–44; Express, Oct. 22, 1901.

  14. Nieman applies to the boardinghouse: Briggs, The Manner of Man, 278–79. Conversations: Express, Sept. 9, 1901; Courier, Sept. 9, 1901. Pumpkin-head: Briggs, Manner, 278.

  15. Czolgosz’s illnesses: Briggs, Manner, 293; A. B. Spurney to H. C. Eyman, Feb. 16, 1902, Dr. Walter Channing Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society; Vernon Briggs notes, interview with Emil Schilling, ca. June 1902, in Channing Papers, MHS; Rauchway, Murdering McKinley, 118, 167, 204–5. Eric Rauchway suggests that Czolgosz may have been consumed by fears he had syphilis. See Rauchway, Murdering McKinley, 180–81.

  16. Nieman/Czolgosz: work, sickness, and disillusionment: Briggs, Manner, 303–8, 314. Goldman lecture: Courier, Sept. 8, 1901.

  17. Czolgosz and Schilling: Vernon Briggs notes, interview with Emil Schilling, ca. June 1902, in Walter Channing Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society. Czolgosz, Goldman, and Isaak: Abraham Isaak to Walter Channing, June 9, 1902, Channing Papers, MHS; Rauchway, Murdering McKinley, 100–4.

  18. Milburn on McKinley’s foreign policy: Times, Oct. 30, 1900. Latin America at world’s fairs: Ines Dussel, “Between Exoticism and Universalism: Educational Sections in Latin American Participation at International Exhibitions, 1860–1900,” Paedagogica Historica 47 (October 2011): 601, 605–7, 616; Buchanan, Report of the Director-General,26–27; Alvaro Fernandez-Bravo, “Ambivalent Argentina: Nationalism, Exoticism, and Latin Americanism at the 1889 Paris Universal Exposition,” Nepantla: Views from South 2(January 2001): 115–39;Nancy Egan, “Exhibiting Indigenous Peoples: Bolivians and the Chicago Fair of 1893,” Studies in Latin American Popular Culture 28 (January 2010):7–15.

  19. Chilean minister dies: Com, July 20, 1901; Express, August 8, 21, 1901. Mexico at the fair: Janice Lee Jayes, The Illusion of Ignorance: Constructing the American Encounter with Mexico, 1877–1920 (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2011), 189; Com, Oct. 1, 1901.

  20. Cuba Day remarks: Com, Aug. 29, 1901; Express, Aug. 30, 1901.

  CHAPTER 4: THE BLOOD-COLORED TEMPLE

  1. Leaving Ohio: Marietta Daily Leader, Sept. 4, 1901; Saint Paul [MN] Globe, Sept. 4, 1901; [Washington, DC] Evening Times, Sept. 4, 1901; News, Sept. 4, 1901.

  2. Arrival in Buffalo: Com, Sept. 4, 1901; Express, Sept. 5, 1901; Chris Vials, “The Despotism of the Popular: Anarchy and Leon Czolgosz at the Turn of the Century,” Americana: The Journal of American Popular Culture 3 (Fall 2004), accessed October 8, 2015, at http://www.americanpopularculture.com/journal/articles/fall_2004/vials.htm.

  3. Barbershop: Com, Sept. 9, 1901. Gun: News, Sept. 8, 1901.

  4. The Triumphal Bridge and government exhibits: Express, Mar. 24, 1901; Vaughan James, “The Pan-American,” 8; Mabel Barnes, “Peeps,” Vol. I, pp. 27, 105–6. Nieman blaming McKinley: Carlos F. MacDonald, “The Trial, Execution, Autopsy and Mental Status of Leon F. Czolgosz, Alias Fred Nieman, the Assassin of President McKinley,” American Journal of Insanity 58 (January 1902): 384, accessed Oct. 10, 2015, at http://mckinleydeath.com/documents/journals/AJI58-3b.htm.

  5. The people’s fair: Com, Jan. 24, 25, 30, 1899; Express, Jan. 23, 1899; Enq, Jan. 24, 1899. Strikes: Times, Aug. 20, 25, 1900; Enq, Sept. 20, 1900; Express, Oct. 11, 1900; Com, Oct. 13, 1901. Parade: Com, Sept. 2, 1901. Gompers: Express, Sept. 3, 1901.

  6. Workers at the fair at dawn, at night: Com, May 20, 1901; Courier, July 21, 1901; Express, June 29, August 1, 1901. The fair’s working men and women are given only slight mention in the newspapers covered by the twenty-four Pan-American Exposition scrapbooks.

  7. Scheme for the poor: Courier, Aug. 17, 1900. Costs of the fair: Leary and Sholes, Buffalo’s Pan-American, 28; Express, June 28, August 2, 3, 1901; Com, Aug. 3, 1901. Women’s Building: Report of Marian DeForest, Express, Nov. 2, 1901; News, June 23, 1901. Labor Day at the fair for the first time: Express, Sept. 3, 1901.

  8. President’s Day: Express, Sept. 5, 6, 1901. Mabel’s twenty-second visit: Barnes, “Peeps,” Vol. III, p. 132.

  9. McKinley’s speech, suspicious characters: Express, Sept. 6, 1901. Nieman/Czolgosz confession: Iowa State Register, Sept. 8, 1901, accessed at http://mckinleydeath.com/documents/newspapers/ISR46-211gp.htm.

  10. Bostock on President’s Day: Com, Sept. 6, 1901. The McKinleys tour and dine: Express, Sept. 6, 1901; News, Sept. 6, 1901. Fireworks: Barnes, “Peeps,” Vol. III, pp. 150–51, 162. Foreboding: News, Sept. 8, 1901. Nieman waits: News, Sept. 8, 1901.

  11. James Parker: News, Sept. 8, 1901; Macon [GA] Telegraph Sept. 9, 1901; [Omaha] Morning World Herald, Sept. 16, 1901. McKinley and African Americans: Mitch K
achun, “‘Big Jim’ Parker and the Assassination of William McKinley: Patriotism, Nativism, Anarchism, and the Struggle for African American Citizenship,” The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 9 (January 2010): 104; Rauchway, Murdering McKinley, 71.

  12. Delightful day: Courier, Sept. 9, 1901.

  13. Martha’s stunt: Niagara Falls [NY] Gazette, Sept. 3, 1926; Express, Sept. 7, 1901; Edward T. Williams, “Martha E. Wagenfuhrer, ‘Maid of the Rapids,’” unpublished manuscript in Stunts and Stunters file, NFPL; Orrin E. Dunlap, “Martha E. Wagenfuhrer,” unpublished typewritten account, Stunts and Stunters file, NFPL. (Martha was also known as Maggie Wagenfuhrer.)

  14. McKinley at Niagara Falls: McKinley: “The President at Niagara,” Street Railway Journal 18 (Sept. 21, 1901): 330. Forebodings at lunch: Courier, Sept. 9, 1901. Nieman at Niagara Falls: Trial Transcript: “The People of the State of New York against Leon F. Czolgosz.”Unpublished trial transcript. 23–24, 26 Sept. 1901, pp. 59–60, accessed Oct. 11, 2015, at http://mckinleydeath.com/documents/govdocs/transcript.htm.

  15. McKinley at the Temple of Music: Courier, Sept. 8, 1901; Trial transcript: “People v. Czolgosz,” 12–13.

  16. The reception/attack in the Temple: Express, Sept. 8, 9, 10, 13, 1901; Trial transcript, “People v. Czolgosz,” accessed at http://mckinleydeath.com/documents/govdocs/transcript.htm. Parker: News, Sept. 8, 1901; Courier, Sept. 7, 1901; Rauchway, Murdering McKinley, 61–65.

  CHAPTER 5: THE EMERGENCY

  1. Shooting aftermath: Trial transcript, “People v. Czolgosz,” accessed at http://mckinleydeath.com/documents/govdocs/transcript.htm; News, Sept. 8, 1901; Express, Sept. 13, 1901; Courier, Sept. 7, 1901;DeB. Randolph Keim, “Personal Notes on the Shooting of President McKinley at Buffalo N.Y. Sept. 7, 1901,” manuscript transcript, accessed Oct. 10. 2015, at http://www.shapell.org/manuscript/eyewitness-account-of-the-assassination-of-president-mckinley.