America at the Fair

by Chaim M. Rosenberg

  Forestry Building

  The remarkable Forestry Building was sited at the southern end of the fairgrounds overlooking Lake Michigan. Yet another of the designs by Charles B. Atwood, the 528-foot long by 208-foot wide building was built from the woods contributed by foreign countries and 30 states. The roof was supported by columns made from three tree trunks, 25 feet long and still covered by their natural bark. During the second half of the 19th century there was a prodigious “waste of timber in America” (Truman 1893). Forests from the upper Midwest to the Pacific were cut down for railroad ties, construction material, and furniture, or simply burnt to clear land for farming, leading to erosion and pollution. The preservation and conservation of the remaining American woodlands was a major theme of the forestry exhibit.

  Inside the Forestry Building were examples of fine woods from all over the world. Brazil displayed its mahogany; Canada its birch, maple, and pine; California its redwood and sequoia; and Kentucky its white oak. Satinwood, ebony, birdseye, and black walnut were shown. The state of Kansas sent a section of a walnut tree seven feet in diameter and weighing 30,000 pounds. Ohio and Kentucky had exhibits of medicinal plants. The state of Michigan erected a logging cabin, complete with lumbermen who worked during the day at the nearby demonstration sawmill. There were displays of furniture, flooring, stair rails, wood shingles, and wood pulp. The R. W. Macready Company displayed its cork products. There were exhibits of the tools used to prepare soil and plant trees, and insecticides to protect trees from disease.

  One of the most interesting exhibits at the Fair showed the methods of growing and preserving trees at the Asheville, North Carolina, country estate of George Washington Vanderbilt II (1862–1914). The Vanderbilt fortune was built by his great-grandfather Cornelius Vanderbilt, who owned steamships and railroads. George and his siblings were more interested in spending their fortunes than adding to them. At age 25 George moved into his own townhouse on West 53rd Street in New York. A lover of things French, he dreamed of building a grand winter home in the Blue Ridge country, which he visited with his mother during his childhood. Vanderbilt bought 125,000 acres of land and hired one of New York’s leading architects, Richard Morris Hunt, to design the house in the style of a Loire River chateau. The result was Biltmore House, at 175,000 square feet the largest private home ever built in America. The building of the mansion took 1,000 men six years to complete. The huge house had 250 rooms, 43 bedrooms, 65 fireplaces, a bowling alley, indoor swimming pool, a library, and a dining room large enough to seat 64 people. Frederick Law Olmsted designed the extensive grounds, complete with its forestry program, cattle and hog farms, and a dairy.

  12. FREESTANDING PAVILIONS

  Among the 200 buildings erected at Jackson Park were the pavilions of 30 states serving as a home-away-from-home for their citizens who traveled long distances to visit the Fair. Here they could meet friends, write letters, read newspapers and magazines from home, enjoy a cup of coffee, and relax after a strenuous day of sightseeing. A number of American and foreign corporations also built their own pavilions to show their products.

  State Buildings

  Several years before the Fair opened, the governors of the states appointed committees to gather exhibitors and raise funds to show their states in the most favorable light. Most of the states and territories of the United States had products in the various exhibition halls as well as their separate pavilions. The Fair gave the states the opportunity to display to the world their natural resources, agricultural products, industrial output, and their history and ambitions. The state buildings were clustered together in the northern part of the fairgrounds between 56th and 57th Streets.

  New England, New York, and the Mid-Atlantic states proudly displayed their colonial history, their role in the Revolutionary War, and their industrial development. The Carolinas and other southern states told the story of cotton. Virginia gave the nation five presidents—Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, and Tyler—and the Virginia Pavilion was designed as a copy of Mount Vernon, George Washington’s home, displaying period furniture and the Washington’s family clock. The Louisiana Pavilion was designed as a plantation mansion complete with furniture from “the old Creole days” and a restaurant serving Creole-style food. The Midwestern states stressed their pioneer image, their mineral assets, and their vast agricultural potential. Iowa had its corn and Kentucky its tobacco. Livestock, corn, fish, and lumber from Indiana to Minnesota were displayed. Alaska showed the tools used by its indigenous people, the pelts of the sea otter, and the furs of the silver fox and the lynx.

  The New York State pavilion, 214 feet long and 142 feet deep, was based on the Van Rensselaer home built in 1765 in New York City. The pavilion, designed by McKim, Mead & White (also architects of the Agricultural Building), held statues of Christopher Columbus, Henry Hudson, and DeWitt Clinton (the state’s first governor). There were portraits of all the state’s governors and the autographs of those who signed the Declaration of Independence. The New York building at the Fair hosted many functions, including the June 2 reception for the governor of New York Roswell P. Flower, an August 22 reception for West Point cadets, and the Manhattan Day reception on October 21. Thousands of individuals and companies based in New York had a presence at the Fair. Tiffany & Company had the most glittering display of jewelry at the Fair. General Electric and Westinghouse were the principal electrical companies, and Henry R. Worthington the premier pumping machine company. The New York Central & Hudson River railroad exhibit displayed its famous no. 999 locomotive weighing 124,000 pounds and capable of speeds up to 112 miles per hour. The John Stephenson Company of Brooklyn showed its electric trolley cars. There were also proud exhibits of agricultural products including honey, butter, cheeses, apples, pears, strawberries, and other fruits. After California, New York was the largest exhibitor of American wines using grapes grown along the Hudson River Valley and the Chautauqua district, near Lake Erie. The Brotherhood Wine Company, Brocton Wine Company, Empire State Wine Company, Pleasant Valley Wine Company, and many others exhibited their products. The New York greenhouse exhibit was filled with zinnias, geraniums, petunias, roses, primroses, and lilies. The world’s first electric chair was displayed there as well. The state’s official guide book, printed in 1894, New York at the World’s Columbian Exposition, runs 650 pages and lists every exhibit, every company, and every person from New York who made a contribution to the Fair.

  The state buildings were clustered in the northern section of the fairgrounds between 56th and 57th Streets. This lithograph by Charles Graham shows the Pennsylvania State Building with its clock tower, next to the twin-tower New York State Building and the conical-towered Iowa State Building in the background. These buildings faced south toward the Art Gallery.

  Pennsylvania brought the Liberty Bell, cast in 1753, from Philadelphia to the Fair. The cracked bell that proclaimed liberty was displayed in the foyer of the Pennsylvania Building. (Lithograph by Charles Graham.)

  Pennsylvania was eager to make an solid impression in Chicago. Philadelphia had long been the second most populous city in the United States, but in 1890 Chicago had usurped that title. (By 1900, Chicago, with 1.7 million people, was even further ahead of Philadelphia with 1.3 million.) The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, with 5,258,000 people in 1890, was still comfortably ahead of Illinois with 3,826,000. Pennsylvania was rich in mineral wealth. In 1891, the state mined 86 million tons of coal in an industry that gave employment to 187,000 people. Pennsylvania produced five million tons of pig iron—nearly half the production of the whole United States. Pennsylvania’s mills produced 2.3 million tons of Bessemer steel ingots, two-thirds of the nation’s total output. The state led the nation in refining oil and was a major agricultural force. One of the great attractions at the Fair was the Liberty Bell. Weighing over 2,000 pounds, the bell was cast in 1753 by Pass & Snow of Philadelphia and hung in the belfry of the Pennsylvania State House. This symbol of American independence left Philadelphia for Ch
icago on April 28, 1893, on a specially constructed open flat car of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. The famous bell was exhibited in Pennsylvania Pavilion for the duration of the Fair. Because of the ever-present risk of fire, the bell rested on a platform with wheels so it could be quickly moved out of harm’s way.

  Massachusetts appointed Francis A. Walker as chairman of the Board of World’s Fair Managers of Massachusetts. Walker was born in Boston in 1840 and graduated from Amherst College. He was professor of political economy and history at Yale before serving as president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The board published a 619-page book recording the role Massachusetts played at the Fair, together with the photographs and biographies of the leading industrialists of the commonwealth (Toomey & Quinn 1892). The board spent $46,550.41 on the Massachusetts Building, designed by Peabody & Stearns and built in the style of the 1767 John Hancock House. Three stories high, the house was filled with Massachusetts-made furniture from the colonial period (on loan from the Essex Institute of Salem) and a Chickering grand piano. The furnishings included the large mahogany writing desk used by General George Washington during the Revolutionary War while he was headquartered in Cambridge. Massachusetts proudly displayed its history dating back to 1620. The letters of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Henry W. Longfellow, and Louisa May Alcott, along with portraits of the colonial governors Winthrop, Endicott, Winslow, and Pynchon, were displayed. Also on display was the English pocket watch Miles Standish carried with him on the Mayflower, china dated to 1675, a silver cream jug dated to 1680, and a shilling coin minted in Boston in 1650. Among the many historical documents on display were some related to the Salem witch trials. One was dated May 31, 1692, and told of Rebekah Nurse and others who were hanged for witchcraft. There was also the original poem written in 1832 by Samuel Francis Smith that begins:

  My country ‘tis of thee,

  Sweet land of liberty,

  Of thee I sing.

  The 85-year-old Smith attended the Fair and many applauded as he visited the Massachusetts Building to view his memorable poem. Smith died two years later and was buried in Newton, Massachusetts.

  Massachusetts was eager to show its diverse industrial achievements, especially its long-established textile, footwear, carriage, and paper companies. Mason & Hamlin, Vose, and Chickering & Sons displayed their grand pianos, Pacific Mills and Arlington Mills showed their cotton and woolen cloth, and the Crompton and Knowles companies exhibited their intricate silk, cotton, and wool looms. The Waltham Watch Company, the largest in the world, displayed its watches and Houghton, Mifflin & Company featured its books. Hundreds of other Massachusetts companies brought their products to Chicago. The state was especially proud of an up-to-the-minute electric welding machine and electric-powered drills and stone-cutting machines.

  Connecticut also stressed its industrial achievements. In timepieces, the Ansonia Clock Company and Waterbury Watch Company had prominent exhibits that rivaled “their more pretentious cousins from Geneva, Waltham, and Elgin” (Vaill 1894). Connecticut-made Colt firearms, carpenter’s tools, Thorne typewriters, and Smyth sewing machines were displayed in the exhibition halls. The Meriden Britannia Company and the Holmes & Edwards Silver Company had imposing exhibits of cutlery and plate ware. The Willimantic Linen Company displayed its cotton thread machinery and the Pope Manufacturing Company of Hartford exhibited its new safety bicycles. Pratt & Whitney was a well-established company with one of Connecticut’s largest displays at the Fair. The company was started in 1860 by Francis Ashbury Pratt, born in 1827 in Peru, New York; and Amos Whitney, born in 1832 in Bidderford, Maine. Both men were mechanical engineers who came to Hartford to design and build machine tools. They started the Pratt & Whitney company in 1860 at One Flower Street, Hartford, making precision parts for sewing machines and firearms. The company became a major supplier of guns for the Union Army in the Civil War. After the war, the company specialized in interchangeable parts for precision machinery and calibration tools. 18

  The “Lone Star” of Texas, made of grains. Built in the Spanish renaissance style, the Texas Building was one of the finest at the Fair.

  Rhode Island was another industrial New England state based largely on textiles, silverware, and jewelry. The Rhode Island pavilion held some of the state’s prized relics, including a copy of Roger William’s book printed in 1644, and a number of his letters. The Gorham Silver Manufacturing Company, one of the state’s major companies, had a commanding presence in the Manufactures Building. Gorham’s silver statue of Columbus, valued at $50,000, together with other silverware worth $200,000, was a source of pride for the small state. In the Machinery Building, Brown & Sharpe Manufacturing Company showed its machines for working iron and steel. The Rhode Island Locomotive Works, which built 150 engines a year, brought three of its locomotives to display at the Fair. The Household Sewing Machine Company displayed the intricate work performed on its machines. The Perkins Horseshoe Company, a Rhode Island institution, displayed the machine invented by Charles Perkins in 1851. In the early days of the company, Perkins himself visited the stables in and around Providence and fitted the shoes to horses’ hooves. The Woonsocket Rubber Company had a display of its shoes in the Leather Building. Rhode Island was home to many textile companies, including National & Providence Worsted Mills, American Card Clothing Company, and the firm of B. B. & R. Knight, which controlled 21 mills. “Little Rhody” claimed in the 1890s to have one-seventh of the 15 million cotton spindles in the whole of the United States (Wyman 1894).

  As befitted the host state, Illinois had the largest and most costly of the state pavilions. At 450 feet long and 160 feet deep, the Illinois Pavilion housed a Civil War memorial to the state’s dead soldiers and sailors. The population of Illinois in 1892 exceeded four million, of whom 809,000 were schoolchildren, taught by 22,000 teachers. The average monthly salary of male teachers that year was $56.92, and for female teachers $46.09. The University of Illinois was incorporated in 1867, with campuses in Champaign and Urbana. For the academic year 1892–1893, the university had an enrollment of 714 students, taught by 50 professors and instructors. Higher education was also offered by the Illinois State Normal University and the Southern Illinois State Normal University. The Illinois Pavilion displayed the canvasses of its women artists, all members of the Palette Club. This club was headed by Pauline Amalie Dohn (1866–1934) who studied art in Philadelphia under Thomas Eakins before traveling to Paris. She stopped showing her paintings after her marriage in 1901 to Frank Rudolph, a Chicago businessman. The Illinois Pavilion housed a model kindergarten and a schoolroom. There were exhibits “of deaf and dumb institutions, the institutions for the feeble-minded and the institutions for the blind” (Truman 1893). State hospitals for the treatment of the insane were established at Elgin, Kankakee, Jacksonville, and Anna. In 1893, these institutions held over 6,000 patients, equally divided between male and female, and the institution for the “feeble minded” held 556 pupils. The state penitentiary held 1,445 convicts and the Southern Illinois penitentiary at Chester held 600 more. The institution for insane criminals, also at Chester, held 100 and the state reform school held 350 children.

  The entrance to the Alaska Building featured totem poles.

  Measuring nearly 400 miles from north to south, the state of Illinois boasted 100 varieties of wheat, 70 of corn, and 60 of oats, as well as many varieties of barley, rye, flax, hemp, sorghum, tobacco, and peanuts. The state’s annual yield of wheat was 30 million bushel, corn 230 million bushel, and oats 110 million bushel. The pavilion also displayed Illinois fish and wildlife as well as the trees of its forests and the minerals below ground.

  Missouri celebrated the growth of its population and economy. Between 1880 and 1893 the population of the state increased by 50 percent to an estimated 3,100,000. Missouri was shifting from agriculture to manufacturing as its principal cities, St. Louis and Kansas City, showed spectacular growth. In Missouri wheat was still king, but its land also s
upported corn, barley, rye, tobacco, and fruits. Plentiful zinc, lead, iron ore, and coal aided its factories. Abundant lumber supported a growing furniture and paper business. The Dickerson Company of St. Louis started as the Midwestern branch of a Holyoke, Massachusetts, paper manufacturer. Herds of cattle, sheep, and hogs gave meat and their hides were used for boot and shoe manufacturing. The Hamilton-Brown Shoe Company and the Brown Shoe Company were among the largest in the nation. Cigars, cigarettes, and textile industries expanded with tobacco and cotton from the South. Mansur & Tebbetts Farm Implement Company was one of the largest in the Midwest. The Brownell Car Company made street cars for the cities of Chicago, Cincinnati, Baltimore, and Detroit. The Majestic Manufacturing Company was one of the largest kitchen range factories in the nation. With Anheuser-Busch and 20 other breweries, St. Louis excelled as a center for beer production. In 1877, the city produced 14.6 million gallons of beer, and 15 years later, production exceeded 60 million gallons. St. Louis was the home of machinery companies, chemical plants, glass companies, and manufacturers of refrigerators and bicycles. The prosperous city supported Mermod & Jaccard, one of the largest jewelry stores in America. Their exquisite exhibit at the Fair displayed diamonds, jewelry, and silverware in the French style, as befitted the city’s cultural roots (Fox 1893). The rapid growth of St. Louis made it an ideal site for the 1904 world’s fair, which celebrated the centennial of the Louisiana Purchase.

  The focus of the younger states was less on tradition and more on resources and future prospects. West Virginia sat on top of the world’s largest and richest coal field. Fifteen thousand miners were employed to extract the coal from the depths of the earth. Production rose from 1,400,000 tons in 1880 to 8,711,000 tons in 1892. The state was rich in iron ore and production increased from 2,577,000 tons in 1878 to 10,309,000 tons in 1890, with West Virginia contributing greatly to America’s position as the world’s leading producer of iron ore. West Virginia used its mineral resources to pay down its Civil War debts and to educate its young in its free school system. At the close of the 19th century West Virginia University at Morgantown was at the lead of the state’s still segregated educational system. The West Virginia Colored Institute, located in Kanawha county, offered “ample and convenient facilities for higher education to the colored people of the State” (Summers 1893).