Occupying two square miles on the western side of St. Louis, the 1904 World’s Fair was the largest in history, with 1,272 acres containing more than 1,500 buildings. There were grand lagoons with gondola rides and an ornate Festival Hall that held the world’s largest pipe organ. A gigantic floral clock told time with a 74-foot-long minute hand above a broad face composed of beds of flowers in a rainbow of colors.
At the heart of the exposition were 11 monumental “palaces,” each dedicated to a subject, such as Electricity, Fine Arts, Horticulture, or Machinery. Sixty-two countries and 42 American states had their own halls or buildings, where they displayed the highest achievements of their cultures and economies. Despite their impressive facades, all of the buildings save one (the Palace of Fine Arts, which now houses the Saint Louis Art Museum) were temporary constructions, made from a mixture of plaster of Paris and jute. They were designed not to endure for the ages but to captivate the crowds for a brief moment.
Officially named the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, the fair was meant to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the 1803 Louisiana Purchase—”the great transaction,” as the organizers put it, “that opened the West to the United States.” Its exhibits celebrated the achievements of the intervening century, aspiring to represent in physical form the entire sweep of humanity’s progress to date.
