Dr. Alfred Russell Wallace, in a recent work, argues that the nineteenth century is altogether unique in that it inaugurated a new era. To grasp its marvelous achievements, he tells us, it should be compared with a long historical period, rather than with another century, however happily selected. The progress it environs is set down as almost wholly material and intellectual, and the palm for completeness is given to the material. Debatable as his conclusion may be, there can be no dispute either as to the qualitative or quantitative progress in the material advancement of mankind in the century now closing. In the present retrospect the broader view becomes apparent,—that the material and the intellectual have been allied forces that have constantly pushed forward side by side, one devising in the solitude that genius needs for expansion, the other showing to the world the realizations of thought that in practical application benefit all.

The evolution of the international exposition of to-day is a conspicuous result of this material and intellectual wedlock. It seems a long time between the fair that was held to allow people not closely settled to purchase the ordinary commodities of life, food, clothing, and household belongings, and the great expositions to which the nations of the world bring the surpassing embodiments of native thought. Measured by years, the time is really beyond computation; but measured by results, mere time is annihilated, and the progress that the evolution illustrates is found to have kept a steady pace with man’s physical necessities and intellectual growth. The moment Necessity has shown that mankind needed something to make life brighter, happier, or more comfortable to pass through, Intellect has undertaken the task of creating it and has fashioned out the Material.

In the great expositions of to-day are seen the effects of the marvelous influence which sprang from the fair as a market, instituted so long ago that no call for the records is answerable. Of this kind, only a very few remain. Then came the fair designed to promote the useful arts and manufactures; the fair to advance agriculture and allied industries; and the fair to show special articles, to commemorate historical events, and to aid interests of large public concern. Under an ever-increasing expansion, stimulated by popular favor, the fair, with the commercial feature abandoned or having it only as a restricted branch, became the exhibition to show a larger development of the arts, sciences, and mechanical trades; to celebrate great public occurrences on a grander scale than earlier fairs had done; to promote special industries, local or national; to aid education by permanent displays of natural or manufactured products; and to promote the commercial intercourse of the world. From the first of this class of exhibitions came the international undertakings, first known as world’s fairs, and afterward as international exhibitions and expositions. In some one of these classes may be found every kind of a display of products, irrespective of its purpose or individual name.

The development of the modern exhibition from the early fair has been confined to no one country nor people. Everywhere the purpose and process have been the same. A few years changed the old-time mart, where people went to buy what they knew they would find, to the convenient place where tradesmen placed on view the things they knew people would need and buy, as well as articles offered at a venture that people who really didn’t need them might be tempted to purchase because of novelty or other quality. Thus, the bargain counter and the department store are several hundred years older than the thrifty housewife of to-day reckons.

Trade competition, then as now, led to a broadening of plans, rival efforts, and special attractions. People began to attend fairs to see what was new, as well as to buy; and soon, lest they should tire of sightseeing, it became necessary to provide means for entertaining them. Punch and Judy came on the scene with perennial popularity. Jugglery astounded the young and fascinated their elders. Dancing and wrestling rings proved sportive magnets of annually increasing strength. The fair now began to change from a strictly commercial undertaking to an occasion for holiday hilarity, and soon trade and amusement were struggling for the mastery. In many places, hilarity led to excesses, and excesses to crime. Public opinion demanded the forceful intervention of the law, and one by one the most demoralizing fairs were suppressed, the notorious Donnybrook closing its long career of debauchery and lighting in 1855.

The display of merchandise and the gathering of customers at the most noted fairs in time became really enormous, and for many years the great fairs of the day were held on open and extensive plains. Then, too, the fair assumed an importance that led first the local authorities, and after them higher dignitaries, to seek to turn it to their individual advantage. For a time no fair could be held in Great Britain without a special grant from the crown, and it was a widely observed custom for royal or ecclesiastical authorities to give permission to a town or village that had suffered some misfortune to hold a fair as a means of reestablishing itself. The famous fair of St. Giles’s Hill, near Manchester, England, was instituted as a revenue to the bishop by William the Conqueror. That it was a valuable monopoly is shown by the facts that its jurisdiction extended seven miles around the city, and that all merchants who sold wares within that circuit, unless at the fair, forfeited them to the bishop.

A curious evidence of early international interest in the fair, as well as of its importance and influence, is found in the records of 1314, when King Philip of France sent a formal complaint to King Edward II. of England, to the effect that the merchants of England had ceased frequenting the fairs in his dominions with their wood and other goods, to the great loss of his subjects. Philip entreated Edward to persuade, and, if necessary, to compel, English people to frequent the fairs of France as formerly, promising them all possible security and encouragement.

As a purely commercial institution, the fair had its best day when people were widely separated. The increase of population, the development of new life and activity by growing communities, the opening of means of travel between distant points, and the establishment of stores and markets, were all fatal to the commercial fair. To-day, in all Europe, only three really great annual fairs of this character remain,—those of Nijni-Novgorod, in Russia; Beaucaire, in France; and Leipsic, in Germany. The same conditions that brought the popular usefulness of the commercial fair to an end were the forces from which the fair as an exponent of industrial achievement has been developed, and the material progress of the nineteenth century is to be traced.

For the modern fair in all of its forms the world is indebted to the Society of Arts, of London, an organization whose fame in America was so great that Benjamin Franklin, in soliciting corresponding membership, declared that he would esteem it a great honor to be admitted and also to be permitted to contribute twenty guineas to be expended in premiums. What this Society in its early days did for Great Britain it did also for civilization. It organized the first exhibition of specimens of improvements in the useful arts and manufactures in 1760; stimulated native ingenuity by judicious awards of prizes and premiums for exhibits of exceptional merit; and extended its powerful influence to foster art, science, mechanical and agricultural industry, and the fishery trade and colonial commerce of the country.

Of the many influences of this Society that came to the United States, it may be questioned if any had a more lasting benefit for both people and country than that which gave birth to the mechanics’ institutes. There are people still living who are able to recall how the large cities in the Eastern and Middle States vied with each other in the establishment of two great and kindred institutions—the mechanics’ institute and the apprentices’ library. Philadelphia led the cities in the matter of time, her Franklin Institute being founded in 1824. Four years afterward the American Institute was chartered in New York City. After these came the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics’ Association in Boston, the Maryland Institute in Baltimore, and numerous others,—those mentioned being the principal ones that still maintain annual or other exhibitions. At first, the exhibitions of these institutes, like the first one ever held under the patronage of a national government,—that in Paris in 1798,—were composed of various articles loaned by their owners. Soon, however, the popularity of the institutes and the awarding of prizes and diplomas brought to the exhibitions specimens of the handicraft of members and friends, and the rising lights in the arts and manufactures became eager to secure the recognition of their genius that such awards established. Thus, the influence of the principal surviving institutes has spread far beyond local limits.

Purely national exhibitions have never found much popular favor in the United States. When as a whole people we decide to hold one for a purpose of general interest, we prefer to set a large table and invite the universe to help us celebrate. In France, the first national exhibition was a loan exhibition. Its effect, however, was so immediate that the government repeated it the same year, organized more elaborate ones in 1801 and 1802, and decided to hold them triennially thereafter—a course that has since been interrupted by political exigencies. These exhibitions were projected to illustrate the progress of France only. In the United States there have been no State exhibitions, excepting agricultural fairs, for which outside coöperation has not been invited.

The life of the American agricultural fair is almost measurable by the full century. This, too, had its origin in England. The father of the American system of combined agricultural fairs and cattle shows was Elkanah Watson, a native of Plymouth, Mass., who spent the greater part of his life in promoting large public measures besides agriculture and education. In 1807 he removed from Albany, N. Y., to Pittsfield, Mass., where he engaged in general and experimental agriculture and cattle-raising. His efforts to improve local farming conditions and to raise a superior breed of cattle attracted widespread interest, and this suggested to him that an annual exhibition of cattle and of farm products, resulting from a more painstaking system of cultivation than was commonly followed, would prove of material advantage to the farmer, the breeder, and the general public. Accordingly, he induced his farming friends in the country to contribute specimens of improved breeds of cattle and of superior products of the soil; and the first exhibition or fair was held in 1810. This, with modest prizes for the best exhibits, proved a complete success.

Encouraged by the results of his initial efforts, he went to Boston to solicit pecuniary aid for a second and much larger exhibition. Although he was at that time widely known for his public-spirited philanthropy, and also as the founder of the influential Berkshire Agricultural Society, his appeals for aid brought him little save derision. To show how small concern was felt by business and public men toward the farming industry, a sentence in a letter from ex-President John Adams to Mr. Watson is sufficient:—

“You will get no aid from Boston; commerce, literature, theology, medicine, the university, and universal politics are against you.”

The ex-President was correct in his judgment. Mr. Watson did not receive a single favorable response to his appeals; yet he lost not a particle of faith in the wisdom of his undertaking. With the coöperation only of the farmers in his county, Mr. Watson succeeded in arranging annual exhibitions until 1816, when he returned to Albany. The same year he organized the first agricultural society in the State of New York, and began establishing fairs and cattle shows in the near-by counties. In 1819 he secured the passage of an Act by the Legislature appropriating $10,000 annually for six years for the promotion of agriculture and domestic manufactures, conditional on a like amount being raised by the agricultural societies in the different counties. A State Society was incorporated in 1832, to which county societies were directed to report, while it, in turn, had to render a combined report to the Legislature annually.

Since then an agricultural department has become an indispensable part of the government of the various States and Territories, even of those that are popularly believed to be only metallic producers. The character of the state and county agricultural fair has been undergoing a radical change for many years, especially in sections thickly settled or near large cities, and the chief attractions have passed from the exhibition of sleek domestic animals and choice fruits of the soil to horse-racing and bicycle contests. Innovations foreign to the spirit and intention of the fair have already wrought its ruin in many places and are threatening it generally.

Of American fairs in the original commercial sense, those held during the Civil War, to aid the work of the United States Sanitary Commission on the battlefield and in the camp and hospital, will always be historically conspicuous. During those memorable four years it is doubtful if there was a single city, town, or village in the Northern States that did not put forth a special effort to provide necessities and conveniences for the soldiers and sailors that were not supplied by the government, and the fair was the most popular form of raising the needful money.

Exhibitions of special articles, possessing the features of state, national, and international combinations, and independent of any locality, event, or period of time, are growing in frequency. Many of these have a predominating technical interest,—as the international exhibitions of fisheries and fishery methods, of life-saving methods and apparatus, of forestry products and systems of forest preservation, and of railway appliances; while others combine the technical and popular features, as the exhibitions of electrical apparatus, of improved food preparations, of bicycles, of automobile vehicles, and of wood-working and labor-saving machinery.

Special exhibitions in the United States that possess a large popular interest include the annual showing of the art associations and leagues in the principal cities, and the annual horse, dog, and sportsmen’s shows in New York city. Among them also are to be noted the permanent expositions in Philadelphia and Chicago—both reminders of the greatest international expositions that had been held up to their day. The Philadelphia exposition is held in Memorial Hall, the building erected in Fairmount Park by the State of Pennsylvania at a cost of $1,500,000, and used for the Art Gallery of the Centennial Exposition in 1876. It now contains an art and industrial collection similar to the famous South Kensington Museum in London. The Chicago exposition is in the former Art Palace of the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893, and, having been endowed by Marshall Field with $1,000,000, is now known as the Field Columbian Museum. Its most conspicuous feature is a collection showing the development of the railway, and the next, its forestry exhibits. In the line of permanent expositions, Philadelphia is to be credited with two commercial museums of far-reaching influence that will be considered further on.

The first exhibition of the industries of all nations was that held in Hyde Park, London, in 1851. It was an outgrowth of the annual exhibitions of the Society of Arts, before mentioned, and was at first designed to be only a national enterprise, but on a more extended scale than the former exhibitions of the Society. The late Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, however, conceived the idea of throwing this particular exhibition open to the industry of the world. His suggestion at once met the favor of the Council of the Society, as well as of the leading manufacturers of England and the general public. A royal warrant was procured appointing a commission to “manage an exhibition of the works of industry of all nations,” and of this body Prince Albert became president.

On February 21, 1850, the commissioners felt justified in making a public announcement that the building would cover an area of from sixteen to twenty acres; that it would be ready for the reception of goods by January 1, 1851; and that the exhibition would be opened to the public on May 1, following. The plans for a building submitted by Sir Joseph Paxton were accepted after a large number had been considered. They called for a vast structure of iron and glass, somewhat similar to the great conservatory he had erected for the Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth. A contract was signed with Messrs. Fox and Henderson for the construction of the building, under which they were to receive £79,800, and the materials of the building were to remain their property. On February 3, the completed structure was formally delivered to the commissioners. It had an extreme length of 1851 feet and an extreme breadth of 408 feet, with an additional projection on the north side, 936 feet long by 48 feet wide.

While the erection of the building was in progress, Dr. Lyon Playfair was chosen to decide and classify the wide range of articles that was sought to be brought together under the general title of “Objects of Industrial and Productive Art.” He arranged these under four great sections: Raw Materials, Machinery, Manufactures, and Fine Arts, and they in turn were divided and subdivided into a vast number of classes and smaller divisions. The collecting of national exhibits was placed in the hands of district committees in all the principal towns and manufacturing localities, and in response to invitations extended to all the British colonies and the various foreign governments, nearly every country in Europe, almost every State in the North American Union, the South American republics, India, Egypt, Persia, and the far-off islands of the seas, sent objects that swelled the total estimated value of exhibits—excluding the renowned Koh-i-noor diamond—to £1,781,929.

The exhibition was opened by Queen Victoria on the appointed day, and was continued till October 11. The total number of exhibitors was about 15,000. During the 114 days the exhibition was open a total of 6,063,986 persons visited it, a daily average of 42,111. The largest number in a single day was on Tuesday of the closing week, 109,915. An attempt to ascertain the number of foreign visitors developed the unexpected result that not much more than 40,000 foreigners visited London beyond the annual average of 15,000. The financial result of the exhibition was really remarkable. The total receipts from all sources amounted to £506,000, and the total expenditures to about £330,000, leaving a surplus of £176,000, which was subsequently increased to £186,436.

The distinctions of all kinds that were awarded, Council and prize medals and “honourable mentions,” aggregated 5084. It is here interesting to note, as showing the truly international character of the first world’s exhibition, that foreign guests occupied two-fifths of the exhibition space and received three-fifths of the honors. British exhibitors of machinery, manufactures in metal, and manufactures in glass and porcelain, took more prizes than all the foreigners combined. Foreigners led in the number of prizes for textile fabrics, fine arts, and miscellaneous manufactures; and in the section of raw materials for food and manufactures the foreign exhibitors gained nearly four times as many prizes as the British.

This exhibition developed a number of features that should be borne in mind when considering those that came after it. It was an experiment in an untried field; it was comprised in a single building; and it was self-supporting. In all respects it was a marvelous achievement. It made the late Prince Consort the “father,” and the Society of Arts the pioneer promoters, of the international exposition.

The beneficial influence of the first world’s exhibition began to be felt immediately. An exhibition of the arts and manufactures of Ireland was held in Cork in the following year, and the Royal Dublin Society, which had been holding similar exhibitions triennially, got up a much larger one than usual, through the generous pecuniary aid of William Dargan, in 1853. The Dublin exhibition, unlike that of Cork, was international in scope.

American visitors to the London exhibition brought home with them a pretty large inspiration for a similar effort, and before the close of 1851 a number of citizens of New York had associated themselves for that purpose. In January, 1852, the corporation of the city of New York granted a lease for five years of Reservoir Square, on the conditions that a building of iron, glass, and wood should be erected thereon, and that the entrance fee to the proposed exhibition should not exceed fifty cents. In March, the Legislature incorporated the Association for the Exhibition of the Industries of all Nations, with a capital of $200,000 that might be increased to $300,000. Subsequently, the Federal Government constituted the building a bonded warehouse and exempted foreign exhibits from the payment of duties.

This exhibition was therefore a private enterprise, having no other official recognition than that mentioned. It was also an unfortunate affair from beginning to end. The location was then three or four miles from the heart of the city; the area was entirely inadequate for the purpose; the day of opening had to be postponed, because of the incomplete condition of the building; and financially the enterprise was a huge failure.

The exhibition was opened July 14, 1853, with much ceremony, although still scarcely half ready for exhibits or visitors, and was continued for 119 days. There were about 4800 exhibitors, somewhat more than one-half being foreign. The total cost of the exhibition was nearly $1,000,000, and the receipts were $340,000. Although a financial failure, and a disappointment in many ways, this first international exhibition in the United States was productive of much good.

The success of the London exhibition also aroused the French to depart from the exclusively national character of their former exhibitions and to inaugurate one open to the world. This was done under the direct auspices of the Imperial Government, which undertook to combine certain features of both the London and the New York enterprises; hence, the first international exhibition held in Paris was practically a private scheme supported by official guarantees. A further departure was here made in the matter of building, and, instead of the single great structure, there were the Palais de l’Industrie, the Palais des Beaux Arts, the Panorama, and three smaller buildings for agricultural implements, carriages, and a variety of less costly articles. Another innovation was here introduced, a partial return to the methods of the commercial fair, in the setting apart of exhibiting spaces on the open ground.

The main building, the Palais de l’Industrie, was erected by a joint-stock company on the Champs Elysées, and provided a floor space of 1,770,000 square feet. It was built of glass, stone, and brick, and was 800 feet long by 350 feet wide. The various buildings cost about $5,000,000, and the Palais de l’Industrie was erected for a permanent structure.

This exhibition was opened on May 15, 1855, and closed on November 15, following. It was visited by 4,533,464 persons. Besides France and her colonies, fifty-three foreign states and twenty-two colonies belonging to them sent exhibits. In all there were 20,839 exhibitors, those of France and her colonies predominating by only about 500. The exhibits were classified on the London plan, there being in each case thirty classes altogether. Excluding the main building, which the Imperial Government acquired, the exhibition cost about $2,250,000.

Between the first and second London exhibitions there were many industrial and art displays in the United Kingdom and colonies and on the Continent, among which should be noted those of New Brunswick and Madras in 1853, Munich in 1854, and Edinburgh and Manchester in 1857.

The second London exhibition was undertaken by a commission headed, as the first, by the Prince Consort, under a guarantee fund of $2,250,000. While it was in course of preparation the Prince Consort died, and for a while a heavy pall hung over the scheme. The commission here introduced the French idea of separate buildings. The site was at South Kensington, and the main structure was built of brick, glass, and iron, was nearly rectangular in shape, and covered an area of about seven acres. With the annexes the total area under roof was about twenty-three acres.

This exhibition was opened by the Duke of Cambridge on May 1, 1862, and remained open for 177 days. It was visited by 6,211,103 persons, a daily average of 36,329, its receipts were wholly absorbed by expenses, and a slight deficit was left. Foreign exhibitors numbered 17,861, and received more than 9000 prizes.

In 1863 the French Government announced that an exhibition would be held in Paris in 1867, that was intended to be more completely universal in character and more comprehensive in plan than any that had ever been held. The Champ de Mars, the great parade-ground on which the Ecole Militaire faced, containing about 111 acres, was placed at the disposal of the commissioners by the Government. In the centre of this space was erected the principal building, an oval structure mainly of iron, 1607 feet long and 1246 feet wide, that cost $2,357,000.

In planning this building the convenience of exhibitors and visitors in ready access to the exhibits of any desired country or class was given the preference over architectural effect. Here, again, was a diffusion of exhibits in detached buildings, and a noteworthy novelty was the reservation of ground on the park surrounding the main building for the erection by foreign exhibitors of special buildings for the display of articles that could not be accommodated in the main structure. This feature became the most popular one of the entire exhibition, for it gave a most graphic illustration of the architecture, manners, customs, and countless peculiarities of the peoples of the world.

The exhibition was opened by the Emperor on April 1, 1867, and was closed on October 31, following. The number of visitors was upward of 15,000,000, a daily average of nearly 70,000, and of exhibitors, 51,819. In all, 12,944 medals and grand prizes of honorable mention were awarded. From beginning to end the expenses were $4,596,764, and the receipts aggregated $2,822,000. The national and municipal governments contributed $1,200,000 each, which added to the receipts of the exhibition proper created a surplus over expenditure of $626,000.

London’s third exhibition, from May 1 till September 30, 1871, was projected as the first of an annual series that should separately promote a distinct branch of industrial effort. Thirty-three foreign countries were represented; there were approximately 4000 art and 7000 industrial exhibitors; and the visitors numbered 1,142,000. The second in the series, in 1872, was confined to printing, paper, music, musical instruments, jewelry, cotton goods, and fine arts; and the third, in 1873, was devoted to the general subject of cookery.

Great as was the universal exposition of Paris in 1867, that at Vienna in 1873 far surpassed it in extent and grandeur, although its pecuniary success was severely affected by an epidemic of cholera, a financial crisis, and local extortions. As each of the preceding international exhibitions had developed a distinctive feature, so this of Vienna introduced the custom of holding world’s congresses for the discussion of great problems of universal application.

The exhibition was opened on May 1 and closed on November 3, following. Turnstiles recorded the entrance of 7,254,687 visitors. There were about 70,000 exhibitors, whose display, in extent and costliness, exceeded that of Paris in 1867. The gross receipts were about $2,000,000, and expenditures about $9,850,000, making a deficiency of some $7,850,000, which the Government liquidated. The United States was represented by 643 exhibitors, more than half of whom were awarded prizes.

This brings the record up to the Centennial Exposition, at Philadelphia, in 1876, and covers the third quarter of the century. The actual work of making the Centennial Exhibition began on March 3, 1871, when Congress passed an Act creating the United States Centennial Commission. This authorized the President to appoint a commissioner and an alternate from each State and Territory, on the nomination of the respective governors. The appointments were promptly made, and from the whole body of commissioners the following were chosen for the principal executive officers: President, Joseph R. Hawley, of Connecticut; Vice-Presidents, Alfred T. Goshorn, of Ohio, Orestes Cleveland, of New Jersey, John D. Creigh, of California, Robert Lowry, of Iowa, and Robert Mallory, of Kentucky; Director-General, Alfred T. Goshorn; Secretary, John L. Campbell, of Indiana; Assistant Secretary, Dorsey Gardner; Counselor and Solicitor, John L. Shoemaker.

Details of organization and management were vested in an Executive Committee. On June 1, 1872, Congress passed an Act creating the Centennial Board of Finance, with large powers. This Board estimated that the cost of the exhibition would be $10,000,000, and apportioned shares of capital stock for this amount among the several States and Territories, on the basis of population. Subsequently, a Board of Revenue was appointed and vested with authority to collect subscriptions and other funds.

Despite the financial panic of the summer of 1873, preparations progressed so favorably that on July 3 President Grant issued a proclamation reciting that the one-hundredth anniversary of the independence of the United States would be celebrated by holding an international exhibition of arts, manufactures, and the products of the soil and mine, in Philadelphia, in 1876, opening April 19 and closing October 19, and inviting the nations of the world to take part in both the celebration and the exhibition. In response to a formal invitation issued by the Secretary of State, thirty-two foreign governments sent favorable replies for themselves and their colonies.

The city of Philadelphia placed at the disposal of the commissioners a tract in Fairmount Park, aggregating 236 acres, for the principal buildings, and also made proportionately large allotments for the exhibition of livestock and agricultural implements.

Five principal buildings were erected. The Main Exhibition Building was in the form of a parallelogram, 1880 feet long and 464 feet wide, with projections at the centre of the longest sides 416 feet long, and at the centre of the short ones 216 feet long. The building was erected on piers of masonry, wrought-iron columns supporting wrought-iron roof trusses forming the superstructure, the sides of which for some distance above the ground were finished between the columns with paneled brick work. This building covered 21.47 acres, had a floor space of 936,008 square feet, and cost $1,600,000.

The Art Gallery and Memorial Hall, designed to be a permanent structure, was erected on an eminence in the Lansdowne Plateau. It is built of granite, glass, and iron, in the modern Renaissance style of architecture, on a terrace several feet above the level of the Plateau, and cost $1,500,000. The dimensions are: length, 365 feet; width, 210 feet; height, 59 feet. From the centre of the structure rises a dome of iron and glass, 150 feet in height, surmounted by a figure of Columbia with outstretched hands. This building was erected by the State of Pennsylvania, and is now used as a permanent art and industrial museum.

Machinery Hall was 1402 feet long and 360 feet wide, with an annex on the south side 210 by 208 feet, and the main building and annex had together a floor space of 558,440 square feet, or nearly thirteen acres. The total cost was $792,000. Horticultural Hall, near the Art Gallery, was built by the city of Philadelphia for permanent uses. It exhibits the Moorish architecture of the twelfth century, is 383 feet long by 193 feet wide, and is 72 feet high to the top of the lantern. Its cost was $251,937. The Agricultural Building was erected of wood and glass, the ground plan showing a parallelogram 630 feet long by 465 feet wide, and a nave 826 feet long and 100 feet wide crossed by three transepts, and cost about $356,000.

Other noteworthy edifices were the United States Government Building, 504 feet long by 300 feet wide, prepared to exhibit the various functions of the public service; the Women’s Pavilion, covering an area of an acre, and with its exhibits of woman’s handiwork from the fifteen leading nations of the world constituting the first display of the kind ever attempted on a large scale; twenty-six buildings erected by State and Territorial governments; and many others put up by foreign governments or exhibitors. Before the exhibition closed there were more than two hundred buildings on the ground.

An interesting feature of this exhibition was the observance of State Days, when the governors of the States, with their official staffs and a large following of citizens, made ceremonial visits and held receptions in the several State buildings. There were also numerous other special days, when hosts of people united in a common interest, religious, fraternal, social, military, aquatic, or educational, added thousands to the ordinary attendance.

During the exhibition 9,910,966 persons entered the grounds, of whom 7,250,620 paid the full rate of fifty cents, 753,634 paid twenty-five cents each, and 1,906,692 had free entry. The exhibition represented an outlay of all kinds and by all interests of about $20,000,000. The United States Government aided it with a loan of $1,500,000, which was repaid; the State of Pennsylvania appropriated $1,000,000, and the city of Philadelphia gave $1,500,000. From every point of view it was an unqualified success.

Two years after the Centennial Exposition another one was held in Paris, which not only exceeded all previous ones in that city in size and magnificence, but made an unprecedented display of works of art and literature. On this occasion about one hundred acres were set apart for the various buildings, the exhibitors numbered some eighty thousand, the gross receipts were upward of $2,500,000, and 16,032,725 visitors were registered.

The third world’s exhibition in the United States was held in New Orleans during the winter of 1884–85, and was planned to commemorate the centennial of the first export of cotton from America. The conception was an outgrowth of the exposition in Philadelphia, and was first carried out on a limited scale in Atlanta in 1881, and on a larger one in Louisville in 1883. Under the belief that the cotton centennial should be celebrated in the chief city of the cotton belt, the National Cotton Planters’ Association joined heartily in the scheme suggested by Major E. A. Burke, of New Orleans, for a universal exhibition in that city, in which the great industry of the Southern States should play the most prominent part. Congress aided the movement by an Act incorporating the World’s Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition, and, further, made a loan of $1,000,000 and appropriated $300,000 for a Federal Building. Railroad and other corporations subscribed for $500,000 in stock, the State of Louisiana appropriated $100,000, and the city of New Orleans contributed a similar sum for the erection of a permanent Horticultural Hall.

Formal invitations were sent out to all foreign governments by the State Department at Washington, commissioners were appointed for the several States and Territories, and the time of the exposition was fixed for December 1, 1884, to May 31, 1885. The site selected was the Upper City Park, an unimproved tract of 245 acres, and in its centre was erected the Main Building, a structure built wholly of wood, 1378 feet long and 905 feet wide, and with a continuous roof principally of glass. The entire building covered a space of thirty-three acres. A Music Hall capable of seating 11,000 persons was constructed in the centre of this building, and a Machinery Hall in the rear. An extension at the southern end, 570 by 120 feet, was devoted to mills and factories in operation, and at right angles with this extension was a building given up to sawmills.

The Federal Building, planned for the exhibits of the United States Government and of the States, was 885 feet long by 565 feet wide, and in general style and construction conformed to the Main Building. Horticultural Hall, built of iron and glass, is 600 feet long, 100 feet wide in main structure, and has a central transept carrying out the extreme width to 194 feet. The Art Building, of corrugated iron and glass, stood nearly in front of the Main Building, and was 250 long by 100 feet wide, with a rotunda 50 feet square in the centre. Two other noteworthy buildings were erected by the Mexican Government, one in the style of a native hacienda, with an interior gallery for the display of horticulture and bird-life; the other for native minerals. Excluding those of Mexico, the various buildings covered an area of 2,673,588 square feet, or sixty-two acres, and all buildings covered about seventy-six acres.

Among the special features of this exposition were the display of woman’s work, under charge of Mrs. Julia Ward Howe; of the work of the colored race, under charge of the late Blanche K. Bruce; of the cultivation of cotton and manufacture of the fibre; and of the cultivation, harvesting, and preparation for market of rice and sugar.

On May 5, 1889, another universal exposition was opened in Paris. This was also a commemorative one, marking the centennial of the French Revolution, and because of its political character only the United States and Switzerland accorded it official recognition, although most of the European governments encouraged individual participation. The exposition, despite this feature, was a grand success because of its unusual extent and comprehensiveness and its distinctive features. This exposition cost $8,600,000, and had about 60,000 exhibitors and more than 28,000,000 reported visitors, the greater number, of course, being French.

The making of the World’s Columbian Exposition, to commemorate the discovery of America by Columbus, began soon after the close of the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. It was at first proposed to create a permanent exposition, to be held in Washington in 1892, to illustrate the progress of North, Central, and South America, and a board of promotion was organized. By 1889, however, a strong popular sentiment had been aroused for a more comprehensive display, and citizens of Washington, New York, Chicago, and St. Louis vied with each other in pressing on a special committee of the United States Senate the advantages of their respective cities. A certificate to the effect that subscriptions to the amount of $5,000,000 had been made in Chicago decided the controversy in favor of that city.

On April 25, 1890, Congress passed an Act giving a legal status to a World’s Columbian Exposition, to be held under the auspices and supervision of the United States Government, the organizing corporation to guarantee the subscription of $10,000,000 and the payment of $500,000 before the national commissioners should officially recognize the site offered by the corporation for the exposition. On December 24, following, President Harrison announced the forthcoming exposition, to be opened on May 1, 1893, and invited the nations of the world to participate in it. Congress appropriated in various sums a total of $3,238,250 in money and authorized the coining of 5,000,000 souvenir fifty-cent pieces in silver to be sold for the benefit of the exposition.

The management was vested in a National Commission of two representatives of each State and Territory and of the District of Columbia, and eight from the country at large. The site was Jackson Park, on the shore of Lake Michigan, to which was added the Midway Plaisance tract of 80 acres, making an aggregate ground area of 633 acres. On the main ground more than 150 noteworthy buildings were erected. The Midway Plaisance was devoted to amusements and the illustration of the manners and customs of the world. Here, the most conspicuous of a multitude of great and curious objects was the gigantic revolving and passenger-carrying Ferris Wheel. All of the exposition buildings proper were constructed of wood, iron, and glass, in combination with a material known as “staff,” made by uniting plaster and jute fibre in water, in the form of a paste. As all exterior surfaces were painted white, the exposition grounds became popularly known as the White City.

The principal buildings, with their cost, were those of Manufactures and Liberal Arts, the largest of all, 1687 by 787 feet, $1,500,000; Machinery, $1,285,000; Fine Arts, $670,000; Agriculture, $618,000; Administration, $435,000; Electricity, $401,000; United States Government, $400,000; Live Stock, $385,000; Transportation, $370,000; Horticulture, $300,000; Mines, $265,000; Fisheries, $224,000; Woman’s, $138,000; Forestry, $100,000; and a brick imitation of a modern United States battleship, with complete armament and equipment, $100,000. Foreign governments appropriated a total of $6,571,520 for their respective buildings and exhibits, France leading with $650,000, and being followed by Japan, $630,000; Brazil, $600,000; Germany, $214,200; and Austria, $149,100; and the States and Territories, a total of $6,020,850. The entire cost of construction was $18,322,622.

According to the original Act of Congress, the buildings then completed were dedicated on Columbus Day, October 21, 1892, with prayer, music, and an oration by Chauncey M. Depew, and during that week a number of State buildings were also dedicated. The exposition was formally opened with exceedingly brilliant ceremonies on May 1, 1893, and was closed with an entire lack of formality on October 30, following, in consequence of the assassination of Carter Harrison, mayor of Chicago, two days before. Up to November 12, the receipts from all sources aggregated $33,290,065, and the expenditures, $31,117,353. The total number of paid admissions, excluding those prior to the opening and after the closing, was 21,477,218, and of all, 27,529,400; smallest single-day number, 10,791; largest, on “Chicago Day,” 729,203. In all there were 65,422 exhibitors, and medals were awarded to 23,757 of them, the jury examining and reporting on more than 250,000 separate exhibits.

Present space will only permit the briefest summarizing of this greatest of all international expositions hitherto held,—matchless in extent, in completeness of composition, in grandeur of setting. A pleasing evidence of the influence the undertaking was expected to yield is found in the remarkably large number of international congresses that were held during its progress. This feature alone called for 1245 separate sessions, at which there were 5974 speakers and a special attendance of more than 700,000 persons, chiefly adults. Almost every conceivable branch of human thought and effort had its individual congress. Particularly noticeable among these formal gatherings was the Parliament of Religions, in which Christian, Protestant, Catholic, Jew, and Buddhist expounded their doctrinal beliefs and narrated the story of their sectarian progress and hopes.

The Cotton States’ and International Exposition, opened in Atlanta on September 18, 1895, had its origin in two purposes: the first, to give the industrial conditions of the Southern States a more adequate display than they had at Chicago, owing to the constitutional inability of their Legislatures to appropriate public money for such a purpose; the second, to promote larger trade relations between the South and the Latin-American republics and with Europe. It was set on foot by private enterprise, and received its largest official aid from the city council of Atlanta, which appropriated $75,000.

Piedmont Park, a tract of 189 acres, two miles from the centre of the city, and memorable because traversed by the rifle-pits over which General Sherman threw shells into the city thirty-one years before, was selected as the site. In a natural dip of the ground an artificial lake was constructed, covering thirteen acres, and around it the principal buildings were erected. Not only the Southern, but many of the Northern and Western States aided the enterprise with special buildings and exhibits.

Of the thirteen large buildings, that of the United States Government occupied the most conspicuous site. The Administration Building was a reproduction of portions of Blarney Castle, the Tower of London, Warwick Castle, the Rheinstein in Germany, and St. Michael’s, on the coast of Brittany. On a considerable elevation was the Auditorium, a four-story building with a dome surmounted by a statue of Music. The largest building was that devoted to Manufactures and Liberal Arts, and the most original of all in design was the one set apart for Minerals and Forestry, which was constructed entirely of wood from the different Southern States in its natural condition, with the bark on. The Fine Arts and the Woman’s Buildings were the showiest, and the Negro Building was made attractive by specimens of the industry of negroes in fourteen States. The exposition was closed December 31, and cost about $2,000,000.

The international exposition at Nashville, open from May 1 to October 30, 1897, was a commemoration of the one-hundredth anniversary of the admission of Tennessee into the Union, and had for its special attraction a reproduction of a number of notable buildings of antiquity. The original plan provided for an exposition in 1896, the true centennial year, but the projectors encountered unusual opposition in their efforts to procure the necessary funds, and it was not till early in 1897 that the incorporators were able to begin the creation of the Centennial City.