Anthropology Goes to the Fair: The 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition

1. Organizing the Louisiana Purchase Exposition

15 1. Organizing the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Discussions among St. Louis business and political leaders about hosting a national exposition began as early as 1889. Governor David R. Francis led a delegation to Washington dc to seek the exposition to celebrate the four hundredth anniversary of Columbus’s “discovery of the New World” for St. Louis. Rival Chicago won and staged its World Columbian Exposition in 1893. Interest waned until early 1896, when St. Louis’s Congressman Richard Bartholdt advocated a Louisiana Purchase Exposition to improve the city’s sagging economy. Francis again took up the cause along with Pierre Chouteau, third generation scion of a great St. Louis merchant family. On June 7, St. Louis elite met to rally support. Francis declared, “There is one event in the history of this city, second in importance only to the Declaration of Independence . . . and that is the Louisiana Purchase. St. Louis should celebrate its centennial by a great international exposition, second to none ever held in the world.”1 Tentative planning began. In 1898 Congressman Bartholdt introduced a bill seeking federal recognition for a fair and financial support. A Committee of Fifty began to conceptualize an exposition. A meeting of the governors of the fourteen Louisiana Purchase states and territories was held in January 1899 to solicit their support. A planning committee, with Chouteau as general chair and Francis as chair of the executive committee, began fund-raising; five million dollars was pledged in a single evening and Congress soon matched with it five million in subsidy loans. In 1900 the City of St. Louis passed a bond issue for the fair. On April 29, 1900, the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company (lpec) was formally incorporated, with authorized capital of six million dollars and nine million in credit. Francis served without compensation, and ninety-three civic leaders formed a board of directors. The goal was to erect an exposition more spectacular than Chicago’s. Civic pride and status were at stake. Intangibles compensated for the financial risk: | Organizing the Louisiana Purchase Exposition 16 increased commerce for the community and new educational and cultural opportunities. An exposition would allow St. Louis to “gain a cosmopolitan habit that elevates its citizenship and broadens its social life.”2 Such elevation was badly needed in turn-of-the-century St. Louis. After the Civil War it grew as a major rail center and river port with a wide variety of manufactures, and wholesale, banking, and financial businesses associated with commerce and transportation. By 1900 St. Louis was America’s fourth largest city with about 575,000 residents. But there were major social and political ills, including a recent violent and costly transit workers’ strike that Fig. 1.1. David R. Francis, 1903, lpe president. Photograph by L. Strauss. St. Louis Public Library, image no. lpe01617. Organizing the Louisiana Purchase Exposition | 17 could undermine a major fair. Political cronyism, bribery, and corruption were endemic, involving both political parties, but principally Republican assemblymen . Democrats ran industrialist Rolla Wells as a reform candidate for mayor. He won, ensuring support for an exposition by improving streets and public services, a critical reform if the lpe was to be a success. The slogan “The New St. Louis” was coined to bring the citizens together in a great cooperative reform effort. Government, private corporations, and civic groups joined forces to improve the city’s transportation infrastructure. A purification system for city water was installed, one hundred miles of roads were built, neighborhoods were cleaned up, playgrounds were built, and a smoke reduction program for steamboats and factories was instituted. St. Louis wanted to present its best face to the world (Findling and Pelle 1996, 180). Developing an Exposition Focus With reforms underway, David Francis proceeded to develop the exposition. Francis (fig. 1.1), born in 1850 in Kentucky, was a Washington University graduate , a wealthy grain exporter, banker, and civic leader with a reputation for efficiency, decisiveness, organization, and raising money. He had served as mayor of St. Louis (1885–89), governor of Missouri (1889–93), and secretary of the interior under President Grover Cleveland (1896–97). A prominent Democrat , he had national connections with capitalists and politicians who could ensure that the federal government would approve the lpec’s later financial requests.3 By 1902 the lpec Board had selected Forest Park as the fair site. The 657acre tract of virgin forest, located away from the crowded...