Entrance to Creation Exhibit on the Pike

Map of the St. Louis World's Fair

The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, informally known as The Saint Louis World's Fair, was a World's Fair held in Saint Louis, Missouri in 1904 which celebrated the centennial of the Louisiana Purchase (delayed one year).

It opened April 30, 1904, and closed December 1 the same year. The Fair Grounds covered 1,200 acres (4.9 km&sup2), the largest space of any fair, and it was probably the most grand of the old style Pre-World War I Fairs. There were over 1500 individual buildings, connected by some 75 miles (120 km) of roads and walkways, and it was said to be impossible to give even a hurried glance at everything there in less than a week.

Palace of Varied Industries

Palace of Mines & Metallurgy

Exhibits were staged by 62 foreign nations, the United States government, 43 of the American states, in addition to the numerous exhibits put on by many industries, cities, private organizations and corporations, theater troops, music schools, etc.

View from Observation Wheel, showing exhibitions New York to the North Pole, Galveston Flood, and Palace of Transportation

The Fair hosted the 1904 Summer Olympic Games. These games had originally been awarded to Chicago, but when St Louis threatened to hold a rival international competition, the games were relocated. Nonetheless, the events, spread out over several months, were overshadowed by the Fair, and with travel expenses high, many European athletes did not come. Nor did Baron Pierre de Courbertin.

A number of foods are claimed to have been invented at the Fair, including the hamburger, the hot dog, peanut butter, iced tea and the ice cream cone. However, these claims are controversial and widely disputed.

Ragtime music was popularly featured at the Fair.

Birmingham, Alabama's iconic cast iron Vulcan statue was first exhibited at the Fair in the Palace of Mines and Metallurgy.

This Fair is referenced in the 1944 Judy Garland movie "Meet Me In St. Louis".

External links

• Online Exhibition by the Missouri Historical Society (http://mohistory.org/content/fair/wf/html)
• Homepage of the 1904 World's Fair Society (http://www.1904worldsfairsociety.org/index.htm)
• Virtual Tour of the 1904 World's Fair (http://www.crawforddirect.com/worldfairtour.htm)
• Online Version of 1904 Illustrated Guide to the Fair (http://washingtonmo.com/1904/index.htm)
• Website for Forest Park (neighborhood located on the site of the fair) (http://www.slfp.com/ForestPark.html)
• Louisiana Purchase Exposition collection at the University of Delaware Library (http://www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spec/exhibits/fairs/louis.htm)
• Another online exhibit of fair memorabilia (http://www.bitwise.net/~ken-bill/fair.htm)
• An Edison company film of the Asia pavilion (http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mbrsmi/awal.0659), at the Library of Congress