Final Report of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission Part 47

The art-gla.s.s decorations throughout the building and in the dome represented a material whose quality is said to be unexcelled in the world.

On the second floor was a large library, or reading room, in which were kept on file all the State newspapers and magazines; also all the princ.i.p.al daily papers and monthly magazines.

At one end of the building was the governor's reception room; at the other, the commissioners' reception room and private office. In connection with this latter was the art and literary department of the State, which contained copies of books by prominent Indiana authors and original ma.n.u.scripts and drawings. The paintings which adorned the walls of the building were the product of Indiana genius. Her artists were lavish of their time and thought in contributing to the effect sought.

The color scheme of the building was the result of educated taste.

The electric lighting was a special feature. A mult.i.tude of 4-candlepower lamps were used, distributed on the ceiling in pleasant form, that harmonized the decorative plaster panels. The woodwork throughout the building was stained and finished in bog oak. Most of the furniture was of the Mission style, stained to suit the interior finish.

The building was furnished and decorated luxuriously and in a quiet character, making an interior that offered comfort and quiet environment to the weary visitor. At the very beginning it was determined that this building and the things a.s.sociated with it and housed in it should speak the culture and artistic development of Indiana life, and so it has gathered within its walls the best offerings of literature and art--the trophies of civilization.

INDIAN TERRITORY.

_Members of Indian Territory commission_.--Thomas Ryan, chairman; F.C.

Hubbard, executive commissioner; H.B. Johnson, honorary commissioner; A.J. Brown, honorary commissioner; W.L. McWilliams; H.B. Spaulding; J.E. Campbell; J.J. McAlester; William Busby; Miss Olive Blentlinger, clerk.

A fund of $50,000 was expended for the Indian Territory partic.i.p.ation in the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. Of this amount, $25,000 was appropriated by Congress and $25,000 was raised by popular subscription in the Territory. The expenditure, according to the provisions of the Congressional appropriation, was made under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior. It was the purpose of the commission to make the Indian Territory exhibit one that would primarily set forth the actual condition that existed in the Territory and to advertise the developments and resources of the same in a comprehensive manner. The same general lines that were adopted by other States and Territories in similar work were followed as closely as practicable.

Because of its limited funds the Territorial commission deemed it advisable to make exhibits only in the following departments: In the Mines and Metallurgy Building were displayed the c.o.ke and coal, marble, granite, and oil exhibits. The corn and cotton exhibits were shown in the Palace of Agriculture. In the Horticultural Building exhibits of the orchards and gardens of Indian Territory were maintained, and all other exhibits, such as educational, photographic, mineral specimens, etc., were installed in the Indian Territory Building.

The Indian Territory Building was completed and exhibits installed on the opening day of the exposition, April 30, 1904. It was located on a beautiful site in the Plateau of States, near the southeast entrance to the grounds. The building was a two-story colonial structure, 109 by 72 feet. The first floor contained, besides the large lobby room, two exhibit rooms. In one of these rooms was displayed the art and educational exhibit; in the other the photographic exhibit. These two exhibits--one setting forth the artistic, the other the commercial development of the residents of the Indian Territory--went far toward dispelling the somewhat prevalent idea that the Indian Territory is a wilderness, where progress and civilization are unknown.

In the art and educational room were displayed many beautiful paintings, studies, laces, fine needle and bead work, and industrial work, all the products of Indian Territory students and residents. In the photographic room were arranged 500 large photographs suitably framed and mounted, taken from all parts of Indian Territory, and representing the actual status and present commercial condition in the Indian Territory.

In the main lobby on the first floor of the Territory Building were displayed the collections of old Indian pottery, beadwork, etc. These collections belong to J.E. Campbell, of the Cherokee Nation; Mr. and Mrs. J.S. Murrow, of the Choctaw Nation; Mr. Thomas P. Smith and Miss Alice M. Robertson, of the Creek Nation, and were all especially fine and very valuable, many of the articles being more than a hundred years old and representing in the highest type the work of the old Indians.

The paintings of Jefferson and his descendants, the work of Mrs.

Narcissa Owen, of the Cherokee Nation, as well as the tapestries by the same artist, were admired by the many thousands who visited the Territory pavilion. Mention should be made also of the 100 wild flowers of the Indian Territory, mounted and framed, the collection of Mr. J.B.

Bushyhead, of the Cherokee Nation.

The second floor of the Territory Building contained a large reception hall, ladies' parlors and resting rooms, and the offices of the executive commissioner. An especially attractive feature about the pavilion were the large stair landing and the five big windows, two transparencies being set in each and representing typical scenes from the Territory.

The Indian Territory was also represented in three of the exhibit palaces of the exposition, maintaining booths in the Palace of Mines and Metallurgy, the Palace of Horticulture, and the Palace of Agriculture.

The coal fields of the Indian Territory, especially in the Choctaw Nation, have for years been operated successfully, and within the past two years the development of the coal industry has been immense.

Petroleum is also found in many parts of the Indian Territory. This industry, though new, is developing into gigantic proportions. Hundreds of wells are going down in both the Bartlesville and Muskogee fields, and the majority of those already opened are good producers. The crude oil in the Bartlesville field is in grade about the same as the Kansas oil, while the grade of the Muskogee field is somewhat better.

Railroads, pipe lines, and refineries are being built for handling this product, which promises to be in such abundant supply. In the Indian Territory booth in the Mines and Metallurgy Building were shown many samples of Indian Territory coals and oils. Beside the four large cubes of the four separate grades of bituminous coal found in the Territory, there were arranged cases of the finest samples of egg coal, nut coal, and pea coal, and pyramids of coal and c.o.ke were erected. Samples of the oil from 27 flowing wells, together with samples of the oil sands, were arranged in gla.s.s and formed the background of the booth. Cubes of the Chickasha granite and the Cherokee marble and many blocks of building stone, filtering rock, colite, etc., were shown in this booth. A large relief map, costing more than $2,000, of the Choctaw coal fields and many pictures and plates of the top works of coal mines, oil wells, and asphaltum works were attractively placed in this booth.

A comprehensive display of the corn and cotton products of the Indian Territory was made in the two booths maintained in the Palace of Agriculture. The Indian Territory is particularly a cotton country. No finer staple is sold on the Liverpool market than that which grows in the bottoms along the Arkansas, Verdigris, Canadian, Was.h.i.+ta, and Red rivers. Corn, wheat, oats, rye, and, in fact, all grains and products that flourish in such States as Kansas, Iowa, and Illinois do equally well in Indian Territory. With practically an unvarying temperature and abundant rainfall the "Indian lands" will, within a few years, be converted into agricultural domains rich and beautiful.

Though not the largest, one of the very prettiest displays in the Palace of Horticulture was that of the Indian Territory. Occupying the very center circular s.p.a.ce in the building, this booth was kept constantly supplied with Indian Territory products of the orchard and flower gardens. Apples, peaches, pears, grapes, and plums seem to grow to perfection in the Indian Territory, and the many thousands who saw the fruit display at the exposition can attest the fact that wonderful are the products from Indian Territory orchards and gardens.

KANSAS.

The legislature of the State of Kansas in 1901 appropriated the sum of $75,000 for the purpose of having the State represented at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. Subsequently, in March, 1903, a second appropriation of $100,000 was made. There were no subscriptions of any kind for this purpose.

In 1901 the governor of Kansas appointed the following-named gentlemen as commissioners:

John C. Carpenter, president; J.C. Morrow, vice-president; R.T. Simons, treasurer; C.H. Luling, secretary; W.P. Waggener, commissioner.

Kansas made exhibits in the Agriculture, Horticulture, Education, and Social Economy buildings and in the Dairy Department. The State also made large exhibits in live stock of horses, cattle, swine, sheep, and poultry.

In the Agricultural Palace the corn steer, corn eagles, corn Indian, and several other striking features of installation, made exclusively of agricultural products, were greatly admired and favorably commented upon. In this department a grand prize was given to the State.

Although known princ.i.p.ally as an agricultural State, the exhibit made by Kansas in the Mines and Metallurgy palaces was such as to astonish all who saw it. Besides its other large and varied resources and fine installation of lead, zinc, coal, salt, gypsum, stone, shale for manufacture of brick, cement, etc., Kansas is known as one of the greatest oil and gas fields in the United States.

The floor s.p.a.ce a.s.signed to the Kansas educational exhibit in the Educational Building was 45 by 30 feet. The walls were 15 feet high, thus giving for display purposes a surface of 2,100 square feet in addition to the floor s.p.a.ce. All the wall s.p.a.ce was used to show drawing maps, charts, photographs, and work in manual training. Thirty cabinet cases were used to exhibit miscellaneous work, mainly in drawing, kindergarten, sewing, and in photographic representations of various kinds.

The total cost of the booth was about $1,230, and of the furnis.h.i.+ngs about $600. The transportation of the educational exhibits cost approximately $100. The total cost of the educational exhibit in the Kansas booth was about $6,000.

In the Kansas school exhibits the work of the common schools was made conspicuous. There were on the tables in the booths between three and four hundred bound volumes of written work, comprising spelling, writing, composition, arithmetic, geography, grammar, United States history, map drawing, kindergarten. But while the work of the elementary schools was given the most important place in the Kansas exhibit, higher education was kept well in the foreground. The University of Kansas effectively showed its work through 50 large framed photographs in which all the buildings and many of the cla.s.s rooms made the work of the inst.i.tution visible to all.

There was work of some kind from 104 cities and about 400 country districts. The exhibits from many of the smaller cities did not appear separately on the catalogues, because they were included in county displays.

The Kansas Pavilion in the Agricultural Palace occupied a s.p.a.ce 92 by 62 feet on the main aisle, near the center of the building. On each side were pillars 16 feet high decorated with ears of corn and corn husks.

Upon each of these rested a Grecian vase made of corn husks and festooned with rosettes and garlands of corn husks, the whole being very attractive.

Standing at the main entrance, between the two high corn columns, were two eagles with wings spread for flight--one made of corn husks and kernels of corn, the other made of wheat straw and kernels of corn. They were the work of an artist.

One of the most striking features was the large center pyramid, surmounted by a monster steer of the Hereford type, 7 feet in height, fas.h.i.+oned of red and white sh.e.l.led corn. At the top of this pyramid the word "Kansas" was worked in corn.

At the north entrance stood a pyramid of native gra.s.ses, upon which was a vase made of oat heads, 7 feet high. Directly opposite stood a pyramid of tame gra.s.ses, upon which rested a vase made of the heads of grains and gra.s.ses, 7 feet high.

The Kansas State Agricultural College, at Manhattan, exhibited alfalfa, corn, cane, Kaffir corn, oats, buffalo gra.s.s, and big blue-stemmed gra.s.s, showing the plant and root growth. Besides these there were 25 varieties of wheat sheaves, 10 varieties of cane 14 feet in length, 4 varieties of Kaffir corn, 3 of broom corn 15 feet, stalks of corn 16 feet, and millet 6 feet high.

The State Agricultural College Experiment Station, Hays, Kans., had a collection of wheat, rye, barley, speltz, oats, and flax.

The total cost of the various installations of the agricultural exhibits of Kansas was $17,750.

The Kansas exhibit in the Horticultural Department fully and completely represented that branch of industry in the State and was highly commented upon by the people generally from all sections of the country.

Kansas was given s.p.a.ce covering 2,000 square feet. The commission appropriated $9,000 for this exhibit, which covered all expenses.

The fruits, especially apples, placed Kansas high in rank as one of the leading apple-growing States of the Union. Kansas also ranked close along with the leading States in peaches, plums, grapes, and small fruits and was the banner State in the production of cherries.

The Kansas commission secured an 8-foot square s.p.a.ce in the b.u.t.ter pavilion, Palace of Agriculture, at a cost of $500 for the season. The cost of placing and maintenance was $2,500.

Kansas did very well in her live-stock exhibit, for which an appropriation of $10,000 was used. More than two hundred entries won prizes, aggregating $313,800.

In the art exhibit, in the Kansas Building, the total number of articles entered and shown was 537. The total value of the same was $20,247, cla.s.sified as follows: Sculpture, paintings in oil, paintings in water colors, pastels and other drawings, miniatures, etchings, etc., paintings on china, art needlework, embroideries, etc., tapestries, etc.

KENTUCKY.

The legislature of 1902 refused to make an appropriation for a State exhibit. The organization of the Kentucky Exhibit a.s.sociation to raise a fund by private subscription followed. For fourteen months an active canva.s.s was conducted, resulting in $30,000 and a sentiment so unanimous for the State's representation at the fair that in January, 1904, the general a.s.sembly supplemented this amount with $75,000. The Kentucky Exhibit a.s.sociation had several hundred members, with a board of 15 directors. Upon the pa.s.sage of the appropriation act, Governor J.C.

Beckham, who signed the measure, appointed the following commissioners, all to serve without compensation:

A.Y. Ford, president; Charles C. Spalding, vice-president; R.E. Hughes, secretary; W.H. c.o.x, W.T. Ellis, Clarence Dallam, W.H. Newman, Sam P.

Jones, Samuel Grabfelder, M.H. Crump, J.B. Bowles, Charles E. Hoge, A.G.