Final Report of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission Part 48

Caruth, B.L.D. Guffy, Garrett S. Wall, Frank M. Fisher, Mrs. Bertha Miller Smith, hostess.

Mr. Hughes, as secretary, was in charge of the building, and as director of exhibits maintained supervision over Kentucky's entire representation in the exhibit palaces. He was Kentucky's member of the Executive Commissioners' a.s.sociation of the fair. Mr. Hughes had a most capable secretary in Mr. Frank Dunn, who was connected with the work from the organization of the old Kentucky Exhibit a.s.sociation. Mrs. Bertha Miller Smith, of Richmond, Ky., held the position of hostess of the building.

Besides erecting a State Building, Kentucky collected, installed, and maintained 16 different exhibits; a collective display of minerals, a separate display of coal, a separate display of clays, in the Mines and Metallurgy Building; a collective display from the schools and colleges of the State and two separate displays in the blind section in the Palace of Education and Social Economy; two collective displays--one exterior, the other interior--of forestry in the department devoted to Forestry, Fish, and Game; a collective display of general agricultural products in the Palace of Agriculture; and displays of paintings and sculptures by Kentucky artists and sculptors, of fancy needle and drawn work by women, and of the works of Kentucky authors and composers in the Kentucky Building.

The displays in the exhibit palaces occupied 15,000 square feet of s.p.a.ce, the tobacco display with 4,000 square feet having the largest s.p.a.ce a.s.signed any one product. Four thousand square feet were devoted to minerals, 1,200 to education, 3,000 to a general agricultural exhibit, 1,200 to forestry and its manufactured products, and 1,200 to horticulture.

In the Palace of Mines and Metallurgy the general display combined both State and individual effort. Its 3,400 square feet of s.p.a.ce faced on three of the main aisles of the building. Facing on three aisles the exhibit had three entrances, an arch of cannel coal, an arch of white limestone, and an arch of terra cotta burned in St. Louis from clay taken from Waco, Madison County. The arches were connected by a 3-foot wall of minerals, forming an inclosure for the exhibit. In this wall were shown, as approaches to the clay-entrance arch, building brick, tiles, paving brick, fire brick, plain and decorated pottery, etc.; as approaches to the cannel-coal arch, both bituminous and cannel coal, and as approaches to the stone arch, building stones and cement building blocks.

Oil and its future development was found in a collective petroleum exhibit from the several oil horizons. Large blocks of coal, representing the different veins of Kentucky, several full lines of broken coals, and a very complete display of c.o.ke were also displayed. A very elaborate display of kaolin--plastic, vitrifying, and refractory clays--was made.

In all, there were 114 different specimens of clay attractively displayed in gla.s.s cases and in convenient corners; also plain and decorated pottery, white and cream-colored wares, terra cotta, earthen-ware, building brick, firebacks, c.o.ke-oven sundries, paving brick, fire brick, tiles, etc. The Kentucky display contained also zinc ore and sphalerite, lead ore and barite, lead and zinc ore, and fluarite from the mines in Chittenden County; zinc and lead ores and metallic zinc from "the Joplin district of Kentucky;" sphalerite and galena from Marion, galena (in barite) from Lockport, Henry County, and large lumps and ground fluorspar and lead concentrates from Marion, Crittenden County. There were 138 samples of iron ore shown as a collective State exhibit, and in addition to this there was ore from Edmonson County, ore from Nelson County, ore from Allen County, ore from Carter County, and ore from Hart County. One of the unique displays was a sample bottle of oil from the old American oil well in c.u.mberland County. This well, begun September 10, 1827, was the first oil well in America. Collective State exhibits of oynx marble, paint earths, polished earths, sands, silicious earths, road materials, fluorspars, barite calcite, cement materials, salt, lithograph stone, lime, potash, marl, asphalt rock, etc., were also to be found in Kentucky's general mineral exhibit.

The State made a fine display in forestry, fish, and game. The collection embraced displays from all parts of Kentucky. The forestry exhibit not only showed Kentucky's timbers in the rough and polished state, but hundreds of samples of the manufactured products. One of the exhibits was a full-sized log wagon, carrying three large logs 10 feet long, one each of oak, poplar, and hickory. The idea of showing the timber from which the product was made was carried out as far as possible throughout the exhibit.

Kentucky's educational exhibit occupied 1,100 square feet, every foot of which was utilized to advantage. The public schools, Catholic inst.i.tutions, commercial branches, and colleges were given due prominence, while special attention was given to mountain school labors.

One part was devoted to public schools and another to Catholic inst.i.tutions. The school work of the totally blind pupils occupied six display cabinets. These cases showed the entire course, from 8 years to 18. The display from the Kentucky School for the Deaf at Danville, ill.u.s.trating the work done in its manual-training department, was shown also. This school was the pioneer in the manual-training movement in Kentucky, and for over half a century every graduate has left its halls equipped with a knowledge of some useful handicraft. More than a year was consumed in the collection of Kentucky's educational exhibit.

Kentucky made a good showing agriculturally, and had a creditable and attractive representation in the Palace of Agriculture. Raising more than 90 per cent of the hemp of the United States, Kentucky made one of the really distinctive exhibits of the Agricultural Building at the exposition. The exhibit occupied more than 2,000 square feet. An experiment station showed 50 varieties of gra.s.ses and 15 varieties of wheat, both in the seed and in the sheaf Another interesting feature was an entire case of insects injurious to fruit trees and staple products.

An interesting feature was an obelisk, 12 feet high, made of blue gra.s.s from the experiment station The apex was of ripened blue gra.s.s; the shades leading up to it, formed the base, beginning with the gra.s.s in its green state. The bluish tint that gives the gra.s.s its name could be seen. Various stages of hemp culture and harvest were shown also. These include the seed, the stalk intact, broken and dressed hemp. Practically 100 different places were represented in this Kentucky exhibit. There were in all 242 exhibitors. Fifty-two of these showed tobacco, 108 corn, 18 wheat, 6 oats, 8 seeds, 5 hemp, and the others miscellaneous.

The display of tobacco was conceded to be most instructive. Occupying an entire block--4,628 square feet of s.p.a.ce--it covered more floor area than any other display in the 1,240 acres of the exposition devoted to a single product. There was shown in miniature or by pictures tobacco in every phase of its culture and manufacture. A box of plug tobacco 3 feet square, the largest ever made, was shown here. To show to good advantage the successive steps in the culture, harvesting, curing, and marketing of the tobacco, two platforms, each 31 feet long by 8 feet wide, were utilized. They were on opposite aisles of the s.p.a.ce, running parallel with the 89-foot sides. On one platform were shown the plant beds and fields, on the other the curing barns and warehouses.

The State Pavilion was dedicated as the "New Kentucky Home." By a careful study of the visitors' register with the total attendance at the exposition it was found that 1 out of every 18 visitors to the fair visited the "New Kentucky Home." The registers showed for one day alone citizens from 35 States and 11 foreign countries. Its walls, hung with more than $20,000 worth of the paintings of Kentucky artists, the most important collection in the State Building; a score of gla.s.s cases holding one of the exhibits of fancy needlework and a display of relics, with a library of the works of Kentucky authors and an art-design piano with Kentucky-written music, the "New Kentucky Home" was most interesting. With four sides, and every side a front, its doors were always wide open and no restriction was placed upon visitors. Its 582 lights at night spoke an invitation to all.

LOUISIANA.

_Members of commission._--Governor Newton C. Blanchard, president; Dr.

W.C. Stubbs, State commissioner; Maj. J.G. Lee, secretary; Gen. J.B.

Levert; Col. Charles Schuler; H.L. Gueydan; Robert Glenk, a.s.sistant to State commissioner; Charles K. Fuqua, a.s.sistant secretary.

The legislature of the State of Louisiana in 1902 pa.s.sed an act providing that a board of commissioners, to be known as "The Board of Commissioners of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition," be created, consisting of the governor, who should be ex officio president thereof, and four other members to be appointed by the governor. The sum of $100,000 was appropriated by the same act for Louisiana's partic.i.p.ation in the Louisiana Purchase Exposition.

In the city of New Orleans is an old Spanish building, erected in 1795, used during the Spanish reign as a cabildo or court building. In this building the actual transfer of the Louisiana purchase from Spain to France and from France to the United States occurred, the first on November 30 and the last on December 20, 1803.

The commission wisely determined to reproduce this building as it was at that date on the exposition grounds at St. Louis and to use the same as a State building. It was determined also to furnish it with furniture and pictures of that date. On account of the prominence of the State of Louisiana in the original purchase, she was accorded first choice in the selection of a site for her State building. A beautiful spot overlooking Government Hill and directly south of Missouri's handsome State Palace was selected. The building was completed in October, 1903, at a cost of $25,000. On account of its historic interest and rich antique furnis.h.i.+ngs, the State building attracted much attention, and the visitors that pa.s.sed through its portals numbered perhaps nearly a million.

In front of the building was reproduced the "Place d'Armes" of the French and Spanish regimes, now Jackson square, in the center of which was erected an equestrian statue of Andrew Jackson, modeled upon the one erected to the hero of Chalmette in the square in New Orleans by the grateful citizens of Louisiana.

In the room known as Sala Capitular, in which the transfer occurred, was exposed throughout the exposition a facsimile of the treaty signed by Livingstone, Monroe, and Marbois. In the jails in the rear of the Cabildo were placed the original stocks used by the Spanish in punishment of their criminals.

Besides the Cabildo, which was a veritable museum of curios and interesting relics, Louisiana had 15 exhibits in 10 buildings.

In the Agricultural Palace she had 8,500 feet of s.p.a.ce, of which 2,000 was devoted to sugar, 2,000 to rice, 2,000 to cotton, and 2,500 to general agriculture.

In the sugar exhibit was a field of cane made of wax, with negroes cutting the same, and from this field there was a train of cars carrying cane to the sugarhouse. On reaching the sugarhouse the cane was unloaded by machinery and crushed by a complete sugar mill with crusher.

Surrounding the sugarhouse were 500 small barrels of sugar and 100 barrels of mola.s.ses; also in the same s.p.a.ce were commercial samples of plantation and refined sugars and a life-sized model of "Miss Louisiana"

made of sugar. Samples of 100 varieties of cane were shown and samples of sugarhouse products were also, displayed. There were also to be seen beautiful samples of paper Of all grades made from the cane.

In the rice exhibit were to be found, first, large shocks of each, variety of rice in the sheaf. A field of growing rice, made of wax, with a harvesting machine cutting and binding the same, was in evidence. All stages of growing rice were represented, from the sprouting seed to the fully matured grain. Samples of commercial rice were tastefully exhibited.

In the cotton exhibit were to be found 15 commercial bales of cotton specially prepared for the exhibit by patriotic citizens of Louisiana.

Over these bales was a platform, upon which was erected a "Carnival King"

in cotton. A roller and saw gin, a square and round bale cotton press, and a complete cotton-seed oil mill made up the display of machinery in the cotton exhibit. Nearly 100 varieties were shown in small, neat bales, weighing 3 or 4 pounds each.

In the agricultural exhibit every crop growing in the field and the garden was exhibited. Hay from the gra.s.ses and legumes, all kinds of grain, both clean and in the straw; all kinds of fiber plants, in the stock and in the fiber; all kinds of tobacco, yellow-leaf cigar leaf, cigars, and the famous Perique were to be found. Vegetables of all kinds, both fresh and in wax, were handsomely displayed.

In the Palace of Horticulture two exhibits were made. Pecans, oranges, grapefruit, peaches, plums, pears, pomegranates, j.a.pan persimmons, and many other subtropical fruits were shown.

In the conservatory were two carloads of plants brought from New Orleans. In it were 28 varieties of palms and many varieties of oranges, pecans, figs, pineapples, bananas, pomegranates, etc.

In the Forestry Building there were two exhibits from Louisiana. In the first were to be found timbers of valuable forests and their products.

In the same building were found the birds, fishes, and animals of Louisiana.

In the Educational Building there were also two exhibits from Louisiana.

One was the regular State exhibit, ill.u.s.trating the work done in the schools, colleges, and universities.

In the same building and in the exhibit from the experimental stations a complete sugar laboratory made by the sugar experimental station at Audubon Park, New Orleans, was shown.

In the Mines and Metallurgy Building were exhibits of sulphur and salt, crude and refined petroleum, marble, and iron ore, all fresh from the mines of Louisiana.

In the Liberal Arts Building were topographical maps showing the levees of Louisiana, and showing also the city of New Orleans in 1803 and New Orleans in 1903. There were also in this exhibit 200 maps of the Gulf coast from 1500 up to the present time, some rare old books, a section of the palisades that surrounded New Orleans in the year 1794, and copies of all the books of the authors of the State.

In the Transportation Building was represented transportation on the Mississippi River, past and present, beginning with the Indian canoe and on through the evolution of transportation up to the monster ocean liner of to-day.

In the Anthropology Building was a very fine collection of Indian relics, including a number of baskets of rare and beautiful type.

MAINE.

The State of Maine erected one of the most noteworthy buildings of the ground and one that attracted universal attention. The building represented accurately the popular conception of what a sportsman's clubhouse should be. The building was made entirely of Maine lumber and was in the form of a log cabin, exaggerated in size and equipped with all the comforts of a country clubhouse. In this connection it is interesting to note that the Maine Pavilion was subsequently sold for $2,000 for the purpose of a sportsman's clubhouse in the country. The s.p.a.cious, cool verandas and the odor from the fresh pine logs made the log house of Maine a favorite rendezvous during the heated days of the summer. The building was furnished throughout with furnis.h.i.+ngs from the manufacturers of Maine. The walls were decorated with moose heads and specimens of the game and fish to be found in Maine. The walls of the building were hung with pictures of various scenes in the State. The total cost of the building was $22,361.40, and the furnis.h.i.+ngs cost $159.80.

The legislature of the State appropriated $40.000 for the purpose of erecting the building and making the display. There was no money given by individuals. The total cost of the exhibit was $1,893.19.

The commissioners appointed by the legislature were as follows:

Louis B. Goodall, Sanford, chairman; Lemuel Lane, Westbrook; Frank H.

Briggs, Auburn; Charles C. Burrill, Ellsworth; Henry W. Sargent, Sargentville. Edward E. Philbrook was elected secretary.

The purpose of the commission was primarily to advertise they resources of the State of Maine as a vacation and sporting State. The only exhibit made by the State, beyond that described above, was a small display of potatoes and apples.

MARYLAND.

In the legislature of the State of Maryland in 1902 an item of $25,000 was provided in the general appropriation bill "for the use of the commissioners to the St. Louis Fair, hereby authorized to be appointed by the governor." The amount of this appropriation was less than the friends of the measure desired, but it enabled the work to be inaugurated. Governor Smith appointed the following commissioners:

Gen. L. Victor Baughman, chairman; Francis E. Waters, vice-chairman; Frederick P. Stieff, treasurer; Frank N. Hoen, William A. Marburg, William H. Grafflin, Wesley M. Oler, Thomas H. Robinson, Jacob M.

Pearce, Orlando Harrison, Mrs. Frances E. Lord, Mrs. Parks Fisher, F.P.