Festival Hall, St. Louis World's Fair, 1904
World’s fairs have long captured the world’s imagination, bringing together nations to showcase breakthroughs in technology, art, and design. From St. Louis in 1904 to San Francisco and San Diego in 1915, and Paris in 1925, these iconic expositions dazzled millions of visitors, introducing inventions, bold architecture, and unforgettable spectacles that continue to influence aesthetics, technology, and culture today.
Art historian Jennie Hirsh delves into three pivotal fairs, revealing how each both presented the latest innovations and shaped culture, design, and the world’s vision of the future.
Session Information
St. Louis 1904: Meet Me at the Fair
Board a trolley and step into the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, the last great international exposition before World War I. The fair commemorated the 100th anniversary of Thomas Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase, as well as the centennial of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark’s departure from St. Louis to chart the newly acquired territory.
Credited with the invention of some of the most notable American foods—hot dogs and hamburgers, ice cream cones, peanut butter, the club sandwich, cotton candy, and iced tea—the fair was the largest such international event to date, sprawling across 1,272 acres and including more than 1,500 buildings. In addition to monumental pavilions focused on industries and inventions from horticulture and electricity to fine arts (one of the few surviving buildings that eventually becomes the St. Louis Art Museum) and machinery, the fair included structures representing 62 countries and 42 states.
Hirsh explores the fair’s staggering scale, iconic imagery, and strategic ways for reflecting both American and European ambitions, offering a vivid portrait of an era defined by innovation, spectacle, and global aspiration.
Additional Sessions of this Age of World's Fairs Series
General Information
