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Bibliography on the Louisiana Purchase
Exposition
The 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair
A Resource for Teachers
Prepared by the Education Division, Missouri History Museum
Introduction and General Readings
Introduction: World’s Fairs Become
the Rage!
The First American World’s Fairs
The American World’s Fairs, introduced in Philadelphia
in 1876, celebrated America’s transformation from an
agrarian, producer-based rural society into an industrial,
consumer-driven urban one. The planners of Philadelphia’s
Centennial Exposition wanted to “celebrate the one hundredth
anniversary of the American Independence, by holding an International
Exhibition of Arts, Manufactures, and Products of the Soil
and mine, in the city of Philadelphia, and the State of Pennsylvania,
in the year eighteen hundred and seventy-six.” In other
words, the centennial exposition was made to celebrate everything
America had come to stand for in the century since her independence.
The 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago, 1901 Pan-American
Exposition in Buffalo, and the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition
in St. Louis were the largest of the fairs that followed.
These fairs commemorated historical moments—Columbus’
discovery of America and the Louisiana Purchase—but
mainly served as a means to express America’s pride
in her accomplishments.
In Philadelphia, the world saw that America had become an
international economic power to be reckoned with. The United
States astonished visitors from around the globe with her
huge Corliss steam engine, locomotives, mining equipment,
telephones, and telegraphs, among many other new and wondrous
objects.
The 1893 Exposition in Chicago, celebrating the fourth centennial
of Columbus’ discovery of America, furthered the image
of the United States as a modern, industrialized nation. In
addition to building a fair larger and more elaborate than
any previous one, the planners at Chicago built their “White
City” to reflect the state of America. The White City
was beautiful and clean and contained the world’s most
advanced technology. In Chicago, a World’s Fair for
the first time contained a purely concessionary area: the
Midway Plaisance, designed for people to simply have fun.
Buffalo’s 1901 Fair was designed to celebrate not a
historical event, but instead the unity of all the American
countries—with the United States, of course, in the
lead. To portray Buffalo as a prosperous and technologically
advanced city, the planners designed and built a magnificent
“Rainbow City” with lights of all colors. The
Pan-American Exposition did not have nearly the impact the
other fairs did for several reasons, including the failure
of its builders to finish it, bad weather, and its lack of
foreign exhibitions. The assassination of U.S. President William
McKinley on September 6, 1901 has become the epitaph of Buffalo’s
fair.
Grand and Great – St. Louis 1904
The grandest of all World’s Fairs, held in St. Louis
in 1904, celebrated America’s progress in the century
since the Louisiana Purchase. This fair, however, did not
focus on the economic or technological aspects of progress
as earlier fairs had. It instead focused on the all-around
superiority of western and especially Anglo-Saxon civilization,
through exhibits, intellectual discourse and the Olympics.
These four fairs serve as a window through which American
society between reconstruction and the Great War can be viewed,
as they reflected and impacted American society during this
period.
This bibliography is organized to assist you in teaching about
several themes relevant to the Fairs. These are: racism, imperialism,
consumerism, industrialization and technology, urban planning
and the Olympics. Each theme has an introduction and annotated
bibliography of sources. Included in each bibliography section
are subheadings for books, websites and other sources. Within
the subheadings, the sources are arranged in alphabetical
order by author or, if the source has no credited author,
by name.
General Readings
Books
Bennit, Mark and Frank Parker Stockbridge. History of the
Louisiana Purchase Exposition. St. Louis: Universal Exposition
Publishing Company, 1905.
This is a history of the Louisiana Territory and the Fair,
going back all the way to the discovery of the Mississippi
River.
Birk, Dorothy Daniels. The World Came to St. Louis.
St. Louis: The Bethany Press, 1979.
This is a general history of the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition.
It starts with a brief discussion of the planning stages,
goes through the fair’s construction, and then centers
on the actual amusements at the fair itself. This book is
especially valuable because it has many stunning pictures
of the eight palaces and other amusements and exhibits.
Bolotin, Norm, Christine Laing. The World’s Columbian
Exposition: The Chicago World’s Fair of 1893. 2nd
Edition, Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2002.
This book is a pictorial and descriptive tour of the 1893
Fair in Chicago. Its details will prove interesting to those
who want more than a brief overview.
Boyer, Paul S., Clifford E. Clark, Jr., Joseph F. Kett, Thomas
L. Purvis, Harvard Sitkoff, Nancy Woloch. The Enduring
Vision. U.S.A. and Canada: D.C. Heath and Company, 1990.
Ch. 17-21.
These chapters address the historical period leading up to
and including the World’s Fairs we are studying. They
deal with industrialization, urbanization, society, politics
and progressivism. Teachers should choose whichever chapters
relate to their class.
Francis, David R. “Benefits of the Exposition.”
Official Guide to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition.
St. Louis: The Official Guide Co., 1904.
This is a very interesting introduction to the 1904 Fair,
from the Fair’s president. It very briefly outlines
the purpose of the fair.
Francis, David R. The Universal Exposition of 1904.
St. Louis: Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company, 1913, “Retrospect,”
xiv-xv.
This is part of Francis’s conclusion about what the
Fair did and how it ended up actually helping America and
the world and what its purpose was.
Hanson, John Wesley. Official History of the Fair.
St. Louis, 1904.
This is the fair’s official history, published at the
fair itself.
Harris, Neil (Ed.). Grand Illusions: Chicago’s World’s
Fair of 1893. Sewall Company, 1993.
This book was published by the Chicago Historical Society
in conjunction with a
1993-1994 exhibit of the same name. It contains interesting
and relevant sections on: the Fair’s impact on Chicago
and America; the planning and designing stages of fair; the
photography at the fair; and the social and cultural issues
at the fair.
Mattie, Erick. World’s Fairs. Princeton: Princeton
Architectural Press, October 1998.
This is an interesting illustrated history of the World’s
Fairs since the London Fair of 1851. It is the only book that
traces the evolution of the idea of a fair while focusing
on images of the actual fairs.
Reid, Robert ed. The Greatest of Expositions, Completely
Illustrated. St. Louis: Official Photographic Company
of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, 1904.
This book contains hundreds of photos and illustrations of
the Fair.
Websites
Bailey, David and David Halsted. Pluralism and Unity. www.expo98.msu.edu/index.html.
David Bailey, David Halsted and Michigan State University,
1998.
This site examines the social, cultural, and economic transitions
the United States faced in the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries. It has sections on: the idea of pluralism; the
idea of internationalism; culture and pluralism; labor and
pluralism; race and pluralism; and gender and pluralism. It
includes text and multimedia on these issues from many American
thinkers.
Center for History and the New Media. www.chnm.gmu.edu.
George Mason University, 2002.
This site has a large collection of resources on a wide variety
of historical topics. The connected site “History Matters,”
on American history, may prove particularly helpful for American
History teachers.
“Doing the Pan…” http://panam1901.bfn.org.
This site has a self-guided tour of the 1901 Pan-American
Exposition in Buffalo, along with documents from and about
the fair itself. It is a good site for information on the
fair itself, but not much discussion of the historical significance
or impact of the fair.
The Greatest of Exhibitions. www.washingtonmo.com/1904/.
Washingtonmo.com, 1998-2003.
This site is a general overview of the different exhibits
at the fair. It is good for a brief introduction to the fair
itself, but does not really discuss the political or social
background at all.
Howe, Jeffrey. 19th Century American Architecture. In A Digital
Archive of American Architecture. www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/fa267/fa267_19.html.
Boston College, 1996.
This site has photographs of much of the architecture from
the 1876, 1893, and 1904 World’s Fairs.
Illuminations: Revisiting the Buffalo Pan-American Exposition
of 1901. http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/exhibits/panam/index.html.
The Libraries, University at Buffalo, 2001-2003.
This site has stories, documents, images, and essays from
and about various aspects of the 1901 Fair.
Making of America. http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/moa/.
Cornell University Library, 1999.
Making of America. http://moa.umdl.umich.edu/.
MOA, 1996 and 2001.
These are Cornell University Library and University of Michigan
Library websites respectively. They have hundreds of thousands
of articles and books from America between 1815 and 1927.
A quick search on either website turns up many articles about
various topics in the World’s Fairs.
MarcoPolo Internet Content for the Classroom. www.marcopolo-education.org.
MarcoPolo, 2003.
This site has a great deal of course content for teachers
to use to teach their students.
Mires, Charles. The Centennial Exhibition of 1876: A Material
Culture Study. www.history.villanova.edu/centennial.
Villanova University, 1998 and 2003.
This site, set up by a material culture class at Villanova
University, has a lot of background information about the
Philadelphia Centennial Exposition of 1876. It is especially
valuable for seeing the economic and nationalistic setting
of the fair, and has articles about several nations’
exhibits.
National Center for History in the Schools. www.sscnet.ucla.edu/nchs.
University of California at Los Angeles, 2002.
This site has standards and other materials for middle and
high school teachers. Eras 6 and 7 in Part 2, Chapter 3 in
the online standards section should prove particularly useful
to teachers of the period in American History we are examining.
Our Documents. www.ourdocuments.gov.
National Archives and Records Administration.
This site contains one hundred seminal documents in United
States history, as well as teaching plans about how to design
courses around them.
Rose, Julie. The World’s Columbian Exposition: Idea,
Experience, Aftermath. http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA96/WCE/title.html.
University of Virgina, 1996.
This website has a great deal of information about Chicago’s
Columbian Exposition of 1893. It has separate sections on:
the political and social background of the fair, a virtual
tour of the actual fair, the immediate public reaction, the
fair’s legacy, and extensive bibliography. An excellent
site to help the reader gain a better understanding of various
aspects of the Columbian Exposition.
Snyder, Iris A. Progress Made Visible: American World’s
Fairs and Exhibitions. www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spec/exhibits/fairs/index.html.
Iris Snyder, 2000.
This site contains short descriptions of each fair we are
studying. These descriptions include descriptions of the actual
fairs as well as a little bit about their context in American
history.
Teaching Books. www.teachingbooks.net.
Teachingbooks.net LLC., 2001, 2002, 2003.
This site contains many teaching guides and standards, especially
for pre-high school students.
Terry’s 1904 World’s Fair Page. www.tlaupp.com/index.html.
1998.
This site has sections on many different topics at the fair,
including buildings, exhibits, newspaper articles, maps, memorabilia,
and more.
Zwick, Jim ed. BoondocksNet.com.
www.boondocksnet.com. Jim Zwick, 1995-2003.
This is a very interesting site dealing with anti-imperialism
in America. It has relevant sections dealing with: Rudyard
Kipling’s poem “The White Man’s Burden”
and responses to it, the World’s Fairs and how they
reflected America’s imperialistic attitudes, and late
19th-early 20th century imperialism in general. This site
has especially extensive discussions of all four fairs we
are investigating.
Topic: Racism at the
Fairs
After American post-Civil War reconstruction ended in 1877,
racism pervaded the nation. In the south, blacks were disfranchised
through laws that indirectly excluded them from voting, and
Jim Crow laws enforced segregation throughout the region.
The St. Louis Fair tried to prove to the public the truth
in eugenic theories by holding exhibits of “primitive”
races. At all the fairs, blacks were blatantly discriminated
against. The main question among the black community was whether
to follow the lead of Booker T. Washington and gain equality
by accommodating segregation and disfranchisement by showing
that blacks could provide value to society, or to follow W.E.B.
Du Bois and fight directly against discrimination. In the
1890s, Washington organized the Afro-American Council, and
in 1905 Du Bois founded the Niagara Movement. In 1909, white
reformer Oswald Garrison Villard helped Du Bois form the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP),
which became the voice of the future for the cause of racial
equality.
The World’s Fairs we are studying can serve as a case
study for students to begin to study not only the racism prevalent
in America during the period, but also the impetus for the
civil rights movement that would hit full stride later in
the century. If students can understand the obstacles blacks
and other races faced at the fairs, they can begin to comprehend
why the civil rights movement began and what it tried to reform.
Readings on Racism
Books and Articles
Dyreson, Mark. “The Playing Fields of Progress.”
Gateway Heritage, Fall 1993.
In addition to describing how the 1904 Fair brought about
the feeling that athletics can make a real difference and
impact society, this article describes how spectators saw
the games. They concluded that, because Americans won most
of the medals and “primitive” peoples won very
few, the Americans must be more advanced physically than other
races. This added to racial theories of the day.
Magnaghi, Russell M. “America Views Her Indians at the
1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis.” Gateway Heritage,
Winter 1998.
This article shows how even the Indian exhibit in St. Louis,
which showed the Indians as relatively bright and civilized,
became part of the racist, imperialist propaganda. The exhibit
came to show not the competency of Indians, but the miracles
Western Civilization can work on even the most primitive of
peoples.
Paddon, Anna R. and Sally Turner. “African Americans
and the World’s Columbian Exposition.” Illinois
Historical Journal, Volume 88 (1995), 19-36.
This piece argues that the experience African Americans had
at the Chicago Fair was not quite as negative as most others
suggest.
Rydell, Robert W. All the World’s a Fair. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1984.
This book describes the imperialist and racist attitudes of
the early Fairs’ planners. It describes how the fairs
used many different exhibits as imperialistic propaganda.
Websites
The Afro-American Almanac. www.toptags/aama/index.html.
The Digital Development Group, 2001.
This is an extensive collection of documents and essays relating
to blacks and race relations in the United States. It has
an interesting essay about the prevalence of Jim Crow laws
during the period of the fairs.
BoondocksNet.com.
This site discusses the “White Man’s Burden”
mentality prevalent at all of the fairs. It also has separate
sections devoted to race relations at the Chicago and St.
Louis Fairs. In addition, it discusses at length how anthropological
theories of race contributed to some of the exhibits.
From Slavery to Freedom: The African-American Pamphlet Collection,
1824-1909. memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/collections/slavery/apcintro.html.
Library of Congress, 2002.
This is a collection of many documents from African-American
history. Most are by African-American authors, but some are
by others writing about important aspects of African-American
history or culture.
Sklar, Kathryn Kish and Erin Shaughnessy. How did African-American
Women Define their Citizenship at the Chicago World’s
Fair in 1893? www.womhist.binghamtom.edu/ibw/intro.html.
State University of New York at Binghamton, 1997.
This site has a discussion of the racial issues at the Chicago
Fair, along with many documents relevant to the discussion.
Zimbalist, Alison. “Tackling Race Issues on the Field.”
www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/lessons/20000703monday.html.
The New York Times, 2002.
This is a lesson plan for teachers to help their students
understand the issue of race and being a minority.
Topic: Imperialism
at the Fairs
During the nineteenth century up to the civil war, the United
States was expanding her sovereignty west to the Pacific Ocean
with the notion that it was her “manifest destiny”
to control the continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
During the decade after the Civil War, attention turned to
economic and social issues within the nation. In the last
two decades of the century, however, American imperialist
expansionist sentiment grew and the U.S. developed an extensive
empire. Many factors combined to form this imperialistic ideology.
Some claimed that because other powerful nations in the world
had begun to secure colonies, the U.S. must do the same to
keep its place as a great country; some argued that continued
prosperity demanded overseas markets; some followed Alfred
T. Mahan in suggesting that the navy needed bases abroad where
vessels could dock and refuel; some espoused religious teachings,
saying that the U.S. has a duty to spread Christianity throughout
the world; and, finally, some agreed with Rudyard Kipling
that whites had to take up “The White Man’s Burden”
and teach other races how to be civilized. During the early
twentieth century, these imperialistic attitudes caused the
U.S. to expand and take territories in many regions throughout
the world.
The World’s Fairs reflected many of the thoughts underlying
the imperialist ideology. The fairs, especially in St. Louis,
put on exhibits of “primitive” Filipinos to show
that the U.S. needed to teach them how to be civilized, and
all the expositions showed the growth of the economy and the
wonders of other nations. If students see the subtle and not
so subtle ways the Fairs advocated expansionism, they will
gain a much better and deeper understanding of imperialism.
Readings on Imperialism
Books and Articles
Laurie, Clayton D. “An Oddity of Empire.” Gateway
Heritage, Winter 1994-95.
Laurie gives a brief history of the Philippine uprising and
the role the Philippine Scouts played in the revolt. She then
describes the Scout part of the Philippine exhibit at the
1904 Fair and its role in the public conscience.
Rydell, Robert W. All the World’s a Fair. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1984.
Rydell is the leader of the movement that argues that imperialistic
overtones pervaded the fairs. This book describes several
fairs and how they reflected imperialism.
Vostral, Sharra. “Imperialism on Display.” Gateway
Heritage, Spring 1993.
This article discusses the impetus and background of the Philippines
exhibit. It starts with the Spanish-American War, goes through
the Philippine-American War, and discusses the role both played
in the exhibit itself. It also discusses the media role in
covering the exhibit and the public perception of it.
Websites
BoondocksNet.com
This website is devoted to anti-imperialism, and it has the
excellent section on the World’s Fairs primarily as
a way to discuss different aspects of imperialism. This site
has all sorts of materials, including Kipling’s “White
Man’s Burden” and responses to it, and writings
from Mark Twain and others. The sections on the various expositions
are very interesting and have much material related to imperialism.
This is the first place to go to find information about imperialism
at the Fairs and possibly the last, depending on how in-depth
your information has to be.
Crucible of Empire. At PBS Online. www.pbs.org/crucible.
Great Projects Film Company, 1999.
This site has a ton of information about the Spanish American
War, including a timeline of events before, during and after
the war. It also has newspaper articles, historical resources,
and classroom activities for students and teachers.
Sale, Michelle and Tanya Yasmin Chin. Empire State-Building.
At Daily Lesson Plan. www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/lessons/20020401monday.html.
The New York Times, 2002.
This is a course designed to teach students about imperialism
in general and then about how it applies to the United States.
It can be used in conjunction with some of the ideas advocated
at the World’s Fairs.
Topic: Consumerism
at the Fairs
As the American economy became more industrialized and more
technologically advanced, companies’ production capacity
grew. By the late nineteenth century, companies were capable
of producing many more products than could be easily absorbed
by the market. So, companies began to advertise their goods
to create a larger market. Once consumers became accustomed
to constantly acquiring new products, the workings of the
market changed. The interplay between demand-driven consumption
and supply-driven production tipped to the former during this
period and marked the genesis of the modern consumer society.
Today we take for granted the myriad souvenir shops at all
types of fairs, museums and other cultural events or centers.
Just two hundred years ago, however, souvenir stores and marketing
were nowhere to be found. The appearance of souvenirs and
marketing mirrors the rise of the consumer society with its
brand names, advertising campaigns, and constant introduction
of new products—all of which may be traced back to the
World’s Fairs. One historian has even suggested that
the World’s Fairs “taught us to be modern [consumers].”
Many mementos and memorabilia objects commemorating the fairs
were sold, and goods were advertised as never before. When
students see some of these objects and advertisements and
compare them to earlier ones, they will begin to understand
how drastic the economic transformation and corresponding
social change in the U.S.A. really was.
Readings on Consumerism
Books and Articles
Hendershott, Robert L. 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair
Mementos and Memorabilia. Iola, WI: Kurt R. Kruger Publishing,
1994.
This is a collection of photographs and descriptions of hundreds
of objects from the fair. It can be used to show some of the
ways in which people began to value mementos at the fairs.
Hinsley, Curtis M. “The World as Marketplace.”
Exhibiting Cultures, Ivan Karp and Steven D. Lavine
ed. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991,
344-65.
This essay describes the World’s Fairs’ tendency
to profit from public curiosity about other cultures. Hinsley’s
term is “Commodification of the exotic.”
Websites
History of Affluenza. www.pbs.org/kcts/affluenza/diag/history.html.
Public Broadcasting System, 1998.
This is a PBS site for a show that aired on PBS in 1998. It
discusses the history of consumerism (what PBS calls Affluenza)
and has a second section on solutions. It also has a teacher’s
site that should be helpful.
Terry’s 1904 World’s Fair Page. http://www.tlaupp.com/index.html.
1998.
This site has sections on many different topics at the fair,
including buildings, exhibits, newspaper articles, maps, memorabilia,
and more.
The World’s Columbian Exposition: Idea, Experience,
Aftermath.
This site discusses consumerism in the “Reactions”
and “Legacy” sections. It argues that the World’s
Fairs, and especially the Chicago exposition, represent a
critical point in the industrial, consumer-based economy that
has arisen in America in the last century and a half. “The
advent of consumer-based society in America received its first
major expression and celebration at the World’s Columbian
Exposition,” and the marriage of businesses to political
and cultural authority became standard there.
Topic: Industrialization
and Technology at the Fairs
During the nineteenth century, American technology grew at
an extremely rapid pace. Better technology allowed firms to
cut costs, which sparked constant competition in a drive to
improve efficiency and maintain profits. Price levels correspondingly
dropped. In the race for efficiency, corporations began to
consolidate into bigger and bigger firms. Railroads, steel,
oil, and many other industries saw huge corporations take
over most of the production. As production and the subsequent
marketing grew, American corporations grew in power and influence.
By the end of the nineteenth century, the United States was
an international economic power to be reckoned with, producing
nearly a third of the world’s manufactured goods.
There was, however, a downside to industrialization—
many companies could not keep up in the industrialized economy,
and many people thus lost jobs. Jobs became more demanding
but lower-paying, weakening the power of the lower classes
and strengthening the power of the upper classes. The trend
toward industrialization produced the labor movement, which
remained vibrant through most of the twentieth century.
Though the World’s Fairs focused only upon the positive
aspects of industrializing (and in fact everything else about
American society), they can serve as a case study of many
aspects of American industrialization. Students can begin
to understand the changes that were occurring in American
society at the time by viewing the industrial exhibits at
the fairs.
Readings on Industrialization and Technology
Books and Articles
Beauchamp, K.G. Exhibiting Electricity. London: Institute
of Electrical Engineers, 1997.
This book is a survey of the many electrical exhibits at World’s
Fairs.
Horgan, James J. “Aeronautics at the World’s Fair
of 1904.” Missouri Historical Society Bulletin, April
1979, 43-69.
Discusses people’s reactions to the Aeronautics display
and the impact the display had on St. Louis and American culture.
Websites
The Internet 1996 World Exposition. Parallel.park.org/pavilions/worldexpositions/index.html.
1996.
This site discusses the use of electricity at the Chicago
and Philadelphia Fairs. It says it was the first time electricity
was widespread throughout Chicago
King, Martha Williams and Kelly Killen. “Who Really
Built America?” at The Learning Page. Lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/lessons/98/built/index.html.
Library of Congress, 2003.
This is a lesson plan to teach students about American industrialization
through the eyes of children.
Topic: Urbanization
and Urban Planning at the Fairs
As the U.S. became more industrialized, it also became more
urbanized. By 1900, as many people (3.4 million) lived in
New York City as had lived in all American cities combined
only 50 years earlier. Advances in technology helped bring
about this change by reducing the need for agricultural labor
and increasing the need for industrial labor in large factories,
which were mainly situated in cities. In addition to industrialization,
urban growth was facilitated by increased immigration from
Europe and improved transportation. By the last decade of
the century, our cities were seen as great problems. In his
1890 expose How the Other Half Lives, Jacob Riis graphically
described the terrible poverty and diseases faced by the urban
poor. In the 1870s, 80s and 90s, groups began to fight the
poverty of the inner-city poor. During the 1890s, a movement
known as City Beautiful started, with the goal of improving
conditions and aesthetics in urban areas. When Boston and
Chicago started to rebuild and re-beautify their cities, other
cities started to follow suit. At the Columbian Exposition,
many were inspired by the beautiful White City to follow Chicago’s
lead.
The World’s Fairs, especially in Chicago, have urban
planning at their heart. The Buffalo fair was designed to
portray Buffalo as an advanced, prosperous city; it failed
because of poor planning and bad luck. The Philadelphia, Chicago
and St. Louis fairs all played large roles in their respective
city’s urban planning, and the Chicago fair provided
a boost to nationwide urban redevelopment. Students can begin
to grasp the larger notion of urbanization and urban planning
by analyzing the role the fairs played in the process.
Readings on Urbanization and Urban Planning
Books and Articles
Harris, Neil. “Great American Fairs and American Cities.”
Cultural Excursions. Neil Harris., ed. Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, 1990, 11-31.
This article is an investigation of the relationship between
World’s Fairs and the developing American urban society.
Keefer, Karen M. “Dirty Water and Clean Toilets.”
Gateway Heritage, Summer 1988, 32-37.
This article is a short discussion of the problems the 1904
Fair had with water and medicine. It talks about St. Louis
developing a purified water system to accommodate the Fair.
Loughlon, Caroline and Anderson, Catherine. “The Park
and the Fair.” Jr. League of St. Louis, 1986.
This site describes the decision to use Forest Park as the
site for the 1904 World’s Fair and the impact the fair
had on Forest Park and the St. Louis city.
Websites
The Evolution of the Conservation Movement, 1850-1920. At
The Learning Page. Memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/collections/conserve/conintro.html.
Library of Congress, 2003.
This is an interesting website with a timeline of and documents
about the movement to save America’s nature and resources
from human development.
Planning for a City’s Future. At Xpeditions. www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/lessons/18/g912/planning.html.
National Geographic Society, 2003.
This is a lesson plan to help students understand the necessities
and nuances of urban planning.
Something More: The City Beautiful. At A Biography of America.
www.learner.org/biographyofamerica/prog15/feature/essay.html.
WGBH Educational Foundation, 2002.
This article explains how the Columbian Exposition gave the
idea and momentum for the City Beautiful Movement nationwide.
Touring Turn-of-the-Century America: Photographs from the
Detroit Publishing Company, 1880-1920. At The Learning Page.
Memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/collections/Detroit/detintro.html.
These are photos of the U.S. in the period we are studying.
Topic: The 1904 Olympics
In 1904, the modern Olympics were only eight years old. The
first modern Olympic competition was held in Athens, Greece,
the Olympics’ ancient birthplace, in 1896, and another
in 1900 in Paris. The American infatuation with athletics
and faith in the virtues of the “strenuous life”
provided by sports have their roots in the 1904 Olympics held
at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. Only 12 countries sent
athletes to the St. Louis Olympics, and the U.S. won the vast
majority of the medals. The Olympics included “Anthropology
Days,” during which the “primitive” peoples
competed in “primitive” sports. The competitors
in these “Anthropology Days” performed poorly
by the standards of the Olympic organizers, and many spectators
thus concluded that “primitives” were physically
inferior to American whites. Because Americans won so many
of the events, the American public began to pride itself in
athletic achievement, and the strenuous life took hold throughout
the country. Up until 1904, Americans believed in the superiority
of their bodies, lifestyles and culture; the 1904 Olympics
helped make athletics an integral part of the American way
of life.
By examining the attitudes reflected by the 1904 Olympics
and understanding the changes that were made before and after
the Olympics, students will gain a better grasp of not only
of sports’ role in America, but of the nature of American
society as a whole. The 1904 Olympics will be the medium in
which students will study the changing nature of daily life
and the role of athletics in modern society.
Readings for the 1904 Olympics
Books and Articles
Dyreson, Mark. “The Playing Fields of Progress.”
Gateway Heritage, Fall 1993.
This article discusses the planning, impact and social context
of the 1904 Olympics. It is a very interesting and valuable
article, as it discusses the racial and “strenuous life”
theories at length.
Websites
Silverman, Steve. 1904 Olympics. At Useless Information. Members.tripod.com/earthdude1/st_louis_olympics/Olympics.html.
Steve Silverman.
This site is devoted to telling funny, useless stories. The
article on the Olympics is funny and interesting, and shows
some of the themes students will be studying. Students will
enjoy this article because it is light-hearted and humorous.
Other
The photograph titled “The Olympic Games—St. Louis,
1904” from the collection in the Missouri Historical
Society’s Condie Center shows some of the contestants
in the games and has a short discussion of the events.
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