Opening Day

1904 St. Louis Fair

Louisiana Purchase International Exposition

St. Louis, Missouri

April 30, 1904 ~ December 1, 1904

The Story, The Souvenirs

Motto: Nothing Impossible

The Louisiana Purchase Exhibition commemorated the 1803 purchase of land that more than doubled the size of the United States and St. Louis having been Territorial Capital in 1804.

By far the largest of the several Victorian-era world's fairs, the fair occupied over 1,200 acres at the western edge of St. Louis, then the third-largest city in the U. S.   Over twelve million visitors paid 50 cents admission to see the Fair’s exhibits from participating companies, states and nations.

Fifteen major exhibition Palaces radiated in fan pattern from central Festival Hall in "setting of lagoons, boulevards, gardens, fountains and sculpture" (1,200 pieces of statuary).  Electric light, sign of progress then, used "lavishly" for both decoration and illumination. Featured were motor car, aeronautics and wireless telegraphy—all at their earliest, most exciting stage of development; spotlight on auto which had traveled from New York City to St. Louis, then "an unprecedented feat and a hazardous journey."  Olympic Games held during Exposition in first concrete stadium built in U. S.

• The 1904 Olympics were held during at the Fair, the third modern day Olympics, and the first ever held in America.  The athletes were awarded gold, silver, and bronze medals for the first time.
• An 11-acre Aeronautic Concourse was surrounded by 3,365 feet of 30-foot high fencing.
• The first successful controlled dirigible flight was accomplished by Roy Knabenshue, who flew T. S. Baldwin's dirigible airship "California Arrow".
• Over 20 million people attended the Fair.  The Opening Day crowd of 178,423 was a record for World’s Fairs.  The highest attendance was on St. Louis day; over 400,000 people attended.
• The St. Louis World's Fair was only fair of the era to show a net profit.
• The Ice Cream Cone is often credited with being invented at the Fair, when an ice cream vendor ran out of dishes and used thin waffles from a neighboring booth to make cones.  Several variations of this story exist, and a 1903 patent on an edible Ice Cream 'container' (with handles and flat bottom) make this 'invention' at the Fair debatable.
• The exhibits took over 12,000 railroad carloads to deliver to the fair.  They came from over 40 foreign countries, 43 states, and several U.S. territories.

At the start of the 20th century, the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair was the grandest gathering of cultures, knowledge, and exhibits the world had ever seen.   Visitors pass their Fair memorabilia to their children, and seek it out in garage sales, flea markets, antique malls/shows, and the Internet.  Today, 1904 Fair memorabilia is still held close to the hearts of many as they fondly remember "The Greatest Fair Ever."

The Souvenirs

$48.50

  SOLD

$46.50

Not A Tiffany!

$22.50