Apologies for cross-posting....
As the historic conference in the Gateway City draws near, the moderators of the session celebrating the visual information of the world's fairs thought readers of the VRA and ARLIS lists would like a preview of what promises to be a fascinating session. We hope to see you soon! The moderators would also like to thank Innovative Interfaces, who have generously sponsored this session.
March 23rd, 2:00-4:00 pm
Session III: Picturing the World: World's Fairs and Visual Information
Moderators: Gregory P. J. Most, Chief Slide Librarian, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Greta Earnest, Chief Librarian, Bard Graduate Center, New York, NY
Sponsors: Visual Resources Division, Decorative Arts Round Table
Speakers: Jim DeWalt, Head, Social Sciences and History Department, The Free Library of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA.
"Centennial Exhibition Digital Collection."
Barbara Mathe, Senior Special Collections Librarian, American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY.
"World's Fair People: The Photographs of Jessie Tarbox Beals at the St. Louis Exposition in 1904."
Amy F. Ogata, Assistant Professor, The Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts,
Design, and Culture, New York, NY.
"World's Fairs Peepshows: Architectural Representation and the Souvenir."
Sharon Smith, Bascom Curator, Missouri Historical Society, Saint Louis, MO.
"The World Came to Saint Louis: What Was it Like at the 1904 World's Fair."
The world's fairs represent "the gateway to tomorrow" filled with all the latest and greatest the world has to offer in design, architecture, technology and culture as well as the promise of what is yet to come. Saint Louis came to represent not only the gateway to Westward expansion but in many ways became the portal to the New World. The photographic documentation and material generated by this world's fairs and others provide an excellent vehicle to celebrate this historic joint ARLIS/NA and VRA conference "Gateway to the Future: Visual Information in a New Age."
The Free Library of Philadelphia's Print and Picture Collection holds the largest extant collection of photographs documenting the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Fairmount Park. Jim De Walt will discuss the Library's National Leadership Grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), for a one-year project to digitize, catalog and publish all of its 1,283 silver albumen photographs from the Centennial Collection. The Centennial web site (http://www.library.phila.gov/CenCol/index.htm) is designed to engage the viewer and interpret the collection within its cultural and historical context through virtual tours of the fairgrounds and its attractions for a variety of audiences.
The Louisiana Purchase Exposition boasted the largest anthropological exhibition ever shown. Thousands of indigenous peoples were exhibited in diorama-like displays, meant to simulate their native environments. Jessie Tarbox Beals, one of the first American woman photojournalists, photographed the fair and its peoples. Some of Beals' pictures, part of a collection of over 300 photographs at the American Museum of Natural History, were made into transparencies and hung in the Museum's Philippine Hall in 1913. Barbara Mathe will interpret the historical perception and misconceptions of the images. Filtered through their archival history, where for a time, provenance and attribution were lost, the photographs reflect the social evolutionism of the time of the St. Louis Fair, and the fear (and desire) that the cultures of these peoples might be lost.
Among the many popular commodities produced for world's fairs, the peepshow, a foldout paper construction with printed scenes, in an example of the material culture of souvenirs. Amy Ogata argues that the peepshow offers a unique case of the world's fair souvenir because it gave viewers the impression of "seeing" the exhibition in three-dimensions. Peepshow souvenirs often took the form of the monumental buildings erected for the world's fairs. These views, like the fairs themselves, reinforced a particular way of understanding what was seen. Related to the panorama and the stereoscope, the peepshow offered a selective visual experience that organizers, architects, and engravers determined. The miniaturized exposition was more than an optical conceit, for it also suggests the relationship between popular amusements and collective memory.
It is inevitable that the city that stages a world's fair will be fundamentally changed by the event. This is certainly the case for the City of Saint Louis where development of the areas around fairgrounds and the city proper were greatly influenced by the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. Sharon Smith will focus on some of the many changes that occurred in Saint Louis and Forest Park in order to host the 1904 World's Fair. With images taken of the various exhibits and pavilions, session attendants will feel transported to the turn of the last century and see what visitors to the city and fair experienced.
Gregory P. J. Most
Chief Slide Librarian
National Gallery of Art
Washington, DC 20565
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