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Pan-American Exposition Photograph Collection
MS0159
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Title: Pan-American Exposition Photograph Collection,
Date (inclusive): 1901
Collection number: MS0159
Creator:
Unknown
Extent:
1 box (.5 LF) and 2 books
Language:
English
Repository:
Special Collections, Robert E. Kennedy Library
California Polytechnic State University
San Luis Obispo, California 93407
Abstract: Contains 36 photographs of the Pan-American Exposition, including candid snapshots of the Midway and various concessionaires,
street views of the Exposition, and prominent buildings, including the Electric Tower. The photographer is unknown. Also included
are two souvenir books:
One Hundred Views of the Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo and Niagara Falls: An Up-to-Date Souvenir Booklet for the Visitor,
the Resident and for Universal Transmission to Show Something of the Great Exposition and of the Queen City of the Lakes;
With a Brief Descriptive Guide to these Great Attractions; with Suggestions for Pleasure Trip by Lake and Land
and
Pan-American and Niagara Falls Views, both published in 1901.
Purchased.
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Pan-American Exposition Photograph Collection, Special Collections, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.
The Pan-American Exposition was held in Buffalo, New York, from May 1 through November 2, 1901. Informally known as the Buffalo
World's Fair, the Exposition's purpose was to create a place where the Americas could exhibit and share their cultures. Exhibition
participation was limited to countries in the Western Hemisphere.
Manhattan architect John Merven Carrère (1858—1911) chaired the Board of Architects charged with creating the Exposition's
master plan. Born in Rio de Janeiro and trained at the École de Beaux-Arts in Paris, Carrère was an influential Beaux-Arts
practitioner at his New York firm, Carrère & Hastings. For the Exposition, the favored style was Spanish Renaissance, the
traditional architecture of the former Spanish colonies in the Americas. The Pan-American Exposition site covered 350 acres.
Carrère hired a "director of color," Charles Turner, to oversee multiple hues for the buildings, in contrast to the "White
City" of the 1893 Columbian Exposition. Marketing for the Exposition stressed the "Rainbow City," which was transformed each
evening into the "City of Lights," a breathtaking display of incandescent light reinforcing the fact that Buffalo, with its
plentiful hydroelectric power, was the most extensively lighted city of its time.
A contemporary review of the Exposition noted: "Upon entering the Exposition's Esplanade, visitors are surrounded by buildings
dealing with arts and politics, such as the U.S. Government building, the Ethnology Building, the Temple of Music, and the
Manufactures and Liberal Arts Building. Further along the major axis are buildings with a more contemporary and scientific
theme, like the Machinery and Transportation Building, the Electricity Building, the Electric Tower, and the Railroad Exhibit
at the top."
Today the Buffalo World's Fair is largely remembered as the setting for the assassination of President William McKinley. On
the second day of his visit, McKinley was at the Temple of Music greeting the public, when anarchist Leon Frank Czolgosz fired
twice at the president. McKinley died of gangrene eight days later in Buffalo.
Sources
Brush, Edward Hale. "The Artistic Side of the Pan-American Exposition."
Architectural Review v. 9, 1901: 99-107.
Linkswiler, Matt. "Buffalo 1901: Pan-American Exposition Bird's Eye View of Grounds and Map of Exposition."
http://hdl.handle.net/
"Visual Culture at the Pan-American Exposition: Architecture and the Pan-American Exposition,"
http://library.buffalo.edu/libraries/exhibits/panam/art/architecture.html
The Pan-American Exposition Photograph Collection contains 36 photographs of the 1901 Buffalo World's Fair, including candid
snapshots of the Midway and various concessionaires, street views of the Exposition, and prominent buildings, including the
Electric Tower. The photographer is unknown.
The photographs have been removed from the original photo album and rehoused, preserving the original organization and order
of the collection; additionally, each photo has a sequential number on the back reflecting the original order of two images
per album page. The collection is housed in one box and has one series and one subseries:
Also included are two monographs" "One Hundred Views of the Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo and Niagara Falls: An Up-to-Date
Souvenir Booklet for the Visitor, the resident and for Universal Transmission to Show Something of the Great Exposition and
of the Queen City of the Lakes; with a Brief Descriptive Guide to these Great Attractions; with Suggestions for Please Trip
by Lake and Land", and "Pan-American and Niagara Falls Views", both published in 1901.
Series 1. Photographs.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Pan-American Exposition (1901 : Buffalo, N.Y.) -- Pictorial works
Pan-American Exposition (1901 : Buffalo, N.Y.) -- Archives
Fairs -- New York (State) -- Buffalo
Photographs
Materials Cataloged Separately:
One Hundred Views of the Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo and Niagara Falls: An Up-to-Date Souvenir Booklet for the Visitor,
the Resident and for Universal Transmission to Show Something of the Great Exposition and of the Queen City of the Lakes;
With a Brief Descriptive Guide to these Great Attractions; with Suggestions for Pleasure Trip by Lake and Land
. Buffalo, N.Y.: Robert Allan Reid Publisher, 1901.
Pan-American and Niagara Falls Views, 1901. [Buffalo, N.Y.?]: Niagara Envelope Manufactory, 1901.
Related Collections:
California Fairs Collection, 1856-1997 (MS 009)