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1883 Amsterdam
| Name: | International Colonial and Export Exhibition Internationale Koloniale en Untvoerhandel Tentoonstellung |
| Dates: | 1 May – 31 Oct 1883 |
| Days: | 184 days |
| Venue: | 62 acres donated by the city of Amsterdam, todays Museumplein |
| Theme: | |
| Exhibitors: | 28 countries presenting their colonial trade |
| Awards: | |
| Visitors: | 1.4m |
| Legacy: | Influenced the 1885 Antwerp exhibition |
In 1876 the Noord Canal was completed and enabled ocean-going ships to reach Amsterdam. A few years later the central railway station was completed as part of a major development of the national railway service, A French entrepreneur, Edouard Agostini, saw this as the moment to promote the notion of an international exhibition in Amsterdam. A committee was formed with Agostini as technical manager.
Much of the wealth of the Netherlands was held in its colonies, so the show was named as the International Colonial and Export Exhibition.
A Belgian company was contracted to build the venue. The main building was a temporary wooden building with a glass roof. it was (304.8 x 128m [1,000 x 420 ft]). It was built spanning a canal.
Other facilities were the Colonial Building (127 x 76m [417 x 250 ft]), the Machinery Hall ( 203.3 x 30.5m [667 x 100 ft]) and the Art Palace ( 203.3 x 30.5m [667 x 100 ft]), an Amsterdam pavilion, a Japanese bazaar and a number of restaurants. Fine Arts were shown within the Rijksmuseum.
Great Britain occupied 3,345 sq m (36,000 sq ft) of exhibit space, Germany 6,503 (70,000), Belgium 8,360 90,000, and France 10,684 (115,000 sq ft). Despite its size, However, France made a poor impression as a colonial power at this show.
The canal was spanned by a bamboo bridge and held a moored Japanese junk.
The Indian Tea Syndicate and Great Britain underwrote an Indian tea house that gave out free teas.
The Diplome d’Honneur awarded to the brewer Heineken at the colonial exhibition in 1883, this still adorns its beer bottles.
A number of model villages were built as features from Dutch Caribbean and Southeast Asian colonies. A Surinam village populated by 28 Surinam inhabitants of various ethnicities – Creoles, Caraïbes, Arowaks, Marrons – demonstrated how they lived and worked. These were later disparaged as ‘human zoos’.
To accommodate the thousands of visitors attending the fair, new hotels were built, including the ‘Americain’ and the ‘Krasnapolsky’.
Forward to 1883, Boston US – American Exhibition of the Products and Manufacturers of Foreign Nations
Back to 1892 Trieste IT – Industrial Exhibition
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