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1884-5 New Orleans
| Name: | World’s Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition |
| Dates: | 16 Dec 1884 – 1 Jun 1885 |
| Days: | c160 days |
| Venue: | Main building 13.4 hectares (33 acres) – 30.8 hectares (76 acres) in full |
| Theme: | Centennial of the first shipment of a bale of cotton from New Orleans |
| Exhibitors: | from 17 countries |
| Awards: | |
| Visitors: | 1,158,840 – 50c entry |
| Legacy: | Costs $250,000, it had a deficit of £470,00 – bought by New Orleans citizens for $175,000 and re-opened it Nov 1885- May 1886, a combined loss of $250,000 |
ColoneF C Morehead of the National Cotton Planters’ Association proposed the show in 1882 to mark the centennial of the first shipment of a bale of cotton from New Orleans. At the time nearly one third of all cotton produced in the United States was handled via New Orleans and the city was home to the New Orleans Cotton Exchange
Morehead was the exposition’s commissioner-general and was its principal ambassador. Edmund Richardson, made wealthy by cotton, led the Board of Management.
Major E A Burke, owner/editor of the New Orleans Times-Democrat, and Louisiana’s State Treasurer, was its Director General and drove much of the expansion and greater financial requirements, he is held responsible by some for its subsequent financial problems. The Congress subsequently awarded a £1m loan to this exposition, with a further 300,000 to fund federal exhibits, as for example to present a number of the exhibits from the 1876 Philadelphia event. This encouraged Burke to expand further and he claimed to have further private and commercial pledges of $225,000 to be paid across the phases of the show’s evolution. The fair was marked by corruption and scandals, and Burke absconded abroad with some $1.8m dollars of state money including most of the fair’s budget.
The site was located four miles upriver from the city, stretching from St. Charles Avenue to the Mississippi River, and could be entered directly by railway, steamboat, or ocean-going ship.
The main building offered 13,847 sq m (1,656,000 sq ft) in exhibit space, the building was modelled on the Louvre, built in southern pinewood. Lighting allowed the show to stay open until 10 pm. This building was claimed to be the largest roofed structure constructed up to that time (USA or World?). It was illuminated with 5,000 electric lights still a novelty at the time.
An observation tower with electric elevators provided great view of the site. There were working examples of multiple designs of experimental electric street-cars.
A 60,286 sq m (648,825 sq ft) Government and States Building, housed the departments of State, Interior, War, Navy and Treasury, plus the Post Office and Patent Office, and The Smithsonian.
New Orleans funded a glazed building as the Horticultural Hall, which housed a popular display of Mexican cacti. The Mexican’s octagonal building was much admired and the Eighth Cavalry Mexican Band was one of the most popular musical acts in the 11,000-seater Music Hall (with staging to accommodate 600 musicians).
The Women’s area was run by Julia Ward Howe, famous for her song the Battle Hymn of the Republic. Southern women were not pleased with the choice of a northern woman, a Bostonian, picked for this southern role. Another special presentation was the Exhibits of the Colored Races.
An electric railway allowed visitors to travel the site. A replica Statue of Liberty was on show as was the real Liberty Bell, loaned by Philadelphia.
Off-site there was a roller-skating rink and performances of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show.
Its 16 Dec 1884 opening was two weeks later than planned and prompted much press negative comment. President Chester Arthur opened the fair via telegraph. The distribution of exhibits was accused of ‘favouritism’ and did not make visitors journey easy.
The whole was bought by a group of New Orleans citizens for $175,000 who re-opened it from 10 Nov 1885 – 31 May 1886 as the Northern, Central and South American Exposition. After this the structures were publicly auctioned off, most going for their scrap value, this helped to reduce the combined deficit to $250,000.
In 1915 the Horticultural Hall was destroyed by a 1915 hurricane. The site later became Audobon Park featuring a zoo.
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The Woman’s Department, Colored Department, Education Department, and Zoology exhibit each occupied a section of the second floor of the Government and States Building. There was no separate building for women. State and U.S. displays were downstairs in the same building. You can find more information about the women in my book, Southern Ladies and Suffragists: Julia Ward Howe and Women’s Rights at the 1884 New Orleans World’s Fair (University Press of Mississippi, 2014).
Thanks for this update, have changed the text appropriately – as you can imagine dipping in to so many events inevitably can introduce errors and I am dependent on receiving comments.
Bob
I am writing the exhibition record of 19th century rotunda panorama from the American point of view. These were the biggest paintings in the world, 50 x 400=20,000 square feet, housed in their own rotundas which were 16-sided polygons. Chicago in 1893 had 6 panorama companies and 6 panorama rotundas. William Wehner (1847-1928) of Chicago-Milwaukee and later Santa Clara County provided two panoramas to the New Orleans Fair, BATTLE OF SEDAN (by Louis Braun), imported from Frankfurt am Main, and SIEGE OF PARIS,removed from Chicago. LONG STORY SHORT: William Wehner had spent 1 1/2 years in Europe learning about the rotunda panorama business, and to learn about vintaculture. In Germany he met panorama artists F.W.Heine and August Lohr. Wehner brought Lohr with him to New Orleans, and Heine would come a year later to USA. I FOUND THE NARRATIVE concerning Heine coming to America , which has been an important TRANSLATION PROJECT in Milwaukee by Michael Kutzer (1941-2024) who passed away December 31,2024, the ONLY KNOWN NARRATIVE about a panorama company anywhere in the world. Perhaps there is a NEW ORLEANS PANORAMA NARRATIVE from the 1884-1885 fair that begs to be discovered
Interesting – not something I had come across, but will now investigate. Sincere thanks for the comment.
Regards
Bob
To learn more about New Orleans and the 1884-85 exposition, consider reading my book “1884-New Orleans-1885 The Great World’s Fair” ISBN 978-0-692-06509-9 available here:
https://app.thebookpatch.com/BookStore/1884-new-orleans-1885-the-great-worlds-fair-bandw/51d79fee-9ab6-43fd-86a9-8b456a376beb
I will take a look – thanks for your message, Bob