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1894 Antwerp
| Name: | Exposition International d’Anvers |
| Dates: | 5 May – 5 Nov 1894 |
| Days: | |
| Venue: | As for 1885 Antwerp the venue was adjacent to the Scheldt River, t’Zuid (South) – 27 ha (66 acres) – buildings of 110,000 sq m (1.2 million sq ft) |
| Theme: | To promote the city of Antwerp as a key port |
| Exhibitors: | 12,095 from 32 nations and colonies |
| Awards: | |
| Visitors: | 3,000,000 – some claim with season ticket visits it was 5,000,000 – entry was 1BFr, with 1BFR extra for Old Antwerp, 0.5BFr extra for cyclorama and 0.25 BFr for the aquarium |
| Legacy: | The city contributed 500,000 BFr, which allowed the limited company to reportedly made a 15-25% profit |
This Exposition was run by a temporary limited company created by commercial individuals and corporates from Antwerp. These indiviudals came together through the Maatschappij van het Palais voor Nijverheid, Kunst en Handel (Society of the Palace for Industry, Art and Commerce). The Palace in question was fabricated in glass and cast iron and could be configured as a 9,000-seater concert hall (64 m [210 ft] high).
Count Hippolyte d’Ursel was appointed Commissioner General and the Senator,Count de Pret Roose de Calesburg. was the President of the Executive Committee and Alphonse Hertogs was director general of the exhibition. The budget was set at 4 – 4.5m BFr. The event delivered a good profit.
King Leopold II was a patron and formally opened the Exposition.
The 12,095 included Austro-Hungary, Bulgaria, China, Congo, Denmark, Dutch East Indies (Java, Madura and Sumatra), Germany (Bavaria, Prussia, Saxony, and Wurtenberg), Great Britain, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Mexico, Norway, Ottoman Empire, Persia, Portugal, Romania, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States.
The main attractions were: an aquarium; a cyclorama; ‘Old Antwerp’ a reconstructed area of the 16th c city; Britain presented a south Indian city, showing artisan weavers and metalworkers; ‘Pawnee Bill’ (Major Gordon W. Lillie and his ’49 Oklahoma boomers presented a wild west frontier battle at the fair, but the attraction became bankrupt in summer 1894.
A Congo Free State exhibit, and a village of 144 Congolese, animals and its products (cocoa, coffee, copal, cotton and rubber). This was a ‘human zoo’ with the ‘natives’ studied and measured by scientists – but more serious scandals concerning this colony would emerge later in the decade;
The Royal Museum of Fine Arts had been built before the Exposition but featured prominently as a major visitor attraction during the show.
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