By Suzanne Vanderhoef
For the first time in nearly two decades, the 1904 World’s Fair exhibit at the Missouri History Museum has undergone a complete update. And, while there are many familiar pieces still on display, the overall presentation tells a whole new story – one that re-examines some of the darker history of the event, as well as the pageantry.
The goal was to drill down into those stories that visitors know and expect to hear, while incorporating new angles to bring out stories that people maybe haven’t heard before while still allowing them to feel like they’re experiencing the wonder of the Fair.
“Things like ice cream cones and Ferris wheels and all those stories you’ve heard about,” explained Missouri History Museum Public Historian Adam Kloppe, “at the same time that you’re thinking about things like the Philippine Village where over a thousand people were brought and had their lives and bodies put on display because the World’s Fair is both of those things at the same time.”
In addition to more than 200 artifacts from the museum archives, the centerpiece of the new exhibit is a scale one to 400 scale model that shows every building, every pathway that was at the World’s Fair. To bring things even closer to home, every 15 minutes, an overlay is projected onto the model showing how that same area in and around Forest Park looks today.
The museum hopes this new vision of the Fair helps visitors from St. Louis and elsewhere gain a more complete understanding and appreciation for an event that too place 120 years ago.
“The fair is one of the most important events in St. Louis’s history,” described Kloppe. “It changed Forest Park. People didn’t go sledding down Art Hill until after the World’s Fair. After that land was cleared, it turned that sort of western half of the park into the space where now there’s an art museum and a zoo and a history museum and a golf course and all those things that people like to do in that half the park. It’s something that affected the built environment in St. Louis. It’s something that affected the water in St. Louis. It’s something that still has an impact here today and still affects all of our lives.”
