Final Report of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission

by Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission

The building was furnished and decorated luxuriously and in a quiet character, making an interior that offered comfort and quiet environment to the weary visitor. At the very beginning it was determined that this building and the things associated with it and housed in it should speak the culture and artistic development of Indiana life, and so it has gathered within its walls the best offerings of literature and art—the trophies of civilization.

INDIAN TERRITORY.

Members of Indian Territory commission.—Thomas Ryan, chairman; F.C. Hubbard, executive commissioner; H.B. Johnson, honorary commissioner; A.J. Brown, honorary commissioner; W.L. McWilliams; H.B. Spaulding; J.E. Campbell; J.J. McAlester; William Busby; Miss Olive Blentlinger, clerk.

A fund of $50,000 was expended for the Indian Territory participation in the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. Of this amount, $25,000 was appropriated by Congress and $25,000 was raised by popular subscription in the Territory. The expenditure, according to the provisions of the Congressional appropriation, was made under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior. It was the purpose of the commission to make the Indian Territory exhibit one that would primarily set forth the actual condition that existed in the Territory and to advertise the developments and resources of the same in a comprehensive manner. The same general lines that were adopted by other States and Territories in similar work were followed as closely as practicable.

Because of its limited funds the Territorial commission deemed it advisable to make exhibits only in the following departments: In the Mines and Metallurgy Building were displayed the coke and coal, marble, granite, and oil exhibits. The corn and cotton exhibits were shown in the Palace of Agriculture. In the Horticultural Building exhibits of the orchards and gardens of Indian Territory were maintained, and all other exhibits, such as educational, photographic, mineral specimens, etc., were installed in the Indian Territory Building.

The Indian Territory Building was completed and exhibits installed on the opening day of the exposition, April 30, 1904. It was located on a beautiful site in the Plateau of States, near the southeast entrance to the grounds. The building was a two-story colonial structure, 109 by 72 feet. The first floor contained, besides the large lobby room, two exhibit rooms. In one of these rooms was displayed the art and educational exhibit; in the other the photographic exhibit. These two exhibits—one setting forth the artistic, the other the commercial development of the residents of the Indian Territory—went far toward dispelling the somewhat prevalent idea that the Indian Territory is a wilderness, where progress and civilization are unknown.

In the art and educational room were displayed many beautiful paintings, studies, laces, fine needle and bead work, and industrial work, all the products of Indian Territory students and residents. In the photographic room were arranged 500 large photographs suitably framed and mounted, taken from all parts of Indian Territory, and representing the actual status and present commercial condition in the Indian Territory.

In the main lobby on the first floor of the Territory Building were displayed the collections of old Indian pottery, beadwork, etc. These collections belong to J.E. Campbell, of the Cherokee Nation; Mr. and Mrs. J.S. Murrow, of the Choctaw Nation; Mr. Thomas P. Smith and Miss Alice M. Robertson, of the Creek Nation, and were all especially fine and very valuable, many of the articles being more than a hundred years old and representing in the highest type the work of the old Indians. The paintings of Jefferson and his descendants, the work of Mrs. Narcissa Owen, of the Cherokee Nation, as well as the tapestries by the same artist, were admired by the many thousands who visited the Territory pavilion. Mention should be made also of the 100 wild flowers of the Indian Territory, mounted and framed, the collection of Mr. J.B. Bushyhead, of the Cherokee Nation.

The second floor of the Territory Building contained a large reception hall, ladies' parlors and resting rooms, and the offices of the executive commissioner. An especially attractive feature about the pavilion were the large stair landing and the five big windows, two transparencies being set in each and representing typical scenes from the Territory.

The Indian Territory was also represented in three of the exhibit palaces of the exposition, maintaining booths in the Palace of Mines and Metallurgy, the Palace of Horticulture, and the Palace of Agriculture.