Final Report of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission

by Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission

MISSOURI.

The largest appropriation for exposition purposes by any State was by Missouri, namely, $1,000,000. In every exposition building where a State could have an exhibit Missouri's exhibit was found. In every building where only exhibits by individuals, business firms, or corporations were permitted, Missourians made display of the products of their industry and skill. The Missouri State Building was among the finest upon the grounds. The displays of the State in the Agriculture, Horticulture, Education, Mining, Forestry, Live Stock, Poultry, Dairying, Fish and Game, and Woman's Work were noted for artistic beauty and comprehensiveness.

The exhibit made by Missouri at the World's Fair was the result of the labors of the board of commissioners to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, appointed by Governor A.M. Dockery, under the direction of which the $1,000,000 voted by the people of Missouri for an exhibit of the State's resources were expended. At the general election in November, 1900, the people adopted a constitutional amendment permitting the legislature of this State to appropriate $1,000,000 for World's Fair expenses. A bill appropriating the amount and providing for a commission to direct its expenditure was passed by the next general assembly and was signed by the governor April 17, 1901. The same bill was reenacted in 1903 and was signed by the governor March 24, 1903. On the 28th of May, 1901, Governor Dockery appointed as the board of commissioners: M.T. Davis, of Springfield; F.J. Moss, of St. Joseph; B.H. Bonfey, of Unionville; W.H. Marshall, of Morehouse; L.F. Parker, of St. Louis; D.P. Stroup, of Norborne; N.H. Gentry, of Sedalia; J.O. Allison, of New London, and H.C. McDougall, of Kansas City. Mr. McDougall resigned and J.H. Hawthorne, of Kansas City, was appointed his successor. When the law was reenacted in 1903 the board was reappointed. The board elected M.T. Davis president, F.J. Moss vice-president, B.H. Bonfey secretary, and W.H. Marshall treasurer. Later the ill health of Mr. Marshall caused his temporary absence from the State, and J.H. Hawthorne succeeded him as treasurer.

The Missouri State building was erected at a cost, including furnishings, of $250,000. The keynotes of the Missouri building were public comfort, culture, and social enjoyment. A golden dome surmounted by an emblematic statue of "The Spirit of Missouri" crowned the building. Over the main entrance was this inscription: "Embracing within her confines all the elements of an empire devoted to all the arts and sciences that advance civilization, Missouri, the central State of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, greets her sister States and welcomes the world." Around the building were the names of great Missourians: Thomas Hart Benton, Francis P. Blair, B. Gratz Brown, David R. Atchison, David Barton, Meriwether Lewis, Edward Bates, Lewis F. Linn, Lewis V. Bogy, Aylett H. Buckner, John S. Phelps, James S. Green. The building contained rooms adapted for various purposes, two large halls in either wing, a commodious auditorium or State hall, in which conventions were held, a handsome rotunda with brilliant electric fountain, the suite of Governor Dockery, men's parlors, women's parlors, press room, and executive offices. On the second floor were rooms fittingly furnished. The building was warmed by steam in cold weather and refrigerated by cold air in warm weather. The approaches and elevations of the building were adorned with statuary, heroic figures of Thomas Jefferson and Napoleon Bonaparte being placed at the main entrance. In the west hall were placed a collection of paintings by Missouri artists and the fine bell presented by the citizens of the State to the battle ship Missouri. The mural decorations in the rotunda consisted of four pendentives illustrating the prehistoric savage, developing and productive eras in the State's history. The decorations in the dome embodied a historical allegory, tracing the epochs in the development of the Middle West.

In the Palace of Horticulture the space allotted to Missouri was 6,600 square feet—larger than that awarded to any other State, and filled with Missouri fruits. More than 430 varieties of fruits grown in the State were shown from 84 counties.

In the Palace of Agriculture Missouri agricultural resources occupied prominent position at the main entrance of the building and on the main aisle. In the artistic facade, made, as all the decorative features of the display, entirely of grain and grasses, was shown a series of thirty pictures illustrating the marked contrast between the old and new methods in agriculture. Corn was exhibited in many forms. A corn temple, constructed of the great cereal, was in the main aisle, Missouri being chosen by the exposition to represent the great corn States.

In the Palace of Mines and Metallurgy a display was made of the mining resources of the State. Missouri's space was at the main entrance. The exhibit consisted of typical products of Missouri mines and quarries—coal, lead, zinc, iron, copper, tripoli, building and ornamental stone, clay, sands—and mineral waters, crystals of all types, mining machinery at work, laboratory specimens and equipment from the School of Mines, and photographs of 1,200 mining views in a brief comprehensive showing of all the mineral wealth of the State. Every district was represented by adequate specimens. An outside mining exhibit was made by Missouri in the Mining Gulch, where mining machinery was shown at work and a Missouri mine. Special features were a zinc and lead concentrating plant, model of shot tower, illustration of process of making Babbitt metal and solder. A Scotch hearth furnace for smelting lead ore was also in operation.

Missouri was represented in several places in the Palace of Education and Social Economy. Here was made the general exhibit of Missouri schools. The main school exhibit consisted of showings of grades of the work done in the twelve regular grades of the public schools and in the kindergarten, of the work of the colleges and normal schools, of the schools for negroes, and of special schools. Aside from the high school and grade exhibit, private institutions had separate displays. The public school exhibit was intended to show the work of the entire system of the State public schools, each grade being represented by photographs of typical children and school scenes by representative work of the pupils. Over 300 photographs were shown. Mutoscopes presented in moving pictures scenes upon the school grounds. By means of cabinets, tables, and winged frames the exhibits were presented in compact form. Every kind of school—city, town, village, and rural—was represented in the exhibit, and the work of more than 200,000 children was on exhibition.

The State University exhibit showed what that institution had been and what it is doing. Bird's-eye views of the university at different periods of its existence and a fine model of its present buildings and grounds were shown. The various departments made exhibits of their work.

In social economy were shown the work of the Industrial Training School at Boonville, the School for the Deaf and Dumb at Fulton, the School for the Blind at St. Louis, together with photographs of the Colony for the Feeble-Minded at Marshall, the St. Louis Hospital, the Hospital for the Insane at St. Joseph, the work of the Missouri board of charities and correction, and other eleemosynary institutions. The work of the Industrial Manual School was shown by an exhibit of the products of the school—wagons, clothing, shoes, bricks, and other results of the industry of the boys. In addition to an exhibit along similar lines of the School for the Blind and the School for the Deaf and Dumb, showing the pupils' proficiency in industrial training, classes from these schools were at different times shown actually at work in class rooms in the building.