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Contextualizing the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition

The Louisiana Purchase Exposition was held May through December 1904 in St. Louis, MO. Better known as the St. Louis World’s Fair, the exposition was intended to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of the Louisiana purchase and celebrate US history (Parezo & Fowler, 2007). Although the St. Louis World’s Fair was held in the US during the progressive era and the general idea of concern for the underprivileged, the central theme of the fair revolved around ’civilizing primitive peoples’ and social Darwinist ideals.

The United States was coming out of the Panic of 1893, the worst depression in American history (Whitten, 2001). The idea for an exposition hosted in St. Louis was first proposed in 1889, two years after the depression. Congressman Richard Bartholdt wanted to improve the city’s economy, and he thought that putting on a spectacle would do that (Parezo & Fowler, 2007).

As a growing rail hub and river port, St. Louis was the fourth largest city in the US in 1900 with 575,000 residents. A vast array of banks, business associated with commerce, manufacturing, and transportation thrived in the growing city. In a busy transit hub, if workers aren’t being treated fairly, a strike could be expensive and easily turn violent. Which it did, and it made those who aimed to host a fair nervous about getting visitors safety to the city (Parezo & Fowler, 2007).

St. Louis wanted to one-up the World’s Columbian Exposition held in Chicago 1893. Both cities suffered from the same progressive era problems of rapidly expanding slums, exploitation of labor, increased poverty, and a breakdown of democratic government due to the rise of political cronyism and machines (“The progressive era,” n.d.). After the Civil War, the US rapidly industrialized and many cities didn’t know how to handle it, resulting in those major problems (Parezo & Fowler, 2007).

The federal government, notably during the Roosevelt administration, took great measures to fix widespread urban problems. The Pure Food and Drug act, as well as the Meat Inspection Act were passed partially in part due to Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle which exposed the grotesque reality of Chicago stockyards (“The progressive era,” n.d.).

President Theodore Roosevelt, first served after President William McKinley was assassinated in 1901 and elected in 1904, served as the poster child for the progressive era, known for his trust-busting, dismantling of political machines, and breaking of monopolies (“Theodore Roosevelt,” 2023). He handled the US’s involvement at the tail end of the Second Boer War.

The Second Boer War was essentially two groups of white people fighting over land and resources in South Africa, predominantly inhabited by black people. The Dutch Boers were very much the underdogs and had to rely on guerilla warfare (“South African war,” 2023). Continental Europe was staunchly pro-Boer and very cross with Britan. The American public and Congress were also favorable to the Boers, but to a lesser extent than continental Europe.

As the war dragged on, Roosevelt’s sympathy for the Boers grew, and wrote to his first son about his dissatisfaction of the official British explanation for the war, explaining that “that the English had no right whatever to go into this task as they did, for their capacity and the justice of their cause did not warrant their position,” (Wilson, 2001, p. 110).

Whatever his personal feelings were, the US retained a pro-British neutrality policy. War means business, and US exports increased $112 million on average from 1895-1898 to a total of about $577 million during 1899-1902.

Roosevelt saw the collaboration of the US in the UK’s interests as payment for Britain’s insider work during the Spanish American war. He also thought that a British defeat would embarrass their empire and result in the US being “in grave danger from the great European military and naval powers,” (Wilson, 2001, p. 111).

So the Boer war allowed for Roosevelt to lead the way to an Anglo-American friendship. The European presence in South Africa was also of interest to Roosevelt as he was quite interested in getting the African continent ‘civilized’ (Wilson, 2001).

This view was not held exclusively by Roosevelt. In fact, it was a recurring theme at the exposition. The St. Louis exposition had the most extensive anthropology section of any World’s Fair (all the world), anthropologists made efforts to present themselves as true ‘scientists’ and legitimize their field of study. Pretty much “the entire exposition was designed to celebrate the perceived inevitability of the March of Progress and the unqualified fitness of the white American ‘race’ to lead that march,” (Parezo & Fowler, 2007, p.2).

“Overlord of the Savage World” W. J. McGee made a point to influence all the anthropological exhibits at the fair to promote his theory of racial progress once it was decided that St. Louis would have anthropology be a key component of the fair. McGee had recently given anthropology lectures explaining the racial hierarchy of skin colors elsewhere in the US, and his key tenet being that progress amongst humanity was possible through expanding the Caucasian race (Rydell, 1984, p. 209).

Another interesting individual at the fair was F. J. V. Skiff, who wanted to scientifically classify humans to “give purpose to people’s lives,” and “create a properly balanced citizen capable of progress.” He saw the exposition as a way to educate and lead the rest of the world to be ‘more educated’ (Rydell, 1984, p. 205).

During the planning of the fair, it was determined that an area for entertainment was a requirement in order to draw in crowds and make back the money (Parezo & Fowler, 2007). Moderate-income families had begun to have tourist opportunities (Gilbert, 2009), and it was much easier to attract all types of people with general entertainment rather than having to rely on the revenue from the small population of scholars who would attend fairs focused primarily on academics.

Taking a lot of inspiration from Chicago, an entertainment zone was incorporated in the fair. The biggest draws were ‘exotic’ peoples, so of course St. Louis had to do human zoos better than Chicago. Exposition organizer David Francis said that “education would be the keynote” of the fair, the exposition being called the ‘University of the Future’. Obviously, the goal is to be educating and ‘civilizing’ non-white races (Parezo & Fowler, 2007).

The many anthropological exhibits celebrated the assumed racial and cultural superiority of white Westerners, likely to justify the imperial and colonial intentions of Europe and America (Parezo & Fowler, 2007).

The emphasis on anthropology and ‘civilized’ people ties into the centennial celebration of the fair disturbingly well. Manifest Destiny of North America via the Louisiana Purchase can be justified by this new social Darwinism racial hierarchy idea. The strengthened manifest destiny further supports the recent acquisition of the Philippines in 1902, and the continued overseas economic expansion (Rydell, 1984).

A big motivation for the progressive era was concern for the underprivileged and downtrodden, and many policies were enacted to remedy those (“The progressive era,” n.d.). The people who enacted those policies then turned around and hounded on about ‘civilizing primitive people’. In their eyes, it could have seemed like they were helping those people better themselves but looking at the details of the situation from the present, the facts are that government officials are simply and horribly racist.

The repudiation of individualism and coming together to better the quality of life seems like a noble cause, and in the context of the fair, it’s likely that the American public just interpreted that motivation as a repudiation of themselves as individuals and embracing their belonging to a group – a group that consists only of white people and explicitly excludes any people of color as being ‘uncivilized’ and ‘primitive’.

Rydell (1984) asserted that “the Louisiana Purchase Exposition gave a utopian dimension to American imperialism.” Looking back through time at the fair, the ideas of being ‘progressive’ and ‘social Darwinism’ seem to be directly at odds with each other. It’s easy to see this now, but both existed at the same time at the same place, during the World’s Fair.

Works Cited