1904 World’s Fair: Meet Me in Lincoln, Lincoln

Before the Internet, before television, before radio, before airplanes, before automobiles, before electrification, people realized that the world was changing in fundamental ways and that the pace of change was accelerating. Looking forward excited people and inspired optimism. As the world industrialized, great nations turned their great cities into showplaces that, for a few months, brought together in one small area a collection of the best the entire world had to offer in manufacturing, agriculture, science, technology, invention, culture and cuisine. Such a gathering came to be called a “world’s fair.”

Through confluence of time and place, a few of these world’s fairs are remembered over a century later as having altered the perception that people at the time had of themselves and of the world around them, exposing them to new ideas and new things that defied imagination in an era when news could take weeks to travel and the telegraph and the railroad were modern miracles: the 1851 Crystal Palace Exhibition in London, the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, the 1889 Universal Exhibition in Paris (for which the Eiffel Tower was constructed), the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago, and the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exhibition in St. Louis. The 1904 World’s Fair drew 20 million visitors when the population of the entire US was only 82 million, and it provided the first opportunity for many to see the newly invented technologies of radio and aviation. It inspired a popular song, “Meet Me in St. Louis,” that 40 years later was still well enough known that it was the basis for an eponymous Judy Garland film.

Hearthside House in Lincoln will re-create that historic event with a family-friendly day-long fair from 11am – 6pm on Jul 12, rain or shine. (An 80-foot tent will be cover the main stage and audience area in case of inclement weather.) Visitors will hear oral histories recorded during the 1980s from people who remembered attending the original fair in 1904 in their youth, as well as see original artifacts such as the visitor log from the Rhode Island Pavilion on loan from the Rhode Island Historical Society.

At Chase Farm Park next door, the Providence Grays vintage base ball team will play a double-header against the visiting Brooklyn Atlantics, one game with 1880s rules and equipment and the other with 1890s rules and equipment. Play begins at 11am.

Performers will re-create what were seen as exotic foreign practices that intrigued the imagination in 1904, including belly dance and Bavarian/Tyrolean folk dance. Musicians and vocalists will perform popular songs of the era. Stilt-walkers and jugglers will add to the old-fashioned carnival atmosphere.

Wireless telegraphy, a then-new invention, will be demonstrated by the Blackstone Valley Amateur Radio Club. Weather balloons with recording instruments were first demonstrated at the 1904 fair by the Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory in Massachusetts, still in continuous existence, and they will fly a model of the 6-foot kite used a century ago. There will be a small working model of the original 265-foot-high Ferris wheel, and modern drone aircraft will send down live video to provide the same perspective; the original fair opened a few months after the first flight by the Wright Brothers. RI was an industrial powerhouse in 1904, producing Corliss steam engines, Gorham silver, Brown and Sharpe precision tools and Nicholson files, all of which were exhibited at the fair.

The emerging independence of women is another major aspect of the fair. Local Trinity Rep actress Barbara Blossom is the great-granddaughter of Marie Narelle, who became famous as the “Australian Queen of Irish Song.” Blossom created a 20-minute one-woman play based on the life story of Narelle, who escaped an abusive marriage and was discovered by Thomas Edison at the 1904 fair, turning her into one of the earliest stars of recorded music. The play will be performed twice, around noon and 2pm, by operatic soprano Blythe Walker.

Hearthside is an historic mansion built in 1810 and known for hosting Civil War re-enactments, exhibitions of Victorian-era mourning and Christmas customs, antique car shows inspired by The Great Gatsby, and afternoon teas inspired by American Girl and “Downtown Abbey.” According to President and Founder Kathy Hartley, Hearthside was looking to draw visitors to its monthly open tour event where, she said, “Volunteers were asking, ‘Do we have to open in July?’ No one wants to come to a house with no air conditioning. We got three visitors and it was 100 degrees.” One of those visitors turned out to be Laura Moran, who lived in a house that was constructed as the RI pavilion at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair as a copy of Hearthside. Moran happened to be in Connecticut and made the drive to tour the original. On April 30, 2014, Hartley said, 110 years to the day after the opening of the 1904 fair, Moran donated a car-full of her late father’s memorabilia and artifacts from the fair. He was a local historian who gave presentations and interviews about the fair. “I can think of no better place that my father would have wanted his collection to go,” Hartley quoted Moran as saying.

It was event director Seth Hamilton who originally proposed re-creating the atmosphere of the 1904 World’s Fair with as much historical accuracy as possible, Hartley said. “Let’s try to do something outdoors,” Hartley remembered herself saying. “If we serve food, people would really want to show up.”  Although many myths have been arisen about the invention of various food products – Dr. Pepper was, in fact, first introduced – there is no doubt that the fair attended by a quarter of all of the people in the country did provide the first mass exposure to the ice cream waffle cone, hamburgers, hot dogs, peanut butter and cotton candy. Although there was a smaller scale event last year, beginning this year, Hearthside plans for the 1904 World’s Fair re-creation to be a larger scale biennial event, alternating years with their Civil War re-enactment. “This could become a signature event for us because of our unique history with the house,” Hartley said.

1904 World’s Fair, Hearthside House, 677 Great Rd, Lincoln. Jul 12, 11am – 6pm, rain or shine. Ideal for all ages. Free parking for the event next door at Chase Farm Park. Pedicab service by Sol Chariots will be available as a shuttle to and from the activities. Tickets are available at the door on the day of the event. Telephone: 401-726-0597 Web: http://www.hearthsidehouse.org/

Providence Grays vintage base ball team: https://www.facebook.com/ProvidenceGrays

1904 St. Lours World’s Fair: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana_Purchase_Exposition

The 1904 World’s Fair Society: http://www.1904worldsfairsociety.org/

Missouri Historical Society: http://www.mohistory.org/Fair/WF/HTML/Overview/

“Meet Me in St. Louis,” the song: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meet_Me_in_St._Louis,_Louis

Meet Me in St. Louis, the film: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meet_Me_in_St._Louis