Ch 6 : The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, Saint Louis, 1904: "The Cornation of Ciivilization"

Summary:
The 1904 Saint Louis Exposition was set up to remember and celebrate the Louisiana Purchase and to promote future oversea economical expansion. Saint Louis Exposition was regarded as the most largest fair out of all the national exposition, and it featured most extensive Anthropology Department of any world's fair. The head of the department. W J McGee emphasized the scientific classification and argued that it if right role for Anglo-Saxons to subjugate lower nature and define them. McGee brought natives from various countries and charged them to different part of the fair, and some natives lost their lives on the way to United States from diseases and bad environments. Despite the inferiority of the natives, the Anthropology Department was successful for its educational value and attracted many fair-goers. Out of all other native displays, Philippine Reservation was the most successful of the fair. The fair directors hoped that the Filipino's participation in the fair would improve their condition. By illustrating tribal and cultural details, the reservation reflected Filipinos as a racially inferior and and incapable of self-determination in the future. The exposition's amusement section, included lots of animal shows and ethnological villages, served to emphasize the difference of 'aristocracy' and inferior races. The success of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition replanted the idea of imperialism to Americans and attracted many average Americans.

Key terms:

• Louisiana Purchase: U.S. acquisition of the Louisiana territory from France in 1803 for $15 million. The purchase secured American control of the Mississippi river and doubled the size of the nation.
• DarkAges: The period in Europe from the fall of Rome in the fifth century ad to the restoration of relative political stability around the year 1000; the early part of the Middle Ages.
• Negrito: several ethnic groups who inhabit isolated parts of Southeast Asia that became a crucial role in Philippine Reservation in Saint Louis Exposition.
• Pike: Part of the Louisiana Purchase exposition where the visitor could enjoy amusements, variety of shows and ethnological villages.

Images:


Citations:
Rydell, Robert W. "The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, Saint Louis, 1904: "The Coronation of Civilization"" In All the World's a Fair: Visions of Empire at American International Expositions, 1876-1916, P.154-183. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984.

"All the World’s A Fair." Explore St. Louis. Accessed March 13, 2015. http://explorestlouis.com/visit-explore/discover/itineraries/first/.

Elinson, Elaine. "Igorots Arrive in San Francisco in 1905." - FoundSF. Accessed March 13, 2015. http://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Igorots_Arrive_in_San_Francisco.

"Negritos Share Skills And Customs." Celebrating the Louisiana Purchase (1904 World's Fair) --. Accessed March 13, 2015. http://exhibits.slpl.org/lpe/data/LPE240023364.asp?thread=240029456.

Questions:
How did average American thought about the Louisiana Purchase?

Did Filipinos in the exposition got paid for their work?