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Destined to be forgotten: Souvenirs of American world’s fairs, 1853-1893

Herron, Kristin Stacy, M.A.

University of Delaware (Winterthur Program), 1993

UMI 300 N. ZeebRd. Ann Arbor, MI 48106

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SOUVENIRS OF AMERICAN WORLD'S FAIRS 1853-1893

by

Kristin Stacy Herron

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of the University of Delaware in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Art in Early American Culture

May 1993

© Kristin Stacy Herron All Rights Reserved

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SOUVENIRS OF AMERICAN WORLD’S FAIRS 1853-1893

Hv

Kristin Stacy Herron

Approved:. WuLirn* J. Ritchie Garrison, Ph.D. Professor in charge of thesis on behalf of the Advisory Committee

Approved:. ------jC. Curtis, Ph.D. Dr of the Winterthur Program in Early American Culture

Approved:. Carol E. Hoffecker, Ph Associate Provost for G: ate Studies

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

As with any project, I've incurred a tremendous amount of debt while

researching and writing this thesis. I’ve received a number of invitations to collections,

assistance with research, and ideas about the direction of my paper. Somehow, a note

in my acknowledgments seems an inadequate thank you. Nevertheless, I hope it can

speak volumes. If I have missed anyone below, my apologies. And, of course, any

errors in the text belong to me.

A number of individuals, including curators, collectors, librarians and

archivists allowed me access to their collections. At the Henry Ford Museum and

Greenfield Village, Donna Braden took the time to speak with me and allow me entree to

storage facilities. Deborah Smith, Chris Bensch, and Judy Emerson of the Margaret

Woodbury Strong Museum also provided suggestions and insight in the early stages of

my research. Gretchen Walberg and the members of FANA invited me to a meeting to

view and study fair fans. Jon Zachman, of the National Museum of American History,

allowed me time with the Lariy Zim collection and shared his ideas about fair souvenirs.

Ellen Endslow of the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society and Sandra Staebell of

the Western Kentucky Museum searched for souvenirs in their collections. Jennifer

Anderson-Lawrence led me to an exhibition featuring fair souvenirs at the Alice Austen

House on Staten Island. Steve Sheppard opened his personal collection of World's

Columbian Exposition memorabilia to me; without his assistance and permission to

photograph his collection, this thesis would be a very weak one indeed. Margaret

Watson, Adrienne Bemey, Greta Bahnemann and Abbie Bahnemann all shared

ill

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. souvenirs from their collections while David Bahnemann provided photographic

assistance. Marie Schmiechen kindly recounted memories of her mother's visits to the

Columbian Exposition on tape. Liz Barnhart provided me with my first Columbian

souvenir.

The curatorial staff at the Atwater Kent Museum and library staff at the

Coming Museum both welcomed a walk-in scholar. Jack Braunstein and Becky

Hammel (formerly) of the Rockwood Museum alerted me to scrapbooks in that

collection. Kay Masters and Theresa Sanderson Spence, of the Michigan Technological

University Archives and Copper Country Historical Collections, continually took my

phone calls during the search for the Lake Superior Metal Company. As a Winterthur

Fellow I have been fortunate to have spent two years with ready access to the Winterthur

Library and the Joseph Downs Collections of Manuscripts and Printed Ephemera. The

staff has gone out of their way to track down sources, and have kept their eyes peeled to

tell me about publications and manuscripts before I even realize they exist. To Neville

Thompson, Mary Alice Cicerale, Kathy Coyle, Shirley Griesinger, Jill Hobgood

(former staff member), Kristine Kromer, Rich McKinstry, Mary Elise Haug, and Ms

Snyder I owe a very large thank you. Additionally, staff at the Chicago Historical

Society, Chicago Museum of Science and Industry, Hagley Library, Delaware Art

Museum, the University of Michigan's Bentley Historical Library, and the Louisiana

and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections of the Louisiana State University Libraries

assisted in finding sources.

Some of the research would not have been accomplished if it weren't for able

research assistance. Clarence J. Monette offered his knowledge of the Calumet,

Michigan, area and sought out information on the Lake Superior Metal Company.

Timothy LeCain suggested references on copper mining in Michigan and clearly

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explained to me what exactly "native copper" meant. Elaine Rice, Hilary Anderson,

Yolanda Van de Krol and Jack Coleman all sent me to useful objects and sources. Amy

Simon listened intently and reminded me not to be too parochial in determining what

constitutes a souvenir. Lauren Turner read personal letters, magazine articles and

examined objects for me at the Historic New Orleans Collection in Louisiana. My

brother, Erik Herron, tracked down Michigan-related materials as did my parents,

Thomas and Yvonne Herron, who also served as chauffeurs for my research trip to

Chicago. There, my cousins John and Joan Herron offered housing. Mary Jane Taylor

also provided housing and research guidance in Rochester, New York.

A number of people listened to my ideas about souvenirs as they developed.

Ann Smart Martin, of the Winterthur Museum, suggested ways to think about the

objects and Maureen Montgomery, of the University of Canterbury in New Zealand,

how to incorporate literature in an historical study. Beverly Gordon, of the University

of Wisconsin-Madison, sent along her ideas and provided inspiration in the form of the

only real article on souvenirs I've yet found. John Findling, of the University of

Indiana-Southeast, offered research contacts and kindly asked me to give a paper at the

Popular Culture Association meeting. His interest in my project, and the deadline for

the conference, have proven very positive influences on this paper. And, over lunch

one bright February day, Molly Lee, of the University of Califomia-Davis shared her

research and listened to a fumbling synopsis of my project. Her weekend assignment-

to recount to her on Monday the thread of my paper-somehow sent me into action,

providing the catalyst to finding a focus.

Instructors throughout my time at Winterthur have, knowingly or not, aided

in my pursuit of souvenirs. A conversation with E. McSherry Fowble regarding

visitors in images of nineteenth-century fairs, and connoisseurship assistance from Don

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Fennimore and Amanda Lange affected ideas here. Bemie Herman's course on

Vernacular Architecture enabled me to think more coherently about the built environment

and about structures that might remain forgotten. Bemie and Jim Curtis made useful

suggestions on my thesis prospectus last May, as did my adviser, Ritchie Garrison.

Ritchie's incredible ability to translate my garbled, high-speed monologues, as well as

his calm guidance and speedy and deft readings of my drafts, helped me to finish on

time.

The Lois F. McNeil Fellowship has helped sustain me financially throughout

this process and my two years at Winterthur. Pat Elliott, of the Office of Advanced

Studies, always knows the answers to my numerous questions and has taken many a

phone call for me. My fellow Fellows have provided source material, advice,

diversions, and companionship during "the dreaded thesis experience." I couldn't have

entered the program in a better year, and am a better person from knowing each of them.

My housemates, Karen Parsons and Tracey Winters, have been considerate enough to

put up with my odd hours habits. I must thank Karen, in particular, for surviving

through the first year living next door to an obnoxiously loud word processor that never

seemed to stop beeping.

Finally, although she is in no way directly involved with this thesis, I owe

much to my grandmother, Ivy Millicent Jacobson. Only in retrospect have I realized that

my love of objects and stories came from playing with her ceramic figurines, letting her

preserve my toys, and listening to her talk.

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LIST OF FIGURES...... viii

ABSTRACT...... x

DESTINED TO FORGOTTEN: SOUVENIRS OF AMERICAN WORLD'S FAIRS 1853-1893...... 1

APPENDIX A. LIST OF AMERICAN WORLD'S FAIRS 1853-1893...... 76

APPENDIX B. RULES FOR CONCESSIONS...... 77

BIBLIOGRAPHY...... 80

vii

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Figure 1 Trade cards gathered by Emma Hausser at the World's Columbian Exposition, 1893...... 7

Figure 2 Concession Building for the sale of the Official Catalog of the Centennial Exposition, 1876...... 10

Figure 3 Plan of the Women's Building, World's Columbian Exposition, 1893...... 11

Figure 4 Transfer-printed ceramic pot with lid from the New York Crystal Palace Exhibition, 1853...... 15

Figure 5 Transfer-printed mustache cup from the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition, 1876...... 16

Figure 6 Transfer-printed Mauchline ware from the World's Columbian Exposition, 1893...... 18

Figure 7 Fan from the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition, 1876___ 19

Figure 8 Fan from the World's Columbian Exposition, ...... 1893 20

Figure 9 Cover of catalog from the World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exhibition, New Orleans, 1884-5...... 21

Figure 10 Bird's eye view of World's Columbian Exposition on ceramic plate featuring the pier and casino which were never built...... 24

Figure 11 Lithographic bird's eye view of World's Columbian Exposition featuring the pier as it appeared at the fair 25

Figure 12 Cover of children's book showing Columbian World’s Fair tower which was never built...... 26

Figure 13 Official Seal of the World's Columbian Exposition, as shown on a catalog to the Midway Plaisance...... 31

Figure 14 Map of the Centennial fairgrounds...... 37

Figure 15 The Gillinder Glass factory at the Philadelphia Centennial.. 39

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Figure 16 Workers within the Gillinder Glass factory...... 40

Figure 17 Pressed glass mug from the Gillinder Glass factory 44

Figure 18 Three Columbian spoons from the Mary Cowgill Corbit Warner collection...... 49

Figure 19 Back view of the three Columbian spoons...... 50

Figure 20 Pamphlet of B. F. Norris, Alister & Co. promoting their official souvenir spoon...... 51

Figure 21 Card from B. F. Norris, Alister and Company for free engraving on official World's Columbian Exposition spoons...... 54

Figure 22 Advertisement for the Tilden-Thurber & Co. spoon 59

Figure 23 Map of the state of Michigan, c. 1860...... 61

Figure 24 Entrance to the Michigan display in the Mines and Mining Building, World's Columbian Exposition, 1893... 63

Figure 25 Spoon produced by the Lake Superior Metal Company. . . . 65

Figure 26 Back of spoon produced by the Lake Superior Metal Company...... 66

Figure 27 Closing out sales at the World's Columbian Exposition . . . 68

Figure 28 Concession stand for the sale of water, World's Columbian Exposition...... 71

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT

As products of the earliest American fairs and the early years of mass-marketed

souvenirs in the United States, world's fair souvenirs produced between 1853 and 1893

prove telling about the production and consumption of seemingly mundane commercial

goods. They serve as previously unconsidered artifactual evidence which provides

information regarding the marketing of fairs, experiences of the fair visitor, and the

importance of learning from these objects instead of assuming what they insinuate.

In considering the complexities of the world's fair souvenir, the objects themselves,

as well as official fair documents, guidebooks, images, advertisements, diaries and personal

and travel accounts from four of the seven American world's fairs held between 1853 and

1893 provide information about the context in which these souvenirs were produced and

purchased. Because a greater variety and quantity of commercial souvenirs were produced

for the World's Columbian Exposition (1893), and because it served to introduce and

promote the sales of two new souvenir-types, it necessarily receives more attention than the

fairs of New York (1853), Philadelphia (1876) and New Orleans (1884-5).

By looking closely at these objects and assimilating documentary evidence, it

appears that world's fair souvenirs can provide fictional accounts of a fair experience.

Many commercially-made souvenirs were never sold on the fairgrounds, so people who

did not attend may well have owned objects with text or images commemorating a fair.

Objects emphasized certain structures and included images of buildings which were

never built. Such objects, considered by historians today, can provide a false

impression of a visit to the fair through these fantastical or edited images. Souvenirs,

x

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on a popular event. Such complexities further provide a means to explore the narrative

of maker, vendor, purchaser and owner in the United States during the latter half of the

nineteenth century.

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SOUVENIRS OF AMERICAN WORLD’S FAIRS 1853-1893

"Everybody is going, everybody is talking about it, and thinking about it!

Nobody's been talking of nothing else for months and months! The streets are full of

people on their way!" So remarked Ben, a poor Chicago child, to his new-found

friends, Meg and Robin Macleod, the two little pilgrims of Frances Hodgson Burnett's

children's novel of the World's Columbian Exposition,Two Little Pilgrims’ Progress:

A Story of the City Beautiful. Similarly, Miss Betsey Lane, created by Sarah Ome

Jewett in her short story "The Flight of Betsey Lane," expressed excitement over the

1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition. This resident of the ByFleet Poor House

exclaimed to her friends: "Oh, my! I wish I had the means to go to the Centennial... It

seems to me as if I can't die happy 'less I do." While fictional, Ben's and Betsey

Lane's remarks echo comments recorded in diaries and published autobiographies of

more affluent visitors who could afford to attend such grand events and note the "scenes

which hundreds were seeking from all parts of our country and at a great expense."1

During the latter half of the nineteenth century, great expositions, or world's

fairs, enveloped people's lives. Whether they could attend or not, people came from all

over the United States and abroad, drawn to the fairs by the excitement provided by new

Frances Hodgson Burnett,Two Little Pilgrims' Progress: A Story of the City Beautiful (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1895), 128-9; Sarah Ome Jewett, "The Flight of Betsey Lane," In The Country of the Pointed Firs and Other Stories, edited by Willa Cather (New York: Anchor Press, 1985), 175; Autobiography, 364, Emily Caroline Douglas Papers, Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections, Louisiana State University Libraries.

1

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technologies, enormous displays of the latest products, and the opportunity to

experience the world in a single setting. In his consideration of the Philadelphia

Centennial, John Maas noted that: "When only the rich travelled abroad, the World's

Fair was a unique opportunity for the common man to see how the rest of the world

lived." Emily Caroline Douglas echoed that sentiment while describing her companions

to the 1884-5 New Orleans World’s Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition: "Well,

they might be tired, for had they not traversed the universe in that one morning seeing

exhibits from north, south, east and west [?]" The Visitor's Register for the Department

of Public Comfort at the Centennial Exhibition showed that on August 24 alone, twenty-

three states and one foreign country (Germany) were represented by signatures.

Besides Pennsylvania, people came from such disparate places as Detroit, Michigan;

Mansfield College, Texas; Key West, Florida; Leavenworth, Kansas; and Bangor,

Maine.2 The world's fair visitor could come from any location or social status-if he or

she had the necessary funds.

Journeying to a fair demonstrated one's status, for it meant that one could

afford to travel. Yet, attendance could be significant in other ways as well. The

fictional Ben seemed to be drawn to the Chicago World's Fair for it was there he could

join a larger community, one shared by "everybody" experiencing the event. Gaining

entrance meant that he could transform himself from a life of squalor to membership in

the "City Beautiful." Although he knew he would have to leave, Ben believed that

entering through the gates would alter his life forever, as it eventually did. Alternately,

Chicago resident Emma Hausser saw the fair as an opportunity to shop for her

2John Maas,The Glorious Enterprise (Watkins Glen, NY: American Life Foundation, 1973), 94; Douglas, 364; Visitor's Register for the Department of Public Comfort, Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, 1-11, Atwater Kent Museum.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. household in preparation for her forthcoming nuptials in 1894.3 Certainly, reasons for

visiting fairs varied as greatly as the type of visitor. Yet, visitors held in common the

desire to experience the fair, they were drawn to events which existed for specific

purposes-to display and promote technological progress through the goods of many

nations. Consequently, from the inception of the modem fair in England during the

middle of the nineteenth century, such events heralded and encouraged an era of

consumption.

World's fairs possess a complex history. Their evolution may relate to

medieval fairs, French and British industrial displays, and/or public art exhibitions.

More directly, they began in 1851 with London's Great Exhibition of the Works of

Industry of All Nations, commonly referred to as the Crystal Palace Exhibition because

of the enormous glass structure which housed the event The United States held its first

such fair two years later. While it did not succeed financially, the 1853 New York

Crystal Palace Exhibition was the first of seven international expositions to be held in

the United States during the next forty years (Appendix A).4

R. Reid Badger, author ofThe Great American Fair, noted that not only has

the United States hosted more world's fairs than any other nation, but their significance

differed in the United States than overseas. Europeans felt competition from nearby

3Marie Schmiechen, interview with Greta Bahnemann, St. Paul, MN, 28 December 1992, transcribed by the author. Extant objects from Emma Hausser's shopping came primarily from the Japanese Bazaar on the Midway Plaisance. While concessions, the objects sold by the Japanese and other foreign groups represented products sold within those countries; they did not depict fair sites or the name of the fair. Because of ethnographic considerations, these types of souvenirs are not discussed here.

4For a general history of world's fairs and summaries of individual fairs, both in the United States and abroad, see John E. Findling and Kimberly Pelle, eds.Historical Dictionary of World’s Fairs and Expositions, 1851-1988 (New York: Greenwood Press, 1990). Another useful essay on the history of fairs is: Robert W. Rydell, "International Exhibitions in Historical Perspective,"The In Books of the Fairs: Materials about World's Fairs, 1834-1916, in the Smithsonian Institution 2-10Libraries, (Chicago and London: American Library Association, 1992).

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countries and strove to create more elaborate and successful fairs than their neighbors.

In the United States, hosting a world's fair became a status symbol for individual cities.

As the entire world's eyes focused on a single town, a world's fair served to define and

promote that community. These fairs also became important to the nation itself-since

visitors would see the United States through the host city, that locale momentarily

became the image of America. Pressure therefore existed both locally and nationally-a

city aspired to prove itself, particularly to those places not selected as hosts, while the

nation was eager to "show o ff to the world. World's fairs of the nineteenth century

thus became one critical, and often overlooked, method of forming America's definition

of itself.5

Specifically, two fairs owe much to that defining process-those held in

Philadelphia and Chicago. Because of the failure of the New York Crystal Palace, the

Centennial Exhibition has often been considered the initial American world's fair.

Indeed, it became the first truly successful fair in the world-it not only drew a larger

audience than any previous fair, but actually turned a profit. Yet, it is Chicago's "White

City," so named for the predominant coloring of its architecture, which still retains the

unofficial title "Greatest World's Fair of all Time." The size and scope of the

Columbian Exposition brought a Midwestern city international prominence and

continues to affect the United States through its contributions to every imaginable field,

from architecture and city planning, to the arts, literature and academia.6 Necessarily,

more products were produced and more purchases made in Philadelphia and Chicago

than at the fairs held in New York, Atlanta, Boston, Louisville, or New Orleans. Yet,

5R. Reid Badger, The Great American Fair: The World's Columbian Exposition and American Culture (Chicago: Nelson Hall, 1979), 13,19.

6Rydell, 5; Findling and Pelle, 122-32.

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for the reams of paper devoted to the Centennial and Columbian expositions, almost

none considers the import of the objects people bought, particularly the souvenir.7

In Martha Finley's Elsie at the World's Fair, a family trip to the Columbian

Exposition involved buying numerous mementos. Elsie's young relative Lucilla

responded to her mother’s question: "Aren't you pleased with your purchases?":

Yes, indeed, Mama Vi! I am sure Christine, Alma and the servants cannot fail to be delighted with the gifts we have for them. And papa has been so very generous in supplying Grace and me with money. I hope Max will be pleased with all we bought for him.8

While the fictional Lucilla did not enumerate these objects, some actual visitors to the

fair kept account books which noted purchases. Augusta Westwood, of Fredonia, New

York, included her expenses for sixteen days at the Columbian Exposition in her

household accounts for 1890 to 1900. There she bought guide books, postals, and

separately lists: "Present [sic] from Worlds [sic] Fair" including: two souvenir spoons, a

"Heaviland [sic] cup and saucer" set, a thimble, a picture, a Columbus doll, three pairs

of socks, a bronze tray, a "pen holder with view of Fair" and "fair gloves."9 Others

may have collected colorful giveaways-trade cards, pamphlets and small objects

produced as promotional devices for various companies and products which might then

be pasted into scrapbooks at home.10 Although Chicago resident Emma Hausser

7Discussions tend to center on exhibited objects or the influence of objects on the decoration of the American home. Concessions at the Women's Building at the Columbian Exposition are considered in Jeanne Madeline Weimann,The Fair Women (Chicago: Academy, 1981), 465-486.

8Martha Finley,Elsie at the World’s Fair (New York: Mead and Company, 1894), 232.

9Augusta Westwood. Cash Book Number 3, Dec. 1890,67-8. Joseph Downs Collection of Manuscripts and Printed Ephemera, Winterthur Library. A penholder with view of the fair would have been a stanhope-an ivory or wooden device which encased a pen and, through a small, circular viewfinder, displayed a scene when the object was held to the light.

10Such scrapbooks include those of John Luneen, Edward Bringhurst, Mary or Edith Bringhurst and Elsie Sargeant Abbot.

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purchased objects, she and her sisters also collected trade cards at the Columbian

Exposition (figure 1), as did a child Emily Caroline Douglas observed in New Orleans:

[she] would come running back hands laden with pretty cards and other "souvenirs" placed along the way [sic] she could not know that "Take one" was placed beside of each pile. They were "pretty" to her and she helped herself.11

Similarly, Betsey Lane gathered free objects at the Philadelphia Centennial to take back

to the Poor House for her friends:

" ... there was not a night when she did not return to her lodgings with a pocket crammed with samples of spool cotton and nobody knows knows what. She had already collected small presents for almost everybody she knew at home.. ."12

Objects could also be taken home without being purchased or picked up. Particularly

for those who could not readily afford to make purchases, imaginative stories like those

created by Meg Macleod inTwo Little Pilgrims’ Progress: A Story of the City Beautiful,

for her and her brother, Robin, served as mementos of the fair. Souvenirs could thus

encompass a wide range of objects both real and imagined.

The word souvenir derives from the Latinsubvenire, to come into the mind. It

also serves as a synonym for memento-a memory or remembrance. Etymologically, the

word does not denote a single type of object. Meg's stories became a kind of souvenir

for they recreated a landscape and events whenever she recounted them. While not a

physical object, her words formed tangible memories for her and her brother while

evoking their sense of place to other listeners. Stories caused the fair to "come into the

mind." Likewise, actual objects not originally intended as such mementos could be

transformed by their owners into mnemonic devices. Trade cards, intended to remind

^Schmiechen interview; Douglas, 364.

12Jewett, 188.

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Copyrighted materials in this document have not been filmed at the request of the author. They are available fo r consultation, however, in the author’s university library.

Pages 7, 10-11, 15-16, 18-21, 24-26, 31, 37, 39-40, 44, 49-51, 54, 59, 61, 63, 65-66, 68 and 71

University Microfilms International

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one of a product and encourage consumption, served as physical recollections of a trip

to the fair, they could initiate stories and signal memory just as a piece of one of the

buildings or a purchased silk ribbon might.

However, fair organizers provided definitions insinuating differences among

mementos obtained from the grounds. The 1893 World's Columbian Exposition

published a list of seventeen rules governing the sales of objects within the fair in its

Official Directory (Appendix B). A contemporary definition of what constituted an

exhibition object versus a souvenir appeared in rule number five. Exhibited articles

were not allowed to be removed from the grounds prior to the close of the exposition.

Only those objects designated a "privilege" or "concession" could be taken away on any

given day. The power to grant such titles belonged to the fair's Committee on Ways and

Means which defined the terms as such: '"Privileges' refer to the sale of such goods as

are manufactured in order to illustrate a machine or process exhibited. 'Concessions’

refer to the sale of all goods and operation of attractions from which the securing of

revenue is the sole object of the lessees."13 Similar definitions existed for the 1876

Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition:

In addition to the... concessions, there was a privilege extended to certain exhibitors, on the approval of the Director-General, to dispose of articles actually manufactured in the Exhibition on the payment of 15 per cent, of the gross receipts.14

Additionally, rules for exhibitors in Philadelphia noted that goods could not be removed

before the close of the fair. This also occurred at the New Orleans World's Industrial and

13Moses P. Handy, ed.The Official Directory of the World’s Columbian Exposition May 1st to October 30th, 1893 (Chicago: W. B. Conkey Company, 1893), 208.

14Goshom, A. T. "Report of the Director-General, May 1876,"United States Centennial Commission. International Exhibition, 1876. Report of the Director-General, including the Reports of Bureaus of Administration. Vol. 1. (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1880), 18.

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Cotton Centennial where a visitor wrote to her son: "I can get the cloth here in the

Exposition pretty cheap... but I cannot take it out of the building until [they] close.. ."15

Each of these fairs, as well as those held in New York and Boston, produced

objects meant to secure quick revenue. As officials of the Philadelphia and Chicago

fairs noted, "concessions" differed from both objects on display, and those sold to

demonstrate new technologies or materials. These "privileges" included one

recommended by the Committee on Ways and Means on May 3,1892, for Dr. J. M.

Hirsh "for the sale of Aluminum Souvenirs in the Electricity Building; the Exposition to

receive 25% of the gross receipts."16 His "souvenirs" demonstrated the properties of

aluminum, touted as an inexpensive metal of the future. Sales of such privileges

occurred at a display and served to illustrate its machinery and/or the abilities of a

particular material. Concessions, however, were sold in distinctly different spaces-

special buildings on the fairgrounds or designated sales spaces within main fair

buildings (figures 2 and 3).

While Emma Hausser, her sisters, and the fictional Betsey Lane may well have

considered the trade cards, leaflets and promotional objects which they collected to be

souvenirs, they were not so considered by the fairs. Number sixteen of the Columbian

Exposition's Concessions rules noted that:

Exhibitors' business cards and brief descriptive circulars only may be placed within such exhibitor's space, for distribution. The right is

x6Goshom, A. T.International Exhibition 1876 Philadelphia General Regulations for Exhibitors in the United States. (Philadelphia: United States Centennial Commission, 1874), n. pag. Philadelphia Exhibition Collection. Vol. 1. Historical Society of Pennsylvania Manuscripts Collection; Letter to Ernest from his mother, 31 March 1885. Study File, Letters, 1835-1885. The Historic New Orleans Collection Manuscript Division.

16World's Columbian Exposition, 1893, Executive Committee Minutes. 17 Aug. 1892— 15 Nov. 1893, 746.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 12 reserved to restrict or discontinue this privilege whenever it is carried to excess or becomes an annoyance to visitors.17

The Centennial Exhibition issued a similar rule for exhibitors.18 Thus, officials from

both fairs viewed trade cards or leaflets as advertisements, even associating them with

promotional or demonstrational devices through the use of the word "privilege."

Although many modem collectors and museums consider any object related to a fair a

souvenir of that event, fair officials did not. Nor did official distinctions provide for

verbal mementos, since these cost nothing more than a fifty cent entrance ticket.

Because of contemporary definitions, the objects to be considered here are those defined

as concessions by the fair administrations and referred to in this context as commercial

souvenirs.19

Historian Warren Sussman wrote that "The idea of souvenirs is modem."20

Clearly the objects are not. Commercial souvenirs may trace their history as far back as

the first century A.D., when Roman gladiatorial contests and chariot races provided a

ready market for glassmakers who "produced inexpensive mold-blown souvenir beakers

with the names of favorite gladiators or chariot teams."21 Certainly, souvenirs found

markets in Europe by at least the eighteenth century. Enameled boxes made in Bilston,

Battersea and Wednesbury, England, beginning in the mid-eighteenth century, can be

17Handy, 208.

18A. T. Goshom, "Report of the Director-General," 180.

19Hereafter, the terms commercial souvenir and souvenir will be used synonymously.

20WaiTen Sussman, "Ritual Fairs," Chicago History: The Magazine of the Chicago Historical Society. (Fall 1983): 5.

21"Roman 100 A.D. to 600 A.D.," Gallery 2, Case 25 "Souvenir Glasses," Permanent installation, Coming Museum of Glass. The museum displays four examples of these souvenirs. They contain images of gladiators and chariots as well as the names of the contestants.

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found with references to a place, such as a "Trifle from Philadelphia" box.22 As early as

the late eighteenth century, Hungarian, Bohemian and Austrian glass manufacturers

produced glasses depicting local health resorts or spas, popular travel destinations of the

elite. By the mid-nineteenth century, these cut glass objects reached the height of their

popularity: even famous tourist destinations such as the American and Canadian Niagra

Falls could be found on Bohemian glass.23 The success of the cut glass views, and the

inclusion of souvenir shops at Niagra Falls by the 1850s owed much to the introduction

of time-off with pay-the modem vacation-and the growth of a middle-class.

Eventually, the lowered cost of rail travel affected a further change in the make-up of the

tourist. By the latter part of the nineteenth century, people of more average incomes

found it possible to travel. Since more visitors meant more consumers, the railroad

companies encouraged travel through specially priced packages.24

Once at a destination, with leisure time and money to spend, people were

more likely to make purchases as recollections of their trip. As Donna Braden and

Judith E. Endelman noted in Americans on Vacation:

Increasing numbers of pleasure travelers in the second half of the nineteenth century provided a growing market for purchased views of natural wonders, places of scenic beauty, and historic sites on china plates, in books, prints, on stereographs... and other merchandise...

22For information on enameled boxes, see E. McSherry Fowble, "Enamel Boxes: Eighteenth-Century Art and Artifice"Winterthur Magazine (Winter 1992-93), 13,15.

23Bela Borsos, "Hungarian Spa Glasses of the Early 19th Century"Journal of Glass Studies (1969), 105-107.

24Virginia Vidler, Niagra Falls: 100 Years of Souvenirs (Utica, NY: North Country Books, Inc., 1985), 3; Donna Braden and Judith E. Endelman,Americans on Vacation (Dearborn: Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village, 1990), 8. Braden and Endelman note that the concept of time-off- with-pay began in the mid-nineteenth century; the press encouraged such rest for businessmen as early as 1855.

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Much of this merchandise prominently featured a view of the place which it represented,

even if the object was to be sold elsewhere: "Even if one was unable to visit Niagra

Falls, it was possible to own Wedgwood plates with images of the falls by receiving

them as a gift or by placing an order for such a design. In doing so, one might own the

same view as a friend who actually traveled far away."25 Certainly, world’s fairs also

provided a substantial market for such goods. Like Niagra Falls, the landscape became

a featured image on fair souvenirs. This varied from "bird's eye" views of the grounds

to the more common focus on a specific building.

The commonality of architectural images among souvenirs from different

fairs proves striking. Figures 4 and 5 provide examples of this similarity. The objects,

a porcelain pot with lid from the 1853 fair, and a porcelain mustache cup sold to

commemorate the Centennial, do not suggest the same function. The former, a small

circular container, might have been made to hold trinkets. The drinking vessel further

distinguishes itself for its gender implications. The cup contains a special shelf inside to

catch a man's mustache and prevent it from collecting liquid when drinking. Neither

object may ever have been used for its intended purpose; indeed, they may only have

been displayed by their owners. Yet, aside from the differing visual impact in form,

their decoration appears very similar.

Glazed white, both objects include some gilding, and a transfer print.

Developed in the eighteenth century, transfer-printing provided inexpensive decoration.

A copper plate, engraved with the desired design was inked. While the ink remained

wet, the image was transferred onto paper, and then pressed onto the ceramic object.

Later, the object was fired in a kiln to fix the design. For fair souvenirs, the process

^Braden and Endelman, 13.

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also appeared on wooden objects (figure 6). With this ability, any number of objects

could be produced sporting the same image of a fair.

The porcelain pot and lid includes a black and white transfer print on the lid.

A crooked road leads up to the building which dominates the back third of the image.

Figures in four different carriages, on horseback and walking in groups appear on and

around this path, on their way to the Crystal Palace. Involved in conversation, figures

to the front of the image appear to wear foreign costume. Such images suggested the

cosmopolitan nature of world's fairs-that they truly represented and were visited by the

world. Likewise, the image on the cup from the Philadelphia Centennial features a

building. Since Philadelphia, and the American fairs which followed, included more

than one structure, a variety of buildings may appear on such souvenirs. Here, the cup

shows the Main Exhibition Building in a black transfer print which has been colored

with polychrome enamels. Like the Crystal Palace, the Main Exhibition Building

dominates the back of the image, while in front, visitors on foot, and in horse and

carriage, make their way towards the structure.

Such use of fair buildings and visitors also appeared on souvenirs of other

mediums. A fan from the Philadelphia Centennial shows the main building of the fair

and visitors gathered outside, on their way to and from the structure (figure 7). While a

fan from the Columbian Exposition incorporates a large map of the grounds on either

side, the front includes images of two buildings and numerous visitors (figure 8).

Similarly,The World's Exposition Catalogue for Guide the New Orleans fair features

lithographic images of six fair buildings with people appearing in each on pathways

surrounding or leading to the sights (figure 9).

The architecture of the fairs could not prove so readily understandable to the

general public until they were introduced to the structures. Once this occurred,

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buildings could provide strong symbolic associations to the events which they housed.

One method of insuring this association was to distribute images of the architecture in

advance of the fair. The press seemed to provide the best method of promotion for it

could print articles as well as illustrations of the forthcoming fair. The World's

Columbian Exposition developed the Department of Publicity and Promotion, a virtual

press bureau, to promote the fair to an extent never before seen. TheOfficial fair's

Directory summed up its methods of promotion as including: "Advertising through

lithographs, pamphlets, books, news slips, the furnishing of news to newspapers and

all classes of press associations; also advertising through posters and circulars and

other methods." Additionally, the department sent:

Many thousands of fine colored lithographs, notably one of a bird's-eye view of the Exposition,. . . to hotels, libraries, steamship offices, public buildings, prominent manufacturers, agents business houses and others in all parts of the world. The result was that the world came to know that the Exposition was being built on a scale much more magnificent than had been any of its predecessors. Because of the lithographs and cuts of buildings greater interest was felt in the news-letters.26

Interest in the event was but one effect of placing so many images of the fair and its

architecture in the public domain. Published images made the public familiar with the

structures and provided blueprints for designs to be reproduced on souvenirs.

However, such images could also prove deceptive. In 1891, the Department

of Publicity and Promotion sent out more than 100,000 lithographs showing the fair.27

Since the site was not yet complete, this procedure produced souvenirs displaying

structures which never were built and buildings whose designs were altered in the

building process. For example, many "bird's eye" views included a pier which lead to a

26Handy, 166,187.

27Handy, 188.

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casino, creating a built-peninsula on the water (figure 10). The actual pier, however,

contained the fair’s moving sidewalk and provided a straight walkway (figure 11).

Similarly, plans made for a World's Fair Tower, a rival to Paris' Eiffel Tower from its

1889 world's fair, never came about. Yet, a tower appeared on numerous mementos,

including souvenir spoons, lithographs and the cover of a children's book (figure 12).

While less substantial, other textual discrepancies appeared, as with a souvenir showing

the Fine Arts building mislabelled "Palace of Fine Arts." Sold as mementos of the

event, such objects depict structures which existed only on paper and in the minds of the

architects. They were never physically experienced by anyone. Instead, the purchaser

or recipient would only have "visited" that building by imagining him or herself within

the image depicted.

Although architectural images dominated fair souvenirs, two other common

designs also existed. Most simply, an object might be decorated with the name of the

fair and the date. Such decoration only required knowledge that the event was to occur.

Delays in opening events, however, did cause souvenirs to show incorrect dates,

particularly in the case of the Columbian Exposition which was to open in October of

1892, but was delayed until May of 1893. Images associated with the fair's theme also

served as a visual reference similar to the modem logo. For both the Crystal Palace and

the Centennial Exhibition, George Washington proved a significant image while

Philadelphia's Liberty Bell became a ready symbol. The New Orleans fair featured

cotton motifs, and since Christopher Columbus's voyage provided the impetus for the

Columbian Exposition, his profile decorated numerous souvenirs.

These images enact Basil Bernstein's "restricted codes" for they were easily

accessible and understandable. "Restricted codes" refer to implicit meanings which are

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generally understood because of shared knowledge.28 Due to the popularity and

promotion of world's fairs, many people became aware of such visual associations.

George Washington, the Liberty Bell, Christopher Columbus, as well as familiar

structures, connoted a fair without explicitly detailing that information. Even souvenirs

with text which might only read "World's Fair" and show a date would not have been

incomprehensible, for even those who could not attend knew a fair was happening in

Chicago in 1893. Thus, objects alluding to those event through relevant images would

have been acknowledged as tangible evidence of travel to a fair.

While the opportunities for profit varied between fairs due to attendance,

advancements in technology between 1853 and 1893 influenced the availability of a

wider range of souvenir types. Although not all fairs sold objects of the same medium,

all American fairs produced paper souvenirs. As demonstrated by the volume of

advertising posted by Columbian Exposition officials, paper came reasonably cheap.

Because of this low cost, souvenirs produced for the New York Crystal Palace

Exhibition emphasized printed matter-lithographs, guidebooks, and fans.29

A number of factors-private financiers, unfavorable press, slow

development, and a late opening to a still incomplete exhibition-affected the limited

interest in this fair. As Theodore Sedgwick, the President of the New York Association

which sponsored the Crystal Palace, wrote to the directors of the event on January 17,

1854: "I think the success of the Palace next year depends on its popularity and that in a

28For a discussion and application of restricted and elaborated codes, see Catherine W. Bishir, "Good and Sufficient Language for Building,"Perspectives In in Vernacular Architecture, IV. Edited by Thomas Carter and Bernard L. Herman (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1991), 44- 52.

29Such comments are based on extant examples. The Larry Zim Collection of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History also includes medals, ceramic dishes, a leather and brass coin purse, and a reverse painting on glass. Most sales listings sent to collectors contain only notice of medals or paper matter.

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country so active and occupied as ours nothing can succeed unless the public mind is in

some way kept constandy fixed on it." Although the Crystal Palace remained open until

November 1,1854, American manufacturers continued to show little interest in the fair.

So, too, did the public. By February 1854, the New York Association determined the

Palace to be $125,000 in debt. Without a public audience, the fair could neither thrive

financially, nor successfully spawn many or varied mementos.30

Paper souvenirs also allowed opportunities for the general public to become

a part of the production of a fair memento. On Thursday, July 13,1876, a writer for the

Philadelphia Evening Bulletin came upon a woman taking notes at the Centennial

Exhibition. When asked if she was a correspondent, she replied that she had just come

"to look at the Centennial." The writer inquired further: "Then you are taking notes

merely for personal guidance?" The woman replied: "O, no! I intend writing a history

of the Centennial and am going to Boston to negotiate for the publication of it."31 Thus,

almost anyone-whether a professional lithographer or random fair visitor-could

potentially produce a memento of the event.

Fair officials in Philadelphia and Chicago took a keen interest in regulating

the sales of souvenirs on the grounds of their fairs. If their jurisdiction could have

extended beyond their designated spaces, they would certainly have curbed the sales of

vendors who took advantage of the fairs by selling souvenirs at a high cost. Indeed,

one visitor to Philadelphia noted that ordinary objects were being sold: "at three times

their cost, as Centennial, that had been in this country for more than twenty years."32

30Thomas Gordon Jayne, "The New York Crystal Palace: An International Exhibition of Goods and Ideas" (Master's thesis, The University of Delaware,1990), 47,78,80,100,79.

31"The Centennial Exhibition,"Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, 13 July 1876, Morris Library, University of Delaware.

32Caroline H. Dali, Scrapbook Vol. 2, September to October 1876, Hagley Museum and Library. Includes clippings of her Letters to the Editor of Philadelphia'sNew Age.

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The Centennial Eagle, a paper devoted to reporting on the fair, commented more harshly

on "The Subject of the Season":

Not only have there been many shaip schemes devised for such purpose, to be practised in the immediate vicinity of Philadelphia, but innumerable novelties and notions throughout the country have been extravagantly labeled with the magic word centennial, until, at last, it has come to be an offense to the good taste of almost everyone. Tricky adventurersnnot created, but brought to light at such a time-have chosen this as the grand opportunity of the century for the prosecution of their ignoble business.33

Such negative associations, as noted in a fair publication, suggest an attempt to control

purchases of Centennial memorabilia not officially sanctioned by the fair. In contrast,

visitor C. W. Stephenson encouraged such purchases. His trip to Chicago suggested

that souvenirs cost more when bought on the grounds of the fair. He noted in a letter to

the editor in the Saginaw (MI) Herald regarding the Columbian Exposition: "If you wish

to purchase souvenirs, get them in the city, and pay about one half what you would at

the exposition."34

Fair officials did not approve of those who sold mementos outside of the

grounds, for then the event did not receive a portion of the profit. As explained in its

Official Directory, the World's Columbian Exposition existed as a corporation, and was

thus run by different boards and departments whose concerns involved monetary

success.35 One of the many standing committees, the Committee on Ways and Means,

33"The Subject of the Season."The Centennial Eagle, 4 July 1876. Winterthur Library.

34C. W. Stephenson letter to the editor.Saginaw Herald, 2 July 1893. In I. M. Melton 1893 Scrapbook, 58. Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan.

35Handy, 167. The incorporation of the Columbian Exposition may have come about since pressure existed on Chicago to produce a widely successful event as it was seen neither as a recognizable nor cosmopolitan city. The previous two American fairs were not incorporated. The New York Crystal Palace was run by businessmen since the federal government chose not to support the event. The Chairman of the United States Centennial Commission at the Philadelphia Centennial specifically noted that that fair was not a corporation. See Jayne, 48, and D. J. Morrel, Letter to Rooms of the Executive Committee of the United States Centennial Commission. Philadelphia, April 2,1872.

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raised funds through "subscriptions to the capital stock, or otherwise, collections due on

subscriptions, fixing prices for admission, negotiation of contracts for concessions,

privileges, and things pertaining thereto.. ."36 Gaining a booth or space in which to

sell one's souvenirs required adherence to the Columbian Exposition's lengthy list of

rules for concessions (Appendix B) as well as acceptance by Ways and Means. This

committee met regularly before the fair opened to its close, to make recommendations to

the fair's Executive Committee whose approval provided the final acceptance of a

concession, save the signing of an official contract between the concessionaire and the

Exposition. Once produced, official souvenirs bore the seal of the exposition, indicating

the products had been approved by Ways and Means (figure 13).

Occasionally, Ways and Means received unsolicited references requesting the

approval of a particular concession, such as one sent by Bertha Honord Palmer, the

President of the Board of Lady Managers. Mrs. Palmer sent a letter on January 18,

1893, informing the Gentlemen of the Committee that she had read a novel entitled

Three Girls in a Flat, and thought it "a bright and appropriate Souvenir of the Exposition

and especially of The Board of Lady Management." She further encouraged the

Gentlemen to grant a concession to the author: "I trust that Miss Hayes may succeed in

obtaining a concession to sell it wherever such souvenirs are sold on the grounds and in

the buildings." Whether this recommendation proved influential or not, the book was

indeed published and granted a concession in the sales room of the Woman's Building

where it promptly sold out.37

Documentary Records of the Centennial Celebration. Vol. 1. Historical Society of Pennsylvania Manuscripts Collection.

36Handy, 169. Hereafter, the Committee on Ways and Means will be referred to as Ways and Means.

37World's Columbian Exposition, 1893, Board of Lady Managers, President's Letters. 31 December 1892 -17 April 1893,208. Chicago Historical Society Archives and Manuscripts;

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Even with this influence, Miss Hayes would have been required to provide a

share of the profits from her book to the Exposition. Percentages varied, but rule

number sixteen for Concessions expressed clearly that: "Persons procuring concessions

will be required to furnish the Exposition management with a good and sufficient bond

for the faithful performance of their contract."38 The Executive Committee minutes,

spanning almost nine months before the fair opened to two weeks after its close, recount

reports from Ways and Means recommending concessions with percentages varying

from five per cent of the gross receipts of merchandise from the Moroccan concession

on the Midway Plaisance to seventy per cent of the gross receipts from Adams and Sons

Company's chewing gum sales.39

Yet, some souvenirs were made expressly with the intent of earning money

for other sources. In order to fund the exposition, Congress gave $2,500,000 in

souvenir coins which the Exposition sold to build capital. On January 27,1893, Mrs.

Palmer asked Ways and Means to forego the Exposition's percentage on three or four

articles which the Women's Building would then sell with the intent of using the

proceeds to create a Memorial Building to serve as an Industrial and Art Museum in

remembrance of the fair. Mrs. Palmer even listed the objects she felt would best serve

this purpose: a miniature inkstand, a souvenir spoon, knife and fork, and a book.

Souvenirs also served to fund Florida’s State Building.40

Weimann, 469. Miss Laura Hayes was Secretary for the Board of Lady Management. It should also be noted that not only was Mrs. Palmer President of the Board of Lady Managers and a prominent society woman in Chicago's, but also the wife of the commercial developer of State Street, Potter Palmer. Undoubtedly, her requests received special attention and action.

38Handy, 212.

39Executive Committee Minutes, 439.

40Board of Lady Managers, President’s Letters 266-67; Cynthia Parks, "Exhibit Commemorates Huge 1892 World Fair,"The Florida Times-Union, 18 June 1992, E-3.

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The arrangements of the fair owners certainly could not prevent unofficial

vendors from selling their goods outside of the grounds, at entrances, hotels, the train

station, or in shops within the city. B. F. Norris, Alister and Company regularly

complained to the Exposition that their contract was being violated because of the

proliferation of souvenir spoons available outside the fair grounds. Granted the sole

concession for souvenir spoons on the fairgrounds, the jewelers faced competition by

manufacturers who sold spoons elsewhere. Although the Exposition could do nothing

to banish such sales, they amended their agreement with B. F. Norris, Alister and

Company to reduce the Exposition's percentage of the profits by six and two-thirds per

cent. Since it was made retroactive as of June 10,1893, the company received around

$4,000.41

While vendors sold souvenirs away from the grounds of the Philadelphia

Centennial Exhibition, not all of their concessions faced the competition for sales as

occurred in 1893. The fair's solicitor drafted contracts for forty-five concessions which

included food and beverages. The Report of the Director-General noted that: "The

subject of these contracts was novel, and, in this country, at least, there was no

precedent for them.. ,"42 Besides granting concessions for photographic views, silk

and worsted materials, jewelry and ethnographic articles, the fair contracted with a local

41 Weimann, 476-7. Since the $4,000 represents the 6 2/3 % B. F. Norris, Alister and Company was refunded, it is possible to determine the total sales representing that amount and thus a range of spoon sales. Because the business sold plated spoons as low as 500 apiece and sterling, gilt spoons at the most expensive price of $2.50, this refund represents between 119,492 and 23,860 spoons sold. Accounts and extant objects seem to suggest that sterling spoons were more regularly bought, suggesting a smaller range, from 47,720 to 23,860 spoons sold.

42Goshom, "Report of the Director General," 20.

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glass manufacturer, Gillinder and Sons, to create a working glass manufactory on the

grounds which would produce glass souvenirs.

Glass proved a popular material in Philadelphia, for at least forty-seven glass

manufacturers displayed their wares at the Centennial.43 To capitalize on the nation’s

one-hundredth birthday, as well as its official celebration in Fairmont Park, these

companies produced a variety of tablewares decorated with Centennial-related images.

Popular buildings-particularly the fair's Memorial Hall and Philadelphia's Independence

Hall, representations of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and the Liberty Bell

dominated. No company owned the rights to a particular design, so different

manufacturers could produce the same wares. The "Liberty Bell" pattern, patented on

September 29,1875, by James Gill of Pittsburgh, was produced by at least three

companies: Philadelphia's Gillinder and Sons and Union Flint Glass Company, and

Pittsburgh's Bakewell, Pears and Company.44 Visitors thus saw American-made

glassware throughout the exhibition. By visiting the Gillinder building, they could then

view the process of making glassware from beginning to end.

The Gillinder legacy began in 1854 when William T. Gillinder, a

glassworker from England, emigrated to the United States. After working in

Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he moved to Philadelphia

and opened the Franklin Flint Glass Company in 1861, a business which primarily

produced hand blown chimneys for kerosene lamps. Two years later he gained a

partner, Edwin Bennett, a potter from Ohio, changed the name of the business to

Gillinder & Bennett, and began producing pressed glass. After Bennett left in 1867,

43Jane Shadel Spillman, Glass From World's Fairs 1851-1916 (Coming, NY: Coming Museum of Glass, 1986). This figure represents exhibits rather than concessions.

^Tracy H. Marsh,The American Story Recorded in Glass (Minneapolis: Lund Press, 1962).

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Gillinder's sons, Frederick and James, took over and renamed the company Gillinder

and Sons. When William died in 1871, his sons continued running the business and

became the forces behind the construction of the Centennial glassworks. Gillinder and

Sons acquired the sole concession rights for glassware at a cost of $3,000 and built a

sixty by ninety foot factory near Machinery Hall.45 While fifteen per cent of their sales

went to the Centennial Board of Finance as commission, the company made nearly

$110,000.46 A highly profitable venture, the glass manufactory and its product proved

popular through the process by which souvenirs were obtained.

Since the fair itself drew a wide public, souvenir vendors had a ready

audience. AsFrank Leslie's Illustrated Historical Register of the Centennial Exhibition

1876 noted, visitors to the Department of Public Comfort could easily make purchases,

and those behind the sales counters could make fine profits:

At the sales-counters could be obtained not only umbrellas, canes and other articles of use or necessity, but numerous little souvenirs in the way of small jewelry, lacquer-boxes, fans, etc. all of which were held at reasonable rates. As an illustration of the success of this business, it may be stated that one party who kept a counter in the Public Comfort Building cleared over $10,000 on his business during the season 47

With choices to make in purchasing souvenirs, producers needed to lure consumers.

The large sales of Gillinder and Sons souvenirs came through sharing the process of

glass making with its visitors. The novelty of this enterprise captured the attention of

45 Albert Christian Revi, American Pressed Glass and Figure Bottles, New York: Thomas Nelson & Sons. 1964), 163-4; Stan Gores, "Glass Souvenirs of the 1876 Centennial,"Glass (Nov.- Dee. 1972), 26, 23.

46This total was arrived at through the commission figure published in the Director- General's Report. Glass Manufacturing and Blowing provided $19,015.52 for the fair. This equals 15% of $126,788.13. The glass company received $107,752.91. See Goshom, "Report of the Director-General," 20.

47Frank H. Norton, ed.Frank Leslie's Illustrated Historical Register of the Centennial Exhibition 1876 (New York: Frank Leslie's Publishing House, 1877),211.

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writers of various guide books to the fair which provided Gillinder and Sons with

additional promotion.48 However, the most descriptive guides were not sold on the

grounds. In fact, the official guide simply noted that a glassware manufactory existed

while the fair's official catalog only described the building's location. For the price of

twenty-five cents a word, Gillinder could have provided a more lengthy text for the

catalog, yet, they did not. Perhaps the company found the combination of descriptive

guidebooks available away from the fair, verbal recommendations and their location near

the west entrance of the fairgrounds sufficient publicity to draw crowds (figure 14).

Popular guides and histories of the Centennial Exhibition described sights of

the fair, particularly those which purchasers might find of most interest. Many believed

the glassworks to be exceptionally worthwhile. Indeed,Frank Leslie's noted that:

"Altogether, there were probably no outside exhibitions at the Centennial which attracted

so much attention,"49 and Thompson Westcott observedCentennial in Portfolio: A

Souvenir o f the International Exhibition that the glassworks "was thronged every day by

thousands of visitors-for [it] was one of the most popular buildings on the grounds."50

Most of these texts, such asFrank Leslie's, included accounts of the Gillinder

Glassworks as well as illustrations of the building and its interior. These illustrations

prepared the visitor for the special effects of the display. People entered the Glassworks

48See Visitors Guide to the Centennial Exhibition and Philadelphia (Philadelphia: 1876 J. B. Lippincott and Company, 1876);International Exhibition 1876 Official Catalog, Revised ed. "Part III Machinery Hall, Annexes, and Special Buildings" (Philadelphia: John R. Nagle and Company, 1876); United States Centennial Exhibition, The Official Catalog Advertising leaflet, Philadelphia Exhibition Collection. Vol. 1 Historical Society of Pennsylvania Manuscript Collection.

49Norton, 267.

50Paul J. Fitzpatrick, "Gillinder and Sons at the Philadelphia Centennial,"Spinning Wheel (July -August 1965), 15. While Fitzpatrick quotes from Thompson Westcott'sCentennial Portfolio: A Souvenir of the International Exhibition, the author could not find such text in a copy of Westcott's guide in the Winterthur Library. Perhaps another edition exists, or Fitzpatrick erred in his reference.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. and moved towards it, encouraged from across the fairgrounds by the "Glassworks

Gillinder and Sons" pennants flying on the roof. The sight of the continually burning

furnace spewing smoke from its towering chimney into the air prepared them for the

stifling heat inside, only slightly alleviated by cool air let in through half-open windows

(figure 15).

Once inside, they could experience the exciting and perhaps dangerous

processes of annealing, blowing, cutting, buffing and engraving glass which they

previously heard of, read about or saw in illustrations (figureFrank 16). Leslie's guide

noted "a workman... engaged in molding glass into various shapes while in its melted

condition" and "boys... running about with the newly-made article still at red heat,

carried on the top of a stick."51 Westcott reported an even more lively version:

Every now and then, half-a-dozen boys, armed with iron rods, would be seen to go briskly to the main tower, stir up the veritable hell's broth inside of it, and bring out balls of the rosy mass on the end of their metal sticks, roll the crimson globules on tables of iron, swing them to and fro in the air, plunge them into the mouths of smaller fountains of flame, called the 'glory holes'.52

Such dramatic descriptions could only entice visitors. Working with the glass in "its

melted condition" or while "at red heat" highlighted the risks of working with this

medium and the drama of viewing the process. Westcott's account suggested a virtual

small stage version of Dante'sInferno with the "hell's broth," "crimson globules" and

the mention of glory holes.53 The glassworks represented no ordinary display-it was

51Norton, 267.

52Fitzpatrick, 15.

53A glory hole is a small furnace where the glass is reheated prior to entering the annealing oven.

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entertainment. And, ostensibly, it cost nothing extra beyond the price of admission to

the fair.

Once visitors entered the Gillinder and Sons Glassworks, they were not

disappointed. As James Gillinder noted, "It was a complete establishment, showing the

processes of melting, blowing, pressing, cutting, etching and annealing."54 Indeed, as

guests gathered behind a low partition in the steaming building, they watched those acts

on the stage in front of them with the towering furnace in the center. Smaller furnaces

surrounded it where men and boys tended to the melting and molding of the glass. This

spectacle impressed visitor E.S. Marsh, of Brandon, Vermont, who noted in his journal:

Not only were glass dishes, cups, lamp chimneys, &c. made here, but in the back part of the room an elaborate little glass steam-engine was running, and a glass blower was making all of these little ornaments and trinkets of glass which were often seen.55

At another side of the building one saw men decorating pressed glass items produced in

advance of the fair. For a fee, one could purchase "very pretty glass slippers,

paperweights of different kinds, delicate wine-glasses and tumblers, flowerholders,

pitchers and numerous other souvenirs" and survey as the object was frosted, or

engraved with a design, the words "Centennial 1876," or the name or initials of one’s

choice.56 The engravers provided even more of a show for they did not outline their

patterns on the glass, rather relied on mental images and the skill of their hands. "These

movements,"The Centennial Exposition, Described and Illustrated noted, "were so

54Norton, 267.

55E.S. Marsh, "Memoir of the Centennial Exhibition of 1876 by E. S. Marsh," Joseph Downs Collection of Manuscripts and Printed Ephemera, Winterthur Library.

56 Fitzpatrick, 15.

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rapid that the glass seemed to be almost continuously upon the wheel."57 When the

wheel stopped spinning, the visitor saw the created magic and received his or her

personalized souvenir.

Since the Gillinders purchased the concession to sell objects for immediate

profit, they further capitalized upon this by making these objects inexpensive enough for

a wide variety of consumers. While exact prices for Gillinder items are not available,

their 1879 Price List includes a pint size crystal molasses jug at a cost of $2.20 per

dozen.58 A further comparison might be made with glass objects sold seventeen years

later, at the World's Columbian Exposition. Undoubtedly influenced by the success of

the Gillinder Glassworks, the Libbey Glass Company undertook a similar venture in

Chicago by replicating a glassworks. The demand for glass souvenirs was tremendous.

Because of this, Libbey may have commissioned other glass manufacturers, including

the Mount Washington Glass Company of New Bedford, Massachusetts, to produce

souvenirs which Libbey then marked with its eagle trademark.59 Some of Libbey's

products were purchased by the keeper of "Remeniscenses [sic] of our Trip to the

Columbian Exposition from August 21/93 to August 31/93." This detailed account of

purchases and expenditures of three individuals-Mary, Etta, and the unnamed writer-

includes two purchases of glass objects. On August 24 they visited the Libbey Glass

Works:

57J. S. Ingram,The Centennial Exhibition Described & Illustrated. (Philadelphia: Hubbard Brothers, 1876), 284.

58This list suggests that Gillinder did not sell out of all their pre-produced souvenirs at the close of the fair. Indeed, they may even have continued to produce such souvenirs (the "Just-out" toothpick holders, lion paperweights, slippers and statuettes) to capitalize upon lingering nostalgia over the event

59Carl U. Fauster, Libbey Glass Since 1818 Pictorial History & Collector's Guide (Toledo, OH: Len Beach Press, 1979), 172; and Carl U. Fauster "The Glass Pavilion in Toledo,"Glass Magazine (Nov.-Dee. 1972), 59.

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which is well worth seeing, as they work Glass in all kinds of fancy nic- nacs from a enormous glass Walking cane, to Lamp shades and Dresses all woven & spun of Glass. Being very hot in this Building our usual dry throat was dry very early to-day___

Later that day," ... I stopped at Libby [sic] Glass works again to buy another glass

cane as the one bought this am. I broke "60 The accounts, listed in the back of the

diary, note that glass pins were purchased for twenty-five cents and a cane, also for

twenty-five cents. At half the price of admission, this still might be dear to those who

barely could scrape together the fifty cents needed to enter. Yet, as part of $163.75 in

total expenditures, including travel from Buffalo, New York, room and meals, such

objects cost relatively little.

The objects themselves can further suggest information about their cost and

audience. For example, the mug in figure 17 represents a typical Gillinder souvenir.

Like the popular glass slippers or paperweights, this mug could have been made in

advance of the fair, or produced on the grounds. Unlike this example, most would have

been marked underneath, "Gillinder & Sons, Centennial Exhibition."61 Made of

inexpensive lime glass, the mug was pressed-a quick method of producing a line of

identical objects. Once the consumer viewed the procedure of making glass objects,

s/he chose a mug to be engraved and the design to be executed. The Bissell mug readily

shows the hand of the engraver, for the wreath surrounding "Bissell" is crooked. The

surname does not appear in the exact center of the leaves, and at top, where the leaves

do not join into a full circle, the right-hand side rises higher than the left. This

combination of hand engraving and pressed glass lent personalization to an otherwise

generic item and involved the consumer through choice in the decoration of the object.

60"Remeniscenscs [sic] of our Trip to the Columbian Exposition from August 21/93 to August 31/93." Joseph Downs Collection of Manuscripts and Printed Ephemera, Winterthur Library.

61Gores, 26.

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This and other Gillinder objects suggest an inexpensive item both for the

manufacturer and consumer which allowed for showmanship at the time of purchase.

Visitors came to see the intricacies of making glass objects, perhaps introduced by

publicized views and descriptions of the concession. While in the Glassworks they

were able to participate in the process by selecting an object for purchase and decoration.

They might have chosen a paperweight produced in front of their eyes. By doing so,

they left Gillinder, and the Exhibition itself, with a commercially produced memento

which also represented a piece of the exhibit itself. The owner knew where the object

was made, and witnessed how it was made. Vicariously, he or she participated in the

creation.

In retrospect, Gillinder glass souvenirs seem synonymous with the

Philadelphia Centennial because of the volume sold. While pressed glass objects were

not new in 1876, they were new as fair souvenirs.62 Indeed, souvenirs played special

roles in fairs, for these events provided a ready market for such objects and served to

successfully introduce new kinds of souvenirs or promote recent forms.63 The New

Orleans World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition reasonably retains

associations with textile souvenirs while the Chicago fair served to introduce the picture

post card and further promote the souvenir spoon.64 Although an interest in souvenir

62Extant objects do not demonstrate that glass souvenirs were sold at the New York Crystal Palace. If such an object is found, it still does not seem likely that glass objects found the market in New York that they did in Philadelphia. Indeed, paper souvenirs still seem the dominate souvenir-type for that fair.

63Sussman, 5.

64For a summary of the history of the postcard and the types available at the World's Columbian Exposition, see George Miller's "Pioneer Viewcards” and "Expositions and Minor Events" In Dorothy B. Ryan, ed.Picture Postcards in the United States 1893-1918, edited by Dorothy B. Ryan (New York: Clarkson N. Potter, Inc, 1982), 1-14 and 3349.

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spoons began between 1889 and 1891, more were produced for the Columbian

Exposition-around six hundred different designs-than for any other event in history.65

Already popular in Europe, souvenir spoons of American manufacture did

not appear until the late nineteenth century. Perhaps the first example, a spoon

copyrighted in 1889 by M. W. Galt, Brothers & Company, of Washington, D.C.,

featured the head of George Washington on the end of the shank. An even greater

commercial success appeared a year later in New England, and is generally credited as

starting the souvenir spoon craze in the United States. After travelling and collecting

spoons in Europe, Daniel Low of Salem, Massachusetts, made one to celebrate Salem's

infamy. Over seven thousand "Witch" spoons sold within the year. By 1891, over

two thousand two hundred different souvenir spoons were estimated to be available in

the United States.66 Publications like Souvenir Spoons of America and Souvenir

Spoons, both printed in that year, served to further promote and encourage the collection

of these objects.

Various theories attempt to explain the commercial success of decorative

spoons; each seem to be rooted in historical associations with silversmithing.

Contemporary accounts note that American travellers often purchased old silverware

while visiting Europe to bring fine examples of the craft home. In response to this

demand, English silversmiths began producing flatware representing different cities.

The spoon became the most fashionable because of the decorative surface available

within the bowl. Another explanation from 1891 suggested that "the very love of the

65Connie Halket, "Silver Brownies,"Silver (Sept.-Oct. 1992), 37.

66Souvenir Spoons of America, with foreward by Anton Hardt (New York: The Jeweler's Circular Pub. Co., 1891; reprint, New York: Privately Printed, 1962), 4. While the witch spoon was not patented, the trademark was registered on January 13,1891. See Dorothy T. Rainwater and Donna H. Felger, American Spoons: Souvenir and Historical (Hanover, PA: Everybodys Press, 1968), 16.

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spoon... is innate in all hearts" and that its success related to associations with health

and pleasure-of being fed by spoon. Historian Karal Ann Marling appeared to agree

with the latter, for she argued that the significance of the spoon as a collectible lies in its

reflection of the Colonial American past, of the hearth and home, and the gentility

associated with silver objects.67 While no definitive explanation for the demand for

souvenir spoons exists, no event more clearly demonstrated the popularity of these

objects than Chicago's World's Columbian Exposition. Although it may be impossible

to fully understand the phenomenon of the souvenir spoon at this fair, this souvenir-type

alone illustrates the complexities of souvenir production in the late nineteenth century.

In her Master's thesis, "A Victorian Woman’s Material World: The Life and

Legacy of Mary Cowgill Corbit Warner," Kimberly A. Rich argued that the material

objects of Mary Warner created a kind of three-dimensional diary of her life; that these

objects were as autobiographical as any written autobiography could be. These telling

objects included a collection of souvenir spoons, three with associations to the Chicago

World's Fair. Since most spoons represented places rather than people or occasions,

and because Rich knew that the wealthy Mary Warner traveled in her later years, Rich

suggested that the objects represented a travel journal. Support for this assertion came

from the fact that "Spoons depicting the same place, but fabricated at different times,

imply that MCW did not purchase them concurrently." However, Rich also referred to

Souvenir Spoons of the which90's notes that souvenir spoons depicting various

locales could be purchased from a nearby jeweler. Mary Warner may not have

purchased spoons of the same location at the same time; she may also have not have

67George B. James, Jr.Souvenir Spoons, with foreward by Anton Hardt (Boston: A. W. Fuller & Co., 1891; reprint, New York: Privately Printed, 1962), 105-6;Souvenir Spoons of America, 3; Karal Ann Marling,George Washington Slept Here: Colonial Revivals and American Culture 1876- 1986 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1988), 161.

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purchased the spoons in the locations which they commemorate. The fact that spoons

were engraved and dated could attest to travel dates although Rich associated them with

familial events: a birth, a sixteenth birthday.68

Of the three spoons which refer to the Columbian Exposition in Mary

Warner's Collection, one can be directly associated with that fair (figures 18 and 19). A

pamphlet issued by B. F. Norris, Alister and Company on May 1,1893, the opening

day of the fair, describes this spoon (figure 20). Featuring the bust of Columbus

surrounded by a wreath and a shield inscribed "World's Columbian Exposition" on the

shank, the bowl displays the Caravel Santa Maria. The back of the spoon includes the

head of Queen Isabella, also surrounded by a laurel wreath above a reverse of the Globe

over which a band shows the dates "1492-1893." Below the dates, the Exposition's

Official Seal reads: "The/World’s/Columbian/Exposition/Seal/Chicago/Ill/U. S. A." The

back also displays the mark of the Alvin Manufacturing Company. A sterling silver

coffee spoon with a gilt bowl, this spoon cost $1.50 at the time of the Exposition. As

advertised by B. F. Norris, Alister and Company, this official spoon represented the

entire fair and was "sold only on the World's Fair grounds".69 In order to purchase it,

the consumer had to physically visit the fair.

The concession for souvenir spoons was granted during the February 1,1893

meeting of the World's Columbian Exposition Executive Committee. There, the Ways

and Means Committee presented a recommendation for:

a concession to B.F. Norris, Alister & Co. for the sale of souvenir spoons upon their bid of 43% of the gross receipts they to give bond for the sum of $50,000, and deposit with the treasurer $10,000 to apply on final settlement.

68See Kimberly A. Rich, "A Victorian Woman's Material World: The Life and Legacy of Mary Cowgill Corbit Warner" (Master's thesis, University of Delaware, 1989), 38-43.

69B.F. Norris, Alister and Co. Brochure. Collection of Steve Sheppard. They also directed the sales of spoons sold in the Women's, Children's and Machinery Buildings.

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This motion was received and approved provided "the Women's and Children's

Buildings excepted [sic] from the concession and provided the amount of bond be

reduced to $25,000."70 Jewellers B.F. Norris, Alister & Company were located in

Chicago, at 113 and 115 State Street. Distributors of the official fair spoons, the

company did not manufacture the objects. Instead, they served as a clearing house for

two different manufacturers.

The Official World's Fair Columbian Spoon, described in an advertising

sheet and in an illustrated pamphlet, was actually made by the Alvin Manufacturing

Company of Irvington, New Jersey. Originated in 1886, in Newark, New Jersey, and

incorporated August 17,1887, the Alvin Manufacturing Company produced sterling

silver ware and novelties. As one of the first silver manufacturers to pursue the market

for souvenir spoons, Alvin involved some of their most skilled designers in developing

patterns. Because of the success of its souvenir spoons during the 1890s, Alvin built a

larger facility in Irvington, New Jersey, where the spoons for the World's Columbian

Exposition were produced.71

The patent (No. 22,499) for this official spoon was granted to William H.

Jamouneau of Newark on June 6,1893. The president and secretary of Alvin, he

designed many spoons for the company, and particularly the Chicago fair. Since the

patent did not come through until after the opening of the fair, the spoons produced prior

to this date are stamped "PAT APPL'D FOR" on the back. In addition to this official

fair spoon, Jamouneau designed and Alvin produced the official spoons for the

Women's and Children's Buildings; he received a patent for the former on August 8,

70Executive Committee Minutes, 619.

71Rainwater and Felger, 380.

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1893 (No. 22,678). Like the official spoon, these are marked "PAT. APPL'D FOR."

With Justus Verschuur of Jersey City, Jamouneau also assisted in designing a quadruple

plated tea spoon, a less expensive product. They received the patent (No. 22,500) for

this design on June 6, 1893.

Yet, B.F. Norris, Alister and Company did not only solicit spoons from the

Alvin Manufacturing Company. Spoons to be sold in the Machinery Building were

"manufactured on the presses of E. W. Bliss and Co., the Exposition to receive 40% of

the gross receipts."72 Founded in 1875 by E. A. Bliss and J. E. Carpenter, in North

Attleboro, Massachusetts, the business moved to Meriden, Connecticut in 1890. They

received a patent (No. 18,479) for a world's fair spoon on September 30,1890.

Featuring the words "World's Fair Souvenir Chicago 1893" in script, this does not

match the design for spoons sold through B. F. Norris, Alister and Company, which

featured decoration on the shanks and illustrations of a specific fair building in the

bowl.73

Upon purchasing an official fair spoon, the consumer received a card from

B. F. Norris, Alister and Company noting that: "On presenting this card at our store,

113 and 115 State Street World's Fair Souvenir Spoon will be engraved free of charge"

(figure 2 1).74 One visitor who took advantage of this offer noted in his diary:

we went up Dearborn Str. to State to find Norris Alister & co's Jewelry store to have names engraved on Souvenir spoons which we bought for our children, as they agree to-do this free of charge by calling at their store Those souvenir spoons were to be ready at 4 p.m. so we went after them, but they were not quite done yet, so we

72Executive Committee minutes, 821.

73Dorothy T. Rainwater,Encyclopedia of American Silver Manufacturers, (New York: Crown Publishers, 1975), 26.

74B. F. Norris, Alister and Co. Coupon, Collection of Steve Sheppard.

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Although the purchasers of the official fair spoon did not view the entire process of

making their spoon, nor even of the engraving, like those purchasing Gillinder glass in

Philadelphia seventeen years earlier, the similar opportunity to personalize one's

souvenir existed. Although this anonymous visitor does not list the number of spoons

purchased, he does note that they cost $5.50 in his accounts. Since he travelled with

two companions, it seems likely that they purchased three spoons. Indeed, to total that

amount, at least three must have been purchased.76

Hundreds of other entrepreneurs took their chances in convincing consumers

that "No spoon collection is complete without [their product]."77 B. F. Norris, Alister

and Company rightly complained that they did not really have the only concession on

fair spoons, for visitors could take advantage of greater variety and lower prices away

from the fair. Spoon sales away from the fair grounds also suggested ways people

might purchase spoons without ever attending the event. Because of the craze for

souvenir spoons and for the Columbian Exposition, such spoons found an eager market

and presented profitable enterprises for both companies and individuals.

The other two spoons in Mary Warner's collection represent such

opportunists. The enamelled image of Christopher Columbus in the bowl of the spoon,

combined with the unfurled American flag over a spread-winged eagle which rests on

top of a columnar shaft, suggests sentiments associated with the fair's celebration of the

quatercentenary of Columbus's discovery of America (figures 18 and 19). As did the

7^"Remeniscenses of our Trip," 21 August 1893.

76The most expensive official spoon cost $2.50; two would only have equalled $5.00.

77Weimann, 467. From an advertisement of B. F. Norris, Alister and Company, reprinted fromJeweller's Circular, 19 July 1893.

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official spoon, numerous other examples featured Columbus's image. While this spoon

owes association to the Chicago fair, it lacks the official seal. Nor was it produced by

Alvin or Bliss, those companies hired to produce official spoons. The spoon shows "B

& F Sterling" on the back of the shank, possibly the mark of the Bachrach and Freeman

Company of New York City. This business produced eighteen patterns of Chicago

spoons and two Columbian designs as noted in Jewelers'the Weekly in 1893.78 Such

spoons could have been available outside of the fairgrounds or through mail order to

New York City.

Although they did not produce official world's fair spoons, the Gorham

Company of Providence, Rhode Island dominated the general market for souvenir

spoons. Founded in 1831 by Jabez Gorham and Henry Webster, the company changed

names six times before reaching Gorham Corporation, by which it is known today.

Gorham and Company, as it was called in 1893, designed and produced most of the

spoons on the market during the 1890s. Through the facilities of companies which they

acquired, they kept up with the demand. Yet, Gorham spoons were not always marked

with the company's trademark-a lion, anchor and capital G. Spoons may have been

marked with the division that produced it or it may remain unmarked. While Gorham

purchased the Alvin Manufacturing Company, which produced many of the official

souvenir spoons, this did not occur until 1928, long after Columbian Exposition

souvenirs were made.79

78Rainwater and Felger, 370-71. Reprint of a list of spoons produced in the United States from the Jewelers' Weekly, October 11,1893.

79Rainwater and Felger, 389-90,380.

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The two 1891 publications,Souvenir Spoons and Souvenir Spoons of

America, were published at the request of Gorham and Company.80 While they do not

exclude spoons produced by other companies, many of the spoons depicted in these

publications are Gorham made, either by the company or its recently purchased

associates. One such division, Tilden, Thurber and Company, also headquartered itself

in Providence, Rhode Island. Its associations with Gorham began in 1856 when the

sign over the company's door read Gorham Co. and Brown. The name of the business

changed to Henry T. Brown and Co. in 1878, to Tilden-Thurber and Co., in 1880 and

before it became incorporated on June 23,1892 as Tilden-Thurber Corporation. Tilden,

Thurber produced at least one Columbian Exposition spoon which was featured in both

spoon publications and owned by Mary Warner. Since the spoon appeared as early as

1891 its marks shows the name effective prior to June of 1892.Souvenir Spoons

suggested that this spoon: "will command attention on account of its superb

workmanship and true merits” whileSouvenir Spoons o f America echoed the notion that

the spoon: "will command much attention by reason of its exquisite workmanship and

intrinsic merits" (figures 18 and 19).81

The spoon itself proves interesting Souvenirfor Spoons noted that it may be

"Sent to any address on receipt of price." Made only in sterling silver, the consumer

could select a tea spoon with plain bowl for $3.00, an orange spoon with plain bowl for

$3.25 or a tea spoon with decorated bowl for $3.50. Decoration probably referred to

gilding. Two years later, the January 1893World's Columbian Illustrated included an

advertisement for the spoons and noted that "if [the spoon is] not found at your

80Charles H. Carpenter, Jr.Gorham Silver, 1831-1981. (New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1982), 180.

81James, 229;Souvenir Spoons o f America, 34-6.

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jewelers, send to Tilden-Thurber Co., Providence, Rhode Island" (figure 22). Prices

differed fromSouvenir Spoons for the spoons were listed between $2.75 to $1.50.

Mary Warner's ungilded large tea spoon may have cost $2.50 or $3.00, depending on

when she purchased it. The differing prices may have occurred because of greater

competition. By 1893, the opening year of the fair, more objects on the market could

have required Tilden-Thurber to lower prices to compete. Yet, even the lower prices

were more expensive than B. F. Norris, Alister's official tea spoons. Possibly, the

additional cost incurred in purchasing the Tilden-Thurber and Co. spoon resulted from

ordering by mail. For those who could not attend, the cost of official spoons might not

have been known. Even if it was, the extra few cents proved less expensive than a trip

to Chicago.

While these Columbian related spoons were made on the east coast, not all

souvenir spoon manufacture occurred there. In the south, spoons were produced in

Charleston, South Carolina; west coast manufacturers worked in Seattle, Washington,

and San Francisco, California. Regardless of the location, however, souvenir spoons

seem to have been made and marketed by established businesses. Yet, four hundred

and twenty-five miles north of Chicago, a single man who worked a small shop in a

bustling, Midwestern town, also produced a world's fair spoon. Instead of using silver

or silver plate, he chose a less common metal for such objects. Although these copper

spoons were not unique, the metal and their design owed much to the area from which

they came.82

82At least one other copper spoon was made to commemorate the Columbian Exposition. Featuring a raised floral pattern and the words "Chicago-1893" within a scroll, this hand-colored copper spoon is noted in Richard Friz, ed.The Official Price Guide to World's Fair Memorabilia, First Edition, (New York: House of Collectibles, 1989), 198.

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The Keweenaw Peninsula comprises the western end of Michigan's Upper

Peninsula (figure 23). Named by its native people, the Ojibway,Ke-wai-wo-na meant

the "place we go around." Surrounded by Lake Superior, filled with forest, the land

was also known by the nickname Copper Country. Boasting the world's largest deposit

of native copper-nearly pure copper found in its metallic state-the area prospered during

the nineteenth century. Copper mining in the area began during the 1840s and the

Michigan copper industry, dominated by the Calumet and Hecla Mine, provided the

world with much of this metal. Through the beginning of the Civil War, the Keweenaw

Peninsula provided seventy-five per cent of American copper production. Although

western mines, in Montana and Arizona, began to out-produce Michigan mines by the

1880s, Michigan mines still held strong-between 1880 and 1910 twelve to sixteen per

cent of the world's copper production still came form Northern Michigan.83

The town of Calumet, Michigan, home to the Calumet and Hecla Mines, the

powerhouse of Northern Michigan mining, actually represented a number of small

towns. Calumet itself referred to the company area, as did Hecla and South Hecia.

Calumet generally signified Calumet Township, in Houghton County, including the

villages of Yellow Jacket, Raymbaultown, Red Jacket Shaft, Tamarack, Red Jacket,

Laurium, as well as the three aforementioned mining towns. Called a "unique

municipality" in 1899, the Calumet area was home to an ethnic conglomerate drawn to

the area by work in the mines and the opportunities for prosperity. Even while western

mines took control of the copper market, the Calumet area prospered, growing from a

population of about 8,000 in 1882 to 32,845 in 1910.84

83C. Harry Benedict,Red Metal: The Calumet and Hecla Story (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1952), 2; Larry Lankton,Cradle to Grave: Life, Work, and Death at the Lake Superior Copper Mines, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), 5,9,14,21-23,71.

84Arthur W. Thumer, Calumet Copper and People: History of a Michigan Mining Community, 1864-1970 (Hancock, MI: Privately Published, 1974). The predominant ethnic groups

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Sometime by 1892, when the population of Calumet exceeded 12,529, a

man associated with the Lake Superior Metal Company came upon a scheme to make a

fortune.85 He had found success producing small copper trinkets and favors for

company parties staged by the Calumet and Hecla and Quincy mines as well as for

holiday giveaways. Perhaps while reading theDaily Mining Gazette, the local

newspaper from Houghton, he learned about about the forthcoming spectacle down in

Chicago, Illinois. Because of the blitz of promotion begun in 1891 by the fair’s

Department of Publicity and Promotion,Daily the Mining Gazette would undoubtedly

have published articles concerning the forthcoming event and lithographic images would

have circulated in the area. Likely, the Mines and Mining Building would have been

featured, particularly because plans were underway, under the aegis of Samuel Brady of

Houghton, for Michigan's display of its native copper in that building.

Indeed, Michigan's display dominated others in the Mines and Mining

building by winning fifty awards-more than any other state (figure 24). Michigan

showed "a unique display illustrative of her copper industry" as North Dakotan Marian

Shaw noted in her articles about the fair forThe Argus of Fargo. Allotted 3,038 square

feet of space, Michigan "Artistically arranged in the center of the space... massive

specimens of copper... also large ingots...." The exhibit contained 1,909 specimens

including two masses of copper weighing 8,500 and 6,200 pounds, respectively, and a

working model of a shaft, provided by the Calumet and Hecla Mine.86

included: Finns, English, French-Canadians, English-speaking Canadians, Austrians, Italians, Germans, Swedes, Irish and Norwegians.

85Clarence J. Monette, Letter to the author, 9 December 1992. The Michigan Department of Commerce holds no incorporation papers for a business with such a name.

86Larry Massie, "The Great American Fair: Michigan and the Columbian Exposition," Michigan History (May-June 1984), 18-19; Marion Shaw,World's Fair Notes (St. Paul, MN: Pogo Press, Inc, 1992), 44; Michigan Manual, "Michigan at the World’s Fair" (1893), 722. Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan.

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Travelling to Chicago would not have been difficult for this entrepreneur, for

Chicago was accessible to even these northernmost reaches of Michigan’s Upper

Peninsula. By the 1890s rail lines existed between Ontonagon and Houghton Counties;

narrow-gauge tracks between Calumet and the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul

Railway in Ontonagon had been completed fifteen years earlier. He probably headed

down to Chicago by this route, before the fair opened on May 1,1893. By April 6 his

product was mentioned in theDowagiac Times, a paper from a southwest Michigan

town (figure 23): "Calumet has a citizen who'll endeavor to combine business and

pleasure at the world's fair by selling 25,000 souvenir spoons made of copper."87

The actual spoon was most probably that depicted in figures 25 and 26. Made of

copper, this spoon displays an embossed image of the Mines and Mining Building in its

bowl as well as the words: "Columbian/Exposition 1893/Chicago." "Lake Superior

Metal" appears on the shank as does a crossed pick and hammer surmounted by a globe

which notes the dates 1492 and 1892. Unmarked, the back of the spoon shows only a

reverse of the globe. Chris A. McGlothin notes inWorld's Fair Spoons Volume I: The

World's Columbian Exposition that the spoon likely was sold or given away at

Michigan's mining exhibit.88 However, for this to have occurred, a concession or

privilege would had to have been granted to the spoon. The Executive Committee

minutes do not list such a recommendation. While they may not be complete, it seems

unlikely that the Lake Superior Metal spoon would have been sold on the grounds

87Dowagiac (Ml)Times, 6 April 1893. In I. M. Melton Scrapbook, 45. Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan. The Daily Mining Gazette shows no mention of these souvenirs in April of 1893. Perhaps Dowagiac's proximity to Chicago encouraged this notice of a Michigan native (figure 22).

88Chris A. McGlothlin,World’s Fair Spoons Volume I: The World's Columbian Exposition, n.p.:Florida Rare Coin Galleries, Inc., 147

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 67

since B. F. Norris, Alister and Company received the concession for all souvenir

spoons. More likely, it was sold outside of the fairgrounds.

What became of this man's hopes for financial success remains unknown.

Because he chose to make a tremendously popular souvenir-type out of a more unusual

material, the souvenir proved different from hundreds of other silver examples. As it

highlighted the product of his home through the metal and the inclusion of the Mining

Building in the bowl of the spoon, this souvenir may have found special sales with

Michigan visitors. Perhaps he even sold some of his spoons to neighbors in Calumet

before leaving town. He might have sold some while on the train, at his hotel, and

certainly on the streets of Chicago. Regardless, this nameless man and his product

represent another facet of the range of people-like the young woman writer at the

Philadelphia Centennial-hoping to find commercial success at a world's fair.

Warren Sussman believed that souvenirs, like all of those discussed above,

brought to life an event for many unable to experience it.89 However, when examining

these objects today, as material evidence of the past, Sussman's assertion appears false.

While souvenirs seem to bring a fair to life through images of the grounds or through

the tactile experience of holding a representative piece of the fair, these implications can

prove deceptive. Of the five souvenir spoons discussed, only one suggests that its

owner either visited the Columbian Exposition or, like the three children of Mary, Etta,

and their male companion, received a gift from a fair attendee. Yet, even that is not

certain. Visual evidence shows closing out sales during the last days of the

fair (figure 27). However, an undated advertising leaflet produced for B. F. Norris,

Alister and Company suggests that even the official souvenir spoons could have been

89Sussman, 5.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 69

purchased by those who did not visit the fair as the ad notes that "orders will receive

prompt attention." While the ad suggests it may have been meant for distributors since it

notes "terms to the trade," the ability to order spoons for sales elsewhere, or for direct

consumption, meant that even these objects may not necessarily presume a visit.

Similarly, the 1879 price list for Gillinder glass shows Centennial overstock still

available three years after the close of that fair. Although souvenirs were certainly

bought by people like C. W. Stephenson who chose to save money on mementos by

purchasing from vendors away from the fairgrounds, not all such souvenirs belonged to

people who entered through the gates. Thus, souvenirs alone-without provenance,

affiliated documents or a constellation of related objects-neither demonstrate a trip to the

Chicago World's Fair nor an accurate vicarious experience for those who did not attend.

Instead, the images imply that meaning.

Thus, visually, souvenirs provide a prescriptive experience. Since images are

often repeated from a fair's promotional material, they display a landscape chosen for its

marketing qualities. The souvenir presents grand structures, visited by a cosmopolitan

mix of visitors. As do guidebooks, souvenirs promote certain, primary buildings

suggesting one's visit would not be complete without entering those structures. Even

"bird's eye" views highlight certain buildings (figure 11). Although ostensibly an image

of the entire site, the viewer's attention still focuses upon the main structures. Those

who never went saw only an abridged image of the fair which emphasized the grandeur

and size of these impressive, temporary buildings. While people flocked to such

structures, they walked by and visited numerous other smaller buildings, as did

visitors from Buffalo, New York: "Being in the neighborhood we visited the State

buildings of Canada, Spain & Germany... From here we walked up to the Iowa State-

Building. .. Then we visited the state-buildgs [sic] of Maine, New Hampshire,

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 70

Connecticut, New Jersey, Rhode Island... ."90 On hot, summer days, few could have

passed up the opportunity for a cool drink of water offered at a concession stand (figure

28). In guide books, if such buildings received attention, the information was relegated

to the back. Yet, time spent there provides equal information about the fair experience

as does a visit to one of the more prominent edifices. Although the main fair buildings

necessarily drew the most visitors for their austerity, when such images on souvenirs

serve as mnemonic devices, they edit the experience of the fair.

Thus, commercial souvenirs help create a false memory. Without the

opportunity to view the other buildings and live through the sights and sounds, pictorial

images provide that landscape. Much becomes lost to those whose only "memory"

came from a silver teaspoon. Indeed, a souvenir could provide a fantastical image for

the owner if it depicted either a structure which was altered once it was built, or one

which was never constructed. Such fictional landscapes not only created a false

experience on a personal level, but also one celebrating a false historical landscape as the

iconography of fair souvenirs implied an historical narrative of the nation's

representative city for that year.

While promoting particular views of the fair, this structural emphasis and

potent thematic images provided visual definitions of the United States. An 1893

magazine noted that "One effect of the fair at Chicago has been to confound and refute

forever that... the exhibition could not be a success because it was American and not

French or English or German."91 Fair architecture specifically served this function. As

John Sears discusses in Sacred Places: American Tourist Attractions in the Nineteenth

90"Remeniscenses of our Trip," 29 August 1893.

91Mary or Edith Bringhurst. "World's Fair" Scrapbook. Rockwood Museum Archives.

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Century, Europe was known for its ancient ruins, castles and cathedrals while the

United States lacked such impressive structural symbols. Sears emphasizes that

between 1825 and 1885 American writers and artists promoted the natural landscape of

the United States-from the Connecticut River Valley to Yosemite. As a new nation, the

United States lacked the rooted cultural traditions of Europe. In searching for an

"American identity," it seemed likely to draw that meaning from what was truly

indigenous: the land.92 Sears' argument suggests that the natural landscape provided an

American equivalent to European architecture. Although temporary structures, world's

fair buildings might also have served this patriotic purpose. They created a built

environment intimating a past, and promoting design abilities which Europe believed

America lacked. The thematic focii of each fair reinforced historical ties, for historical

figures featured prominently. Additionally, the architecture involved earlier structures:

similarities to the London Crystal Palace in New York, the inclusion of Independence

Hall in Philadelphia, and a dominance of neo-classical design in Chicago.

Such images provided a device upon which to create a narrative, whether

based upon actual or imagined experience. Additionally, since not all fair souvenirs had

to be purchased on the grounds of the fair, they can intimate both fictional and "truer"

stories of travel. Such narrative qualities are stressed by Susan StewartOn in Longing:

Narratives of the Miniature, the Gigantic, the Souvenir, the Collection. Stewart, a

professor of English, considers heady implications of the souvenir, drawing not from

objects or much evidence, rather from theory. She argues that the experience such

objects connote belong only to the object's owner through reference to its origins.

Stewart writes: "What is the narrative of origins?... It is not a narrative of the object; it

92John F. Sears,Sacred Places: American Tourist Attractions in the Nineteenth Century (New York: Oxford University Press), 3.

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is a narrative of the possessor... It is a narrative which seeks to reconcile the disparity

between interiority and exteriority, subject and object, signifier and signified."93

Stewart asserts that the souvenir's narrative inherently intertwines the owner and the

experience; that the object serves to join the event and the person. Without that narrative

the object suggests nothing, for its meaning only comes alive to its owner or through

like connections with others.

That intertwining of experience and object to create a narrative finds its

fruition most readily with Gillinder glass souvenirs and the theatrical process involved in

their production and purchase. However, Stewart's belief that souvenirs can promote

only the experience of its owner negates the import of the makers in this drama.

Without the glass blowers, annealers and engravers, the process of glassmaking would

not have been displayed for the consumers. The hand of the maker, even on a mass-

produced object, retains significance in the narrative of that object. In the case of the

Gillinder glass factory the maker, object and consumer owe much to its theatrical

associations just as a play requires an audience as much as its actors.

Stewart’s belief that narrative can only come about through the object's

possessor or others with similar associations with the object seems parochial. By noting

that: "It [the souvenir] represents not the lived experience of its maker but the

'secondhand' experience of its possessor/owner," Stewart appears to consider the maker

an insignificant part of the object's richly textured meanings.94 Here, Stewart errs.

While the meanings suggested by the producer and consumer of an object may well

vary, nevertheless, they both contribute to its narrative qualities. If a souvenir is to

93Susan Stewart,On Longing: Narratives of the Miniature, the Gigantic, the Souvenir, the Collection. (Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1984), 137.

94Stewart, 135.

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serve as a physical representation of another time and place, it shares more knowledge

when the wide variety of people associated with it are considered. Additionally, since

the souvenir does not necessarily belong to someone who experienced the event it

commemorates, the object's narrative requires the acknowledgement of its makers and

sellers as well as its owner.

Why did people own fair souvenirs if they never attended the fair? Perhaps,

like Burnett's fictional child, Ben, owning a seeming piece of the fair made them feel a

part of this larger event and community. Further, owning and displaying souvenirs was

encouraged in the Victorian home, for such objects implied information about their

owner's personality.95 AsThe Housewife's Library explained to its readers: "Our

surroundings and our selves are part and parcel of one great whole. It is not we that

make our surroundings merely, but our surroundings in turn make us. We are molded

by the things we mold."96 Souvenirs were not meant to be scrutinized when on

display. Rather, they provided information through their decoration. Yet, what visitors

believed they saw and what the objects truly represented could vary greatly. By

displaying a silver spoon of the World's Columbian Exposition which was purchased

through the mail, one intimated a familiarity with the fair and the ability to travel,

without ever leaving town.

More complex than they immediately suggest, commercial souvenirs are

expected to conjure up a sense of the event which they commemorate, to be telling

enough to provide a view into that past. However, the possession of a souvenir spoon

95William Seale, The Tasteful Interlude: American Interiors Through the Camera's Eye, 1860-1917 (New York: Prager Publishers, 1975), 17.

96George Peltz, ed.The Housewife's Library (n. p.: Edgewood Publishing Company, 1885), 458. For a brief description of souvenirs and their role as part of the "memory place" in the Victorian home, see Katherine C. Grier, "The Decline of the Memory Place: The Parlor after 1890," In American Home Life, 1880-1930: A Social History of Spaces and Services, edited by Jessica Foy and Thomas Shlereth (Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 1992), 58-61.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 75

does not guarantee that the owner went or even knew someone who attended the fair.

Nor do the images or text necessarily represent the experience of that event In order to

gain a better sense of who attended world's fairs, the material culture of these events can

prove useful. With a greater knowledge of the intricacies of production, sales and

consumption, the use of souvenirs as illustrations and historical artifacts may become

more effective.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. APPENDIX A

LIST OF AMERICAN WORLD'S FAIRS 1853-1893

New York 1853-4 Exhibition of the Industry of all Nations July 14 1853-November 1,1854

Philadelphia 1876 Centennial International Exhibition May 9-November 10

Atlanta 1881 International Cotton Exposition October 5-December 31

Boston 1883-4 The American Exhibition of the Products, Arts and Manufactures of Foreign Nations September 3 ,1883-January 12,1884

Louisville 1883-7 Southern Exposition August 1 ,1883-October, 1887

New Orleans 1884-5 The World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition December 16,1884-June 1,1885

Chicago 1893 World's Columbian Exposition May 1-October 30

7 6

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. APPENDIX B

Rules For Concessions

The general rules governing lessees of concessions are as follows:

1. Lessees and such employes or assistants as may be necessary for the proper conduct of the business will have full access to the Exposition grounds, but they will be subject at all times to the General Rules and Regulations of the Expostion, and shall enter at such gates and at such hours as may be designated by the Exposition management.

2. No business under any of the concessions shall be conducted in other than a first-class, orderly manner. No gambling or games of chance will be allowed anywhere within the Exposition grounds.

3. All buildings, stands, or booths, leased or erected for concessions, shall be open at all reasonable hours to the inspection of the Director-General, and such agents as may be designated by the Exposition management.

4. No transferring or sub-letting of any interest in the concessions granted will be allowed without the written consent of the Exposition management.

5. No employe or assistant of lessees of concessions shall enter upon his duties until his name and address have been registered in the office of the Committee of Ways and Means, who will designate an official number which shall attach to said employe or assistant, and such number must be worn conspicuously by said employe or assistant when on duty, and used as the rules may designate.

6. All goods sold must be what they are represented, and no deception will be allowed.

7 7

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 78 7. Wagon gates will be open at 5 A. M. and closed at 8:30 A. M., for the purpose of admitting supplies to all those having concessions; all supplies must be brought in between those hours. Only such articles as are covered by the concession will be admitted without a special permit.

8. All stands, counters and fittings, together with all decoration, to be erected at the expense of the lessee; plans of the above to be subject to the approval of the Director- General.

9. Solicitation for the sale of goods will not be allowed.

10. Concessions will be limited to a given number of the same in each class or branch concerning which concessions are granted.

11. Lessees will be required to keep their premises clean and in complete order at all times, and shall not permit any violence, coarse or insolent language, or unnecessary noise about their premises. Any employes or assistants, wearing the number assigned by the Exposition management, appearing on the grounds at any time intoxicated, making unnecessary noise or using coarse or insolent language, will be deprived of their number and be immediately and permanently expelled from the grounds.

12. Persons procuring concessions to sell foreign goods will be subject to the above rules, in addition to the regulations issued by the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, for the protection and collection of the revenue.

13. Any person who attempts to sell, or expose for sale, in the Exposition grounds, or in any of the buildings erected thereon, any article whatever, without having first obtained a concession for such purpose, will be forthwith ejected from the Exposition grounds and prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

14. Any violation on the part of the lessees of any of the rules governing the Exposition or concessions, will make void their contract at the option of the Exposition managers.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 79 15. All lessees, assistants and their employes must leave the grounds within two hours after the close of the Exposition.

16. Persons procuring concessions will be required to furnish the Exposition management with a good and sufficient bond for the faithful performance of their contract.

17. The Exposition management reserves the right to amend or add to these rules whenever it may be deemed necessary for the interest of the Exposition and the public good.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Collections Consulted (Objects!

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Abbie Bahnemann, St. Paul, MN.

Greta Bahnemann, Wilmington, DE.

Mrs. Gina Bissell, Greenville, DE.

Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society, Buffalo, NY.

Coming Museum of Glass, Coming, NY.

Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village, Dearborn, MI.

The Historic New Orleans Collection, New Orleans, LA.

Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.

The Kentucky Museum, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, KY.

Steve Sheppard, New York, NY.

Margaret Woodbury Strong Museum, Rochester, NY.

Gretchen Walberg, Sunbury, PA.

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Larry Zim Collection, Division of Community Life, National Museum of American History, Washington, D. C.

80

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