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BENSCH, CHRISTOPHER LYNN CINCINNATI'S 1888 CENTENNIAL EXPOSITION AND THE CIRCUS.

UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE (WINTERTHUR PROGRAM), M.A., 1982

COPR, 1982 BENSCH, CHRISTOPHER LYNN University Microfilms International 300 N. ZEEB BO., ANN ARBOR, Ml 48106

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CINCINNATI'S 1888 CENTENNIAL EXPOSITION AND THE CIRCUS

By

Christopher Lynn Bensch

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

June 5, 1982

Copyrigiht Christopher Lynn Bensch 1982 All Rights Reserved

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CINCINNATI'S 1888 CENTENNIAL EXPOSITION AND THE CIRCUS

By

Christopher Lynn Bensch

Approved; Kermdth L. Arad'S*, Ph.D. Professor in charge of thesis

Approved: Stephanie G. Wblf, Ph.T). T’ ---- Coordinator of the Winterthur Program in Early American Culture

Approved:______R. B. Murray, Ph.iT University Coordinator for Graduate Studies

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION...... 1

Chapter I. CINCINNATI AND THE CIR C U S...... 8

II. THE PUBLICITY CAMPAIGN ...... 18

III. AN EXPOSITION IN CIRCUS STYLE ...... 30

IV. THE GREATEST SHOWS ON EA R T H ...... 42

V. A WORLD OF ENTERTAINMENT...... 55

NOTES ...... 70

BIBLIOGRAPHY...... • ...... 78

iii

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Figure

1. Newspaper Advertisement for the Cincinnati Centennial E x p o s i t i o n ...... 14

2. Overview of the Exposition Grounds on Opening Day ...... 23

3. View Down Elm Street Toward Music Hall and Washington Park Hall ...... 27

4. The Fountain and Central Rotunda in Washington Park H a l l ...... 35

5. View of Horticultural H a l l ...... 38

6. Tne Canal in Machinery H a l l ...... 50

iv

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

Cincinnati is not a city known for its glamor. Longfellow

saw the city in its best light when he called it "The Queen of the

West in her garlands drest / By the banks of the beautiful river."

More typical were references to the city as "Porkopolis." Guidebooks

described how "the smoke of hundreds of factories, locomotives, and

steamboats arises and unites to form this dismal pall, which obscures

the sunlight, and gives a sickly cast to the moonbeams. But Cin­

cinnati was more than a dingy river town, It shared with London,

Philadelphia, Paris, and Chicago the distinction of being the site of

a significant 19th-century exposition, Cincinnati's 1888 Centennial

Exposition of the Ohio Valley and Central States was much smaller

than any of the more famous fairs, yet over a million visitors sampled

its exotic and electrical delights during the sunnier and fall of

1888. Today, the Cincinnati Centennial has faded from view and from

memory in ways that London's Great Exposition and Chicago's World's

Columbian Exposition have not. Nevertheless, the Cincinnati Cen­

tennial merits its share of attention, not only as a portion of expo­

sition history, but also as an indicator of the character of its age.

The Cincinnati Centennial grew out of numerous forces at

work in Victorian America. After the success of London's 1851 Great

1

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Exposition, fairs were held with increasing frequency throughout the

western world, In the years following the Civil War, America's

industrial production--particularly of consumer goods— increased and

fairs were well-suited for publicizing technological advances and new

products, Cincinnati began its series of annual Industrial Exposi­

tions in 1870. The expanding railroads both facilitated the indus­

trial success which produced the goods on display at expositions and

enabled people to travel to distant expositions at reasonable rates.

But the western world's spate of expositions celebrated historical

events and cultural heritages as well as the latest developments of

science and industry, Americans were swept up in this consciousness

of the past and a "monument mania" possessed the nation, inspiring

all manner of commemorations. Memorial obelisks were erected,

historic sites like Mount Vernon were restored, and expositions

were held to celebrate a wide variety of anniversaries. At the same

time, the growing cities produced urban audiences which needed

amusement, and the industrial and office work schedules gave people

more free time to spend on entertainments. Meanwhile, non-farm

wages rose in the 1880s despite the period's deflationary tendency,

multiplying the nunber of people with money for leisure activities.

The exposition was one of the new institutions which responded to

these conditions,^

The last quarter of the 19th century produced numerous— and

often simultaneous— expositions in various styles and sizes. The

Cincinnati Centennial was part of this Victorian sequence of fairs.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. It was likewise the culmination of a lengthy series of industrial

expositions in Cincinnati. But to understand the Cincinnati Cen­

tennial , it must be separated from exposition stereotypes. Neil

Harris, describing the 1893 Columbian Exposition, noted, "Animal

pleasures and pastimes, trivial delights, Little Egypt, and the ice

cream parlors were also present, but given allotted spots outside the

fairgrounds, on the midways or pikes.This description conforms to

the expectation that expositions are solemn, intentionally signif­

icant events which include entertainment only as an embarrassing

appeal to the public's "lower nature." But this image bears no

resemblance to the Cincinnati Centennial, Its buildings were filled

with popcorn stands, soda fountains, and amusing presentations. Ice

cream sales were promoted in one of its showpiece areas and a beer

hall/restaurant was featured prominently in another, One of its

popular stage productions mcluded a semi-nude Egyptian bathing

scene, an official attraction xdiich pre-dated Little Egypt in her

midway show. Even the serious and high-minded exhibits from the

U.S. government and the Smithsonian Institution displayed assorted

curiosities and were the subjects of sensational advertising.

Education and entertainment were intermingled rather than segregated.

In order to comprehend the nature of the Cincinnati Cen­

tennial, the exposition should be treated as an artifact. It should

be examined and described, its qualities analyzed, and those

qualities evaluated for significance to the artifact and to the

society which produced it. However, the usual conception of fairs

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. as artifacts seems limited to an examination of their architectural

styles, Admittedly, architecture was an essential part of many

fairs, as is indicated by entire expositions being remembered by

their buildings— London's Crystal Palace or Chicago's White City—

rather than by their official titles, but in Cincinnati, although

some effort was spent on making the exposition buildings attractive,

architecture was hardly the fair's central feature. This was not a

spacious fair in which visitors strolled the landscaped grounds

between picturesque buildings. Instead, the Cincinnati Centennial

was an indoor fair on a constricted site. The buildings were

simply housing-economical and temporary housing at that— for the

displays and performances inside.

Inside these buildings was the artifact central to the

Cincinnati Centennial: the experience. The unspoken purpose of

the exposition may have been to promote the city and its consumer

goods, but the visitors bought an experience with the price of their

tickets. They sought the amusing and enlightenirig occupation of

several hours, not boosterism or architecture. The buildings,

displays, objects, and performances were pertinent to the visitors—

as they are to this paper— only insofar as they were the ingredients

in the experience which the fair offered. This paper seeks to

examine the exposition experience as it was created by the Cen­

tennial board of conmissioners and the exhibitors. That experience

was a manufactured artifact just as surely as was the furniture

displayed at the exposition. And just as an analysis of that

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. furniture can reveal something of the character of Victorian

culture and society, so too can an analysis of the experience pur­

veyed by the Cincinnati Centennial Exposition. Looking at this

single, restricted event and the experience it offered provides a

clearer picture of its time, place, and people,

The significance of the Cincinnati Centennial experience is

increased by the fact that it was an artifact intended for consump­

tion by a mass audience. The exposition was not the work of a

cloistered genius— it was a representative product of its age. In

the 1880s, publisher Charles Scribner wrote to his London partner,

'"You write that you do not know what I want in books to reprint,

I can only say I want anything that will sell. The Cincinnati

Centennial was likewise a business proposition, directed by a

board of commissioners made up of prominent Cincinnati businessmen,

and intended to turn a profit or at least return its backers'

investment. As such, it was a derivative product of a conmittee

process which attempted to formulate a crowd-pleasing attraction.

An intentional creation, the fair reveals the elements the

commissioners perceived to be necessary for a successful event.

They were simply trying to give the public what they felt it

wanted, indicating the character of an age in which mass popularity

was a desirable— and achieveable— goal, The ultimate financial

failure of the exposition does not necessarily indicate that the

commissioners were wrong in their estimation of public taste.

Attendance was voluntary and even a concoction of "sure-fire"

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 6

elements can sometimes fail to sell. Beyond the unpredictable whims

of the audience, factors ranging from railroad rates to rainy weather

influenced the success of the Centennial.

By exposing and analyzing the Centennial experience and the

techniques used to create it, this paper seeks to illuminate the

Victorian hierarchy of values, Ihe Cincinnati Centennial's qualities

placed it somewhere between a museum and an amusement park. Its

informative government exhibits and extensive art display resembled

a museum. But if Coney Island was "a festival that did not express

joy about something, but offered 'fun' in a managed celebration for

conmercial ends," much the same description could apply to the

Cincinnati fair,^ Ultimately, the Cincinnati Centennial resembled

a circus in its intentions, techniques, style, and ingredients.

This characterization helps approach an understanding of the exper­

ience the Cincinnati Centennial offered by distinguishing a coherent

pattern in the hundreds of exhibits and events which filled the

buildings and extended over the fair's duration. An examination of

the circus traits and tactics of the Centennial discloses the ways

in whicn the exposition experience reflects Victorian cultural

values and concurrent events and institutions.

Chapter I describes Cincinnati in 1888, outlines the circus'

pattern of operation, and examines the contents of circuses in the

1880s, Chapter II illustrates the circus traits and tactics ex­

hibited by the Cincinnati Centennial through opening day. Chapter

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 7

III demonstrates the circus style which characterized the exposi­

tion's displays, Chapter IV delineates the circus elements which

were transferred directly to the fair, And Chapter V analyzes the

significance of the circus' connection with the Cincinnati Centennial

Exposition and the experience it offered,

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

CINCINNATI AND THE CIRCUS

In 1888, Cincinnati was an important midwestem city, stretch­

ing along the Ohio River, Ihe city was the geographic center for the

entire United States population, and its 300,000 inhabitants made it

the eighth largest city in the country. But other cities were grow­

ing at a faster rate and Cincinnati's relative position was slipping.

Chicago had just assumed the position of Number 1 hog butcher in the

nation, though Cincinnati remained prominent in the pork packing

industry, Ihe grain which did not go into the troughs of local hogs

went into the imnense vats of the city's brewers and distillers who

produced over 20 million gallons of beer annually in addition to

other spirits. As the Detroit of its period, Cincinnati built

150,000 carriages each year, more than half the national total. A

transportation center with its railroads and steamboats, Cincinnati's

1866 Ohio River bridge was the longest suspended river crossing in

the world until the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge. Ihe city

also manufactured soap, clothing, furniture, and stoves, besides

leading the world in production of fire- and burglar-proof safes.®

If other cities were bigger or growing more rapidly, Cin­

cinnati felt that it was more civilized with its excellent art

8

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. museum, music festivals, and leafy suburbs on the surrounding hills.

Its horse-drawn streetcars had been augpiented in 1885 by the

addition of cable cars up the steep hillsides and the system was

electrified in 1888. H. H, Richardson had designed its Chamber of

Commerce building, Boosters called it "the Paris of America, the

Central Metropolis of Art and Music" and predicted that by 1938

Cincinnati would be the largest city in America and by 2000 the

largest in the world,^ Ihe general feeling was that the city had

come a long way from its founding in 1788 as Losantiville. Ihe past

hundred years had seen Cincinnati develop from a tiny frontier

settlement into a city famed for its expositions. Ihe first annual

Cincinnati Industrial Exposition had opened in September 1870,

establishing a tradition of running for a month in the cool of early

autumn. Recognition of Cincinnati's expertise in expositions

resulted in the selection of Alfred Goshom, commissioner for

several of its early fairs, as Director General for the Philadelphia

Centennial in 1876. By the close of 1886, thirteen industrial expo­

sitions had been held and the city naturally devised a grand cen­

tennial exposition to celebrate its 100th anniversary in 1888.

No industrial exposition was held in 1887 so that the city

could devote its energies to the lavish fair the following year.

Underlying the centennial effort was a need to prove Cincinnati to

be a cultured and sophisticated city. It was not sufficient to be

the home for numerous thriving industries. Cincinnati was still

smarting from the criticism of Mrs. Frances Trollope and her

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 10

Domestic Manners of the Americans (1832). Mrs, Trollope had

settled in Cincinnati, found the city completely without merit, and

reported the flaws she perceived for the delectation of a wide

audience, Cincinnati felt that its reputation had been maligned and

wanted to prove itself to Eastern and cultured observers. In an

1887 syndicated news article about the upcoming exposition, one

writer asserted, "Could Madame Trollope cone back now, fifty to one

she would speedily change her opinion,"® W, H, Venable boasted

defensively, "Ihe city is no longer provincial, no longer merely

metropolitan, but by contact and sympathy with the whole world has

become cosmopolitan," Centennial articles and advertisements

proudly observed that the exposition had been financed entirely with

Cincinnati donations whereas the fairs in Philadelphia and New

Orleans had resorted to federal and state funds, However, Cin­

cinnati's need for approbation revealed its sense of inferiority.

Ihe city was crushed when President Grover Cleveland failed to give

official recognition to the city and its fair by appearing on opening

day or on any other day. His rejection symbolized the denial of

Cincinnati's merits by the Eastern establishment. And Cleveland was

not alone in his lack of esteem for undertakings in the West,

Harper's Weekly noted that the Cincinnati Centennial exhibits "may

well surprise Eastern people who have not yet cone to realize the

wonderful resources and natural wealth of the West," Even the

Centennial president, James Allison, admitted, "We do not expect to

have an Exposition which will in any way rival the Centennial of

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 11

1876, but we do believe we shall have a display exceeding any ever

made west of the Mountains." Although it wanted the approval of the

East, a sense of inferiority kept Cincinnati in the ranks of second-

rate cities.^

Even if it did not surpass the 1876 Centennial, the 1888

Cincinnati Centennial outdid the previous industrial expositions in

every way. The period was extended from 30 days to 100, beginning on

the 4th of July rather than in September. The exhibits were likewise

multiplied and enlarged to the point that they would no longer fit in

the Gothic-fronted Music Hall complex which had housed every In­

dustrial Exposition since 1879. But Music Hall, with its enormous

concert hall and flanking wings of Machinery Hall and Art and Horti­

cultural Hall, was too useful a facility to abandon entirely. It was

conveniently located in the center of the city, close to hotels and

on all the major tram lines. To expand Music Hall's capacity, a

large three-story cruciform building was constructed across the street

in Washington Park and the two buildings were linked by a covered

bridge arching over Elm Street. Even this additional space failed

to provide adequate facilities for the machinery exhibit. The

ccranissioners then considered the space behind Music Hall where the

Miami and Erie Canal ran sluggishly. Opened at great expense in 1826,

the canal had lost its traffic to the railroads in the 1850s and by

1888 served mainly as an unsanitary nuisance and swimrung hole. So

the new Machinery Hall was built directly over the canal. Display

areas ran for 1,300 feet on either side of the waterway, connected by

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 12

four bridges, All told, the buildings added up to a floor space of

forty-three interconnected acres, "the largest connected covered

area ever used for any Exposition held on the Western Continent,"

said the Criterion of November 1887,^

Initially, the Cincinnati Centennial might not seem a

probable place for a circus influence to appear, but the relationship

was actually well established. Circuses had long emphasized their

connection with expositions, P. T, B a m u m began his circus career

in 1851 with a traveling assortment of exhibits from his museum,

resembling an exposition more than the modem concept of a circus.

By the time B a m u m loaded his circus aboard sixty-five railroad cars

in 1872 to tour the country, it was still called "P. T. Bamum's

Great Travelling Exposition and World's Fair." The John Robinson

Circus which made Cincinnati its winter headquarters called itself

"John Robinson's Great World's Exposition." And when the B a m u m and

Bailey Circus played for two days in Cincinnati in May of 1888, its

advertisements proclaimed it as "P, T, Bamum's Greatest Show on

Earth, forever united to the Great London Circus, Paris Olympia

Hippodrome and Monster World's Fair."^

That edition of the B a m u m and Bailey Circus probably

adhered to the standard pattern of circus operation followed by the

other twenty-one circuses touring the nation in 1888. By the 1880s,

the circus rode on rails, pausing at a series of centrally-located

towns for a succession of one-night stands. The advance car

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 13

traveled two weeks ahead of the circus on the same one-town/one-day

schedule. The men in this highly decorated railroad car covered

the countryside for as much as seventy-five miles around the show­

grounds with circus posters while their comrades in town arranged

publicity in the local papers. Then, on the day the circus arrived

in town, there was a grand parade of all the circus performers,

bands, and animals through the streets and leading to the circus

tents. The parade served as a preview of the show and was intended

to attract followers who would arrive at the tents just in time for

the afternoon performance. The new feature inside Barnum and Bailey's

tents in 1888 was the use of three rings, separated by two stages and

surrounded by a hippodrome track. This was an outgrowth of the

development of the two-ring circus in the 1870s. According to Neil

Harris, the problem with a single-ring circus had always been that

people would stand or move to the front in order to catch a better

view of the action. With the addition of a second ring, everyone in

the audience had something to watch within reasonable proximity.

Captivated by all the activity in two or three rings, circus

audiences gradually turned from rowdy, involved mobs into tractable

groups which remained awe-struck in their seats at the spectacle of

the dazzling presentations before than. ^

Lavish exoticism was a key ingredient in the circus of 1888,

But exoticism also characterized much of late Victorian culture.

Americans had a taste for the ancient, the foreign, and the strange.

One of the most popular books of the 1880s was Lew Wallace's Ben Hur

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 14

C ix v ix x a t i Ce x t e x x ia l ExmsiTIOX.

Fig. 1, Newspaper advertisement. Machinery Hall is in the rear, Music Hall in the center distance, and Washing­ ton Park Hall in the foreground. (Cincinnati Historical Society.)

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 15

(1880), Ihe Sunday School library movement was attracted to the

novel's Christian material, but the book's violent and exciting

chariot race was equally important in making it an enormous success.

In turn, Ben Hur inspired a successful dramatization which Prank Mott

describes as "melodrama, religious observance, and circus in one."

H. Rider Haggard's ventures into exotic Africa, King Solomon's

Mines (1886) and She (1887), became huge bestsellers as did Robert

Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island (1883), Ihe rage for the pagan

verse of Edward FitzGerald's "Ihe Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam" swept the

nation, starting with a first American edition published in Columbus,

Ohio. Travel books enjoyed great popularity, revealing distant lands

in novels like Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days (1873) or in

factual accounts such as Edward Walter Dawson's Ihe Isles of the Sea

(1886). Ihe completion of standard gauge track from Virginia to

Florida in 1888 permitted some Americans to escape winter in a con­

venient semi-tropical climate. Many other Americans turned the ex­

teriors and interiors of their hones into exotic visions, complete

with Egyptian moldings, Moorish fretwork, Turkish carpets, Japanese

screens, and eclectic collections of bric-a-brac covering every avail­

able horizontal surface, In these picturesque houses, the family

could gather round the parlor organ or piano and join in the popular

strains of "Aloha Oe" or the "Bedouin Love Song" of 1888,-^

The circus both reflected Victorian society's taste for the

exotic and satisfied the public craving for the foreign and the

mysterious, Ihe circus was an escape from mundane reality into a

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 16

world of glamorous fantasy, a setting which constantly evoked

distant times and places. Chariot races and gladiator battles were

standard circus fare in the wake of Ben Hur, The skilled jugglers,

acrobats, and wire walkers always came frcm remote countries, making

them as exotic as the wild animals, Bamum's 1872 circus parade

included the '"Revolving Temple of Juno with a 20-camel hitch,

a typical circus combination of foreign motif, wild animals, and

spectacle, The animals were essential ingredients in the circus'

exotic aura and the symbol of the circus was the elephant. The

elephant was indispensable to any circus, especially in the parade

where it was a continual source of fascination for spectators. When

the Sells Brothers Circus of Columbus suffered frcm sagging attendance

in 1873, it purchased an elephant and prospered. The elephant was

inseparable frcm the image of the circus. The elephant's character­

istics were the very qualities the circus aesthetic promoted— sheer

impressive size, exotic aura, and adaptability for vise in varied

period garb, With suitable costuming and accoutrements, elephants

took part in Indian, African, Egyptian, and Roman grand processions

which began each show, An 1888 illustration of a Barnum and Bailey

grand procession displays a lavishly decorated elephant with cur­

tained howdah on his back followed by white horses towing an enormous

gold chariot while tumblers and dare-devil riders perform in the

three rings,^

Even more elephantine and exotic were the spectacular

pageants which had come to serve as grand finales for many circuses.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 17

B a m u m began the trend in 1874 when he purchased a complete pageant,

the "Congress of Mbnarchs," with all its flags, costumes, and banners

frcm the Sanger Circus of London, The production displayed the

accumulated royalty of the world— Queen Victoria, the Pope, the

Pasha of Egypt,and others, along with their entourages— and culminated

in "the appearance of the Stars and Stripes, Revolutionary Soldiers,

and Indians," Comments Neil Harris:

Nothing like this concentrated pomp and splendor had ever been shown before in America, and its appearance marked the transformation of the traditional circus into something of a nineteenth-century light show.

As the popularity of the "Congress of Monarchs" waned, B a m u m re­

placed it with "A Fete at Pekin" which in turn was succeeded by

"Blue Beard," Soon other circuses adopted their own spectacular

pageants on exotic themes. These pageants combined music, dancing,

and violence, and specialists like Imre and Bolossy Kiralfy and

John Rettig were hired to supply the correct formula. At their

hands, hundreds of performers and animals were choreographed into

such spectacles as "Montezuma and the Conquest of Mexico" and "Moses,

or the Bondage in E g y p t , "15

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

THE PUBLICITY CAMPAIGN

The Cincinnati Centennial Exposition was a circus-style

extravaganza from the very start, On New Year's Day 1888, the

citizens of Cincinnati awoke to find the city covered with 10,000

posters promoting the upcoming fair. Soon there were advertise­

ments attached to menus and hung in major hotel lobbies-across the

country. Centennial posters bedecked the nation from San Antonio to

Grand Rapids, from St. Louis to Atlanta. Pittsburgh alone had 1,300

posters on display and every little town along the railroad lines

received its share of the thousands of posters in three different

designs. Centennial advertisements and illustrations of the build­

ings appeared on sheet music, calendars, blotters, grocery wrappings,

and ash trays, Centennial literature was distributed at the May

Republican convention in Dayton, where, it was proudly noted, "the

floors and streets were not littered with Centennial advertising.

People did not throw these handsome advertising souvenirs away. They

put them in their pockets and took them home," The Centennial

conmissioners not only used their letterhead stationery to promote

the exposition, they also vised their envelopes and even the backs of

their checks, They ordered half a million paper napkins illustrated

18

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 19

with a view of the buildings and reading, "'Complements of Cen­

tennial Commissioners— opens July 4th closes October 27, 1888.

Technological changes helped produce this publicity spree.

With the development of the chromolithograph in the 1860s and the

invention of the lithographic steam press, posters could be quickly

produced in vivid colors. The circus applied the chromolithograph

process to its promotions and soon b a m sides were papered with 24-

sheet composite scenes of circus spectacles. At the same time,

newspapers were improving and proliferating. The number of weekly

papers increased from 4,000 in 1870 to 12,000 by 1900, a huge new

resource for publicity and advertising. The adoption of wood pulp

paper by newspapers in the 1880s assisted this expansion by increas­

ing the paper supply. Wood pulp paper also cost less than traditional

rag paper, permitting publishers to keep prices low and broaden their

audiences. New audiences were attracted by the photo-engraved

illustrations which appeared in the daily papers. Previously, the

slow process of carving wood blocks had limited illustrations to

monthly or weekly publications. With the advent of photo-engraving,

an artist's line drawing could be speedily reproduced and used to

enliven any daily newspaper story or advertisement. Such illustra­

tions frequently accompanied articles on the Cincinnati Centennial's

attractions,^

Technological advances were not the only influences behind

the Cincinnati Centennial's promotion techniques, The entire field

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 20

of advertising was growing larger and more sophisticated. The circus

had pioneered the promotion of entertainment events and the Cin­

cinnati Centennial combined the circus methods with the new

commodity advertising techniques. Up to the Civil War, newspaper

advertising had been limited to small, factual ads printed in tiny

agate type and looking much like mo d e m want ads. Gradually, ad­

vertisers began to circumvent these restrictions by repeating sales

messages over entire columns or pages and by composing larger letters

out of masses of agate type. Department stores finally broke free of

the agate ruling. By the 1880s, daily newspapers commonly included

full-page department store advertisements with illustrations and

large, decorative type faces. Meanwhile, producers started to recog­

nize the advantages of promoting their products through advertising

rather than through a retailer. The producers created brand names

and advertising to appeal directly to the consumer as he read his

daily newspaper or national magazine. The first to vise this tech­

nique of mass brand advertising were three soaps— Sapolio, Pear's,

and Ivory (which was made in Cincinnati)— and Royal Baking Powder.

All four products achieved high growth rates and established the

power of an effectively manipulated trademark. The national

expenditure on advertising rose frcm $50 million in 1867 to $500

million in 1900.-^

In this environment of competitive advertising, the Cin­

cinnati Centennial engaged in an assertive publicity campaign.

Whereas the Philadephia Centennial "never spent a cent for

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advertising," in the words of the chairman of the publicity and

advertising committee, the Cincinnati Centennial reinforced the

effect of its posters with $115,000 worth of advertising in over

5,000 newspapers, ^ Advertisements appeared in daily and weekly

papers, magazines, even trade publications such as Harness kbrld,

Plumbing Journal, and American Cabinet Maker and Upholsterer.

Although some advertisements featured lengthy descriptions of the

fair' s contents and others displayed testimonials by visitors to the

superiority of the fair over any other, enough included a drawing

of John Cleves Symmes--the founder of Cincinnati— or an overview of

the buildings that the two images became the exposition's unoffical

trademarks, In personifying the product, Major Symnes was the

equivalent of Sapolio's Gold Dust TWins or the Belle Chocolatiere

of Baker's Cocoa, Furthermore, the overview of the Centennial

buildings followed the new advertising practice of displaying the

product's package, a direct correlation to the familiar can which

appeared in every Royal Baking Powder advertisement.

In addition to employing advertising, the exposition followed

Bamum's practice of receiving free newspaper publicity by being

newsworthy. The Cincinnati Centennial was not Jenny Lind or Jumbo,

but it was the subject of articles in Harper's Weekly and Frank

Leslie's Illustrated News as well as receiving extensive coverage

frcm the Cincinnati press. Small town weeklies were both interested

in the Centennial and instrumental in reaching the vast potential

audience of paying visitors, Seme small papers sent reporters to

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visit the exposition for several days, but none of them could

afford to maintain coverage for the entire 100-day duration. Still

others could not or did not send a correspondent at all. As a

result, many papers turned to the A. N. Kellogg List, a news

syndication service, for information on the progress of the Cin­

cinnati Centennial, . The stories which Kellogg ran inclined more to

promotion than journalism. One news item asserted that any visitor

could become thoroughly informed on the practical details of elec­

tricity if only he would come to the exposition. In the same vein,

an article on the art display concluded, "No artist who expects to 20 rise in the profession can afford to miss it,

Although the Cincinnati Centennial used advertising to pro­

mote the fair, the entire exposition was ultimately an advertising

tool itself. Merchants and manufacturers used the exposition as a

fortxn for their advertising displays. In turn, the Cincinnati Cen­

tennial used those advertising displays as its subject matter.

Merchants responded by utilizing the exposition in their own adver­

tising, "Visit our store on the way to the Centennial" or "See our

display at the fair," advertisers advised. And the Centennial

Exposition acted as an advertisement for the city of Cincinnati,

expanding the public awareness of the city's goods and accomplish­

ments.

Through the years, the Cincinnati Industrial Expositions had

existed to serve the purposes of Cincinnati manufacturers and

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Fig, 2, Overview of the Centennial's opening day festivities on July 4th. (Frank Leslie's Illustrated News, 14 July 1888, Ohio Historical Society.) :

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merchants, The expositions were basically trade fairs that provided

opportunities for producers to display and demonstrate their products

to one another and to the public. A prominent feature of the in­

dustrial expositions was the awarding of medals to exhibitors and

their wares, making the event an industrialized version of a state

fair with competitions between washing machines replacing horse races

or prize hogs. The award-wirmers could then use their prizes as

proof of quality in further promotions. By 1888, the Cincinnati

Centennial still retained some of the elements of a trade fair such

as the awarding of prizes, but it also fit the new advertising

theory of direct-to-consumer advertising. Manufacturers did not

appear at the Cincinnati Centennial in order to appeal to retailers

to stock their goods. Instead, they directed their promotions at the

public and resorted to elaborate displays to attract attention.

Brand names and trademarks were everywhere and vied for attention by

using size and technological tricks.

Although few items were actually for sale, Centennial

visitors responded to the fair's offerings with behavior similar to

that of department store customers,' The department store was a new

institution which thrived in downtown Cincinnati as it did across

the nation. Shops had long been exclusive and had possessed limited

supplies of ready-made goods, The department store, on the other

hand, democratized shopping by placing the full array of its wares

on display for perusal and handling by any person who entered the

establishment. People at the Cincinnati Centennial followed a

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shopping pattern established by the department stores. They

browsed along its aisles, stopping to try out a rocking chair, heft

a frying pan, or pound a few notes on a piano. Obviously mistaking

the fair for a store, one visitor wrote;

Jewelry, furniture, clothing, and all the countless array of use and luxury are displayed under conditions of light and effect such that the desire for them is almost cloyed and we walk off with our nickle in our pocket unspent.

Such confusion was only natural amidst the alluring displays of

consumer goods and the din of salesmen's pitches.

Despite exhibiting similarities to a department store, the

.19th-century institution which the Cincinnati Centennial most re­

sembled was a circus, The adoption of circus techniques was more

than merely a change in methodology or adoption of a new style. It

represented a fundamental change in attitude toward the exposition.

The cause of regional boosterism had not disappeared. The exposition

functioned as a giant advertisement for Cincinnati, its goods and

capabilities. In fact, the stated purpose of the fair was to

demonstrate "the development of art, science, and industry in a

century of the Northwest Territory." However, that goal was now

perceived as being best achieved by presenting the best show possible

and in turn the most dazzling show would draw the largest audience.

Using circus vocabulary, Centennial President James Allison wrote,

"It is intended to make this Exposition one of colossal proportions,

and dwarf into insignificance all past efforts in that line." The

fifteen members of the board of conmissioners, all prominent

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Cincinnati businessmen and entrepreneurs, ■wanted to make the exposi­

tion a financial and critical success which would reflect benefi­

cially on their city, The Cincinnati Centennial had no weighty

ideology to present, but instead found itself in the same position as

a circus, working to please a large paying audience. The cornnission-

ers carefully selected the elements of the exposition in an effort to

create an appealing experience for that audience. The derivative

qualities of their final combination can be attributed to the

comnissioners' intention of producing a reliable coirmodity which was

guaranteed to sell, and the circus was one of the 1880s' continuing

successes,^22

The Centennial followed the circus pattern of operation by

beginning with a parade, Opening day being the 4th of July, the

parade included the usual dignitaries, fraternal organizations, and

marching bands, but it also had circus overtones, In place of the

fairy tale floats which were included in most circus parades, Cin­

cinnati had floats depicting popular legends about the settlement of

Ohio— rugged individualists in their Connestoga wagons fighting off

the Indians. Beneath the veneer of historical respectability, these

floats functioned in much the same way as those depicting Cinderella

or Old Mother Goose by representing familiar stories and legendary

figures. Such Cincinnati floats as "Rattle Snake Den, Crawford

County, Ohio" even had a lurid and dramatic side which the circus

usually reserved for presentation to paying customers. Some of the

conmercial floats featured Roman chariots towing company slogans or

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Fig, 3. View down Elm Street toward the bridge connecting Music Hall to Washington Park Hall'. (Picture File, Cincinnati Historical Society.)

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fairy castles built out of the sponsor's bolts of fabric. One firm

constructed a two-story factory, complete with working samples of its

steam pumps, for the parade and surrounded it with eighteen dancing

oil cans and one "perambulating boiler," And, like any circus

parade worthy of the name, the Centennial parade had wild animals on

display— in this case from the Cincinnati zoo and accompanied by a

kazoo band instead of by clowns.^3

By 1888, the mere display of technology was no longer enough

by itself to delight the public, Ihe presentation of machinery and

new devices had long been a staple of expositions. Ihe Philadelphia

Centennial had used its giant Corliss engine as a centerpiece, play­

ing upon its immense harnessed power and its sheer awe-inspiring

presence, but the Cincinnati-Centennial had to go further. Even in

the area, technological innovations were too familiar to attract an

audience already satiated by thirteen Cincinnati Industrial Exposi­

tions. Ihe president of the board of commissioners himself ad­

mitted that expositions had become monotonous and that special effort

would be taken to make this one interesting. The commissioners

advertised widely for exhibitors, announcing that exhibits and enter­

tainments were being upgraded. They declared:

The greater the magnitude of entertainment or exhibition, the more acceptable it will prove, to the management, as they are determined to utilize their enormous resources (one million & fifty thousand dollars guarantee) in making this the grandest Exposition ever held in the West.

So the Cincinnati Centennial turned to the circus aesthetic of

entertainment and spectacle as it selected the material to fill its

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buildings, By the time August 1888 arrived, the chairman of the

publicity and advertising committee bragged:

We claim to have the greatest Exposition ever given in the United States in novelty and arrangement, and certainly the greatest after that of Philadelphia in 1876. For beauty, electrical effects and illuminations this Exposition has never had its equal in the world.

It was not the exposition's material displayed or lessons disseminated

which were most important, it was the showmanship with which the

entire exposition was presented,^

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

AN EXPOSITION IN CIRCUS STYLE

Even before the visitor arrived at the Centennial buildings,

lights spread circus showmanship to the surrounding streets. Iron

arches supporting bulbs crisscrossed at intersections and smaller

arches scallopped along the sidewalks around the exposition. Ihe

central iron span spelled out the legend "C-e-n-t-e-n-n-i-a-1,"

"each letter three feet high and each a work of art— parti-colored

with one hue of the rainbow stained upon each incandescent globe, and

each globe set into a lily-shaped bell of white glass," Harper's

Weekly found Music Hall to be "the starting point for rows of other

lights that hem in the Exposition buildings, and stretch away down

the streets in flickering lines of gorgeous color." Ihe entire

building complex glowed at night with rows of bulbs and giant arc

lamps which spotlit the 150-foot octagonal tower at the center of

the Washington Park Building. President Allison explained that out­

door illuminations had "been made a special feature, and show the

effect of tower and street lighting to perfection."^ Once the

visitor paid 50$ admission and passed the turnstiles, the interior

of the Cincinnati Centennial offered an eclectic collection of

exhibits. Ihe displays varied in style and size, but the circus

30

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aesthetic influenced almost all of them. The central elements in

the circus aesthetic were the grandiose, the spectacular, and the

exotic,

Circuses operated on the principle that size was impressive.

The elephant's size was an important part of his appeal. Circus

shownen reasoned that if two battling gladiators were exciting,

twenty gladiators must be ten times as thrilling. Not only were

sheer numbers of performers or animals impressive, they also indicated

wealth in the lavish employment of time and talent. By emphasizing

size, circuses were representative of an age which glorified the

grandiose. Robert Roberts observes that "the growth of the circus'

was tied to the growth of the railroads and centers of population

adequate to support it. The gigantic circus was part of an age of

great enterprises." It was an era in which the famous bandmaster

Patrick Gilmore conducted a New Orleans concert performed by a

500-piece orchestra and 5000-member choir and led 100 firemen with

100 anvils in a performance of the "Anvil Chorus." At the same time,

the Victorian passion for profusely furnished rocms reached its

peak in the 1880s. With industrialization, basic and even decorative

objects were within the purchasing power of an increasing range of

the populace, so wealth was proved by extravagance.^6

The Cincinnati Centennial partook of this aesthetic that

asserted bigger was better. Whenever possible, merchandise was

displayed in huge mounds and pyramids. Even in die art display, the

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largest paintings seemed to receive the most attention, But in the

commercial atmosphere of the exposition, larger was also more obvious

and might overwhelm the competition's display, As such, size in the

Cincinnati exhibits was typical of the move away from agate lettering

to large type faces in newspaper advertising,

The circus taste for the spectacular found its application in

technology at the Cincinnati Centennial. There were really no

exciting new applications of technology to be displayed at the fair.

The typewriter, telephone, and bicycle had been novelties at the

1876 Centennial in Philadelphia, but by 1888 they were all familiar.

The Cincinnati comnissioners' letters were commonly typed, the

exposition buildings were linked by telephones, and eager consumers

could examine the "safety" bicycles on display. In the absence of

new products or exciting technologies, the Cincinnati Centennial

employed its technology for spectacular effects. It displayed the

dynamos of its power plant behind a glass window for public viewing,

but the real feature of the exposition was the incandescent bulb 97 which employed that power.

The 1883 Industrial Exposition and those which followed had

displayed electricity, but none of these electrical presentations

could compare with the magnitude of the 1888 show. The exposition

stayed open every night until 10— except Sunday when the entire fair

was closed— so that the public could appreciate a novel nighttime

experience. Edison had patented his first carbon filament bulb in

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1879 and installed his first electric lighting system in New York

City in 1882. Such systems were spreading by 1888, but were new to

Cincinnati and created a sensation, Ihe concert hall of Music Hall

had its windows blocked to allow the full effect of the electrical

illuminations even for daytime performances. Electric lights

illuminated the art display without the accompanying heat of gas

lamps and with an effect "almost that of daylight, and in some

respects is preferable, for it is softer and less searching." The

use of electricity turned the exhibits from static displays into

performances with light and motion, yet another connection to the

circus. Electric showmanship was so pervasive that one exhibitor

complained to the Columbus News, "They have a magnificent electric

light show and that is all," The electric bulbs inspired one poet

to write:

Edison's genius finds its best expression In weird, revolving, various colored lights, Which force from old and young the glad confession, "There's nothing like it in the 'Arabian Nights!'"

The Cincinnati Commercial Gazette likewise felt that the lighting

removed the Centennial from the mundane world, describing the

buildings as "a fairyland under the thousands of lights,"

The Cincinnati Centennial also utilized exoticism in its

displays as did the circus, Early in preparations, one report

indicated that plans for watercraft on the canal included "dug outs,

a la Indian; pirogues, a la Feejee; junks, a la China; proa, a la

Malay; and gondolas, a la Venice," In the final result, only

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gondolas added the necessary picturesque and exotic touch to the

whirring mechanisms of Machinery Hall. As the Sandusky (Ohio)

Journal explained:

A piece of machinery may be a "joy forever" on account of its usefulness, but as a rule, such things are not necessarily "things of beauty" and are anything but drawing cards so far as the unmechanical portion of the public is concerned. Venetian gondolas, however, plying on the canal will be an attraction that none will willingly miss, Venice is to be out-Veniced on the matter.

Exotic elements were not new to expositions. Philadelphia's Cen­

tennial International Exhibition of 1876 made the first major intro­

duction of Japanese art and architecture into America. Ihe 1885 New

Orleans World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition included

an exhibit on Japanese education. A Japanese village was planned for

the 1883 Louisville Southern Exposition and the village at the 1886

Cincinnati Industrial Exposition helped that fair turn a profit.

Among the exotic displays in 1888 was the Wichita exhibit, an

elaborate 30-foot pagoda made of Kansas grains and decorated with

ears of c o m in Japanese lamp shades, And one newspaper account felt

that H. Rider Haggard must have found his inspiration for King

Solomon's Mines in Duhme's silver display.^

The circus aesthetic of the grandiose, the spectacular, and

the exotic obviously influenced the central feature of Washington

Park Hall, the "fairy fountain" as Mrs. Moody's Paris Fashion Journal

called it. Placed at the axis of the arms of the building beneath

the 150-foot done, the fountain was a feat of theatrical technology.

The central column of water shot 75 feet into the air, surrounded

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Fig, 4. View toward the central rotunda and fountain in Washington Park Hall, (Picture File, Cincinnati Historical Society.)

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by smaller jets which formed a mist over the encircling plants, The

spray could be tinted to any desired shade by a new technique of

lighting from below with bulbs beneath the glass bottom of the basin.

Furthermore, the central spray shot through an iron ring supported by

arched arms, all studded with electric bulbs. Ihe lighting of these

arches was coordinated so that the done appeared to be revolving,

first in one direction and then in the other. In awe, the Walnut

Hills Suburban News wrote that the fountain 'hears the same relation

to ordinary fountain displays, that a Beethoven Symphony does to the

'Arkansas Traveller,' or the Aurora Borealis to a 'penny dip. "' To

heighten the fountain's effect, large Japanese paper fish hanging

down the arms of the building were lighted sequentially so that they

appeared to be "swinming down the aisle to dive into the fountain."^

In addition to the spectacular central fountain, Washington

Park Hall displayed further technological wonders. Enormous Japanese

umbrellas used sequential lighting of the bulbs at the tip of each

rib to create the illusion that they were spinning. Across the way,

a Christmas tree with electric candles actually revolved, but its

effect was overshadowed by the electric rotating flower garden

which stood 12 feet high and 14 feet in diameter. Amongst the

exotic living plaints in this display were "150 glass flowers with

colored incandescent lamps for petals [which] are constantly budding,

blooming, fading and dying, each at the rate of six times per minute,

the entire garden revolving constantly." Ihe Toledo Bee found the

rotating garden to be "a most wonderful display of the useful and

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beautiful effects of electricity."31

However, for sheer concentration of exotic electrical

effects, Horticultural Hall surpassed the rest of the Centennial.

Colored bulbs edging its green oblongs of lawn and vegetation had

synchronized lighting causing, according to the Toledo Bee, "the

light to run rapidly along the walks, from lamp to lamp, producing a

remarkably beautiful and weird effect." Lighted fountains trickled

musically onto glass umbrellas. A fountain in a basket of flowers

suspended from the ceiling prompted at least one visitor to wonder,

"Where does the water come from, where does it go to and how is the

fountain operated?" In the center of the hall, a fountain sprayed

around the statue of a nude man strangling a snake or eel, entitled

"The Angry Fisherman." But the piece de resistance in Horticultural

Hall was yet another fountain, a waterfall known as the rainbow

cascade. The water of the cascade fell over sixteen glass steps

behind which stood banks of colored buLbs that could be switched so

the water appeared to be bright red or running ujd the cliffs, Above

the cascade arched an iron rainbow, studded with electric bulbs. The

Cincinnati Telegram reported that the rainbow could "appear and

disappear exactly as the natural rainbow does." But it could also

be flashed "slowly and with great rapidity and the separate colors

flashed, producing rainbows of every conceivable liue." In a nearby

tree perched two owls, blinking their tiny incandescent eyes sixty

times each minute. Over all flew "a white dove carrying in its bill

an incandescent lamp, small as an acorn, but of dazzling brilliancy;

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Fig. 5, Fountains, lights, and the rainbow cascade in Horticultural Hall. (Official Guide, Ohio Historical Society.)

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 39

from behind rocks and cliffs rise crescents, moon and opal stars'."

Across the hall, visitors could appreciate this stunning scene While

eating creams and ices, sitting in cool rocky grottoes lit by

Chinese lanterns, This picturesque setting inspired one newspaper

correspondent to exclaim that electricity not only gave light, heat,

and power--it had almost created life.^

Amazing applications of technology also appeared in the

commercial exhibits. The Monitor Oil Stove Co. produced a full-size

replica of its famous Civil War namesake, electrifying the rotating

turret to produce a blazing flash of light from the cannon's mouth.

Whenever possible, the flamboyant appeal of electricity was coupled

with immense size or astonishing numbers of objects in these

exhibits, Cincinnati furniture manufacturers, neglected in the

distribution of floor space, complained:

Manufacturers of soap, starch, yeast powders, beer and patent nostrums are awarded unlimited space in which to pile up stacks of empty boxes and barrels labeled with adver­ tisements in conspicuously contrasting colors.

Following the latest techniques, manufacturers were displaying their

packages and advertising directly to the consumer, The Heinz Co.

arranged its pickles, preserves, and condiments in the shape of a

giant keystone, the company's trademark, A furnace firm built a

24-foot pyramid of its goods topped, according to the Metal Worker,

by "a full-size representation of a buffalo, which is made to move

in a most lifelike manner, the eyes shooting forth electric fire."

The magazine commented, "The entire display is one of exceeding

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attractiveness." E. B. Tettenbom's display of kitchen and household

utensils likewise featured eye-catching action. In front of a large

painted waterfall stood a rotating drum, also painted to resemble

water, and to it was attached a selection of the firm's granite iron

ware, Ihe Metal Worker termed this "a somewhat startling effect."

But the Edison Co. provided literally the most dazzling conmercial

display--a mamnoth Edison electric lightbulb standing 30 feet high and

filled with 15,000 bulbs, a single day's output at their New Jersey

plant. A huge pipe with red lights ran through the bulb's center to

represent the glowing filament and opalescent bulbs spelled out

"Edison" beneath the enormous sheet iron socket.^

In addition to using electricity, several conmercial ex­

hibits employed exoticism in the best circus tradition. The American

Jewelry Co. used a Moorish pavilion to magnify the splendor of its

gems. 'Two clothing firms created complete exotic scenes enhanced

by electrical effects. Fecheimer Bros, surrounded its figures in

gentlemen's evening dress, lawn-tennis, and boating suits with

'’miniature cascades of real water falling into a lake overgrown with

water-lilies." On the lake, paddling about in a boat, was the midget

General Sawyer, two inches shorter than Bamum's famous Tom Thumb.

While the Fecheimer display included a circus freak, the A. E.

Burkhardt & Co, exhibit included wild animals— stuffed but appro­

priate to the firm's fur business. Golden mosque-like domes topped

the towers guarding the entrance to the Burkhardt display. In the

center of the enclosure, monkeys clung to a full-size palm tree.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Behind plate glass windows, wax figures modeling Burkhardt's

latest wares moved in circles— probably on turntables— through

elegant, electrically lit rooms. The spaces between the animated

displays illustrated man's supremacy over the animal kingdom.

Growing plants, a stuffed moose head, and other objects merged with

the painted background and a massive polar bear on an iceberg

surmounted a display of the hat department. Observed the Cin­

cinnati Commercial Gazette, "A real rivulet trickles down the mountain

side, where in dense. forest and jungle wild animals are seen peering

so life like in pose they all but move.1

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

THE GREATEST SHOWS ON EARIH

Beyond resembling a circus in the style of its displays, the

Cincinnati Centennial included elements which were direct carry-overs

from circus performances and attractions. For example, in 1888 the

frontier west was an extremely fashionable circus motif. Both

Buffalo Bill's Wild West and Pawnee Bill's Wild West shows began

touring the nation that year. An 1888 children's book describing a

visit to the B a m u m and Bailey Circus revealed Wild West elements

in the grand opening procession:

Then came the wild Indian riders, and the cowboys, lassoing the cattle. The eyes of the Indians were bright, and their cruel-looking tomahawks frightened Gay, and she nestled close to Mr. Bamum, half afraid that one of the wild men might clutch her own beautiful curls to wear with the horrible scalps at his belt.

In Cincinnati, the opening parade included a Pony Express rider and

"an old-fashioned stage-coach" from the Deadwood, Dakota Territory

route. One of the bronze figures in the American Jewelry Co.

exhibit represented Cooper's "The Last of the Mohicans." Freeman,

the perfumer, offered to scent ladies' handkerchiefs with his new

fragrance, Hiawatha, The "O-Y-O Waltz"— an Indian word for Ohio—

was given out as a souvenir, the sheet music decorated with a

42

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handsome Indian chief and a beautiful Indian girl, Even the Cen­

tennial Art Department contained its share of frontier melodrama in

Ihe Unexpected Guest by popular Cincinnati painter Henry F a m y which

depicted an Indian peacefully approaching cowboys around a fire with

their guns drawn,^

Nostalgia for the Wild West pervaded American popular culture

by 1888, According to David Brion Davis, the strength of the cowboy

myth rests in part on the feeling that the frontier is forever about

to disappear. The cowboy hero brought civilization to the wilderness

but he could only survive in a wild setting and was therefore forced

to move on. The western frontier, like the antebellum South, was

an ideal place, removed from the utilitarianism of the industrial

North, yet extremely fragile and on the verge of elimination. In

1888, Americans felt these conditions applied to their time and

sensed the Wild West slipping away. The first barbed wire had been

patented in 1873, dooming the open range and the long cattle drive.

The hard winter of 1886-87 effectively ended the great cattle boon

by proving that herds could not take care of themselves through

winter storms. The U.S. Cavalry had subdued the Indians and.outlaws

were dwindling, Billy the Kid was killed in New Mexico in 1881. * Even as the OK Corral shootout took place in Tombstone, Arizona, it

was recognized as representing the end of an era. The Dakotas

became states in 1889 and towns across the West turned toward

respectability. Dime novels played upon the yearning for the lost

West and Frederick Remington and Charles M. Russell commemorated it

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in popular paintings and sketches, In 1893, at another fair--the

Chicago Wbrld's Columbian Exposition— Frederick Jackson Turner would

proclaim the end of the frontier era by reading his paper on "The

Significance of the Frontier in American History,

The Pioneer Department of the Centennial applied Wild West

themes to Cincinnati, inspiring nostalgia for the "bad old days"

when life was more dangerous, primitive, and exciting. While the

frontier was exotic and stimulating to people in the tamed East and

Midwest, the theme of progress represented an equally strong part of

the American ideology as revealed by the Pioneer Department. Re­

calling pioneer days at the Centennial served to demonstrate Cin­

cinnati 1s progress. As one Centennial advertisement proclaimed,

"The Glorious Fruition of a Hundred Years of Toil! From a Barbaric

Wilderness to the Center of Civilization, Art and Manufactures!"

Supporters' badges with illustrations of the first fort and the

m o d e m suspension bridge made a similar point. Cincinnati felt it

had advanced so rapidly that even the remnants of the recent past

seemed antiquated and primitive. An 1860 crazy quilt made of pieces

of gentlemen's vests was cited as "evidence to the luxurious and

giddy tastes of the beaux of that period." The illustration of an

oil lamp was accompanied by the caption, "A quaint old lamp used in

Bainbridge, Pa., seme thirty years ago." So it is little wonder that

a demonstration of "the old-time process" of papermaking used Ohio

River water to give the "necessary yellow and ancient tint" to the

paper which was then watermarked, "1788— Ye Centennial of Ye Ohio

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Valley, Cincinnati-~1888." The overall effect of this paper from

the "olden days" made all the more apparent the merits of the crisp

new ledger books on display beside the demonstration,^

Showmanship and a sense of effect also found its place among

the pioneer exhibits. Inside Washington Park Hall, a partial

reconstruction of the log stockade of Cincinnati's old Fort Washington

provided a frontier atmosphere. An interior within the fort repre­

sented the first fireplace in Cincinnati, furnished with flint-lock

rifle, brass andirons, a bellows, griddle, waffle iron, and a kettle

on a crane. A "halo of mystery" enveloped these items, according to

the Cincinnati Telegram, making them as exotic as the tropical

vegetation or technological marvels elsewhere in the exposition.

Likewise, the "rattling brassy tones" of Cincinnati's first piano

evoked "hoops and petticoats, furbelows and powdered hair of dames

and knee breeches and snuff boxes and silver buckles of the gallants"

for another newspaper writer. The Cincinnati Corrugating Co.

demonstrated its iron roofs with imitation rain, inviting nostalgic

visitors to recall "the boyhood days on the farm when you slept near

the roof." The Centennial floated U, S, Grant's log birthplace down

the Ohio on a barge to the exposition, A miniature farm occupying

400 square feet was the favorite of many # 1 0 carefully observed a

wcman boiling soap, a group raising a log cabin, a "darky" fishing,

covered wagons traveling along the road, and stealthy Indians

peering down at the peaceful and industrious scene.

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But the Cincinnati Centennial included further circus

elements in addition to its Wild West and pioneer material, A

sideshow was an integral part of any 19th-century circus and exhibits

of this variety also appeared at the Centennial. At times, the

corrmissioners took a firm stand against any connection with a side­

show. They turned down the offer of a shooting gallery, despite the

applicant's premise that it would be "properly protected in regard to

danger to visitors and damage to walls ceiling or floor, and in regard

to noise smell or smoke." They rejected a Kansan's offer to sell

pets: "I have several hundred 'Prairie Dogs' which I am desirous

of bringing to the Exposition for the purpose of disposing of them."

And they declined the opportunity to include amusement park rides:

"Our Board of Conmissioners have made no provision for a 'Wheeled

Toboggan Slide.'" The commissioners even ordered uniform platforms

(7 inches), railings (36 inches, iron), and signs (12 by 6 inches

with gold lettering on black) in order to prevent "a certain class

of exhibitors from putting up signs that would disgrace the sideshow

of a circus.

Still, sideshow elements found their way into the Cincinnati

Centennial, both with and without the commissioners' permission.

Among the sensational items on display were Major Andre's snuff box,

Aaron Burr's dueling pistols, William Penn's compass, and a scrap of

Mrs. Miles Standish's wedding gown from 1620, Even the United States

government exhibit, one of the major attractions of the exposition,

included its share of curios. Centennial advertisements listed

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among the contents of the government exhibit:

The first shot fired at Fort Sumter. . . . Oak tree cut down by lead bullets at Spottsylvania. Rifle taken from Jefferson Davis. , , . Greely's [Adolphus W. Greely, an Arctic explorer] flag and other relics. Greely's last ration, Ancient Chinese pikes and blunderbuses used by Cortez, Captain John Smith and the Pilgrim Fathers.

California demonstrated the wonders of its produce with sugar beets

as large as tree stumps and hundred-pound watermelons. In the best

sideshow tradition, the exposition displayed a "mad stone," reputed

to stick to the wounds from snakes, spiders, and mad dogs, curing

the victim of the poison. In a more moralistic vein, the Ohio

Humane Society displayed a horrifying "collection of cruel gag-bits,

chains, clubs, whips, and other torture-inflicting instruments which

an inhuman ingenuity devised for the mistreatment of dumb brutes and

for children." When visitors finished gawking at that display, they

could turn to the Ohio Penitentiary exhibit and examine the carefully

executed scale model of the prison's new addition. The Cornnercial

Gazette reported, "The fatal trap-door, the lever, the rope, wnth

its hangman's noose, the room for the authorized spectators— all the

details of the execution are faithfully reproduced." Nearby hung

the photographs of recently executed convicts. The paper observed

that the display "seems to satisfy that morbid craving people have.

The Cincinnati Centennial also featured a wide variety of

performances, an essential element for any circus. At times, the

commissioners took a firm stand against circus entertainments as they

did against sideshow displays, They rejected offers to present "The

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Equinal Jumbo of the World," "Flying Aerial Act," "Cat Concert,"

"Acrobatic Dog, Cute," and "Exhibition of skd.ll in the use of Toes,"

But the performances and entertainments which took place at the

exposition were not very different from these. Alphonse King, the

Aquatic Wonder, appeared at the Centennial to bicycle and walk on the

water— using ruddered pontoons. A July 28 newspaper announcement

read:

Commodore Schmidt, of the gondola flotilla, has arranged for a programme of aquatic sports on the canal this afternoon at 3 o'clock. There will be tub races, a greased pole with a prize of a greased pig, and other sports of a like character.

Tub races and the frequent parades by members of fraternal, political,

and commercial organizations even allowed Centennial visitors to

become participants in the performances.^

One of the prominent features of the exposition combined

sideshow exoticism with a performance. That feature was Ajeeb, the

chess-playing automaton, The Arab figure, sitting upon his platform

in Washington Park Hall, was a source of endless fascination, Chess

organizations, clubs, churches, all sent their experts to meet the

machine in a game of chess or checkers. Ajeeb had reportedly

"played before the crowned heads of Europe" and "beaten some of the

best chess and checker players of the world, having been on ex­

hibition first at the Crystal Palace," He proved to be a formidable

opponent and the daily results of his games became a feature of the

Cincinnati newspapers along with the latest baseball scores. The

crowds of onlookers grew so large that an iron railing had to be

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erected, Eventually an amphitheater with seats was installed to

accommodate the audience and to prevent people from becoming unruly

in the crush. Perhaps the speculation on how Ajeeb worked was as

great an attraction as his skill at chess. Newspapers ran lengthy

discussions of his possible contents, either mechanical or human,

complete with drawings to support their hypotheses. An indication

of the intensity of this curiosity was the August 7 Cincinnati

Evening Post article which reported that Ajeeb had fainted the night

before. His manager claimed that the machinery had broken down but,

triumphed the Post, "it was obvious that Ajeeb had succumbed to the

heat at last,"^2

Other sorts of machinery gave performances at the Centennial

in addition to Ajeeb. The rule that any items sold on the exposition

premises had to be manufactured on the spot was theoretically

intended to prevent turning the event into a bazaar. In effect,

however, the rule required that firms put on a good show for the

privilege of selling their wares, The Cobum Whip Co, demonstrated

its wrapping machine. A full-sized grist mill made of galvanized

iron simulating brick produced fifty barrels of flour a day. The

Parkersburg (W. Va.) Smith's Index advised its "lady readers" not

to miss the Andrews Soap Co, exhibit where machines formed, cut, and

stamped bars of soap before onlookers' eyes. While ladies watched

soap being made, men might examine the Christian Moerlein Brewing

Co. display where beer was bottled, The Chillicothe (Ohio) Daily

News explained:

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Fig. 6, Hie canal in Machinery Hall, (Harper’s Weekly, 14 July 1888, Ohio Historical Society.)

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The whole process, from washing the bottles to putting in the corks after the bottles are filled with beer, is done by machinery, the men simply put the bottles on and take them from the machines, And the little boys who put the tinfoil and labels on the bottles. They are a circus in themselves, Always racing to see which can be a bottle ahead of the other,

Technology had turned into circus entertainment. There were even

machines comparable to the circus' impressive elephants, "the great

slow-moving lathes, weighing tons, that are capable of shaving an

eighteenth of an inch off the edge of a visiting card.

Ihe daily presentations in Music Hall revealed further

efforts to both please and awe the Centennial audience. Ihe building

was already impressive with 4,428 seats, more than the Philadelphia

Academy of Music or New York's 1883 Metropolitan Opera House. For

the exposition, the seats were removed and the resulting expanse was

covered by an enormous crimson carpet, reportedly the largest ever

laid in the United States, This carpeted area allowed visitors to

pause briefly in the concert hall on their way to other displays.

Special electric lighting accompanied the original gas lamps in the

concert hall. In amazement, one October visitor looked up at the

dark oak ceiling and found "strings of tiny globes that light the

building are gathered up like ribbons from the side walls, and fall

in a giant tassel of pearl in the middle of the ceiling." Elec­

tricity even infiltrated the musical programs. The notes for July

15 events announced, "Director Michael Brand will wave an electric

baton over his orchestra to-night. It will look like a bar of

steely light, flashing sparks at every movement."^1-

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Ihe music had difficulty surpassing its setting. When the

Cincinnati Grand Orchestra played alongside the Washington Park

fountain, the Conmercial Gazette implored, "Ihe water should be

shut off the fountain during the hours the orchestra is playing, and

give the musicians a chance." Even on the Music Hall stage when the

orchestra had no competition from roaring waters, there were con­

tinual complaints, Most centered on the belief that the programs

were not sufficiently appealing. The Cincinnati Times-Star

recommended:

If the Cincinnati Orchestra would unbend a little and even step a little upon the toes of ancient traditions about music and Music Hall , . . , there would be more satisfac­ tion and more money in the strong box.

Mindful of the strong box, the commissioners tried to arrange per­

formances of popular music by popular artists. They advised the

director of Cappa's Band that "the majority for whom you will have

to play will be from a distance and popular music will satisfy them

better and receive more applause than any other." The Comnercial

Gazette explained that nothing else mattered if the musicians pleased

the audience;

It don't make much difference about what sort of "rubbish" they play. They are here to boom the Centennial. Let them try a regular Annie-Laurie-Dixie-Yankee-Doodle-Nearer-My- God-Auld-Lang-Syne- 'Why-Down-Upon-the-Suwanee-River night, and see if it don't "pay" in applause and good will.

Like the circus, the Centennial sought the widest possible

popularity, ^

But for true circus-style entertainment, the exposition

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turned to the spectacular pageant, It hired John Rettig, a designer

for B a m u m and Bailey, to produce the spectacular Rhodopis on the

stage of Music Hall. Ihe plot was simple. Rhodopis was a famous

Greek beauty who lived as a slave in Egypt, One day, while she

bathed in the Nile, an ibis swooped down, picked up one of her

sandals, carried it off, and dropped it in the lap of the pharaoh.

Ihe pharaoh searched the country for the owner of this beautiful

sandal, but it was too small for any woman to fit. Ihis variation

on the Cinderella story made the perfect spectacular subject. It

was exotic in locale, romantic in subject matter, and sufficiently

familiar to be easily comprehended in pantomime form. It allowed

the full use of lavish settings, colorful costumes, and a cast of

thousands, Ihe observer from the limes-Star felt himself swept away

to "the dazzling sands of the desert and the broad, blue, mysterious

Nile flowing through groves of palms and umbrageous growths of the

rarest beauty and luxuriance." He noted that "the grotesque dance

was exceedingly well performed." And the pantomime climaxed with a

festal ballet with one hundred "young misses that was simply ex­

quisite for individual and collective grace and finish." In

Rhodopis, the Cincinnati Centennial accurately duplicated one of the

central elements of the circus' character in the 1880s.^

Moreover, Rhodopis was such a success in its nightly per­

formances that the Centennial undertook other spectacular presenta­

tions. Ajeeb found a place in one. According to the Conmercial

Gazette, Ajeeb was to be "placed upon the stage of Music Hall one

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evening this week, and the moves as he plays the game will be

illustrated by living chessmen," Eventually, Machinery Hall's

canal was the site for a spectacle on an even grander scale than

Rhodopis. On October 17, the Carnival of Venice— designed once more

by John Rettig— had its debut. Ihe pageant began in Music Hall where

the audience watched the gathering cast of "Heralds, Musicians,

Knights, Gondoliers, Dancing Girls, Patricians, Nobles, Dukes, Doge

and Doges, . , , Council and Soldiers, all Carrying Venetian Lan­

terns." The cast then formed a lighted procession to Machinery Hall

where this exotic pageant continued amidst the industrial exhibits.

.The printed program described the action:

They embark on the Bucertaur or Royal, barge and the gon­ dolas. The barge will move slowly up the illuminated canal, with the music playing to the graceful movement of the ballet on board. Near the center of the canal the Doge will wed the Adriatic by throwing the ring into the water.

A "Fisherman's Tournament" followed in which opponents upset one

another's boats. The royal barge then returned to the landing and

the lighted procession returned to Music Hall for a final ballet.

This "Historical Ceremony of 'Wedding the Adriatic' carefully re­

produced from paintings by Old Masters" became such a success that

it was extended beyond its original limited run and continued to the

close of the exposition on November 8, 1888. ^

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A WDRLD OF ENTERTAINMENT

From its beginning parade to its closing spectacle, the

Cincinnati Centennial Exposition resembled a circus in its tech­

niques, intentions, style, and ingredients. Furthermore, the people

of the day recognized the connection. An 1873 advertisement for

Bamum's circus prominently displayed the words, '"Ihe Greatest Show

on Earth," and the phrase went on to become a familiar trademark—

virtually equivalent in meaning to "circus." When the Cincinnati

Comnercial Gazette called the exposition "the greatest show that

has been seen on this continent," the explicit reference to that

famous slogan made the connection between the Centennial and a circus

clear. Numerous newspaper headlines proclaimed, '"Ihe Big Show Boom­

ing" or "Cincinnati's Big Show." A Commercial Gazette title

commanded, "Go and Spend Your Saturday Half Holiday at the Greatest

Show on Earth— Tbb Races— An Electrical Vfonder." Cincinnati papers

were not the only ones to speak in such terms. Frank Leslie's

Illustrated News concluded its evaluation of the exposition: "This

is the greatest show on earth." A letter from the commissioners to

the Dayton Board of Trade called the Centennial the "'Greatest

Exposition on Earth, "' lending official sanction to the circus

55

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connection. Even while objecting to the exposition's publicity

techniques, a letter to the editor of the Cincinnati Times-Star

boasted:

Mr. Bamum's great tented exhibition, universally conceded to be the best of its kind in the world . . . sinks into the utmost insignificance when compared to the great Centennial of the Ohio Valley,

Hie exposition and a circus were perceived to be equivalents, com­

peting on the same terms,48

The general impression that the Centennial resembled a circus

was sufficiently strong that the conmissioners felt obliged to note

that it was "not only entertaining but instructive." The Conroercial

Gazette asserted:

It is treated, as a rule, as if it were a mere show, and in considering it as if it were a circus or museum, or something of that sort, that draws in people at fifty cents a head and sends than off, as experienced managers usually do, dis­ satisfied or otherwise. This is not a show of that kind.

The paper added, "This is not a mere spectacular show. It is an

educational institution." Significantly, these characterizations of

the Centennial do not reject its entertaining qualities. Instead,

they seek to add an educational aspect to the perception of the

Centennial, making the exposition experience a better buy than "mere"

amusements. The Commercial Gazette article also dates from the final

weeks of the exposition and seems to tell those who have not already

visited the fair that they ought to go--not for fun, but for their

own good. Another Commercial Gazette article used a similar

promotional ploy when it suggested that superior parents advanced

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their children's learning at the Centennial;

Such an opportunity is not met every day nor enjoyed by everybody’s children, A series of object lessons whose refining and civilizing influence constitutes the highest education should not be considered expensive at the low figure of fifty cents for one day's tuition for an adult and twenty five cents for a child under twelve years old. He or she that can not acquire many times the value of half a dollar in one day must be dull indeed.

According to these articles, a visit to the exposition was a 49 necessity if one was to become a completely educated person.

Such aggressive promotion of the Centennial proved necessary

since the exposition had serious competition. Just over one hundred

miles away, the Ohio Centennial in Columbus appealed to a similar

audience and fostered an intense antagonism between the two events.

Ihe chairman of Cincinnati's publicity and advertising committee

announced, '"Ihe State Fair at Columbus this year has assumed the name

of 'Ohio Centennial.'" Columbus sympathizers shot back;

Ohioans fail to recognize in the Cincinnati Exposition anything like a "Centennial." Columbus has that. The Cincinnati show is a private affair . . . and yet that city of porcine proclivities thinks everything else in the state should be subordinated to it.

The Ccmnercial Gazette responded that "it is the united testimony of

the spectators at Columbus of the Hog Show, which is the great lead­

ing article of the alleged Centennial, that the condition of the

swine is superb." During its 41-day duration, the Ohio Centennial

sold 194,191 tickets for a daily average of 4,736, only half Cin­

cinnati's average. But Columbus had strategic influence over the

Centennial since its railroadmen gave preferential treatment to

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their fair over Cincinnati's. The fare from Cincinnati to Columbus

was only $2,50 while it cost $6.50 to travel from Columbus to Cin­

cinnati. In addition to competititon from the Ohio Centennial, there

were similar expositions from Atlanta to Buffalo in 1888 and

thousands of town and county fairs.

Nor was competition for the public's discretionary spending

limited to competing fairs and expositions. On a sunny afternoon,

the Cincinnati Reds could draw 6,000 people to a baseball game and

teams throughout the league attracted similar crowds. Professional

sports were developing as an American obsession and as one of the

many new institutionalized leisure activities. In 1869, the Cin­

cinnati Red Stockings had become the nation's first, professional

baseball team. By 1888, the Cincinnati newspapers ran daily batting

results for every player in each game from both leagues. A Cin­

cinnati firm even produced "St. Louis and Detroit Champion Baseball

Gum," which was described as "a piece of gum with a perfect litho­

graph picture of one of the champion nine of the National League

or American Association on each piece,Coney Island, an amusement

and picnic park just up the river from Cincinnati, reduced its fare

from 50c to 25

during the summer of 1888, The downtown department stores likewise

attracted an appreciative audience. All of these options reduced the

time, money, and interest which might be devoted to expositions.

Faced with such competition, the Cincinnati Centennial needed

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advertising, circus atmosphere, and spectacular entertainments in

order to command its share of attention and audience.

Furthermore, the competition displayed considerable circus

qualities of its own. Shillito's Department Store exhibited twenty-

one wax figures in a "Russian Wedding Feast" which could be easily

viewed "going to or coning from the exposition." Not to be outdone,

Mabley and Carew's department store offered "the large and beautiful

picture of 1 Christ Before Pilate.' (From the Original by the

Eminent Munkacsy.)" The store advised, "Every Christian father,

mother, miss, youth and child should see this historical picture."

Ihe department store exhibits were free, but 25q bought admission

to College Hall for a viewing of Munkacsy's Christ on Calvary. For

the same price, a visitor could take in the Gettysburg Cyclorama

during its stay in Cincinnati, Guides explained the significance of

the great circular painting, but periodic sound and light shows made

the most of the battle scene's dramatic contents.^

Performances were essential ingredients in much of the

Centennial's competition. Operas such as the exotic Mikado were

presented nightly at the pavilions atop Cincinnati's hills and at

the Odeon near the exposition grounds. "Gorman's Spectacular

Minstrels" advertised themselves as "The Newest, Most Novel and

Diversified Entertainment on Earth," Band concerts preceded Reds

games. But other performances were even more obvious in their

circus qualities, Alphonse King, "the world renowned French

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Athlete," performed his gymnastic feats and slack wire walk at

Bellevue House under the calcium lights. Coney Island offered spec­

tacular balloon ascensions in which the aerialist was to cut

"himself free from the basket, falling until the immense velocity of

his descent expands the great umbrella of his parachute." Ihe

Cincinnati Zoological Gardens advertised the "Largest Giraffes in the

World" at "The Coolest and Most Delightful Resort on Earth." In

addition, "Professor Burk's world-famous troupe of Educated Horses"

performed in the "Equine College." But the zoo's main attractions

for the summer of 1888 were '"The Missing Links'"— "Mr. and Mrs. P.

Rooney, the Half-Human Chimpanzees" in their "highly humorous

representations," A wide variety of entertainments offered circus-

style experiences,

Two of the Cincinnati Centennial's competitors demonstrated

the extremes of circus influence. Kohl and Middleton's Vine Street

Dime Museum and Parlor Theater epitomized the sideshow. A July 8

advertisement proclaimed among its attractions:

The Serpent King, who appears in his den of Venomous Reptiles Bill Jones, The Glass Eater Barney Nelson, The Limbless Prodigy The Egyptian Mummy! The Mermaid! The Sea Serpent! The Devil Fish! The Petrified Indian Girl THOUSANDS OF CURIOS,

By the end of July, the show included "Dash Kensington, the scissors

manipulator; Madame Rosa, the bearded belle of Paris; Mans. Huber,

the armless artist," as well as others. At the other extreme was

a spectacular pageant, The Fall of Babylon, presented nightly on one

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of the city1s university campuses. Like Rhodopis and the Carnival

of Venice, this production was designed by John Rettig, Admission

was 50c, 75C for reserved seats. Ihe 10,000 seats stood in tiers

under a roof and faced across a field to a 400-foot stage, On the

stage appeared, according to one advertisement:

The Feast of Belshazzar, Ihe Dancing Girls of Babylon, The Hand-Writing on the Wall, the Capture and Destruction of Babylon, the whole making a Dazzling, Beautiful and Be­ wildering Picture never to be forgotten.

Although the Commercial Gazette reviewer admired the ballet portion

of the spectacle, he was most impressed by the violent conclusion in

which the city walls were bombarded with fireballs and burned while

armed defenders sought to repel the invasion.^

The Cincinnati Centennial struggled against such competition,

adopting ever more extreme techniques and contents which premised

some guarantee of success. But in the final account the exposition

was a financial failure. Having cost just over a million dollars to

produce, the Centennial needed a daily average of 20,000 visitors

over the fair's hundred days in order to break even. The exposition

was even extended an extra week into November in an effort to attract

further crowds, but the final attendance amounted to only 1,055,276

or 9,593 a day— half the necessary number. In contrast, the Phila­

delphia Centennial of 1876 had attracted 55,061 people a day,

though it too failed to turn a profit. Still, Cincinnati surpassed

the 1885 New Orleans Exposition which averaged 6,438 visitors per

day. Cincinnati's own 1886 Industrial Exposition had drawn 311,951

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people during its month, approximately the same attendance rate as

the Centennial. Various reasons were suggested for the shortfall in

the expected attendance. In his final report, President Allison

noted that 49 days out of the total 110 were "inclement and rainy."

Ihe opening of the Centennial at the peak of summer heat and humidity

had also discouraged some visitors. Allison also blamed the rail­

roads, citing:

a lack of sufficient interest on the part of the managers of the varioias railroads centering in the city in failing to offer such concessions in reduced rates for short distance travel as would induce an increase in attendance.

This complaint likewise surfaced in Philadelphia in 1876 and Chicago

in 1893, indicating a persistent antagonism between expositions and

the railroads on which they were dependent for transporting their

audience. Commissioner Champion complained that the Centennial had

advertised widely on the promise of favorable rates from the rail­

roads, only to receive minimal reductions which were poorly promoted.

He bristled that "our great Centennial Exposition . . . has been put

on equality with the Zoo [and] the Fall of Babylon.

But, persuasive as high railroad rates may have been in

keeping visitors away, further obstacles to attendance existed. For

many, it was the beer hall which overlooked the canal from the end

of Machinery Hall. According to one account, the establishment

offered wines from France, Germany, California, and Ohio, "stored in

vast quantities in the ice-walled cellars beneath the bar. . . .

Forty-eight kegs of beer can be drawn and served in Eight Minutes."

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Some recoiled in horror from this astonishing alcoholic capacity.

The Cincinnati Lancet Clinic simulated the dialogue of plain country

people reading the Centennial advertising: '"There! Sarah Jane and

John shall visit no Cincinnati beer gardens, if they do paint them

red and call 'em Centennial Expositions. "' The same paper explained

that the reasons for the low attendance were "the high admission fee,

the sale of the beer privilege, and the lawless character given the

city by the saloon element." Aghast, the Pittsburgh Press of

August 1 described the sacreligious nature of a Cincinnati Sunday:

There is no side door business done on Sunday here. The front doors are wide open, bands are playing and women are swinging and dancing while thousands of the best citizens with their wives and daughters drink to and applaud the painted Jezebels,

Others found flaws in the electric marvels of the fair. A Univer­

sity of Cincinnati physics professor complained that Machinery Hall

needed more practical applications of electricity: "The electric

light is already an old acquaintance in its several forms but the

electric motor . . . is as yet but little known." Another observer

asserted:

If we have any criticism it is that the light is too strong. Instead of an accessory to set off the conservatory, for instance, it has become the principle feature, so that the gentle and soothing effects of water, grass and flowers are quite overslaughed Tsic] in a dazzling exhibition of colored lights.

The cormrLssioners found that it was difficult to devise an experience

which pleased the entire audience.^

Although the exposition failed to meet attendance

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expectations, it nevertheless attracted over a million visitors.

The National Museum reported, "It should not be inferred that the

Exposition was a failure, for the visitors as a rule appeared to be

greatly interested, and the collections were studied with very great

care by various classes," Business increased somewhat with cooler

weather in the fall. President Allison explained:

It was not until I was finally prevailed upon, after much hesitancy, to introduce, during the closing weeks of the Exposition, certain forms of light amusements, that any appreciable increase in attendance was noted. , . . Whether or not such innovations entirely comport with the character and dignity of a great Exposition, the public must judge; suffice it to say that my. own experience . . . leads me to suspect that the masses care more for these trivial amuse­ ments than for any purely educational benefit derived from an inspection of the exhibits presented.

A Martin's Ferry, Ohio, family appreciated the lighter side of the

Centennial and wrote of the Elm Street Bridge:

It is a beautiful, airy, graceful looking arch in the day time, but at night, when it is illuminated by a thousand colored lights, it is simply gorgeous. The illuminations were the best part of the exhibition to us, though, anyway.

Such reactions reinforced. Allison's conclusions and promoted an

increased emphasis on popular entertainments during the last half of

the exposition. The Carnival of Venice was one of the notable results

of Allison's efforts to attract crowds. Another feature was the

declaration of official days— Suburban Day, Republican Day, Jewellers

Day— in an effort to draw specific portions of the audience with

parades and other events in their honor. In 1893, these special

celebrations and parades would be termed "Bamumization" at the

Chicago fair.

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The Cincinnati Centennial's circus atmosphere was not an

•unexpected anomaly but was consistent with the growing relationship

between commerce and entertainment. Once, circuses had sought to

gain respectability by emphasizing their connection to expositions,

but in 1888 the Centennial emphasized its circus qualities and

entertainments in order to appear exciting and worth the expenditure

of 500 admission. The success of the circus at promotion and pro­

duction made it a natural model for large scale entertainments in

the late 19th century. With multiple rings, diverse production

numbers, and sideshows, the circus simultaneously offered something

for everyone— exactly what the Centennial sought to do. In the

1880s, brand names and technology had turned consumption into a

series of endlessly repeatable experiences, offering dependable

quantities in recognizable packages. By following the successful

circus formula, the Cincinnati Centennial attempted to create an

equally recognizable and reliable experience for its consuming

audience.

The electrical effects, lavish displays, and spectacular

pageants of the Cincinnati Centennial also fit the spectator men­

tality of audiences in the 1880s. Circuses impressed and overwhelmed

their patrons who were content to sit back as passive observers.

Spectator sports such as baseball promoted similar passivity.

Rather than participating, audiences watched others play the games.

Even department stores cultivated passivity by predetermining

prices and removing the challenge of bargaining from the ritual

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of consumption. At amusement parks, all the visitor had to do was

place himself aboard the ride and then absorb the experience, The

Centennial experience was equally passive. The visitors had only to

open their eyes and walk in order to receive the full impact of the

flamboyant displays and performances. John Kasson says of amusement

parks, "Their special distinction lay in the new mechanical amuse­

ments and exotic settings they provided. . , . Audience and activity

frequently merged. Mich the same description could be applied to

the Cincinnati Centennial, Mechanical rides employed technology for

spectacular effects just as the exposition displays did. Like a

circus or amusement park, the Centennial established a controlled

world, isolated and different from the mundane environment. The

exposition's Pioneer Department and Horticultural Hall point to

similar creations in mo d e m theme parks which have been carefully

designed to produce standardized reactions. The Cincinnati Cen­

tennial offered a planned entertainment environment, filled with

pleasurable sensations, for the enjoyment of the strolling visitors.

Except for food and drink, everything was included in the initial

admission price and the only dilemma for the visitor was to decide

which area to explore first.

The financial failure of the 1888 Centennial Exposition ended

Cincinnati's long series of industrial expositions, but certain

elements of the Centennial persisted in other fairs. Expositions'

continuing efforts at entertainment led in 1893 to an official—

albeit separate— amusement park as part of the World's Columbian

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 67

Exposition in Chicago, Exoticism also appeared in Chicago. The

Streets of Cairo was a popular concession on the midway and gondolas

traveled the fair's many canals. In fact, the original plans

specified a Venetian Village where the classical Peristyle eventually

stood. Steeplechase Park, a Coney Island amusement park, included

the "Canals of Venice" as one of its attractions in 1903. A Japanese

tea house operated at the 1901 Buffalo Pan-American Exposition and

the 1903 Louisiana Purchase Exposition built a complete Imperial

Japanese Garden, Exoticism even combined with technology in Chicago's

Western Electric exhibit which displayed an Egyptian temple that

glowed mysteriously from within. Ihe Columbian Exposition employed

electric lighting, but the real impact of lighting effects awaited

another fair, according to J. C. Furnas:

It took showmanship to focus the national fancy on electric lighting— at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, where the main building was crowned with a floodlit Goddess of Light and every evening rheostats brought the incandescents outlining the buildings up from a mere glow to a blaze of glory like permanent fireworks. The City of Light was the adulatory label applied [to the fair].

Perhaps the scale'of Buffalo's lighting effects was larger than that

in Cincinnati, but Cincinnati's Centennial had applied the same

lavish use of electricity to the purposes of showmanship seme thirteen

years earlier.^

Combining exoticism, technology, nostalgia, size, spectacle,

and a belief in progress, Machinery Hall epitomized the experience

offered by the Cincinnati Centennial Exposition. like the

transformation of an ordinary field with the arrival of a circus

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 68

tent, Machinery Hall was a miraculous temporary creation. The

Comnercial Gazette explained;

While the murky waters of the canal have never been in particular favor with the residents along its fragrant shores, the Commissioners have decided to make it a frag­ mentary illusion of the beauties and pleasures of the city of Venice.

Spectacle was allied to the industrial— visitors could pay 10p for a

gondola ride through the latest developments In machinery. Colored

gas and electric lights decked the interior of Machinery Hall and

doubled themselves in the dark waters of the canal which were stirred

by passing gondolas and the. streams thrown out by pumps along its

banks. The vistas in the long building could best be appreciated

from the four bridges arching the waterway or from the tiered seating

of the Foss-Schneider Brewing Co. restaurant above the canal at one

end of the building, Into this dazzling scene, canal boats passed

infrequently, emphasizing once again the extent of Cincinnati and

the West's progress in the last hundred years. The Commercial

Gazette described the image:

The tow-path is planked and railed like a promenade. Along this from time to time come the stately stepping mules from the darkness into this palace of light. . . . A little girl stands by the small window of one of the boats alongside a scarlet geranium; the tiny table is set for supper, the odor of coffee and ham come from the stove where the wctnan is standing. The men are grouped on deck. The colored lights that border the edge of the canal throw their weird blue and green light over the flaxen hair and scarlet flower. . . . But now that the canal boat has passed and our gcze returns from her wake we see moving through the lane of liquid light under pink and gold and azure and green lights overhead, the long, black gondolas, with their silvery prows, across the colored waters they glide like dreams. . . . Everybody who

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 69

enters the boats sinkCs] into revery; scarcely a shout or laugh is heard, The ancient gondolas from the old, old, shining streets of the "Bride of the Sea" carry us all with them into the quiet land where sleeps the Adriatic. 61

The juxtaposition of old and new, familiar and exotic, industrial

and artistic--all under the incandescent glow— perfectly character­

izes Cincinnati's 1888 Centennial Exposition of the Ohio Valley and

Central States and the experience it offered.

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

^-Willard Glazier, Peculiarities of American Cities (Philadelphia: Hubbard Bros., 1886), p. 128.

% e i l Harris, Introduction to The Land of Contrasts, ed. Neil Harris, American Culture Series (New York: George Braziller, 1970), p. 24; Robert R. Roberts, "Popular Culture and Public Taste," in The Gilded Age, ed. Howard Wayne Morgan (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1970), p. 285; Walter T. K. Nugent, From Centennial to World War, History of American Society Series (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1977), p. 81.

% e i l Harris, "Museums, Merchandising, and Popular Taste: The Struggle for Influence," in Material Culture and the Study of American Life, ed. Ian M. G. Quimby (New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1978), p. 147.

^Ray Ginger, The Age of Excess-, 2nd ed. (New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1975), p. 138.

5John F. Kasson, Amusing the Million (New York: Hill and Wang, 1978), p. 105.

^Frey Printing Co., Cincinnati's Centennial Souvenir (Cincinnati: Frey Printing Co., [1888]), pp.13, 15-25; 'Tast, Present and Future of Cincinnati," in Centennial Paper> John Shillito Co. (Cincinnati: n.p., 1888), p. 1; Cincinnati Federal Writer's Project of the Works Progress Administration in Ohio, They Built a City (Cincinnati: Cincinnati Post, 1938), pp. 40, 86, 218; W. B. Venable, "The Centennial Exposition of the Ohio Valley and Central States: An Object Lesson in History," in Report of the President of the Board of Executive Ccmnissioners, Centennial Exposition of the Ohio Valley and Central States (Cincinnati: Keating & Co., [1888]), p. 74.

^Cincinnati Federal Writer's Project, pp. 41-45; History of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio (Cincinnati: S. B. Nelson & Co., 1894), p. 76; Past, Present and Future," p. 1.

^Syndicated Article, in Centennial Exposition of the Ohio Valley and Central States, Scrap Book of the Printing and Advertising Committee, 2:21, Cincinnati Historical Society, Cincinnati, Ohio.

70

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 71

This three volume scrap book contains numerous newspaper articles and advertisements collected by the 1888 Printing and Advertising Committee and will hereafter be referred to as "Scrap Book," with the pertinent volume and page numbers. Among the newspaper clippings are articles which were sent to hundreds of small papers through syndication services such as the A. N. Kellogg List. These articles will hereafter be indicated by the designation, "Syndicated."

^Venable, p. 69; William Willard Howard, "The Cincinnati Exposition," Harper's Weekly, 14 July 1888; James Allison to James A. Pearson, 4 April 1887, Manuscript Collection, Cincinnati Historical Society.

lOphilip G. Spiess II, "The Cincinnati Industrial Expo­ sitions 1870-1888: Propaganda or Progress?" (M.A. thesis, University of Delaware, 1970), pp. 85-86; Venable, p. 69; Cincinnati Federal Writers' Project, p. 32; Article, Cincinnati Criterion, November 1887.

HJohn Durant and Alice Durant, Pictorial History of the American Circus (New York: A. S. Bames & Co., 1957), p. 60; Charles Philip Fox and Tom Parkinson, The Circus in America (Waukesha, Wis. : Country Beautiful, 1969), p. 78; Gil Robinson, Old Wagon Show Days (Cincinnati: Brockwell Co., 1925), p. 205; Advertisement, Cincinnati Commerical Gazette, 6 May 1888 (hereafter Com. Gaz.).

l^Fox and Parkinson, p. 135; Durant and Durant, p. 70; George L. Chindahl, A History of the Circus in America (Caldwell, Id.: Caxton Printers, 1959), p. 141; Neil Harris, Humbug (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1973), p. 241.

l^Raiph K. Andrist, American Century (New York: American Heritage Press, 1972), p. 40; Frank Luther Mott, Golden Multitudes (New York: Macmillan Co., 1947), pp. 160, 173, 177-78; Howard Mumford Jones, The Age of Energy (New York: Viking Press, 1970), pp. 296-97, 499; J. C. Furnas, The Americans (New York: G. F. Putnam's Sons, 1969), p. 789.

l^Fox and Parkinson, p. 78; Nancy Pollack, "The Day the Circus Was in Town," Echoes 19 (January 1980) :5; P. T. Barmin and Sarah J. Burke, P. T. Bamum's Circus, Museum and Menagerie (New York: White & Allen, 1888) , n.p.

^Harris, Humbug, pp. 244-45.

"Painting the Town Red with the Centennial Illuminated Hangers," Cincinnati Times-Star, 31 December 1887; "Centennial Notes," Com. Gaz., 19 February 1888; Centennial Exposition of the Ohio Valley and Central States, Bill Posters Ledger for the Printing and Adver­ tising Committee, 1887-88, Manuscript Collection, Cincinnati Historical Society; Centennial Exposition of the Ohio Valley and

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 72

Central States, Minutes of Meetings of the Printing and Advertising Comnittee, 1887-88, meetings of 12 November 1887, 22 November 1887, 6 December 1887, Manuscript Collection, Cincinnati Historical Society; "Centennial Boomlets: The Gorgeous Spectacles to Be Given," Cincinnati Times-Star, 2 May 1888.

l^Fumas, pp. 629-859; Durant and Durant, p. 94; John Tebbel, The Compact History of the American Newspaper (New York: Hawthorn Books, 1967), p. 251.

l^David M. Potter, People of Plenty (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1954), pp. 169-70; Daniel J. Boorstin, The Americans: The Democratic Experience (New York: Random House, 1973), pp. 143, 146.

^"Caustic Arraignment: Commissioner Champion Speaks Further about Railway Discrimination," Com. Gaz., 16 September 1888.

20' 'Lightning: The Greatest Display of its Harness Ever Seen in the World," Syndicated, in Scrap Book, 1:359; "Line and Color: The Raw Material of the Painter," Syndicated, in Scrap Book, 1:353.

^Boorstin, p. 107; "The Centennial Exposition," Cincinnati Christian Standard, 21 July 1888..

2^1888 Centennial Exposition of the Ohio Valley and Central States Official Guide (Cincinnati: John F. G. Mullen, 1888), p. 4; James Allison to Clement Studebaker, 17 October 1888, Manuscript Collection, Cincinnati Historical Society.

^Charles Philip Fox, Circus Parades (Watkins Glen, N.Y.: Century House, 1953), p. 145; "The People's Pageant," Can. Gaz., 5 July 1888; "The Grand Parade and Street Pageant," in Report of the President of the Board of Executive Commissioners, Centennial Exposition of the Ohio Valley and Central' States (Cincinnati: Keating & Co., [1888]), p. 213.

24-'President Allison Talks about the Greatest Exposition of Mo d e m Times," Cincinnati Times-Star, 15 May 1888; G. B. Kerper to Centennial Commissioners, 11 December 1887, Manuscript Collection, Cincinnati Historical Society; A. B. Champion to W. J. Braden, 10 August 1888, Manuscript Collection, Cincinnati Historical Society.

25'"rhe Arabian Nights Outdone," Com. Gaz. , 8 July 1888; Howard, p. 509; James Allison to Otto A. Moses, 27 August 1888, Manuscript Collection, Cincinnati Historical Society.

^Roberts, p. 287; Furnas, p. 661; Andrist, p. 38; Harris, Introd., p. 18.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 73

^Harris, Introd., p. 6; Furnas, pp. 805-10.

^Boorstin, pp. 534-36; "Cincinnati's Big Show: A Good Attendance on the Second Day," Covington (Ky.) Daily Ccnxnonwealth, 6 July 1888; "Italian Art: How a Foreign Exhibitor, After Mistreat - ment at Cincinnati, Brought his Collection to Columbus," Columbus News, 8 July 1888; "'Tis Grandly Perfect, Meaning the Great Cen­ tennial Exposition," Cincinnati Times-Star, 30 July 1888; "About the Buildings," Com. Gaz., 3 July 1888.

^Daniel Berry, "Cincinnati's Centennial Exposition: Dr. Berry Tells of its Coming Grandeur," [Newspaper, Carmi, 111., January 18883; "Gorgeous Effects Attained in the Arrangements for the Cincinnati Centennial Exposition," Sandusky (Ohio) Journal, 30 January 1888; Clay Lancaster, The Japanese Influence in America (New York: Walton H. Rawls, 1963), pp. 48, 76; "The Centennial: The Government Exhibit— Old Fort Washington," Covington Daily Conmonwealth, 1 August 1888.

-^"Cincinnati's Jubilee," Mrs. Moody's Paris Fashion Journal, in Scrap Book, 1:111; "The Fountain at the Centennial Exposition," Frank Leslie's Illustrated News, 20 October 1888; "Water and Fire Arrived at the Centennial," Cincinnati Centennial News, July 1888.

^"Cincinnati Exposition: Magnificent Display of Incandescent Light Appliances," Toledo Bee, 14 July 1888.

^"Cincinnati Exposition"; "At the Exposition: Story of the Third Day of the Big Show," Com. Gaz., 7 July 1888; J. M. Blair, "Novel Electrical Display at the Centennial Exposition," p. 4, Manuscript Collection, Cincinnati Historical Society; 1888 Official Guide, p. 110; "The Electrical Exhibit: Delights and Portents of Cincinnati's Centennial," Syndicated, in Scrap Book, 1:271.

33"Stove Exhibits at the Cincinnati Exposition," Metal Worker, 14 July 1888; "The Cincinnati Exposition," American Cabinet Maker and Upholsterer, May 1888; "Cincinnati's Centennial," Parkersburg (W. Va.) Smith's Index, 21 July 1888; Blair, pp. 9-10; "A March Day Strikes the Centennial in Hot July,'' Cincinnati Times- Star, 28 July 1888.

34"Expo Notes," Cincinnati Telegram, 27 July 1888; "Fur Fairyland: An Exposition within an Exposition," Ccm. Gaz., 19 August 1888.

^ B a m u m and Burke, n.p. ; "The People's Pageant"; "The Sixth Week: A Glorious Boom is Now on at the Expo," Cincinnati Telegram, 8 August 1888; "Captured the Town: Enthusiastic

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 74

Republicans Make a Great Show on Republican Day," Com. Gaz., 14 October 1888; "Transportation Day: A Whole City Full of People at the Exposition Yesterday," Com. Gaz., 7 September 1888; C. T. Webber, "At the Centennial: Further Description of the Art Collection," Com. Gaz., 8 October 1888.

-^David Brion Davis, "Ten-Gallon Hero," in Myth and the American Experience, ed. Nicholas Cords and Patrick Gerster (New York: Glencoe Press, 1973), pp. 263-64; Furnas, pp. 687-90; Andrist, p. 41.

^Advertisement, Com. Gaz., 23 July 1888; "The Centennial: Mr. Goodale Confident that the President Will Be Here,1' Com. Gaz., 16 August 1888; "Captured the Town"; "Ye Little Fishes: Live Ones Just Places in the Exposition Aquaria," Ccm. Gaz., 21 August 1888.

38''Growing Greater: rChe Centennial Exposition of the Ohio Valley," Cincinnati Tele;yram, 20 August 1888; "The Centennial: The Governor's Exhibit"; "Centennial Notes," Com. Gaz., 8 September 1888; "Grant's Birthplace To Be Brought from Point Pleasant to Cincinnati," Cincinnati Telegram, 10 May 1888; "An Ohio Pioneer's Farm," Frank Leslie's Illustrated News, 21 July 1888; Article, Martin's Ferry (Ohio) Ohio Valley News, 2 August 1888.

3^Frank Mitchell to the Committee on Privileges, 19 March 1888, Centennial Papers, Manuscript Collection, Cincinnati Historical Society; A. B. Carr to the Secretary of the Cincinnati Exposition, 11 July 1888, Centennial Papers, Manuscript Collection, Cincinnati Historical Society; E. 0. Eshelby to A. E. Moser, 19 June 1888, Manuscript Collection, Cincinnati Historical Society; E. 0. Eshelby to the Whitman Agricultural Co., 25 June 1888, Manuscript Collection, Cincinnati Historical Society; "Tempest in a Teapot: An Exhibitor's Card About Signs in the Exposition," Com. Gaz., 15 August 1888.

^"Attention! Business Men! Take a Day Off and Boom the Centennial," Cincinnati Times-Star, 7 August 1888; James Allison to Joseph R. Peebles, 31 July 1888, Manuscript Collection, Cincinnati Historical Society; Encyclopaedia Britannica: Micropaedia, 1974 ed., s.v. "Greely, Adolphus W."; Advertisement, Ccm. Gaz., 2~9 August 1888; "A Liberal Education: That Is What a Visit to the Exposition Is," Com. Gaz., 11 August 1888; ''Suburban Day: One of the Successful Days of Cincinnati's Centennial," Com. Gaz., 25 August 1888; "Interesting Things To Be Encountered at the Centennial," Syndicated, in Scrap Book, 1:406; "At the Exposition," Con. Gaz., 7 July 1888; "In the 'Pen' : A Display from the Columbus Bastile," Syndicated, in Scrap Book, 1:411; "The Centennial: Another Immense Throng at the Exposition Buildings Yesterday," Com. Gaz., 8 July 1888.

^^Centennial Exposition of the Ohio Valley and Central States, Correspondence of the Exhibitions and Special Displays

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 75

Committee, 17 December 1887-11 May 1888, passim, Manuscript Collection, Cincinnati Historical Society; "AttentionI Business Mien! "Notes," Com. Gaz., 28 July 1888.

gig Centennial Shows a Fine Warm Weather Attendance," Cincinnati Times-Star, 18 July 1888; "Chess Automaton Ajeeb, Who Beats Everybody at Chess and Checkers," Syndicated, in Scrap Book, 1:400; "A March Day"; "Dead Letters: A Show-Case at the Expo that Contains some Queer Cases," Cincinnati Evening Post, 7 August 1888.

Good Whip," Cincinnati Telegram, 23 August 1888; "In All its Glory: The Centennial Exposition Ready for Sight-Seers," Cincinnati Telegram, 3 July 1888; "Special Features of the Cin- cinnati CentennialExposition, Now in Full Blast," Syndicated, in Scrap Book, 1:379; "Cincinnati's Centennial"; "What W.B.P. Finds Interesting in Machinery Hall," Chillicothe (Ohio) Daily News, 18 August 1888; "The Arabian Nights Outdone."

^Robert Thomas Gifford, "The Cincinnati Music Hall and Exposition Buildings" (M.A. thesis, Cornell University, 1973), p. 244; "The Second Week," Com. Gaz., 9 July 1888; "At the Cincinnati Exposition: A Few Days of the Centennial Year," Ccm. Gaz., 6 October 1888; "Exposition Notes," Com. Gaz., 13 July 1888.

^"Graphic Arts: Progress of Naval Architecture as Shown in the Smithsonian Display," Com. Gaz., 30 August 1888; "A Centennial Gem Is What Jeweler's Day Must Be Called," Cincinnati Times-Star , 8 October 1888; E. 0. Eshelby to C. A. Cappa; 7 September 1888, Manuscript Collection, Cincinnati Historical Society; "Them There Wheeled Chairs Have at Last Arrived at the Centennial," Cincinnati Times-Star, 29 August 1888.

^Rhodopis: A Spectacular Pantomime in 4 Scenes (Cin­ cinnati : Strobridge Lithography Co., 1888), passim; "Centennial Attractions: 'Rhodopis' Proves a Grand Success," Cincinnati Times- Star, 10 July 1888.

47"The Fifth Week: Cincinnati's Great Centennial Exposition in its Full Blast," Com, Gaz., 7. August 1888; Official Program: Centennial Exposition of the Ohio Valley and Central States, 25 October 1888.

^Harris, Humbug, p, 259; Editorial, Com. Gaz., 5 August 1888; "The Centennial: BonmLssioner Howard Douglass Resigns from the Board Because of Business," Com. Gaz., 13 July 1888; Cin­ cinnati's Big Show: A July Day in the Buildings of the Centennial Exposition," Ccm. Gaz., 12 July 1888; "A March Day"; "A Grand Exposition: On the Progress of the Past Century," Frank Leslie's Illustrated News, 28 July 1888; John Goetz, Jr. to H. H. Wheakley, 1 September 1888, Manuscript Collection, Cincinnati Historical

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 76

Society; "The People's Column." Cincinnati Times-Star, 10 January 1888.

John Goetz, Jr. to H. H. Wheakley; "The Exposition," Ccm. Gaz., 20 September 1888; "A Liberal Education."

5%. B. Champion to the American Magazine Publishing Co., 22 August 1888, Manuscript Collection, Cincinnati Historical Society; Mt. Vernon (Ohio) Republican, quoted in Com. Gaz., 21 September 1888; "The Columbus Show: Report Showing the Actual Attendance," Ccm. Gaz., 27 October 1888; "The Exposition: Another Imnense IhrongT71

"Hives of Industry: Descriptions and Views of Famous Factories and Workshops," Conmercial Supplement to Frank Leslie's Illustrated News, 27 October 1888.

^Advertisement, Official Program, 25 October 1888; "What Visitors to Cincinnati Should See," Mabley and Carew Catalogue of Fashion, Fall-Winter 1888-89, n.p.

^Advertisement,' Can. Gaz., 1 July 1888; Advertisement, Com. Gaz., 24 July 1888; Advertisement, Com. Gaz., 28 July 1888; "Amusements," Con. Gaz., 13 July 1888; Zoo Advertisements, Ccm. Gaz., 1 July 1888, 18 August 1888, 23 July 1888.

^Advertisement, Ccm. Gaz■, 8 July 1888; "Amusements," Com. Gaz., 23 July 1888; "Babylon," Com. Gaz., 13 July 1888; Advertisement, Com. Gaz., 5 August 1888; "Fall of Babylon," Com. Gaz., 18 August 1888.

“^"The People's Column," Cincinnati Times-Star, 10 January 1888; R, Edward Earll, "Report upon the Exhibit of the Smithsonian Institution, including the U.S. National Museum, at the Centennial Exposition of the Ohio Valley and Central States, Held at' Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1888," in The Miscellaneous Documents of the House of Representatives for the First Session of the Fifty-First Congress: 1889-90, 47 vols. (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1891), 21:161; E. 0. Eshelby to Samuel Bailey, 29 September 1888, Manuscript Collection, Cincinnati Historical Society; James Allison, "Report of the President of the Board of Executive Commissioners," in Report of the President of the Board of Executive Commissioners, Centennial Exposition of the Ohio Valley and Central States (Cincinnati: Keating & Co., fl888]), pp. 27-30; "Caustic Arraignment."

56pilgrim, "Pilgrim Visits the Exposition's Center of Attraction," South West, 23 June 1888; Article, Cincinnati lancet Clinic, 28 July 1888, in Scrap Book, 2:46; "The Centennial Exposition," Cincinnati Lancet Clinic, in Scrap Book, 2:52; "Cincinnati's Centennial: A Correspondent Gives Some Account of

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the City," Pittsburgh Press, 1 August 1888; Thomas French, Jr. to the Board of Conmissioners, 6 July 1888, Centennial Papers, Manuscript Collection, Cincinnati Historical Society; The Cen­ tennial Exposition," Christian Standard.

^Earll, pp. 161-62; Allison, "Report," p. 30; Article, Ohio Valley News, 2 August 1888; Stanley Appelbaum, The Chicago Vforld's Fair of 1893 (New York: Dover Publications, 1980), pT 103.

-^Boorstin, p. 114; Kasson, pp. 7-8.

^^Appelbaum, pp. 3, 47; Gary Kyriazi, The Great American Amusement Parks (Secaucus, N.J.: Citadel Press, 1976), p. 50; Lancaster, p. 137; Furnas, pp. 761, 806.

60"Centennial Exposition: Official Visit of the Comnission- ers to the New Buildings Yesterday," Can. Gaz., 1 March 1888.

61"A Few Days at the Centennial," Com. Gaz., 14 October 1888.

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

PRIMARY SOURCES

Unpublished Materials

Blair, J. M. "Novel Electrical Display at the Centennial Expo­ sition." Manuscript Collection. Cincinnati Historical Society. Cincinnati, Ohio.

Carr, A. B. Letter to the Secretary of the Cincinnati Exposition, 11 July 1888. Centennial Papers. Manuscript Collection. Cincinnati Historical Society. Cincinnati, Ohio.

Centennial Exposition of the Ohio Valley and Central States. Bill Posters Ledger for the Printing and Advertising Conmittee, ' 1887-88. Manuscript Collection. Cincinnati Historical Society. Cincinnati, Ohio.

______. Correspondence of the Exhibitions and Special Displays Conmittee, 17 December 1887-11 May 1888. Manuscript Collection. Cincinnati Historical Society. Cincinnati, Ohio.

______. Correspondence of the President and Board of Comnissioners, 4 April 1887-3 November 1887. Manuscript Collection. Cin­ cinnati Historical Society. Cincinnati, Ohio.

______. Correspondence of the Secretary of the Board of Commissioners, 15 June 1888-18 August 1888. Manuscript Collection. Cincinnati Historical Society. Cincinnati, Ohio.

______. Correspondence of the Secretary of the Board of Commissioners, 18 August 1888-22 December 1888. Manuscript Collection. Cincinnati Historical Society. Cincinnati, Ohio.

______. Minutes of Meetings of the Printing and Advertising Committee, 27 September 1887-3 January 1888. Manuscript Collection. Cincinnati Historical Society. Cincinnati, Ohio.

78

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 79

. Scrap Book of the Printing and Advertising Conmittee, 3 vols. Cincinnati Historical Society, Cincinnati, Ohio.

French, Thomas, Jr. Letter to the Board of Conmissioners, 6 July 1888. Centennial Papers. Manuscript Collection. Cincinnati Historical Society. Cincinnati, Ohio.

Mitchell, Frank. Letter to the Conmittee on Privileges, 19 March 1888. Centennial Papers. Manuscript Collection. Cin­ cinnati Historical Society. Cincinnati, Ohio.

Published Materials

Allison, James. "Report of the President of the Board of Executive Commissioners," pp. 3-31. In Report of the President of the Board of Executive Conmissioners^ with Reports of the Committees, an Account of the Dedication and Opening Ceremonies, and Other Matters of Historic Interest. Cen- tennial Exposition of the Ohio Valley and CentralStates. Cincinnati: Keating & Co., [1888] .

Bamum, P. T., and Burke, Sarah J. P. T. Bamum's Circus, Museum and Menagerie. New York: White & Allen, 1888.

Ear 11, R. Edward. "Report upon the Exhibit of the Smithsonian Institution, including the U.S. National Museum, at the Centennial Exposition of the Ohio Valley and Central States, Held at Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1888," 21:154-79. In The Miscellaneous Documents of the House of Representatives for the First Session of the Fifty-First Congress, 47 vols. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1891.

1888 Centennial Exposition of the Ohio Valley and Central States Official Guide. Cincinnati: John F. G. Mullen, 1888.

Frey Printing Co. Cincinnati's Centennial Souvenir. Cincinnati: Frey Printing Co., 1888 '.

Glazier, Willard. Peculiarities of American Cities. Philadelphia: Hubbard Bros., 1886.

"The Grand Parade and Street Pageant," pp. 202-14. In Report of the President of the Board of Executive Conmissioners, with Reports of the Conmittees, an Account of the Dedication and Opening Ceremonies, and Other Matters of Historic Interest. Caitennial Exposition of the Ohio Valley and Central States. Cincinnati: Keating & Co., [1888].

Official Program: Centennial Exposition of the Ohio Valley and

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 80

Central States, 25 October 1888.

"Past, Present and Future of Cincinnati."' In Centennial Paper, p. 1, John Shillito Co. Cincinnati: n.p., 1888.

Rhodopis: A Spectacular Pantomime in 4 Scenes. Cincinnati: Strobridge Lithography Co., 1888.

Venable, W. H. "Ihe Centennial Exposition of the Ohio Valley and Central States: An Object Lesson in History," pp. 32-115. In Report of the President of the Board of Executive Commissioners, with Reports of the Committees, an Account of the Dedication and Opening Ceremonies, and Other Matters of Historic Interest. Centennial Exposition of the Ohio Valley and.Central States. Cincinnati: Keating & Co., [18883.

"What Visitors to Cincinnati Should See," Mabley and Carew Catalogue of Fashion,, Fall-Winter 1888-89, n.p. \ Newspapers

"About the Buildings." Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, 3 July 1888.

Advertisement for the B a m u m and Bailey Circus. Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, 6 May 1888.

Advertisement for Bellevue House. Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, 28 July 1888.

Advertisement for the Cincinnati Centennial Exposition. Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, 23 July 1888.

Advertisement for the Cincinnati Centennial Exposition. Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, 29 August 1888.

Advertisement for the Cincinnati Reds. Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, 24 July 1888.

Advertisement for the Cincinnati Zoo. Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, 1 July 1888.

Advertisement for the Cincinnati Zoo. Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, 23 July 1888.

Advertisement for the Cincinnati Zoo. Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, 18 August 1888.

Advertisement for the Fall of Babylon. Cincinnati Commercial

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 81

Gazette, 5 August 1888.

Advertisement for Gorman's Spectacular Minstrels. Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, 1 July 1888.

Advertisement for Kohl and Middleton's Vine Street Dime Museum. Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, 8 July 1888.

"Amusements." Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, 13 July 1888.

"Amusements." Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, 23 July 1888.

"The Arabian Nights Outdone." Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, 8 July 1888.

"At the Cincinnati Exposition: A Few Days of the Centennial Year." Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, 6 Ocotber 1888.

"At the Exposition: Story of the Third Day of the Big Show." Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, 7 July 1888.

"Attention! Business Men! Take a Day Off and Boom the Centennial." Cincinnati Times-Star, 7 August 1888.

"Babylon." Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, 13 July 1888.

Berry, Daniel. "Cincinnati's Centennial Exposition: Dr. Berry Tells of its Coming Grandeur." [Newspaper, Carmi, Illinois, January 1888].

"Captured the Town: Enthusiastic Republicans Make a Great Show on Republican Day." Cincinnati Comnercial Gazette, 14 October 1888.

"Caustic Arraignment: Commissioner Champion Speaks Further About Railway Discrimination." Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, 16 September 1888.

'"Ihe Centennial: Another Immense Throng at the Exposition Buildings Yesterday." Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, 8 July 1888.

"The Centennial: Commissioner Howard Douglass Resigns from the Board Because of Business." Cincinnati Comnercial Gazette, 13 July 1888.

"The Centennial: Mr. Goodale Confident That the President Will Be Here." Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, 3 June 1888.

"The Centennial: The Government Exhibit— Old Fort Washington."

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Covington (Ky.) Daily Conrooriwealth, 1 August 1888,

"Centennial Attractions; 'Rhodopis' Proves a Grand Success." Cincinnati Times-Star, 10 July 1888.

"Centennnial Booralets: Ihe Gorgeous Spectacles to Be Given." Cincinnati Times-Star, 2 May 1888.

"The Centennial Exposition." Cincinnati Christian Standard, 21 July 1888.

"Centennial Exposition: Official Visit of the Conmissioners to the New Buildings Yesterday." Cincinnati Coomercial Gazette, 1 March 1888.

"A Centennial Gem Is What Jewelers' Day Mist Be Called." Cincinnati Times-Star, 8 October 1888.

"Centennial Notes." Cincinnati Comnercial Gazette, 19 February 1888.

"Centennial Notes." Cincinnati Comnercial Gazette, 8 September'1888.

"The Cincinnati Exposition." American Cabinet Maker and Upholsterer, May 1888.

"Cincinnati Exposition: Magnificent Display of Incandescent Electric Light Appliances." Toledo Bee, 14 July 1888.

"Cincinnati's Big Show: A Good Attendance on the Second Day." Covington (Ky.) Daily Commonwealth, 6 July 1888.

"Cincinnati's Big Show: A July Day in the Buildings of the Cen­ tennial Exposition." Cincinnati Comnercial Gazette, 12 July 1888.

"Cincinnati's Centennial." Parkersburg (W. Va.) Smith's Index, 21 July 1888.

"Cincinnati's Centennial: A Correspondent Gives Some Account of the City." Pittsburgh Press, 1 August 1888.

"Columbus Centennial." Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, 17 September 1888.

"The Columbus Show: Report Showing the Actual Attendance Which Fails to Carry Out the Big Claims of the Breezy Managers." Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, 27 October 1888.

"Dead Letters: A Show-Case at the Expo lhat Contains Some Queer Cases." Cincinnati Evening Post, 7 August 1888.

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Editorial, Cincinnati Comnercial Gazette, 5 August 1888.

"Expo Notes." Cincinnati Telegram, 27 July 1888.

"The Exposition." Cincinnati Comnercial Gazette, 20 September 1888.

"The Exposition; Another Inniense Throng at the Centennial Yesterday." Cincinnati Comnercial Gazette, 5 September 1888.

"Exposition Notes." Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, 13 July 1888.

"Fall of Babylon." Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, 18 August 1888.

"A Few Days at the Centennial." Cincinnati Comnercial Gazette, 14 October 1888.

"The Fifth Week: Cincinnati's Great Centennial Exposition in its Full Blast." Cincinnati Conmercial Gazette, 7 August 1888.

"The Fountain at the Centennial Exposition." Frank Leslie's Illustrated News, 20 October 1888.

"Fur Fairyland: An Exposition within an Exposition." Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, 19 August 1888.

"A Good Whip." Cincinnati Telegram, 23 August 1888.

"Gorgeous Effects Attained in the Arrangements for the Cincinnati Centennial Exposition." Sandusky (Ohio) Journal, 30 January 1888.

"A Grand Exposition: On the Progress of the Past Century." Frank Leslie's Illustrated. News, 28 July 1888.

"Grant's Birthplace To Be Brought from Point Pleasant to Cincinnati." Cincinnati Telegram, 10 May 1888.

"Graphic Arts: Progress of Naval Architecture as Shown in the Smithsonian Display." Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, 30 August 1888.

"Growing Greater: The Centennial Exposition of the Ohio Valley." Cincinnati Telegram, 20 August 1888,

"Hives of Industry: Descriptions and Views of Famous Factories and Workshops." Conmercial Supplement to Frank Leslie's Illustrated News, 27 October 1888.

Howard, William Willard. "The Cincinnati Exposition." Harper's Weekly, 14 July 1888.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. "In All its Glory; The Centennial Exposition Ready for Sight-Seers.' Cincinnati Telegram, 3 July 1888.

"Italian Art; How a Foreign Exhibitor, After Mistreatment at Cincinnati, Brought his Collection to Columbus." Columbus News, 8 July 1888.

"A Liberal Education: That Is What a Visit to the Exposition Is." Cincinnati Comnercial Gazette, 11 August 1888.

"A March Day Strikes the Centennial in Hot July." Cincinnati Times-Star, 28 July 1888.

"Masonic Day: Great Preparations for its Celebration at the Exposition." Cincinnati Comnercial Gazette, 16 August 1888.

Mt. Vernon (Ohio) Republican. Quoted in Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, 21 September 1888.

"Notes." Cincinnati Conmercial Gazette, 28 July 1888.

"An Ohio Pioneer's Farm." Frank Leslie's Illustrated News, 21 July 1888.

"Our Big Centennial Shows a Fine Warm Weather Attendance." Cin­ cinnati Times-Star, 18 July 1888.

"Painting the Town Red with the Centennial Illuminated Hangers." Cincinnati Times-Star, 31 December 1888.

"The People's Column." Cincinnati Times-Star, 10 January 1888.

"The People's Pageant: Glittering the Column Moves through Each Bannered Street." Cincinnati Comnercial Gazette, 5 July 1888.

Pilgrim. "Pilgrim Visits the Exposition's Center of Attraction." South West, 23 June 1888.

"President Allison Talks about the Greatest Exposition of Mo d e m Times." Cincinnati Times-Star, 15 May 1888.

"The Second Week." Cincinnati Conmercial Gazette, 9 July 1888.

"The Sixth Week: A Glorious Boon in Now on at the Expo." Cincinnati Telegram, 8 August 1888.

"Stove Exhibits at the Cincinnati Exposition." Metal Worker, 14 July 1888.

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"Suburban Day; One of the Successful Days of Cincinnati's Centennial." Cincinnati Conmercial Gazette, 25 August 1888.

"Tempest in a Teapot: An Exhibitor's Card About Signs in the Exposition." Cincinnati Conmercial Gazette, 15 August 1888.

"Them There Wheeled Chairs Have at Last Arrived at the Centennial." Cincinnati Times-Star, 29 August 1888.

"'Tis Grandly Perfect, Meaning the Great Centennial Exposition." Cincinnati Times-Star, 30 July 1888.

"Transportation Day: A Whole City Full of People at the Exposition Yesterday." Cincinnati Conmercial Gazette, 7 September 1888.

"Water and Fire Arrived at the Centennial." Cincinnati Centennial News, July 1888.

Webber, C. T. "At the Centennial; Further Description of the Art Collection." Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, 8 October 1888.

"What W.B.P. Finds Interesting in Machinery Hall." Chillicothe (Ohio) Daily News, 18 August 1888.

"Ye Little Fishes: Live Ones Just Placed in the Exposition Aquaria." Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, 21 August 1888.

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